Why did Feanor's sons take the Oath?

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

With all the discussion/speculation going on about the elves' motivations at Alqualonde, I'd like to throw this question out there: Why did Feanor's sons feel the need to simultaneously leap to his side and take the Oath? Was it truly a "madness" caused by grief over the death of their grandfather, family loyalty and Feanor's speeches? Was it an obligation to be by their father's side, or a sense of injustice, or simply the quasi-magical lure of the Silmarils? Was it more hesitant than the text paints it?

All of these? Or is there a simpler explanation, as in this Silmarillion/Good Omens fanfic?

Comments

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

There's also the factor of distance. Feanor and his sons were very far from Tirion, up north in Formenos, and the Eldar didn't have anything faster than horses. So everything would have taken much longer than we're used to. Neither communication nor travel was instantaneous. So there would have been plenty of time for pressure to build and oratory and Oaths to be prepared in advance.

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

Weren't there even two years between Finwe's death and the Noldor leaving Valinor? It makes my question why Olwe didn't antipacted that. Surely he must have known that Feanor would come to him sooner or later? Especially after Feanor deemed the Helcaraxe as suicidal and unsafe?

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Again I think distance is a factor. There's no reason to think that Olwe knew Feanor that well, or knew what the Noldor were up to away in Tirion in any detail. I don't think that he could be assumed to have known what Feanor was planning, or his considerations about the Helcaraxe. Olwe was the King of the Teleri, not the Noldoer; he had his own people to look after. The Noldor were no concern of his.

And given the totally peaceable lives of the elves up to that point, I don't think that he could have anticipated attack and mass murder in response to his perfectly reasonable proposal to calm down, talk to the Valar and decide what to do in a rational manner. This is a species that had had no history of intraspecies violence at all.

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

The peaceful lives is a valit point, but surely the new of Finwe's death and Feanor traveling to Araman reached his ears? Or was there no communication at all? I think it is unlikely that Olwe knew nothing. He just didn't know how to react. It was in his right to refuse Feanor the ships, but it was also common knowlegde how stubborn Feanor could be. Or as the Silmarillion stats: "few changed his courses by counsel, non by force."

And: did Feanor decide to attack the Teleri or did the Teleri decided to attack him when he aimed to steal the ships? I Since Feanor was living in the same peacefull live as everyone before Morgoth came, it isn't a given that he just wanted the mass murder. Besides the term 'mass murder' cannot be correct since Noldor were killed as well.

I suspect that the Teleri wished to drive the Noldor away, but were met by people dressed and trained for war. It means that the Noldor won the battle, but not that they started it.

[tarion-anarore.livejournal.com]

*devil's advocate >:) *

Again I think distance is a factor.

Yet upthread you mention telepathy. What is to say that, for example, Eärwen, wife of Finarfin, did not communicate what was happening in Tirion to Olwë, her father?

/devil's advocate

That's not to say that Olwë knew everything, but the Noldor and Teleri were, up to this point, friends and allies. I do not think that Olwë would have adopted a completely isolationist mindset of "the Noldor are no concern of mine", and would likely have at least tried to keep informed of the goings-on in Valinor, whether he acted upon the information or not.

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

I think the two year gap was an abandoned concept. It's in the annals in 'The Lost Road' but not the later ones in 'Morgoth's Ring'. Tolkien did a fair bit of work on that part of the story after the annals in 'The Lost Road' - Finwe's two marriages weren't even part of the story when he wrote those.

I daresay Olwe did know about Finwe's death, but it doesn't follow he knew about Feanor's rabble rousing in Tirion.