Silm thoughts - “Of the Return of the Noldor”
There are people too self-centred to be good parents, and Fëanor belonged in that group. With his last breath he cursed not only Morgoth, but his sons too. When Fëanor made his oath, there’s no mention of him forcing his sons to take it too. From the narrative, it seems they did so willingly. But in this moment, he’s dying, and asking his sons to follow the oath and avenge his death... can anyone really blame them for saying yes to the last request of their father?
It’s told Fëanor would never leave Mando’s Halls. I wonder if it’d been different had he repented in his last moments, instead of spending them curing Morgoth and dooming his sons.
The coming of Fingolfin’s host to Beleriand will never stop being awesome. Though the Silmarillion would never make a good movie, there are many scenes that would look great on screen, and that is definitely one of them.
In this chapter we learn the Nauglamir was the best thing the Dwarves ever made. According to whom? If someone asked a Dwarf what’s the best thing ever made by a member of their race, would they say it’s the Nauglamir? Could it be there are many wondrous things they’ve created unknown to the Elves?
Glaurung makes his first appearance in this chapter, and it makes me wonder how much influence Morgoth has over his creations. Because it certainly wasn’t Morgoth intention to have Glaurung revealed so early. That was all Glaurung’s fault. Could it be the more intelligent the creation, the more independent from its master? It could be Galurung was just in his rebellious teen phase.
Finally, there’s the dream Finrod and Turgon have. From the text, it seems like they came from Ulmo, but wasn’t Irmo the one associated with dreams and visions? So, how much was Irmo involved there? I like to think of Ulmo going to Irmo and asking for help with this.