Post by RavenLady on Apr 13, 2005 1:13:58 GMT -5
About time they had their own thread, don't you think? They seem to come up in the other ones a lot.
I'm a rabid Feanorian sympathizer. Especially when it comes to his sons . . . I've liked Maedhros, Maglor and Caranthir since reading The Silmarillion. Yes, Caranthir. Speaking of Caranthir, I found something interesting here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caranthir
Caranthir, the fourth of the sons of Fëanor, was also the most cruel and was called "Caranthir the Dark".
If Caranthir is actually stated to be the most cruel, it must be a source I haven't gotten my hands on yet. But going on The Silmarillion, Caranthir was "the harshest of the brothers and the most quick to anger --"
that's not the same thing. Let's compare him to Curufin for a moment. Curufin seems detached, calm, actually quite easy to get along with until he turns around and murders you.
So Caranthir is arrogant, has a nasty temper, and is "harsh" -- he still has a better record than Curufin, or Celegorm for that matter. We have his dealings with Haladin, for instance. We don't really know that he was as fanatical (or as "cruel" either, to use Wikipedia's word) as Curufin or Celegorm. We don't know that he completely believed what he was doing. So there's some room for a sympathetic interpretation, if not a "nice" one, and I like it that way.
Maedhros is an interesting one; he changed a lot after Nirnaeth Arnoediad. He searched for Dior's sons when Celegorm's servants left them to freeze, but the line is "of this Maedhros indeed repented" -- so there are things of which Maedhros does not repent. After that it was Maglor who had a few shreds of conscience left. Not that he paid attention to them.
And I guess I can sympathize with Feanor to some extent, but . . . well, it's not so much that he's a bad guy that bothers me. I prefer bad guys anyway, as long as some shred of sympathy is there. It's that he's so remote, larger-than-life. His sons are a bit easier to grasp.
We don't know much about the twins and their motives.
Celegorm and Curufin are pretty much evil in The Silmarillion. (Some fanfic writers come with sympathetic interpretations that amaze me, but that's not really relevant here.)
So . . . Feanorian discussion, anyone?
I'm a rabid Feanorian sympathizer. Especially when it comes to his sons . . . I've liked Maedhros, Maglor and Caranthir since reading The Silmarillion. Yes, Caranthir. Speaking of Caranthir, I found something interesting here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caranthir
Caranthir, the fourth of the sons of Fëanor, was also the most cruel and was called "Caranthir the Dark".
If Caranthir is actually stated to be the most cruel, it must be a source I haven't gotten my hands on yet. But going on The Silmarillion, Caranthir was "the harshest of the brothers and the most quick to anger --"
that's not the same thing. Let's compare him to Curufin for a moment. Curufin seems detached, calm, actually quite easy to get along with until he turns around and murders you.
So Caranthir is arrogant, has a nasty temper, and is "harsh" -- he still has a better record than Curufin, or Celegorm for that matter. We have his dealings with Haladin, for instance. We don't really know that he was as fanatical (or as "cruel" either, to use Wikipedia's word) as Curufin or Celegorm. We don't know that he completely believed what he was doing. So there's some room for a sympathetic interpretation, if not a "nice" one, and I like it that way.Maedhros is an interesting one; he changed a lot after Nirnaeth Arnoediad. He searched for Dior's sons when Celegorm's servants left them to freeze, but the line is "of this Maedhros indeed repented" -- so there are things of which Maedhros does not repent. After that it was Maglor who had a few shreds of conscience left. Not that he paid attention to them.
And I guess I can sympathize with Feanor to some extent, but . . . well, it's not so much that he's a bad guy that bothers me. I prefer bad guys anyway, as long as some shred of sympathy is there. It's that he's so remote, larger-than-life. His sons are a bit easier to grasp.
We don't know much about the twins and their motives.
Celegorm and Curufin are pretty much evil in The Silmarillion. (Some fanfic writers come with sympathetic interpretations that amaze me, but that's not really relevant here.)
So . . . Feanorian discussion, anyone?