House of Fëanor
The Sons of Fëanor; the Seven; the Oath-bearers
The House of Fëanor
The Seven Sons
The House of Fëanor is the eldest and most terrible of the three houses of the Noldor in exile: the seven sons of ‘’‘Fëanor’‘’ and Nerdanel of Valinor. They gave themselves to their father’s terrible Oath — to pursue the Silmarils to the ends of the earth — and were bound, in the Quenta, to a doom of ruin; | Son | Fates in brief | |—|—| | Maedhros the Tall, the eldest | Leader of the host after Fëanor’s death; kept faith, made the Union; in the end slew himself with the Silmaril he could not bear | | Maglor the singer | The keeper of Elrond and Elros; the last suicide, wandering the shores forever singing of lost beauty | | Celegorm the Fair | Hunter with Huan; cursed by the doom; slain in Doriath | | Caranthir the Dark | The grimmest; lord of the East; fell in the wars | | Curufin the Crafty | Father of Celebrimbor; one of the two to survive long; fell in the fall of Doriath — slain in the ruin | | Amrod and Amras | The twins, the youngest; Amrod the “red-head” — their fates tangled: in the earliest form both were slain in the Third Kinslaying at the Havens of Sirion |
History
In Aman the sons shared their father’s enmity with the Valar and the feud with the house of Fingolfin (the carrying of the sword against Fingolfin earned their expulsion — they with Fëanor were exiled from Aman for a term).
- The Exile: they swore the Oath with their father at Formenos; they fought at Alqualondë (the first Kinslaying), led the hosts across the sea, and in Beleriand took the eastern realms of the Noldor (the lands of Himring, Thargelion, Himlad, Estolad).
- The Oath in Beleriand: their pursuit of the Silmarils derives the greatest evils: the betrayal at the Fen of Serech — the ride against Doriath (Second Kinslaying); the attack on the Havens of Sirion (Third Kinslaying) to seize the Silmaril Elwing bore; and at the last, after the War of Wrath, the theft from the camp of the West and the burning of the jewels in their hands.
- The doom fulfilled: the House was utterly laid low — “and the curse of the Valar came upon them”; their last seed, Celebrimbor, is of the later age.
The Meaning of the House
The House of Fëanor concentrates the mythology’s great theme: the oath and the doom — how a vow, however just in its origin, binds its keepers to ever-deeper crime, until “the Oath was taken… and ever shall be”. Their story is the shadow-thread through the entire Quenta, from the Kinslaying to the ships burned at Losgar.