Quenta 9 — Of the Flight of the Noldor
Chapter 9 of the Quenta Silmarillion
Summary
Hearing of the slaying of his father and the theft of the Silmarils, Fëanor cursed Melkor, giving him the name Morgoth, “the Black Foe of the World”, and then stood before the Noldor in Tirion to rouse them against the Valar and the breaking of Aman. At Alqualondë, when the Teleri refused to lend their swan-ships, the Noldor fought and slew them in the first Kinslaying, and Fëanor and his sons swore the terrible Oath upon the Silmarils to pursue them even unto the ending of the world. Mandos, from the Ring of Doom, spoke the Doom of the Noldor — that by their deed the exiles should be shut from Valinor and filled with tears unnumbered; and Finarfin and part of his host turned back in grief to Aman. Fëanor carried the ships east and burned them at Losgar, leaving Fingolfin’s great host to cross the grinding ice of the Helcaraxë far in the north. Both houses came at last into Beleriand, the one by fire and the other by frost, and the light of Valinor shone no more for the exiles.