The Exile of the Noldor
the Flight of the Noldor; the departure that doomed the age
The Event
The Exile of the Noldor — the great departing of the rebel Noldor from Aman — is the turning of the age: after the death of the Trees and the theft of the Silmarils, Fëanor (his father slain, his jewels stolen) summoned the Noldor to flee the Blessed Realm and — to win back the jewels and rule the free lands. “And the most part of the Noldor… followed him” — the Quenta:; they forsook the Light of Valinor.
The Course of the Flight
- The parting: They were gathered (against the Valar’s will; Manwë’s), and Fëanor spoke his fiery words; “the Noldor marched to the sea”, and the Teleri’s refusal of the ships brought the Kinslaying at Alqualondë; the stolen swan-ships carried the Fëanorians over the sea.
- The treachery of Losgar: Fëanor burned the ships, abandoning the hosts of Fingolfin far north in the “Grinding Ice”; and on the frozen wastes of Helcaraxë the greater host crossed (with deaths — Elenwë among them) rather than turn home — the heroic and terrible way.
- The Doom: As the Noldor would have set foot at last on Middle-earth, the messenger of the Valar came; and Námo spoke the Doom of the Noldor — the prophecy of tears, war, and unfulfilled longing that should attend the exiles — “” — and the curse of the kinslaying upon their swords.
The Consequences
The
exile planted the Noldor in Beleriand as the defenders and the doom-carriers of the First Age: the kingdoms, the battles, the tragedy of the Silmarils all flow from it. Its shadow stretched over the whole mythology: the exile “could not be recalled”; even the victories were “the long defeat”; and its end (the pardon of the West at the War of Wrath) only at the closing of the age.
Significance
The Exile is the “fall” of the Noldor — the free departure that becomes the curse, the deed of pride and grief that founds the tragedy of the Quenta — the great ethical hinge of the legendarium (cf. the Fall of Númenor in the Second Age).