The Oath of Fëanor
the oath that bound the sons of Fëanor; the curse of the Silmarils
Definition
The Oath of Fëanor — “the terrible oath” — is the vow sworn by Fëanor and his seven sons when the Silmarils were stolen and his father slain: to pursue the jewels “unto the ends of the earth” and to wage war on any that withheld them. The Quenta gives the words in the older tales; the essence of the oath: they swore by Eru in the name that “was never named in vain”, never to rest nor surrender until they or their avengers regained the three Silmarils, “and whoever of the Valar, or the Eldar, or the… that held them, , serve his master” — the oath invoked the “Everlasting Darkness” — it was a ban-binding in the name of Eru, Eru’s — Christopher Tolkien notes the phrasing draws on the old “oath of the heroes”: it was to be kept though the world burn.
The Force of the Oath
- Whose folly: It was sworn in grief and wrath (after the slaying of Finwë), by the proudest of the Eldar; its power — echoes the ancient doctrine that a great vow has a life: — it endured beyond the will of its makers, driving every deed of the House of Fëanor through the age.
- The havoc: From it sprang the deeds that divided the Elves: the Kinslayings at Alqualondë (the ships taken by blood), the burning of the ships, the betrayal of friends and kindreds (Doriath, the Havens of Sirion), and the death of the house at the end — its bond
- The keeping: The Oath compelled literally — even against the swearers’ better judgment (Maedhros’ loyalty to it slew what his pity would have spared); and it is the great engine of the Quenta’s middle and end.
The End of the Oath
At the War of Wrath’s end, Eönwë commanded the sons to fulfil or renounce the Oath; they would not renounce it, and so stole the last two Silmarils — and were burned by the holy jewels, Maedhros casting himself into the fire, Maglor casting his into the sea — “the Oath of Fëanor… at last fulfilled and broken” — the house’s ruin as the Oath’s final price.
Significance
The Oath is the mythology’s doctrine of the bond and its doom: the just vow, sworn in a just cause, that hardens unbreakably and drags its keepers to ever deeper crime — the sin of Fëanor, original to the Noldor, from which all the Kinslayings and the Long Defeat flow. Tolkien called the Oath the — the curse by which the proud bind themselves, “in the name of the Holy Ones… and of the One”.