Finarfin: No Wimp
In Tolkien's world, children are quite often like their parents. Okay, so that's an enormous generalisation... feel free to prove me wrong. However, I don't think that Finrod and Galadriel (not too sure about the others) could have been sired by a "wimp".
True, he was a pretty wee thing, and not as valiant as Fingolfin or as skilled as Fëanor, but who was? Talk about tough competition! Fëanor told Morgoth (you know, the big Dark Lord, most powerful being in Eä) to get the **** off his property, and Fingolfin took a sword to him! How could anyone possibly compare with those guys? But what Finarfin did inherit from Finwë was loyalty and moral fibre.
The text doesn't appear to show him favourably. He is said to turn back out of grief, and bitterness to the House of Fëanor. The emphasis appears to be on the grief (because it is mentioned first), and this paints a picture in our mind of a wussy boy. If his anger towards Fëanor was emphasised, and if a confrontation occurred between Finarfin and his half-brother, he would not be judged a wimp by anybody. Perhaps the fact that we judge him so harshly tells us more about ourselves than about him?
Finarfin stood up against peer pressure and did what he thought was the right thing. Not very wimpy. Also, he may have been most suited of the brothers to a life in the Blessed Realm. No doubt because he seemed to lack their warlike inclinations.
|