@Fordim Hedgethistle:
I have read and heard many talk about the bad habits and behaviour of Elves in general, but this one is the most generalised one ever. Especially pointed at in the last half sentence:
Quote:
|
... the fact that he's an Elf is enough to implicate him in the the 'crime' of choosing art over life.
|
I never will give way to the thought that being a member of a folk will impose you with some crime/guilt whatsoever. It might be just for a member of a folk to feel a shame for what has been done in the past in the name of this folk. But even that must come from the individual it self and can neither be demanded nor imposed form outside. (If that is tried, the outcome will most likely not be shame, but resistance and enmity.)
Now back to the topic. The strongest evidence against Finrod and his folk taking any part in the kin-slaying is given in the chapter 15:
Of the Noldor in Beleriand in the
Quenta Silmarillion. There Thingol had heard whispers of the kin-slaying and questioned Finrod and his brethren about it. I will give the quote a bit more extensive since it provides an other explanation why Finrod failed in the contest when the kin-slaying was sung about
:
Quote:
Then Finrod was greatly moved, but he was silent, for he could not defend himself, save by bringing charges against the other princes of the Noldor; and that he was loath to do before Thingol. But in Angrod's heart the memory of the words of Caranthirs welled up again in bitterness, and he cried: "Lord, I know not what lies you have heard, nor whence; but we came not red-handed. Guiltless we came forth, save maybe of folly, to listen to the words of fell Fëanor, and become as if besotted with wine, and as briefly. No evil did we do on our road, but suffered ourselves great wrong; and forgave it. For this we are named tale-bearers to you and treasonable to the Noldor: untruly as you know, for we have of our loyalty been silent before you, and thus earned your anger. But now these charges are no longer to be borne, and the truth you shall know."
Then Angrod spoke bitterly against the sons of Fëanor, telling of the blood at Aqualondë, and the Doom of Mandos, and the burning of the ships at Losgar. And he cried: "Wherefore should we that endured the Grinding Ice bear the name of kinslayers and traitors?"
"Yet the shadow of Mandos leis on you also," said Melian. ...
|
Thus, in the song-contest with Sauron Finrod could, as here against Thingol, defend himself only by blaming other Noldor which is in it self a vault if done. Finrod was stuck between a rock and a hard place; he could only defend himself by opening a new field for Saruon to attack him. That he did not do since it would have brought others into danger and thus he suffered a defeat. And in addition we hear Melain say: "the shadow of Mandos leis on you". That is true for all the Noldor in exile, at least during the First Age. And it did weaken Finrod's position greatly.
In addition I like to provide some information on the sources used for the texts in the published
Silmarillion, which we are talking about. The Kin-slaying at Aqualondë was a part of the legendarium nearly from the start (it is already told in
The Lost Tales), and as soon as the Noldor were divided in the houses of Fëanor and his brethren, it was only the house of Fëanor and some of Fingons people who had a part in that battle (this was first set to paper in 1930 in
The Quenta Noldorinwa.
The song-contest between Finrod and Sauron entered with the
Lay of Beren and Lúthien in 1928. And the poem fragment given in
The Silmarillion is taken from that source. Tolkien amended the lay after he finished
The Lord of The Rings.
The talk between Thingol and Finrod and his brethren is much later, it entered the legendarium and was taken for the published text out of
The Grey Annals, written after the publication of
The Lord of the Rings.
Respectfully
Findegil