[Anguirel]

Not sure I quite buy your Cold War idea, Tuor. Maybe it's just the astoundingly dull way we were taught it.

On Feanor; he was, like Luthien but in a different way, too bright to exist for long. He would never have moderated his ambition to avenge his father-which to him was a much greater blow, of course, that the rape of the Silmarils. He could not but die. Apart from anything else, his fiery genius would have consumed him at the last. He is an Achillean figure who has chosen immortality above survival.

This, much though Feanor impresses me, was a good thing. Maedhros, Fingolfin and Fingon were far more diplomatic, patient and able rulers. Feanor would have raged against everything he saw as constricting his revenge. Far frm uniting the Elves, he would have been severely divisive; at worst he would have ended up doing Morgoth's work for him, as his unfortunate oathbound sons did much later.

Oddly, though, Feanor's temperament could be said to have lingered on to an extent in Galadriel, though she exercised it with more wisdom.

I wonder how Feanor gets on in Mandos; but I would not be surprised if he defies Namo and the other Valar to this day. Perhaps Miriel has calmed his anger...