The Doom of the Noldor came though, not because they had some ill-considered thoughts about the Valar and wanted to leave Aman, or even because they followed the already exiled Feanor, no the curse and Doom were prounounced because of the Kinslaying [of which only some were fully culpable] and then of failing to repent of it [this would apply to those participated in the attack on the Teleri and the theft of the Ships, regardless of their degree of culpability.
You can not seriously say that The Noldor had no choice but to commit murder and grand-larceny in order to leave Aman. They could have dared the Ice as many did anyway. OR they could have asked the Teleri help them build ships. Manwe had given them leave to go in the 'flight of the Noldor' chapter.Saying however the 'Go not forth! The
hour is evil, and your road leads to sorrow you do not forsee.
As for the Valar not running full speed of to war, we do not have enough information to know what their reasons were.
Constraint by Eru is certainly possible, the setting of the Sun and Moon, was also an enormous task requiring several of the Key Valar and yaking even longer than the Noldor's bloody and vicious departure.
I see no positive exscuses their either. One must assume the Valar were acting willfully or negligently, and we have no text to point us to either conclusion. We do have a long history of the Valar carefully weighing all options and meeting in Council [ we know they were doing this, from the 'Of the making of the Sun and moon 'a careful reading of which shows they were searching for the correct path from the moment Melkor had fled!
Who is more likely to come to a right of understanding of the needed action?
The hasty, maurderous and raving Feanor and those 'besotted with his words' or the Valar searching for the path of light amidst the darkness. Now we read also this amazing line [probably transmitted to the Noldor via the Vanyar [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]] that the valar were more grieved over the Marring of Feanor than the death of the Trees!
This shows the clear path that the Noldor should have held to in relation to their stolen jewels anjd desire to 'avange' Finwe's death.
Also we read, and I think conclusively,
Quote:
It is told that the Valar sat long unmoved upon their
thrones in the Ring of Doom, but they were not idle as Feanor
said in the folly of his heart. For the gods may work many things
with thought rather than with hands, and without voices in
silence they may hold council one with another. Thus they held
vigil in the night of Valinor, and their thought passed back
beyond Ea and forth to the End; yet neither power nor wisdom
assuaged their grief, and the knowing of evil in the hour of its
being. Neither did they mourn more for the death of the Trees
than for the marring of Feanor: of all Melkor's works the most
wicked.
$165 For Feanor was made the mightiest in all parts of
body and mind: in valour, in endurance, in beauty, in under-
standing, in skill, in strength and subtlety alike: of all the
Children of Eru, and a bright flame was in him. The works of
wonder for the glory of Arda that he might otherwise have
wrought only Manwe might in some measure conceive. And the
Vanyar who held vigil with the Valar have recorded that when
the messengers reported to Manwe the answers of Feanor to his
heralds Manwe wept and bowed his head. But at that last word
of Feanor: that at the least the Noldor should do deeds to live in
song for ever: he raised his head, as one that hears a voice afar
off, and he said: 'So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be
accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could
be no other. Thus, even as Eru spoke to us, shall beauty not
before conceived be brought into Ea, and evil yet be good to
have been.'
'And yet remain evil,' quoth Mandos. 'To me shall Feanor
come soon.'
$166 But when at last the Valar learned that the Noldor
had indeed passed out of Aman and were come back into
Middle-earth, they arose and began to set forth in deeds those
counsels they had taken in thought for the redress of the evils of Melkor.
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from the Annals of Aman. It is similar if not identical to the chapter of the Silm.
We see three things, and I think definitively.
[LIST][*]The valar were not idle - they were doing EXACTLY what they should have done, and in the order needed.[*]Feanor was wrong and his actions Evil[*]Good shall come of the Evil.
So for the 'good' to have come - the enrichment of Men, the recovery and setting of the Silmarill in the skies. THe Valar were now constrained by the Noldor themselves, and as the text seems to inidcate, by Eru.
[ March 05, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]