Oath of Feanor - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Macalaure · 05-09-2007, 05:41 AM

Ah! One of my favourite scenes of the Silmarillion.

I read it the same way Legate does. Feanor swears his oath, and then his sons leap to his side and repeat it.

However, this is a pivotal scene of the whole Silmarillion, and in a movie, it would need to be treated with great care, to make the audience aware of its significance. Ideally, it would be one of the most tense scene of the whole film, even though, in the end, it's just spoken words.

The repetition of the oath of course strongly works against the tension, I would say. I think I would use an option similar to what Celebdil suggest in 2). After finishing his speech, Feanor draws his sword and his sons leap to his side and do so as well. The red light of the torches is shown to be reflected in the blades and makes them look altogether red. Then Feanor starts speaking the oath, but without the interruptions needed so that his sons can repeat it one by one. I would use voiceover to "merge" the oath and its repetition, so that after Feanor says a line, his sons seem to quietly "echo" it (I would use a shortened version of the one you propose, Celebdil, I think it's a little too long to be effective on screen). It won't be an easy task for the director to capture the feelings of the seven while they say the words, which are very important. The last shot would be of Fingolfin grinding his teeth and being ready to speak against his half-brother in front of the crowd.

The unfortunate thing about the SFP's version is that, as Celebdil has pointed out already, it's not Feanor who speaks the oath. This takes away the initiative from Feanor, which I think is not a good thing to do.

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05-09-2007, 05:41 AM	#5
Macalaure Fading Fëanorion Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: into the flood again Posts: 2,911	Ah! One of my favourite scenes of the Silmarillion. I read it the same way Legate does. Feanor swears his oath, and then his sons leap to his side and repeat it. However, this is a pivotal scene of the whole Silmarillion, and in a movie, it would need to be treated with great care, to make the audience aware of its significance. Ideally, it would be one of the most tense scene of the whole film, even though, in the end, it's just spoken words. The repetition of the oath of course strongly works against the tension, I would say. I think I would use an option similar to what Celebdil suggest in 2). After finishing his speech, Feanor draws his sword and his sons leap to his side and do so as well. The red light of the torches is shown to be reflected in the blades and makes them look altogether red. Then Feanor starts speaking the oath, but without the interruptions needed so that his sons can repeat it one by one. I would use voiceover to "merge" the oath and its repetition, so that after Feanor says a line, his sons seem to quietly "echo" it (I would use a shortened version of the one you propose, Celebdil, I think it's a little too long to be effective on screen). It won't be an easy task for the director to capture the feelings of the seven while they say the words, which are very important. The last shot would be of Fingolfin grinding his teeth and being ready to speak against his half-brother in front of the crowd. The unfortunate thing about the SFP's version is that, as Celebdil has pointed out already, it's not Feanor who speaks the oath. This takes away the initiative from Feanor, which I think is not a good thing to do.