Were all the Sons of Feanor really that bad?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Morwen

Abandoning the oath is what Maglor was urging in his conversation with Maedhros - to leave the Silmarils with Eonwe and forget about trying to regain them. However, they don't do this and I think that what was Maglor and Maedhros abandoned in the end was possession of the Silmarils and not the Oath itself.

I would make a distinction between the requirement of the oath and ultimate objective. The Oath required the brothers to pursue with vengeance anyone who held a Silmaril and they did just that. If the objective of the oath was to ensure that one day either Feanor or his sons would get the Silmarils back then by the end of the First Age that was accomplished.

However, the brothers then realise that the oath was in vain. They cannot keep what they fought and killed to possess. However, that realisation does not lead them to surrender the Silmarils to Eonwe or anyone else. To do so would have been to truly abandon their Oath, to allow persons other than themselves to keep a Silmaril. They choose instead to put the Silmarils beyond the reach of anyone else.

I see your reasoning and agree to a point, but the third Silmaril was indeed in someone else's hands, and they knew they could never retrieve it, and I don't think Maedhros was of sound mind when he killed himself (suicides seldom are, are they?); therefore, I don't believe he had the wherewithal to think he was ridding the world of the Silmaril when he made his leap, nor could Maglor believe that by merely tossing the Silmaril into the sea it would never be recovered (tides the way they are).

It sounds more to me like a huge sense of guilt and regret on their parts, and ridding themselves of further torment (in one case ending one's life, and the other throwing away a remembrance of sin), rather than fulfilling their oaths.