Feanor - Overrated?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

Lyta, that's a very interesting thought. If I may take it a step further; I believe that Feanor considered both of these things, the art of the making and the final object, to be the same. It was his art that had created the Silmarils, that was why they existed, he considered them his because of that. The feeling you get is not so much that he was proud of their making, but possessive and withholding of them simply because it was he that had given birth to them. Probably the same with all his works.

And perhaps, in the same spirit, he considered the Noldor his own, of whom he was (after his father's death) the king, and who he had persuaded to rebel. They were his work, and not the Valar's.

It was, of course, this very mindset that caused him to disregard entirely the importance of the works of others, chiefly the Valar. What he could see was his work, and he judged that to be enough to make it all his.