I Hate Feanor

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Nikkolas

The fact is Feanor did not lead the exodus of Valinor for any even vaguely noble end. Everything he told to his followers was a pack of lies and an excuse to get them to come with him and thus increase his chances of defeating Melkor.

I do hold him accountable for every elf who died after leaving the Blessed Realm because they died needlessly and for one elf's supreme selfishness.

I think I read The Silmarillion a little more dispassionately than you do. Nonetheless, I see Fëanor as more of an enabler rather than originator. We have to remember that for a long time he avoided Melkor ("he held no converse with him and took no counsel from him")("Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor") until Melkor came himself to Formenos.

Additionally, discontent was sown first in the hearts of other Noldor: "Visions he would conjure in their hearts of the mighty realms that they could have ruled at their own will, in power and freedom in the East". It was only when this rumour 'got about' that "Fiercest burned the new flame of desire for freedom and wider realms in the eager heart of Fëanor; and Melkor laughed in his secrecy, for to that mark his lies had been addressed, hating Fëanor above all" ("Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor").

Upon their exile, then, Fëanor "urged the Noldor to follow him and by their own prowess to win freedom and great realms in the lands of the East, before it was too late; for he echoed the lies of Melkor" ("Of the Flight of the Noldor"). In that regard I think that Fëanor was only really telling the Noldor what they already believed and wanted to hear, and as such the theft of the Silmarils was by and large an excuse for them to do what they already longed for. The recovery of these holy artefacts was a pretense for them to seek what they desired, power and kingship in Middle-earth, which was something they struggled to do, rather disastrously, throughout the First and Second Ages.

Again, I don't feel sympathy for Fëanor, but I still believe that he was not alone in his crimes, and where blame does not lie at the feet of Melkor himself much of it lies with the dissident Noldor at large.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Originally posted by Galadriel
Firstly, let us not call Feanor a villain. Morgoth is a villain. Sauron is a villain. Gothmog, Glaurung, and etc are villains. Not Feanor. He is not an evil guy. He is not even a bad guy. He's just a mad one. Well, at least partially. And many geniuses of the real world are partially mad.

"For the great Gaels of Ireland,
Are the men that God made mad.
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad."

(G. K. Chesterton). Of course, a British Catholic theological writer and poet, and contemporary of Tolkien.