[Amarinth]

yes great topic maedhros [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

finarfin's choice can indeed be interpreted as one out of fear of the valar, and we can go as far as we can on that. some, on the other hand, might even argue that finarfin's admission of wrongdoing and remorse and ultimate backtracking are acts of courage themselves especially coming from a lord of the proud house of finwe. my impression of the event based on your exact quotes was that the "prophecy of the north" served as a sobering douse of cold water on finarfin who, along with the entire host of the noldor, was seized with a "madness" of a kind, a mixture of kindled pride and the hypnotic heady words of feanor (whose tongue can give saruman a run for his money!) if imagined in the context of many senseless genocides in the world to date, this madness must have anaesthesized the noldor from any rational human feeling against the kinslaying they eventually committed/condoned. now after looking at the crime with eyes wide open, it became a judgement call for finarfin to either stick with the madness or come to his senses, seek penance and save the remainder of his people while he could. imho he was the better man for his choice [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

from a "moral" perspective, i agree though with the standpoint that it would have been more "decent" of finarfin to have forsaken the march during or even after the kinslaying, after which absolution from the valar becomes rather more justifiable. this "lapse" like many others in the silm, nonetheless, are for me necessary imperfections which serve to illustrate the fallability or humanity of both the quendi and the ainur notwithstanding their superior state of existence. that the ainur can be appealled to to forgive; that they can give fair warning before meting out the just desserts of the children of eru; that their timing can become questionable; that the noldor can err tremendously, greviously, and still see through the mistake; that they can bend their knees in contrition and want to be pardoned; that the noldor need second chances, too.

my oh my, i think i better bow out before i really get worked up on this!