[Morthoron]

I concur with Squatter's use of the word "fey" in this instance, a concept (O.E. faege) that is an outcome of "weird" or fate, that an Anglo-Saxon warrior like Beowulf would certainly understand. To become fey is to foresee one's own death and against all counsel seek that death, usually in battle against impossible odds, and die gloriously.

And like Squatter inferred, this fey death of Fingolfin is a pagan concept that would not be considered suicide by Fingolfin's peers and family; on the contrary, as Tolkien portrayed it, the high king's death is given the laudatory verse Anglo-Saxons reserved for their greatest heroes.