Why where the Teleri Ships Irreplaceable?

[Belin]

Thank you, Gandalf. And Losthuniel, glad to help. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

That was his rhetoric, Maedhros (and what a magnificent rhetorician he was!), but he was, in fact, in open rebellion against the Valar.

He claimed now the kingship of all the Noldor, since Finwe was dead, and he scorned the decrees of the Valar.
"Why, O people of the Noldor," he cried, "why should we longer serve the jealous Valar, who cannot keep us nor even their own realm secure from their Enemy? And though he be now their foe, are not they and he of one kin? Vengeance calls me hence, but even were it otherwise I would not dwell longer in the same land with the kin of my father’s slayer and of the thief of my treasure.

So in his own thinly veiled way he identifies them with Melkor, as enemies. He's angry with them not just because they're not helping him enough but also because they are related to his enemy and seem to him equivalent. The other Noldor recognize that Feanor is overstepping boundaries, as there are some that refused to go "for the love that they bore to the Valar." Manwe’s herald tells them not to go, so we know that the Valar are not in favor of this course of action.

The Teleri were thinking of this as well: "no ship would they lend, nor help in the building, against the will of the Valar."

Yet they lost something by not helping the Noldor all the same.

You mean their ships, their lives, and their alliance? Yes, true, but they didn’t know that Feanor was going to attack them. He’d been speaking of friendship, and then he went away and came back with an army.

Besides, look what Feanor lost; he was exiled. The Teleri got to remain in the grace of the Valar.

--Belin Ibaimendi

[ June 14, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]