Oaths & Oathbreaking

[akhtene]

Surely the Valar in that case would be treating the oath takers as children who didn't know what they were doing.

Exactly this is what I am thinking.

Besides by their oath the Feanorians were caught between two outcomes equally unpleasant for them. If they kept it, they would envoke the rage of the Valar. If they broke their oath, thus they would be estranged from the Valar and Iluvatar by whose names they swore (like when you swear by your life, it's supposed you lose it if you break the oath --just a cliché nowadays, what a pity )