The Fëanor inside Fëanor Sons

[Aiwendil]

Macalaure wrote:

Maybe I should have written "unnecessary misdeeds", like the burning of the ships, for example. The betrayal of Fingolfin was unnecessary - Fëanor doesn't care and Maedhros stands aside. Interesting to see that he only disobeys and does not oppose him.

True, and a good point. But I still tend to think that it's not that Feanor was missing the sense of compassion that Maedhros had - rather, Maedhros is missing some of the recklessness and anger that Feanor had.

But he doesn't solve anything, he only avoids the problem. One hour after Maedhros is back, everything is settled. It's really hard to interpret Maglor's intentions here.

He at least delays a potentially violent confrontation. It's true that he doesn't solve anything, but I suspect that many in Feanor's host (and particularly the likes of Caranthir, Celegorm, and Curufin) did not want to treat with Fingolfin yet. And it wasn't Maedhros's leadership that allowed him to settle things; it was Fingon's rescue of him. I don't necessarily think that Maglor did the right thing; but I think I can understand why it might look like a good move to him.

I think you underestimate Celegorm. He wouldn't allow Curufin to manipulate him and Curufin is smart enough to know that.

I don't think that Curufin would have been manipulating Celegorm - it seems to me that Celegorm was quite comfortable letting Curufin be the brains of the operation. But, as you said, Celegorm seems to have the greater charisma and therefore is better suited to take the role of leader publicly.