Feanor from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion is one of those characters where you either hate him or you love him to bits and will die on that hill. Reddit forums galore have been created centering around him, ranging from having well-thought-out arguments in the form of memes and comments defending/condemning his actions to having a bunch of people who just want to fight. However, if there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that Feanor is a very morally complex character. He isn’t exactly a villian; nor is he a hero, either. Instead, I would classify him as being a round anti-hero.
Let’s start off with his familial situation. Feanor was unique amongst the Eldar for many things, but one of the biggest things that set him apart from the rest was that he was the only elf in Tolkien’s legendarium to have ever had a stepmother. When he was born, his biological mother (Miriel) was so exhausted that her soul just “noped” out of life, leaving Finwe alone to raise Feanor. With the absence of his mother, Feanor grew very attached to his father and years later when Finwe was re-married to Indis of the Vanyar, he was not happy. Not only was he feeling miffed because all of a sudden he had to compete with two other brothers for his father’s kingship, but he (in my opinion) was probably feeling angry because now his father’s attention was divided betwen him and four other siblings (as is told in History of Middle Earth: Morgoth’s Ring). Obviously, he would’ve been feeling upstaged and that’s probably one of the things that lead him to do that things he did.
One of the other things that probably fed into his character was the fact that he was a very ambitious and passionate person, as is made abundantly clear in The Silmarillion and other works through his actions. We’re told that he was pretty much always at work on or thinking about something and almost never rested when he was working on something. He invented Tengwar, created the Palantiri, made Feanorian lamps a thing, created a bunch of other stuff that we’re not told much about and – most importantly – invented the Silmarils which he loved the most out of all his creations, to the extent of killing thousands to get them back. During his rebellion, he also believed himself to be strong enough to completely destroy the forces of Angband and rule the entire land of Middle-Earth, something that he died trying to do within a few days of landing in Beleriand.
These two factors are the two things that make Feanor a morally complex character. His upbringing and eventual anger towards his siblings lead him to make some bad decisions, but some of those decisions later brought something better for Arda. The same can be said for his ambition. While it lead him to do horrible things (like killing the Teleri), also made him do some good things. Feanor’s ambition and passion for saving his work lead the elves into a war that lasted for several hundred years but brought about quite a lot of good for Middle-Earth in the form of eventually overthrowing Morgoth.
Did Feanor achieve this through some questionable methods? Yes.
Was he somewhat (or completely) unlikeable while doing it? Yes.
However, the thing that sets him apart from a poorly written character is the fact that though he’s unlikeable, his backstory makes you feel sympathy for him, unlike what we see with other characters like Korra from last week’s post on a similar topic. You can understand why he is the way he is and you know his motivation. He isn’t painted as being a total good guy, but also isn’t painted as being a total villian. It’s left up to the reader to decide and that’s why he works as a character.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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