J.R.R. Tolkien> The Silmarillion

Then Angrod was wrathful and went forth from the council. Maedhros indeed rebuked Caranthir; but the greater part of the Noldor , of both followings, hearing his words were troubled in heart, fearing the fell spirit of the sons of Fëanor that it seemed would ever be like to burst forth in rash word or violence.

-J.R.R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion

Maedhros Maglor Celegorm Caranthir Curufin Amrod Amras

The seven princes of the Noldor are the main driving force behind the biggest perpetrator of the history of the Elves. After their father Fëanor swore his terrible Oath, they jumped by his side and swore the same. After the death of their father in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, they fortified the lands in east Beleriand where they were generally allied with the Elves there. The Sons remained fairly dormant after the death of their father until they heard the story of Beren and Luthien and their successful recovery of one of the Silmarils. They attacked all the Elves around in hopes of gaining one the the remaining Silmarils, but eventually lost after Eärendil carried the one they sought after back to Aman.

An Oath that none should take and none should break...

They continued their pillaging until the last two remaining brothers, Maedhros and Maglor, stole the last two remaining Silmarils from the camp of Eönwë. Their success was not long lived, as the Silmarils would not tolerate being possessed by them. In their despair, Maedhros cast himself and his Silmaril into a great fissure and Maglor cast his into the Great Sea.

Maglor was the last of the seven Sons of Fëanor and the only one to survive into the Second Age.

Along with being the name of the actual sons of Fëanor, the term is used in The Silmarillion and its associated material to describe a political entity, the elves that were led by the sons of Fëanor.

Someone trying to puzzle out the exact demographics, or political or economic structure of Tolkien's elves might spend many hours trying to piece together a picture based on sparse information. In the Silmarillion, it says that the sons of Fëanor dwelt in East Beleriand with "many people", but whether that many was several thousands or several million would be anyone's guess. Along with that, the question of why certain elves were bound to certain Elvish lords is not addressed. Were "The Sons of Fëanor" an extended family of sorts? Were they tied by some sort of system of feudal oaths? Did they share a common dialect or customs? These questions are not addressed, and are perhaps not too meaningful; and would deflate the myth through details.

Even in a mythic book, there is some political structure present in the Silmarillion, and the Sons of Fëanor, however they are constituted, play an important, yet paradoxic political role. The Sons of Fëanor, through their oath (and the text does state that only the seven actual sons of Fëanor, not their extended kin, took that oath), were the instigators and leaders of the coalition that fought Morgoth during the First Age. The paradoxical part of this is that although they were in some ways the core constituency of the alliance, they were also extremely antagonistic to almost all the other members, and they didn't contribute any notable military successes to the wars. This is an example of Tolkien representing something mythically that could also be a common political reality. According to the Silmarillion,

Caranthir was haughty and scarce concealed his scorn for the unloveliness of the Naugrim, and his people followed their lord.

although this is put in the mythological terms of an antipathy towards a different race, it is a very believable political situation, to have one ally distrust another ally because of relatively minor differences in customs. Along with this, I think Tolkien subtly paints the Sons of Fëanor as what we would now term chickenhawks. They are the ones who take the oath to hunt down Morgoth to the exclusion of all else. Yet in the book almost every single valiant (or even useful) deed is done by their cousins, (and rivals) amongst the Noldor, or by the Sindar, or by humans, or dwarves. The one large military initiative that the Sons of Fëanor do put together against Morgoth turns into the disastrous fifth battle, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. After this battle, they "wandered as leaves before the wind". I think Tolkien was making some sort of comment that the same faction that would engage eagerly in civil war was also unable to actually raise any type of effective martial force against their real foe. Whether this is totally due to the personalities of the seven Sons of Fëanor, or was a trait of the culture or habits of the group around them, is unclear from the text.

I think the portrayal of the Sons of Fëanor shows the amount of irony and subtlety in matters of politics and morality that can be gained from the Silmarillion, if one reads closely enough.

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