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stitcherofchaos · 11 months

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On The Matter of Oaths

...Specifically on the oath of Feanor.

Tolkien was a catholic, so how do catholics believe oaths work?

Let me explain: If you use the name of God in an oath that forces you to sin (ie, murder, lying, adultery... etc) that makes the oath automatically invalid due to the contents of the oath forcing you to sin. It is- of course- still a sin because you used the name of God in a blasphemous manner, but the oath you made is not binding.

Oaths are only valid if they do not force you to sin and if they are said with 100% knowledge of what you are promising in the first place. Think of wedding vows or vows taken by those in holy orders.

The tragedy in the Silmarillion is the fact that the oath was in vain the whole time, which is why all the Feanor's sons died brutally, Maedhros took his life, and Maglor 'mourned himself to death' essentially.

#the silmarillion #maedhros #maglor #curufin #celegorm #caranthir #amrod #amras #feanor #feanorians #sons of feanor #nerdanel #tolkien #If I get hate for stating correlating facts- I'm going to lose it #and yes maglor died #that's no an opinion either #I think tolkien said that the last sons of feanor were destroyed by the oath (ie killed) in one of his letters #also this fact has a potential happy ending for the sons of feanor #at least the ones who humble themselves and repent in the halls of mandos #now that's an opinion #also that's the reason why The Dead Men of Dunharrow were cursed #they said their oath out of loyalty and good will but abandoned it when things became too 'difficult'

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