“They swore an oath which none
shall break and none should take, by the name even of Ilúvater
… so sworn, good or evil, an oath may not be broken, and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the
world’s end.”
~~~
When almost all else was lost, still
at times he remembered the last choice.
“I will submit. I will go to Eonwë, and unless you kill me
you cannot prevent it.”
“If you will break the Oath, then fall
upon your sword tonight. Or if you must
live, flee far from here. But as I love
you, brother, do not carry the Oath into Valinor!”
But he
had been besotted with the hope that all their crimes could be forgotten, and
all could be as though the blood of Elves had never stained his hands. He had believed the right to the works of
their father would be granted in the end.
It had not been so. Long too the
memory lingered of the hour he had been told his hands could not profane the
holy light.
But the Oath of Fëanor even Manwë
could not loose. Vain it might be, but
not void.
They did not slay him. The Valar would not shed blood with their own
hands, nor permit the Elves to do so, not even the blood of one such as
him. Not even when, in his torment, he
begged for death again and again.
It took a long time for the power he
had summoned so long before to claim him altogether. His spirit had been nurtured in the Tree
Light and his will was strong, he fought hard, but the summoned power was
stronger.
The Valar had learned some things; he
was not allowed weapons. Even when he
fought with one of those that guarded him, and wrested the Vanya’s
own knife and slew him, still the Valar did not take his life.
It was hard now to find any to bring
him food. Sometimes he refused to eat
for days, but always he took food again in the end. The Oath would not have him dead, and at the
last there was nothing else left to him but the Oath and the knowledge of his
eternal failure.
His wrists were kept secured, since
the day he had tried to tear out his throat with his fingernails. Now though, he no longer
fought like a crazed beast, no longer screamed his curses. And he no longer wept.
What almost broke the guards was the
day they saw he was Calaquendi no longer. Behind his eyes was only Everlasting
Dark. Most times he watched through his
tangled hair in stillness, but at others he chanted softly. The sound could not be called song, but there
was power in him still, the power of one who had been great among the Noldor.
At times his voice was strong enough
for the guards to hear the curses that he called in rhythmic softness. And shadows fell in Valinor.
Animals died without reason, or ran
mad and could not be calmed. Crops
withered, wells failed. Not to
starvation point, for this was the Land of the Valar, and they could heal what
was marred, but still fear grew, and still the Kinslayer
chanted as his new power strengthened.
An avalanche broke loose and killed
several Elves in a settlement by the mountains.
A fishing boat sprang a leak for no reason and three were drowned. Two travelling from Tirion
to Valmar never reached their goal and no trace could
be found of them.
The fear grew greater.
Why do they not kill him? It should have been done long ago.
Would that free us? Have you not heard of the Unhoused, and the
evil they wrought in the Far Lands?
Have any thought to remove his tongue?
The Valar are to blame. They brought him here…
Sometimes the shred of self that
remains to him wonders who it is he can hear laughing.
Endnote:
So where did this come from?
Well there are references in Tolkien’s writing to the surviving sons of
Fëanor attempting to break their Oath after learning the Silmaril was in Sirion
and torment (Tolkien’s word) falling on them as a result. Assuming the Valar could not loose the Oath,
and I think the evidence is against it, I don’t see that it would be any
different in Valinor.
Also at the end of the Silmarillion
Tolkien describes the brothers’ right to the Silmarils as void but the
Oath itself as vain. Tolkien
chose words with precision, so I think a significant distinction is being made
here and the Oath was not void whatever Maglor hoped.