@hennethgalad replied to your post “What do you think would have happened if Fingolfin had arrived un...”
so the Oath is very important. Fingolfin swore to follow his brother’s lead. He did. He even tried to attack his brother’s enemy. Why do you think Fingolfin would take his Oath so much less seriously than the sons of Fëanor, or, say, Finrod and his Oath to Barahir ? The tragedy, expressed in the Doom, is that even had Fëanor lived, and the entire army of the Noldor attacked Angband as well as they possibly could, it still wouldn’t have helped. Morgoth is a Vala, they can’t win.
Oh yes, absolutely, I agree with you. I completely forgot to mention it in my OP (and thank you for pointing it out 😉 ) but, obviously they’re all driven by their respective oath (whether they acknowledge it or not) and pursued by the curse of Mandos.
I’m not sure Fingolfin took it less seriously, but contrary to the sons of Fëanor, he didn’t take Eru as a witness (though you can obviously argue that Manwë is given as a witness since he spoke in front of his throne, even though Fingolfin doesn’t mention the Vala himself), and more importantly, it is given as a promise, and not as an oath per se, which is not completely insignificant...
Now, we know that it was serious enough for it to become one the elements that convinced Fingolfin to follow Fëanor in the Flight of the Noldor (”Nor did he forget his words before the throne of Manwë”), and if this promise is not so much mentioned later on, we might argue that it has something to do with the narrative bias; How could someone as wise as Fingolfin could willingly follow Fëanor (if not to stop/challenge/fight him) after Alqualondë and Losgar…? Wouldn’t that give a rather poor image of Fingolfin? Or at least a not-so-great image of him? I don’t know, just making a few guesses.
After all, Fingolfin said “Thou shalt lead, and I will follow”… and I like the different semantic layers of the verb “to follow” – it can varies, going from just “walking behind” to “obeying” as a vassal would do (“to follow one’s order”), but it is also “coming next”, “imitating” or “trailing”. You can also follow somebody around or follow in somebody’s footsteps... and it follows on that Fingolfin’s fate became enmeshed in Fëanor’s.
But with Fëanor’s death, then what? Fingolfin won’t follow him to Mandos, I mean, not right away. But Fingolfin does follow in Fëanor’s footsteps as he attacks Angband, and he does comes next, as king of the Noldor, doesn’t he?
And indeed, the curse of Mandos compromised the victory of the Noldor from the start, no matter what, but I believe that Fëanor’s death remains a key-element in the unfolding of the narrative events as the Drama of Arda, and according to the idea that some good can arise from tragedies...
