Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post
I think she expected to survive IF she could make it up to the Meneltarma, but did not.
What difference would that have made?

My point is, the Oath stems from and abets Avarice, Wrath, and Pride. How can one swear by a good god to continue in these vices, and the harm they will cause to everyone about them?
Easily?

I should think that, if they were to actually talk to Eru, he would abjure them to repent of their oath rather than follow it blindly to their own destruction and the harm of all around them.
Doubt so. What my example was meant to illustrate is that Eru isn't known to help people much, or any at all really. The Valar already offered them one chance to turn back, which is more than most people get, and they turned it down. I think Illuvatar would have them lay in the bed they made.

The sons of Feanor's decisions are more parallel to the generations of decisions by Numenorian kings which led up to that final moment in the first place.
And you think someone willing to kill the innocent would never punish the repenting guilty?

Were I them, I'd work with the Valar
They are barred from ever sailing back to Valimar.

But if all that failed and I still had to choose between keeping the oath and breaking it ... well, I'd keep the oath so far as I could without doing evil, but if I had to choose between, say, keeping the oath and murdering an innocent village, I'd break the oath. Better the damnation that doesn't take everyone down with me, if it comes to it.
Oh definitely, that would be the moral choice.