my fight with the balrogs

[Feanaro]

i was wandering how people pictured my long battle with the balrog




how i realy fought so long against a load of balrogs, was doing loads of yoda style spins, twists and flips

[Graever]

i think feanor was so wild, so lustful in battle and hungry to win, that it was probably the equivalent to the first 20 minutes of an animal control agency tryin gto subdue a wild racoon.

ive seen 5 guys chase a tiny racoon, all of them were bitten, and it was like taming a dragon lol.

but eventually the guys just surrounded it and pinned it down, and that was that.

[Peter_20]

The Balrogs were actually exhausted, because they had just had a major clean-up day in Angband, scrubbing toilets and whatnot.

[NelyafinweMaitimo]

And let's face it. You lost!

(hahar.)

No, really, though. Feanor was mad in battle, and his madness made him fearless. I think he may have surprised his opponents with his sheer ferocity.

[Valarauko5]

I might add that it said not only that in this age the Eldar (Elves, sorry I love Elven) were a great deal stronger than in later years. Plus it wasn't just him. It says a few were with him if I recall correctly. And there is that whole "greater spirit than any other Eldar who ever lived" thing to remember. I think on the whole he had a good chance of taking a few out with him.

[Varnafindë]

On the whole, Feanor was an academic, not a warrior. He worked in his smithy, making jewellery and seeing-stones, he made improvements on the writing-system, and he was the leader of a guild of loremasters.

His half-brother Fingolfin had greater strength than him, Fingolfin dared even to fight Morgoth (with some limited success).

But Feanor's fiery spirit probably made up for some of what he was lacking in raw strength, so even though he lost the battle, I have no doubt that he did a lot of damage before he was defeated.

[Valarauko5]

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. You're probably right that it just made up for him not being as battlemade.

[DARKastheRAIN]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

His half-brother Fingolfin had greater strength than him, Fingolfin dared even to fight Morgoth (with some limited success).

But Feanor's fiery spirit probably made up for some of what he was lacking in raw strength, so even though he lost the battle, I have no doubt that he did a lot of damage before he was defeated.

Whatever

Feanor was the mightiest of the Children of Iluvatar ever to have lived. If Fingolfin and him had ever chanced to get in to a one on one fight, the outcome would have probably been the same as Fingolfin's fight with Morgoth: valient and well fought but doomed to defeat from the beginning.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by DARKastheRAIN

Whatever

Feanor was the mightiest of the Children of Iluvatar ever to have lived. If Fingolfin and him had ever chanced to get in to a one on one fight, the outcome would have probably been the same as Fingolfin's fight with Morgoth: valient and well fought but doomed to defeat from the beginning.

Mightiest, yes - but not necessarily in raw strength. While Tolkien says that Fëanor

was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind, in valour, in endurance, in beauty, in understanding, in skill, in strength and in subtlety alike,

he emphasizes this differently when he compares the three sons of Finwë:

Fëanor was the mightiest in skill of word and of hand, more learned than his brothers; his spirit burned as a flame. Fingolfin was the strongest, the most steadfast, and the most valiant. Finarfin was the fairest, and the most wise of heart;

I do admit that Tolkien might seem to be contradicting himself in those two paragraphs.
It depends on the meaning of "in strength and in subtlety alike". I think the second paragraph is clearer, where he lists what the differences between the brothers are.

That's why I think that in that one on one fight you mentioned , Fëanor would actually have lost.

[DARKastheRAIN]

I still disagree

[Willow Oran]

Depends on what they were fighting with and who had more experience with that type of weapon. Assuming a similar body type between the two brothers but that Fingolfin (as Tolkien seems to imply) is indeed stronger:

In a fight using heavy, long bladed weapons Fingolfin would probably win because those types of weapons rely more on brute strength than skill.

In a fight using lighter weapons, swords closer to rapiers or sabers in length and weight, and which require more skill because their effectivness relies a great deal on leverage and 'hit and run' swordplay, Feanor would be more likely to win, I think, unless he was very angry and not thinking clearly.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

What I often muse about is how any of them knew anything about fighting at all seeing how they lived in the bliss of Valinor. One would think the Noldor would be pretty dorky fighters in all respects until they had lived in Middle Earth for a long enough time to gain some experience.

Though for Feanor and Fingon and their people, I suppose the kinslaying was a bit of a primer on combat.

[Willow Oran]

It's implied that the elves while in Valinor engaged in athletic competitions, there's a bit somewhere about Galadriel being really good in foot races, and included in those probably would have been some more martial sports that could have served as their physical preparation for later battles. We might also guess that games of strategy (similar to chess) and stories of the Great Journey were popular. So the methods of thinking and moving necessary for fighting would have been known to them, and once there was motivation for them to use it for a wartime situation the newer generations that had never seen conflict would have learned quite quickly.

Also, in the case of Fingolfin's followers, they had those years camped out in Araman before starting across the Helcaraxe, and then the actual crossing, to hone their survival skills, which presumably included learning to fight beyond what they might have known from athletic competitions.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

It's not the same until you've drawn blood, but your points are well taken.

[Willow Oran]

I completely agree with you on that note. The first few battles had to have been absolutely nightmarish for the newly returned Noldor, no matter how powerful they might have been.

Unfortunately for the elves' psychological well-being, the epic-historical tone the Silmarillion is written in doesn't care how they would feel going into battle against all sorts of nasties for the first time, it just cares that they look shiny and glorious and kill the required large numbers of beasties before dying in an excruciatingly painful and tragic manner while doing so.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

In addition, Fingolfin's people probably had a lot of frustration to let out on the poor orcs when they finally arrived in M.E. ready for battle. Then Fingolfin gets to Morgoth's door and nobody answers! That had to really jack up the tension in those Elves. I almost pity the first wave of orcs that encountered that group.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Willow Oran

Unfortunately for the elves' psychological well-being, the epic-historical tone the Silmarillion is written in doesn't care how they would feel going into battle against all sorts of nasties for the first time, it just cares that they look shiny and glorious and kill the required large numbers of beasties before dying in an excruciatingly painful and tragic manner while doing so.

You forgot 'tall'

Yes, this is very much not a psychological novel. Maybe that's one reason why some of us like to write fanfiction and describe the frustrations and traumas, albeit less excruciatingly tragic ...

[Willow Oran]

Right. Of course. Eru forbid there should ever be a short elf-lord. We can add fair to that list too.

One day, when I have absolutely nothing better to do, I will read through the Sil with a highlighting set and count the number of times he uses the adjectives tall and fair.