Tolkien's Tales of Middle Earth and Other Fictional Worlds

 I am Turin, eldest son of Hurin and Morwen, brother to my late sister Urwen, formerly known as Lalaith. I am no stranger to loss. Being only a young man, I have experienced countless deaths of people I love. It all started with my sister, Urwen, taken by a strange sickness caused by Morgoth. I was only 5 when I lost her; she was the apple of my eye, my pride and joy, and now she’s gone. My father was inconsolable, my mother was distant, and I had no one to help me through the pain; I didn’t understand it. Enter Sador, a one legged carpenter; he was like a father to me when mine was distant. While Hurin spent time leading armies and fighting in wars, Sador was there; he was my mentor. It killed me so much to leave my home and my family, or what was left of it. My father never returned, so really the only family I left was Sador and mother; oh, how I weep for them. I had to go to Doriath, to be the foster son of the king Thingol, but living in Doriath wasn’t bad at all. Thingol and...

       Portraying the prosecutor in the trial of the Sons of Fëanor led me to dig deeper into the moral and spiritual consequences of their deeds throughout The Silmarillion. At first, when I initially read about their oath and the subsequent tragic circumstances, I saw them as chiefly victims of fate — cursed by their father's pride and caught up in forces beyond their control. But taking the prosecutorial role turned that perspective right on its head. Through developing the charges and arguments, I recognized how much personal control each of the sons continued to have in spite of the so-called "oath" or "curse." Arguing for the Sons of Fëanor's prosecution for their pride, treachery, and habitual slayings of kin made me notice just how deliberate much of their behavior was. They were not puppets of destiny; they chose to act savagely even on notice by the Prophecy of the North. I couldn't resist referring to the biblical precept that temptation or de...