Why is Maglor being a harper relevant? Well, mostly it's not, I was just trying to list everything we knew. But you could look at the fact that his only named song is a lament entitled 'The Fall of the Noldor', which is partly about the First Kinslaying. If nothing else, it shows that he had some regrets - and wasn't afraid to air them to the world.

Points two and three are things I thought of a bit later, so:

2/ The view of the Feanorians as bloodthirsty maniacs who go a'kinslaying at the drop of a hat is accurate possibly overly simplistic. If we ignore Cel'n'Cur's despicable behaviour in Nargothrond (which is at least a kinslaying-by-proxy), there are only three incidents. Heck, even if we include both Nargothrond and Losgar (where the burning of the ships led directly to the deaths on the Grinding Ice) there's only five - in over six hundred years.

And they're pretty spaced out. Alqualonde was about twenty years before Losgar, according to Tolkien. Nargothrond was ten years after the Bragollach - which makes it four hundred and sixty-six years after the Rising of the Sun. Doriath was destroyed forty years after that, and then there was another thirty-two years before the Sons of Feanor attacked the Havens of Sirion.

My point is that the minimum time the Feanorians went between bouts of murdering was twenty years. That's... a very long time for people viewed as serial killers, and they managed nearly five hundred years without any Kinslaying at all. They were clearly able to keep a lid on their tempers most of the time.

3/ I also hadn't realised this: the Kinslayings were not the actions of a murderous family. They were actually national acts of warfare. We don't normally think of the Houses of the Eldar as nations - but that's what they were. So, if you will, it was the Kingdom of Feanor which attacked the Kingdom of Alqualonde - not just some elf with a sword.

Equally, though the Silmarillion just states 'the sons of Feanor' were the perpetrators of the other two Kinslayings - it also says 'the sons of Feanor' defended the eastern marches. Do we imagine Maglor held his Gap all by himself? That Maedhros was the only elf in Himring? Of course not. So why do we all - including me - picture just them attacking Doriath and Sirion?

Rather than seeing the Second Kinslaying as a massacre, picture it for a moment as a culmination of long tensions between two neighbouring countries. The Kingdom of Doriath had banned all Feanorian citizens from entering its borders, and had actually forbidden their native language from being spoken - even in their own country. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Feanor was guarding Doriath from the terrible threat of Morgoth - and getting nothing in return, nor even any reinforcements. In fact, every nation in Beleriand was behind massive natural or supernatural defences - except the Kingdom of Feanor, which was way out in the open.

And there were tensions. A Feanorian ally (Aredhel) was turned away from Doriath's borders - despite the fact that her alternative was facing a giant-spider-infested valley. A vassal of Doriath's king came to Nargothrond - where two of the kingdom's leaders were living at the time on a diplomatic mission - to try and rally support for a plan to steal the Kingdom of Feanor's previously-stolen Crown Jewels - the ones they'd been trying to get back for literally centuries - so that he could hand them over to Doriath. When the princes quite rightly refused to help - and persuaded their allies in Nargothrond to stand with them - they were painted as villains. Later, the Crown Princess of Doriath came along, stole their extremely valuable dog - and later one of their horses, and an absolutely unique knife - and went on to continue the crown jewel theft. Of course there was never any question that they'd hand it back to the Kingdom of Feanor.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Doriath had utterly failed to offer any assistance in the desperate war against Morgoth - the one which was defending more of their people than it was the Feanorians'. King Maedhros doubtless sent several increasingly angry letters - except, oh yeah, he couldn't, because his people weren't allowed across the border.

Then the King of Doriath died squabbling over the Kingdom of Feanor's crown jewels, and his successor... still refused to even consider returning their property, or joining them in the now nearly non-existent defensive line. With support crumbling at home - King Maedhros' disasterous 'final battle' had left the entire kingdom on the run - was it any wonder the political leadership decided they needed 'a short, victorious war' to up everyone's spirits?

And it was victorious - the first victory for the Kingdom of Feanor in nearly a hundred years. Except the last remnants of the Doriathrin army managed to retreat, taking - oh, naturally - the Feanorian crown jewel which all this was about. So yes, they followed, they rebuilt their forces (as much as they could), and when they saw an opening - they struck.

Am I saying they were nice? No, absolutely not! The thought processes and course of action I've just described are the actions of a fundamentally misguided nation. But... imagine instead of elves, all this took place in Medieval Germany. In that setting, we'd see the Kingdom of Feanor's actions as fairly normal. The only reason we find them so horrifying in the Silm is that it's an elven book - and the Eldar were utterly appalled by the notion of Eldar killing Eldar. Humans... don't have that hangup. Not to nearly the same extent.

hS says lots of words