That Tolkien quote about Finarfin not having “high courage” like his brothers always bothers me because of the implication that he’s a coward. Then I realized that the “high courage” of the Noldor basically means that they are incredibly brave but kinda stupid. The Noldor are depicted as fierce warriors who never back down from a fight, but that is exactly the problem. Feanor gets himself killed chasing a bunch of orcs. Fingolfin manages to maintain a 400-year long siege and then goes to challenge Morgoth alone. They both die glorious but unnecessary deaths.
Finarfin on the other hand is canonically more of a Vanyar in personality than a Noldor, and the Vanyar can be read as career soldiers. They know the importance of discipline, battle formations, military logistics, tactical retreat, etc. Their way of fighting might be “low courage” but is much more useful in an actual war. That’s why Finarfin succeeds in defeating a larger and deadlier army than what either of his brothers faced. He’s not a coward; he’s smart, patient, and unwilling to risk lives until he is reasonably sure that they can win.
See, the thing is that “high courage”, despite the positive-looking “high”, is not a good thing in the Anglo-Saxon tradition that Jirt was so fond of. It probably isn’t meant as praise at all.
A while back (in 2007) during a seminar on Old English literature I came across a quote that I found hilarious in the context of the Silmarillion (which it isn’t about), so I filed it away For Future Reference:
Unlike [Heremod, some random nobleman and Grendel], Hrothgar suggests, he [Beowulf] has not fallen prey to either “bolgenmod” or “oferhygda dael”*, conditions of psychological excess that lead to the slaughter of kin, the denial of treasure, and, ultimately, the alienation of exile. (Michael R. Near, “Anticipating Alienation: Beowulf and the Intrusion of Literacy” in PMLA108)
(I think we can all agree that Jirt was familiar with Beowulf and its meanings.)
High courage is a condition of psychological excess. A lack of high courage doesn’t mean that someone is a coward; it means that they have a balanced sense of courage that stops them from *checks notes* slaughtering kin, denying treasure to others, or the alienation of exile.
High courage is not a good thing. Tolkien isn’t saying that Finarfin is less courageous than his brothers. What he’s saying is that Finarfin’s courage is tempered with good sense, unlike his brothers’ (who indeed slaughter kin and end up in exile and, in one rather well-known case, also deny treasure to others). Low courage gets the job done.
- - - *Bolgenmodcan be translated as “rage” and oferhygda dael as “overly high courage”, so there we are.
“In the night shall I become the universe? I feel that in every part of me of me, invisible and nonexistent, I am supremely, totally visible. Marvelously bound, I offer in a single unique image the expression of the world. Without color, inscribed in no thinkable form, neither the product of a powerful brain, I am the sole necessary image. On the retina of the absolute eye, I am the tiny inverted image of all things.”
