Of The Mock Trial of Fëanor and His Sons

In the “Jury’s Out” game, I was assigned the role of a jury member, coming up with questions for both the prosecution and defense, and ultimately deciding the verdict of Fëanor and his sons’ moral responsibility. While I initially thought being a part of the jury would be one of the easier tasks, I quickly learned how difficult it would really be. As a reader of the story, I had already formed my own opinion of Fëanor and his actions, yet going into the debate, I felt as though I should not let my personal bias affect the way I perceived the arguments of each side. Despite my attempts to not let that happen, it is inevitable, therefore certain points were lost on me due to my own prior thoughts on the matter. There were also moments during the trial in which I felt irrelevant statements were being brought up and I felt slightly lost in the argument. Still, both sides did present fair arguments, and personally I found myself switching sides based on lack of evidence or strong claims.

As for the entire jury, we came to the conclusion that Fëanor and his sons were guilty of only certain “charges” presented to us by the prosecution, such as kinslaying, arson, and armed theft. Overall, the prosecution seemed better prepared than the defense, always coming up with (almost) immediate rebuttals to each question the jury asked and being able to back up their claims with textual evidence found in The Silmarillion. While I do believe the defense made good points, such as the oath being unbreakable without dire consequences, the jury felt as if they did not have enough reason to support Fëanor and his sons’ uttering of the oath in the first place. We jury members had a difficult time creating questions for the prosecution, but found ourselves questioning a couple of the defense’s statements. For these reasons, the jury - for the most part - did not debate over whose side we were on, and it was easy to come to a unanimous decision.