Editing Noldor (section)

=== Decline and fall ===
{{further|Decline and fall in Middle-earth}}

The Tolkien scholar [[Bradford Lee Eden]] states that in ''The Silmarillion'', Tolkien focused on the Noldor as their history is "filled with the doom and fate so typical of medieval literature that determines the entire history of Middle-earth from the First Age to the time of ''The Lord of the Rings''."<ref name="Eden 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Eden |first=Bradford Lee |author-link=Bradford Lee Eden |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Elves |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=150–152}}</ref> He notes that in many "parallel stories and tales" the fates of Elves and Men are tightly interwoven, leading inexorably to the [[Decline and fall in Middle-earth|decline and fading]] of the Elves and the rise of Men as the dominant race in the modern Earth.<ref name="Eden 2013"/> The Tolkien scholar [[Matthew Dickerson]] writes that the theft of the Silmarils by Morgoth leads Fëanor and his sons into swearing their dreadful oath and leading the Noldor out of Valinor back to Middle-earth. This is, he comments, at once a free choice and a self-imposed exile.<ref name="Dickerson 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dickerson |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Dickerson |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Elves: Kindreds and Migrations |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=152–154}}</ref>