The Accidental King: Five Reasons Why Finarfin Deserves an Appreciation Month

When I first considered the notion of celebrating a Finarfin Appreciation Month, I brought up the subject to my friends in the online Tolkien community as well as the members of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, to see if such an event would actually be something in which people would want to participate. The responses I received could basically be dichotomized as such:

1) "Yes! Finarfin deserves an appreciation month! Why hasn't Finarfin Appreciation Month been declared before??"

...and...

2) "Finarfin? Why Finarfin?"

So I am taking on this second question--"Why Finarfin?"--in hopes of convincing those non-Finarfanatics out there why the current High King of the Noldor is deserving of greater attention in stories and why January has been declared Finarfin Appreciation Month.

( 1. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. )

( 2. An intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. )

( 3. The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born... in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. )

( 4. The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. )

( 5. Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them. )

( Acknowledgements and Sources )