Canon history

[lightcatcher]

Fëanor is not only a character of superlatives, he's also a character of many firsts.

First elf to be born in Valinor. Probably the first person with a fëa on Arda to be born and not created by Eru. (His parents had been awoken along with all other elves in the East of Middle Earth, the eastern of the two main landmasses of Arda. When the Valar noticed their awakening, they at length sent one of their own to check this out. Three elves were brought to their realm of Valinor on the western, other main landmass of Arda. Upon their return, they took up the title of high kinds and led those who would follow them westwards. Along the way, their host was diminished by elves staying behind for various reasons, though some continued their journey later on. But a number of elves still made it to Valinor: The Vanyar, the Noldor and a part of the Teleri. (note: Naming is making politics, also and especially among elves. I'm (almost consequently, with the expection of Þerindë and Melkor/Morgoth because those names are plot points in Fëanor's lifetime) using the names that are commonly used in canon and fandom for the sake of easy reference, but that does not mean that they are unproblematic, in use at the time of the history in question happening, or that they would have been used by those that are counted towards the groups in question or carry those names. See Fëanor's own name (don't even let me get started on Thingol's ban of Quenya). Vanyar and Teleri are both names given from the viewpoint of the Noldor.) The Vanyar basically moved in with the Valar, the Noldor built their own capital, Tirion upon Tuna, and the Teleri remained at the coast and had ships this will be important. King of the Noldor was Finwë. He was married with Miriel Þerindë, and after a while they had a child together: Fëanor. While the in-universe description of it is complicated, we can assume that Miriel had a heavy case of post-partum depression, which eventually led her to depart from her body and go to the Halls of Mandos, refusing to return from there. Which means that)

His mom was the first elf to die in Valinor. (At a time when her son was still very young. So his earliest childhood was spent with a completely unresponsive mother and a grief-ridden father who would spend much time next to his wife('s body). During and after this time, Finwë directed all his affection towards his son, and their bond grew very strong. But there was a problem: Finwë really wanted more than one child. The problem was that since Miriel could technically still have returned to Finwë's side, he could not marry again; remarriage for an elf is due to their practical immortality (possible reembodiment even after a physical death) always polygamy, and that is strictly prohibited. The Valar discussed the situation at length and offered a solution: If Miriel promised to never seek to be reembodied, Finwë would be allowed to remarry himself. Miriel promised, and thus we have, years later: )

His dad was the first and only elf to ever remarry. (This went not over well with his son. Between his father's love now being split up into him and his new wife Indis, and later his half-siblings, and the arrangement meaning that Miriel was now really truly dead for good and he could never see her again unless he should die himself (and even then it'd not be the same), he never liked his step-mom. His relationship with his half-siblings was never filled with love either. It was at this time more a living apart from them and avoiding them more than what would be usual for elven relatives than truly negative behaviour or even hostility.
But it is also during these years that Fëanor himself married and had children, and it seems to have been a quite positive family life (though they decidedly did not live in Finwë's house). It was during these years that he invented and created some of the greatest, most powerful, most well-known etc things in Arda, including a commonly used alphabet, the palantiri (that function kind of like Eachdraidh's lockets |D), nifty lamps, and... well, if you're not sure who invented something in Middle Earth, both fandom and Tolkien default to "Fëanor did this" for a reason. His greatest creation, however, were the silmarils, three beautiful jewels that contained the light of the sacred trees inside them, a light that could not be touched by evil... and that could awaken a great lust to possess them within people. Spoiler: This will end badly.
But yeah. There were also issues here. See, the Valar weren't all that united actually and had never been. One of them, Melkor - basically the personified evil and chaos hellbent on domination and destruction - had caused trouble from the beginning, and after a long time of imprisonment had faked being now on the side of the good guys, and got released. LOL. So Fëanor really didn't like the guy (it's actually said that nobody ever hated Melkor more than Fëanor did), but Melkor was really good at spreading rumours, and one of those managed to get Fëanor really riled up. Namely that the Valar were keeping the elves in Valinor and would not allow them to go to Middle Earth because they were A. afraid that the elves could become more powerful than them and B. so the second-born (= humans) could take over the continent in the absence of its "rightful" owners, because they would be easier to control. This was indeed the first time that the elves were told about the secondborn being a thing. He also managed to fill the hearts of the Noldor with pride and a possessiveness and yearning for the wide world that had not been there before. You know what such a rumour means? CIVIL UNREST, Noldor for the first time making weapons, FUN ALL AROUND, and Fëanor was in the midst of it, calling for the Noldor to take up arms and head over to Middle Earth. But he also created the rumour that the Valar, wanting to possess the silmarils themselves, would try to take the position of Fëanor and his house as Finwë's heirs away from them and give it to Fingolfin, the elder of his half-brothers, instead (and a corresponding rumour telling the children of Indis that Fëanor was planning on kicking them out of Tirion. Well, Fingolfin went to Finwë to tell him to restrain Fëanor from creating even more unrest... a move that Fëanor interpreted as Fingolfin trying to usurp his position and lol look what we have:)

He was the first elf to draw a sword on another elf. (In broad public. THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA OBVIOUSLY. What followed was Fëanor being banished from Tirion to Formenos. His sons came with him, his wife didn't.... his father did. So basically the High King and his heir were in exile (with the silmarils) and guess who ruled the Noldor. Could be Fingolfin. WELL THIS SURE BACKFIRED. But not only for Fëanor. Because the council of the Valar that ruled the banishment of Fëanor also discovered the root of his actions; Melkor was exposed as actually having been a little shit all along. Ooooops. So what do you do. Well, Melkor got a spider-monster, Ungoliath, to eat the trees so the world would be filled with darkness... which the other Valar responded to by summoning Fëanor to ask him to hand over the silmarils, because hey, they had the light of the trees still in them, something could be done here. Too bad the silmarils tend to make their owner really greedy. But one could argue that Fëanor's refusal to hand them over wasn't really of any importance because Melkor was busy while everyone else discussed those things, and when Fëanor claimed that he would rather be the first elf killed in Valinor than hand the silms over, Mandos was a cryptic little shit and told him "Nope, you'd not be the first. That is because)

His dad was the first elf to be killed in Valinor. (Because the silmarils were still in Formenos and Melkor had attacked that together with Ungoliath, killed Finwë, and absconded with jewels and partner-in-crime. Over to Middle Earth, by the way, where he still had some minions and a hide to go to. So Fëanor's much beloved father was dead, and after leaving the council and vanishing for a few days in what often is interpreted as a suicidal phase, Fëanor showed up again... in Tirion, calling on the Noldor to head to Middle Earth with him, both for the reasons that he cited before and to avenge his father and get the silmarils back. Or, in other words:)

He was the first elf to rebel against the Valar. (Calling everyone to arms and rushing the whole thing so people would stay overwhelmed by his skills as an orator and not be calmed down by more level-headed people.
THEN. OATH. TERRIBLE IDEA. The basic content is that nothing will keep those that take the oath (Fëanor and his seven sons) away from the silmarils, they'll kill those that are in their way, and the everlasting darkness may claim them if they fail to get them back. Now, elven oaths are incredibly powerful forces, and this one is sworn with the two highest Valar as witnesses and much more to Eru. YEP. AWESOME.
Okay so bad ideas were had, now to the realization. The problem was that there was an ocean and they had to get to the other side... the solution was to ask the Teleri (who had ships, remember?) to help them out here. Just that the king of the Teleri refused, claiming that nope, they were his. Fëanor now is a dumb and instead of trying to solve this with words... uh. It's called the First Kinslaying:)

He instigated and participated in the first time that elves killed other elves. (Not all elves who had joined the treck to Middle Earth participated, and half of those that participated thought the Teleri had attacked first, but fact is, that a lot of elves killed a lot of other elves. In the end, the Noldor took the ships and fled towards the North. Where Mandos showed up and told them that, should they not turn back and accept judgement for their sins, they'd not be allowed back and also everything that they did would turn to shit. This was the point where most of the elves that hadn't participated in the kinslaying turned back, led by the youngest of Fëanor's brothers, Finarfin. The others continued North... basically towards the pole circle. And kept losing ships to attacks.
And at some point realized that they didn't have enough ships for everyone, and the only other option to get over the ocean was near-suicidal... And people got really unhappy with the situation and started saying that this was a bad idea and Fëanor was an idiot and, hey, Fingolfin is kinda cool right? So the ration choice was, of course, to get everyone whom he considered loyal to him, that was all those of his own house, onto the boats and ferry them over to Middle Earth.
AND THEN BURN THE BOATS INSTEAD OD SENDING THEM BACK. Since hey, they hadn't wanted him to lead them anyway, right? (Those that he had left back did take the near-suicidal option to get over, which Fëanor had probably not foreseen and didn't learn of while still alive).
BUT WOW FË COUNT YOUR SONS BEFORE YOU SET THINGS ON FIRE:)

The first Noldo to die in Middle Earth was one of Fëarnor's sons. (Amrod had wanted to go back to Middle Earth, and since no sane person would have thought that Fëanor would not send the ships back to get the rest he snuck onto one of them to be smuggled back and... yeah. Ouch. Congrats Fëanor, you just killed your own son.
Anyway, the Noldor that were now in Middle Earth went soutwards and finally came to Mithrim, where they settled down at the shore of a big lake and encountered the first natives of the area. I mean the Sindar (though communication was hard due to their languages having developed too much to still be understandable to the other, and contacts were careful at first while both sides tried to figure the other out - so Fëanor knows that they exist and seem friendly enough, but not more). But I also mean the other natives, the ones to the east... namely orcs, balrogs, all those nice beings that are chummy with or created by Melkor (who by now was named Morgoth, thanks to Fëanor). That second kind of natives they had a nice battle with that lasted ten days and ended before the Moon rose or Fingolfin's host set foots on the shores of Middle Earth... And also a battle which Fëanor didn't survive. Pursuing the enemy even when they were retreating and up against way too many way too powerful opponents (like. we're talking multiple balrogs at once here) he was injured and died in the arms of his sons, his spirit burning his body when it left it so they couldn't even bury him. In his last words, he made his sons renew their oath and promise to avenge him. Yay.

And it went downhills from there.

But! We are dealing with an elf, so his story is not actually over. He went to the halls of Mandos, and didn't only meet Amrod again but also his parents... who reconciled, and by now there is hesitant talk of possibly switching the promise of never wanting to be re-embodied from Miriel to Finwë. Fëanor himself is still far from accepting any kind of interference of the corrective type, but he has had time to do a good amount of thinking and through following history through the tapestries, he has a rough idea of what is happening over in Middle Earth.)