Not because oath taking leads to punishment, but that sometimes oath fulfilling
leads to evil deeds one cannot forsee, i.e. Feanor. It is most wise to do
what you will do, keep your word, it is not necessary to swear an oath to keep
your word. It is important to leave yourself the option of doing the
morally correct thing, if the situation changes so that you would end up
killing someone you love, or wreaking some sort of evil on the world, just so
that you would not break your oath. I am saying that oath taking is
unwise because that is what Tolkien seems to say in the Silmarillion and in the
Councils of Elrond, even though the society he writes about has vows in their
everyday life. Read my last
message.
