: : I don't follow you. The name doesn't imply any legal
: : designation.

: I don't understand the point. "Heir" is a legal term. Under
: the English common law, an heir is a person who inherits a
: decedent's estate by operation of law (i.e. either by a
: mandatory statute [primogeniture] or because the decedent
: didn't have a will). One who takes due to a designation by the
: decedent (i.e. named in the will) are called a legatee
: (receives a "legacy" of personal property) or a distributee
: (receives a distribution of real property). Anyway, the point
: is that the designation as "heir" is very much a legal
: designation. Dior was Thingol's legal heir as one of his
: issue, indeed the only surviving one.

English law really has nothing to do with it. As with many words, "heir" has taken on more than one meaning through the centuries. We are the heirs of Roman law and culture (in the United States and western Europe), but we are not the legal heirs of the Romans. Dior was not Thingol's legal heir because Thingol never named an heir. There is no indication that Dior's secondary name was given by the King.

: : There is no evidence to support the contention that Dior
: : INHERITED anything from Thingol. He was not summoned to
: : Doriath, he went to reestablish the kingdom of Thingol. And
: : we don't know if Melian sent messages. The story in THE
: : SILMARILLION is completely bogus.

: You don't have to inherit anything to be an heir. Heirship is
: a legal status. For example, one could be an "heir" of a
: penniless man. To the extent that the right to rule Doriath
: belonged to Thingol and could legally be passed on, it most
: definitely passed to his heir and belonged to Dior.

I agree. "Heirship", in the strictest sense, is a legal status. Any surviving member of Thingol's family would be his heir under the laws we use, and we have no reason to assume it would be otherwise under Elvish law. But the heritage in question -- the rule of the kingdom of Doriath -- isn't subject to that definition. There was no Doriath after Thingol's death. Dior reestablished the kingdom. There was simply nothing for him to inherit in the way of title or authority.

------------------
Xenite.Org: Science Fiction and Fantasy