: Anyway, when it becomes available tomorrow, Friday, August 4, "Gil-galad was an Elven-king" will, I hope set the record straight on a few issues that were recently widely publicized since a number of people were taking their Gil-galad descriptions from the Encyclopedia of Arda.

: And maybe the article will open a whole new can of worms, too. :)

: So, I thought I'd give people a few hours to share what they think of Gil-galad. What sort of king do you feel he was? Do you have an impression of his personality at all?

Excellent article. I like your articles that relate directly to Middle-earth over the ones that deal with fandom. ;-)

I have two comments. First regarding where Gil-galad went from Nargothrond. You mention the one conception that Gil-galad escaped from the ruin of Nargothrond and made his way to the Mouth of Sirion. However, there was the other conception: that he had already been sent to the Havens of the Falas for his safety and thus was not in Nargothrond for it's fall. In that "timeline" Gil-galad would have gone directly to Balar with Cirdan's escape from the Falas which were attacked a few years after the fall of Nargothrond.

I think the second conception makes more sense and would have been the one Tolkien finally chosen. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth about Gil-galad if he and his guard were to be running from Nargothrond with their tails between their legs while his sister Finduilas and the other women and children of Nargothrond were being led away in chains by the Orcs. What a poor comparison that would have made with his uncle Finrod who joined Beren in his deperate quest; or with Barahir and his desperate band guerilla fighting in Dorthonian; or Turin returning to take on Glauring and his army by himself; or the other stories of personal bravery in the Free Peoples fight against the Dark Lord. For Gil-galad and his guard to have just kept on running, turning their back on the women and children of Nargothrond is unthinkable.

My second comment deals with the extent of the Sindarn migration from Lindon. I think you overstate it. The Doraith Sindar were practically nonexistant by the beginning of the Second Age. The two sacks of Doriath and the sack of the Havens of Sirion effectively decimated them. Thus, I don't think we're really talking about a lot of Doriathrim who were shaking the dust of Lindon off their feet. It's stated in the LOTR Appendix that the Sindarin component of the largely Avarin Silvan realms of Greenwood and Lorien was small.

On the other hand, the largest Sindarin component in the Second Age were probably survivors of the realm of Nargothrond. While Nargothrond itself fell, it was probably mostly Noldor. And while the Havens of the Falas fell, I think most of the Sindar of Finrod's (and Orodreth's) realm lived between the rivers and would have largely made their escape from the attacks on the population centers to the east and west. Thus, when we talk of Sindar living in Lindon and Eriador in the Second Age, I think we're mainly talking about Sindar from the realm (not city) of Nargothrond. And these Sindar would be quite loyal to Gil-galad - who would rightly claim their allegiance as the heir of Finrod who was named their lord by Thingol. Gil-galad too was descended from the Telerin royal family via Earwen and by blood line was more than half Telerin.

The Sindar of Lindon who lived in South Lindon were not intermingled with the Noldor who lived in North Lindon. The hated Feanoreans were off with Celebrimbor building Hollin and Ost-in-Edhil. They had one of their own, Celeborn, as their immediate lord.

In short, I think the Sindarin migration east was larely limited to the small Doriath remnant and should not be viewed as a generalized migration.

Russ