: There are several problems with Fingon as father. First, it appears only once as a pencilled note in the margin of Grey Annals. On the other hand, Gil-galad as a Finarfinian (i.e. either as son of Finrod or as son of Orodreth, who himself was either brother or nephew of Finrod) was a consistent position for decades. In fact for most of the time he was son of Finrod and he only moved to Orodreth when Tolkien decided Finrod would be single and childless.

Your point? I'm debating about what Tolkien *should* have done, not what Tolkien did... :-)

: : My reason for this preference:

: : 1. I find it balances more the geneological tree of Finwe's house
: : to have Fingon also have a son... Thus, all three of Fingolfin's
: : children have a child each, and (with the exception of Angrod)
: : the (younger) children of Finarfin don't have children. On the
: : other hand having Angrod have grandchildren, while all his siblings
: : and the older Fingon aren't even married... it creates an
: : imbalance...

: Actually, it seems to balance it the other way with the scion of Finwe from each branch NOT having a child: Fingon and Finrod.

Except that in that in the case of the house of Finarfin, all three, Finrod, Aegnor and Galadriel don't have children, while Angrod not only has children, he also has *grandchildren*. That's not balanced in my view...

PS1. On the other hand I do applaud Tolkien's placing Orodreth as son of Angrod - he always seemed like a weaker character to me, first being overruled by the Feanorians and then by Turin - his being relatively young could cause such a thing.

PS2. Which however makes me in turn not like the placing of Finduilas - I feel that there should be no adult great-grandchildren of Finarfin at the time: therefore if I was Tolkien I'd make her Orodreth's younger sister, rather than his daughter - moreover her being the daughter of the king of the hidden kingdom in love with a mortal is perhaps a bit too repetitive of both Idril and Luthien...

: I think it's key that it passes to the Finarfinian line. Remember that Gil-galad was not just High King of the Noldor; he also had to be able to be High King of the Elves of the West, as reported in LOTR, and have the loyalty of the Sindarin population of Lindon and Eriador during the Second Age. Only a Finarfinian, who were descended from the Telerin royal line through Earwen of Alqualonde could hope to have such loyalty especially since the line of Fingolfin was regarded by the Sindar as having some guilt in the Kinslaying of the Teleri at Alqualonde.

Such games with kinship have their value - they are used greatly in the Silmarillion. But sometimes it seems to become a cage rather than a tool. If the Sindar blamed Gil-Galad who was probably no more than a child, or even unborn, at the time of the Kinslaying, then they were *far* too narrowminded for my tastes. After all they don't seem to have hostility for Elrond or Earendil...

Moreover there are a number of places where Grey-elves accepted the kingship of Fingolfians, most prominent in Gondolin.

And finally I feel there's a further balance in that in the second Age there exists one Feanorian (Celebrimbor), one Fingolfian (Gil-Galad) and one Finarfian (Galadriel)...

: : 3. I feel it's more nice (storywise) that the Kingship passes from
: : Fingolfin to a son to a brother to a nephew, rather than from Fingolfin
: : to a son to a brother to a first cousin twice removed. Come on - "first
: : cousin twice removed"? Moreover this makes a non-issue of Galadriel
: : not having become High Queen... :-)

: This happens quite often: look at the how the crowns passed in Numenor and Gondor. I think it's nice that all the lines of Finwe got a shot at the High Kingship. I think that's quite appropriate.

Well the line of Feanor never got High Kingship either - neither Maedhros nor Feanor seem to have ever been called High King. And rather than having three Fingolfian and one Finarfian High-king I think it's better to have four Fingolfians...

Aris Katsaris