: : : Says who? Elrond is descended from them as is Celebrian, and Amroth if you take him as Galadriels son.

: : Elrond is half-elven and doesn't count. Celebrian is Galadriel's child and moreover she was probably born during the Second Age, not the first.

: Does count as is a direct descendant and ultimately heir to the Royal Line of Fingolfin

We are referring to balance here, which is an entirely subjective matter. As I said I consider Elrond, Elros and the half-elves to not count. Moreover and perhaps more importantly if anything he's not a Fingolfian but a Hadorian. It's male lines that determine the house that one belongs to.

: : And as for Amroth, no I don't take him s Galadriel's son since something as important as that would have been mentioned in LotR...

: But is mused on in unfinished tales and therefore is another of the profs 'undecideds'

Actually i think it is explicitely stated that Tolkien rejected this parentage of Amroth. Amroth became the son of Amdir.

: : Indeed, nonetheless they didn't enter the tales and thus they don't exist *in* the tales... And I know of no other way to measure their existence.

: : Aris Katsaris

: No, but also they COULD exist and therefore, the existence of them would alter your balance, whether in the Authors subconcious, or on the written page

Yet they *don't* exist as the written page is now, the same way that flying elephants could exist in Middle-earth and yet we have no knowledge they do. I find it silly to take unknown invisible Feanorians of the Second Age into my thoughts, the same I way I waste no time in contemplating the non-use of flying elephants by the forces of Sauron :-)

If Tolkien were to place such surviving Feanorians then obviously my thoughts would have to be changed. But here we're debating just this one thing about Gil-galad, keeping the rest of the story intact... I find it simpler that way...

Aris Katsaris