The White Council

Re: Gil-Galad and Noldor heirs

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: Also, one of the sons of Feanor never died. . . Maglor. He just wandered around (for two ages???) the shores of Middle Earth singing sad songs.

Don't forget, that particular shore didn't exist after the Second Age. Beleriand became a bit soggy after the Valar's Battle against Morgoth, or after that time. This makes symbolical sense: Maedros and his Silmaril both consumed by fire, Eardendil takes his into the sky (aka, Venus), and Malgor is drowned a time after he throws his into the sea.

: I think Gildor's just an anomaly. Impossible to explain. Or perhaps, he's such a lightweight that the other wise among the Elves (Elrond, Galadriel, etc.) can't countenance him succeeding to the High Kingship, even though he's, say a first cousin of Gil-Galad, or some more distant relation. I mean, he is something of a wuss. He can't even help Frodo and company get to Bree. All he does is warn them about the Black Riders (without even telling them that they're Nazgul) and go on his merry way, with the singing and all. We don't even know where he lived. Perhaps Gildor, a descendant of Angrod (the only one of the sons of Finarfin to have children, by the new way of looking at things), just didn't want to be high king. There's nothing saying there has to be one, is there?

Good point. He is a wuss, isn't he?

: : As for Glorfindel, I seriously doubt that he was of the House of Finarfin. Sure, he has blond hair, but he's merely a captain of Turgon, and seems to have no blood relationship to the royal house. My guess is that he's the product of some entirely different mating of Noldor and Vanyar. That can't have been too uncommon in Valinor, could it? Unusual, certainly, but not unheard of. Especially when they were living in the same city, before the pussy Vanyar went off to pick flowers for Manwe...

I realize it was very possible to have more Noldo/Vanya unions, but my question is what if the Finwe-Indis marriage WAS the only one. Conversely, this is also unusual, but also not impossible.

: We should remember, though, that Glorfindel originated as blond-haired before the idea of all the Noldor as dark-haired took hold, I think. He started in the Lost Tales. Since his name says something about golden hair, I guess Tolkien never had the heart to change his name, so he kept the hair, too, without explaining it.

Now, why do you think Tolkien brought this particular name into LotR? Did he have the hair problem figured out at this time? Also, Meglin in Lost Tales was also a captian of the House of the Mole (what a name). I don't know for sure, but I beleive he's still the nephew of Turgon in this version, and if he is, then we can assume that relatives could also be captians of a separate house.

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