Archive Monday

Happy Archive Monday! There are plenty of “repeat” questions below the cut, so if you’re waiting to see a question answered, be sure to check them out! Otherwise, enjoy this week’s list from the archives. Today’s theme is Fingon: Fingon the Valiant Names in the House of Fingolfin The Most Violent Deaths of Middle Earth Gil-galad’s…

Fingon the Valiant

I don’t write too much about him, so you all may not know this, but Fingon is one of my absolute favorite characters. He’s my favorite in The Silmarillion (which made reading the Nirnaeth Arnoediad for the first time extra fun, let me tell you), so if given the chance, I could easily ramble on…

Casualties of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad

The Nirnaeth Arnoediad (aka the Unnumbered Tears) came with huge losses. The men of Dor-lomin were almost entirely wiped out, many of the men of Brethil were killed, the Noldor were crippled, and many of those who actually did survive were taken captive by Morgoth. But as for actual named characters that were said to…

Tolkien’s Most Beautiful Relationships

Okay, I’ve limited this post to the First Age, because I really felt like digging in to that period’s particular brand of angst tonight. And I only managed to narrow it down to the five most beautiful relationships, so here they are (in no particular order.) FEANOR AND FINGOLFIN Why: This one’s probably going to…

Names in the House of Fingolfin

First of all, if you haven’t read this post about elvish naming customs, you’ll probably want to, since the rest of this won’t make too much sense otherwise. Also, I’ve got the Feanorian version of this post here. Fingolfin Father-name: Nolofinwe (“Wise Finwe”), sindarized to “Fingolfin”, with an extra “fin” prefix that you can read…

Anonymous asked: “hi! i am rereading the silmarillion after many years and i’m having some trouble with the noldorin royal family’s relationships. do you know a chart that shows who was on especially good terms with who and who disliked who? or if it interests you can you talk a bit about it? i love your blog!”

Oh boy, Anon, you said the magic words: Noldor and chart. So have four! First a family tree to help keep the relations straight. Then a chart showing members of the family described by Tolkien as being on especially friendly or unfriendly terms. Then a chart showing everyone’s reaction to the Oath of Feanor, and finally one showing the lineup for the departure of the Noldor from Valinor.

If you’d like to read more about the Noldorin royal family and their complicated relationships, I’ve got plenty more posts for you:

• Finwean Infographic
  
• Elvish Cross-Cultural Relations: The Noldor
• Feanor’s Lisp
• Using “Finwe” as a Prefix
• On Feanor’s Abandonment of Fingolfin
• Maedhros and Fingon’s Gift Exchange
• Galadriel’s Hair
• Aredhel: White Lady of the Noldor
• Earwen and Anaire
• Galadriel’s Part in the Exile of the Noldor

Gil-galad and Noldorin Succession

Yeah, Noldorin succession in the First Age looks a little weird, and that’s mainly because Tolkien couldn’t make up his mind about who Gil-galad was related to, and Christopher Tolkien didn’t handle that very well when he edited the Silmarillion. What we end up with are two different genealogies for the royal family, which give…

Maedhros and the Ships at Losgar

It is in the Silmarillion, actually, though there isn’t a whole lot of emphasis put on Maedhros’s part in the whole event: But when they were landed, Maedhros the eldest of his sons, and on a time the friend of Fingon ere Morgoth’s lies came between, spoke to Feanor, saying: “Now what ships and rowers will you…