CCT#1

Coming at you live from the bathroom of the House of the Golden Flower, this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.

This is Silime. Welcome to the premiere episode of Crystal Clear Tolkien. In this podcast, I'm going to take some of the myths, misconceptions, and muddlings surrounding Tolkien's Middle-Earth and attempt to clarify them.

Today we're going to look at a question that comes up frequently in online debate, and that is whether Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Imladris are the same person.

First of, I want to go into a little aside here and talk about the pronunciation of his name.

Usually I hear this in one of two ways. Most people say GLORfindel, emphasis on the first syllable, but there are people who say GlorFINdel, emphasis on the second syllable. According to the general rules of Sindarin pronunciation (and his name is Sindarin), the first way is correct because the emphasis on a word of three or more syllables goes on the third syllable from the final one.

Got that?

Good!

There are, however, exceptions to this. I mean, aren't there always?

One of these exceptions says that when the second to last syllable has a vowel followed by two or more consonants, it takes the emphasis instead. This is where people get GlorFINdel, due to the ND following the I; that two consonants, count them, following one vowel.

Now here's where it gets tricky. Yes, it's true that N and D are separate consonants in Sindarin, unlike combinations such as CH, TH, and DH, which are two letters in English but are always represented as a single character in the Tengwar. N and D, on the other hand, are each distinct characters.

Funny thing happens though, when an N is put in front of other consonants, D and G being the more common examples. They combine to form what is called a nasalized consonant(1). In the Tengwar, a nasalized consonant is denoted by showing the second consonant with an additional theta above it. This means that in the Tengwar, ND would be written as the D with the nasalization symbol above it. In other words, the consonants are treated as a single entity.

This brings us back to the general case. If the ND is treated as a single entity in the Tengwar, then the I is not followed by two distinctive consonant sounds, so the exception doesn't apply and the emphasis goes on the first syllable after all, giving us the name GLORfindel.

Okay! Now that we've got that out of the way, let's return to the topic at hand.

Before we get deep into whether the Glorfindel we see in Lord of the Rings is the same Glorfindel as we meet in The Silmarillion, we need to address a whole separate issue: Tolkien's reuse of Elven names. I do specify Elven, because we're not too concerned with the naming conventions of Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits at the moment.

One of the issues that crops up is whether or not Tolkien simply reused dead Glorfindel's name for a new Elf born centuries after Gondolin fell. Yes, Tolkien did reuse names among his Elves. Not often, and the examples are pretty easy to locate, but for this podcast, I'm going to only present you with two of the most common, neither of which is Glorfindel himself.

Legolas of Gondolin and Legolas of Mirkwood are our first examples. There are two main reasons we know that these two characters are not the same Elf. Legolas of Gondolin is Noldorin while Legolas of Mirkwood is Sindarin, and Legolas of Gondolin was alive and well in Tol Eressea long before Legolas of Mirkwood made his first appearance in the late Third Age of Arda.

Our second example is Rúmil of Tirion and Rúmil of Lórien. Rúmil of Tirion was a great loremaster, the creator of the written word for the Elves, and he lived in Aman. Rúmil of Lórien showed up in Lord of the Rings as the brother to an Elven sentry named Haldir. Rúmil of Tirion is obviously a Noldo; Rúmil of Lórien is of Sindarin origin because of what we know of Lórien and the Elves that populated that Elvish realm.

In both the examples of the Legolases and of the Rúmils, we see a distinct pattern emerge. Neither of the Legolases, and neither of the Rúmils, were either both in Aman or both in Arda at any point in time prior to the Fourth Age. We have no examples of two Elves with the same name living in the same lands at the same time.

Going by this statement, though, is it possible that the Glorfindel of Gondolin never returned to Middle-earth and the Glorfindel we meet in Imladris was merely someone named after the great warrior? Yes, it quite possibly could be.

But...

Yes, there's always a but. Just like those exceptions.

We have many canonical reasons to believe that Glorfindel of Imladris is the same Elf who died protecting the city of Gondolin thousands of years before we see him in Lord of the Rings.

Glorfindel of Gondolin died. Unlike the Legolases and the Rúmils, there was a period of time where there was no Elf named Glorfindel. The next chronological reference we find with anyone using the name Glorfindel is in Third Age 1975 when the Witch King of Angmar (who you will recall Eowyn put the smackdown on) had a run-in with him(2). One look at this Third Age Glorfindel astride his white horse, and the Witch King high-tailed it the hell out in the other direction. This Glorfindel even pronounced the doom that no Man would defeat the Witch King.

So we have to wonder, would the Witch King have been afraid of some young upstart who just happened to have the name Glorfindel, despite the fact that he had shown no fear for any other Elf during the Battle of Fornost? It seems more likely that it would take an Elf of the calibre of Glorfindel of Gondolin who had faced dragons and Orcs and Balrogs, to elicit that sort of reaction from the Witch King.

Both Glorfindels are Noldorin. We know this because Glorfindel of Gondolin lived in Gondolin, a chiefly Noldorin settlement, and he came over the Helcaraxë with Fingolfin and Turgon, and Gandalf told Frodo in Lord of the Rings that Glorfindel of Imladris was of a house of princes. There is only one royal line that Gandalf would speak of that would make any sense in this, and that's the line of Finwë, which would make Glorfindel of Imladris a Noldo.

Glorfindel of Gondolin dwelled in Aman, and in Many Meetings, Gandalf says that Glorfindel of Imladris also had dwelled in Aman. This is the second instance where the reuse of names breaks down. They both lived in Aman during separate time periods, and both came to Arda during two different times.

All of this, really, is only speculation. This does not conclude that Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Imladris were the same people. It just shows that both were Elves of Aman who eventually made their ways into Arda.

But I do have definitive proof for you, dear listeners.

In The History of Middle-Earth: Volume Twelve, Peoples of Middle-Earth, there is an essay Tolkien himself wrote about the two Glorfindels. It can be found on page 379 and is entitled "Glorfindel II". Tolkien explains that yes, both Glorfindel's are the same Elf; Glorfindel of Imladris having satisfied his penance in the Halls of Mandos, reborn into Aman to grow hale and powerful, near-equal in power to the Maiar, and sent back to Middle-Earth in the middle of the Second Age to again serve the line he once died protecting.

Christopher Tolkien also provides an additional piece of information in The History of Middle-Earth: Volume Six, The Return of the Shadow, on page 214. During the discussion of the original draft of The Council of Elrond, Tolkien had written into the margin to address the story of Gil-galad, answer the question of who Trotter was, and Glorfindel telling his ancestry in Gondolin. Tolkien explains that, originally, the reuse of the name Glorfindel in Lord of the Rings was one of the random uses of names found in the legends and it escaped revision prior to publication, but later he came to the conclusion that they were the same Elf.

So, we have two canonical instances where Tolkien's own words state that they are the very same person.  Could I have saved you all several minutes of listening time if I'd just come out and said that to begin with?  Of course I could have, but then I wouldn't really have much of a show, now would I?  Besides, don't you feel more enlightened by knowing that even without the Professor's own words, you have all the evidence to have an informed discussion?  That's what I thought.

Well, that's the show for today.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I hope that you keep coming back for more episodes.  If you have comments about the show, or if you have a question about Middle-Earth that you'd like me to address on a future show, then please drop me an email at [e-mail].  That's S-I-L-I-M-E at gmail dot com.

Until next time, I'm Silime and this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.  Namarie.

References

1. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Appendix E, Section I, The Fëanorian Letters, p1096
2. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Appendix A, Section iV, Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion, p1026-1027