Best Father in Middle-earth
 

OK, it's Father's Day. So who gets your vote for best father in Middle-earth?

I'll post my answer later. (It may surprise you!)

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

Pippin!

The best father in Middle-earth would be Elrond. [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

Denethor! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

Does it have to be an actual father or can it be a father figure? If so i think that Gandalf was a good father to all the fellowship.

To me Gandalf seems more of a GRANDFATHER figure (and not only by the age)

I'd also vote for Denethor, judjing by the worthy sons he raised.

i would have to say elrond

Sam! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Bungo Baggins. Just look at the boy he brought up. " A solid second edition of his father" i belive it was. He must have been a pretty darn good dad to bring up the Ring Finder.

Arr, okay, Sam's the best

What about the Gaffer? Sure, he may not have been a lot of fun, but he did bring up a pretty good son [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Hmmm. Denethor had good sons (yes, I'm going to be nice to Boromir - he tried, after all) but you couldn't exactly call him supportive. The Gaffer obviously loved Sam but you get the feeling that he'd also "lost control" of him extremely early - Sam had all these crazy ideas and the Gaffer ended up basically throwing his hands in the air and letting Sam do whatever he wanted. Honestly, I'd really like to say Bilbo (he did legally adopt Frodo, so he'd be an adoptive father, wouldn't he?) He was very generous, obviously, spent a lot of time with Frodo and the other young people, taught them everything he knew, listened to them, and threw great birthday parties [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] . What more could you ask?

Mine's a tie with Bilbo and the Gaffer. They just both seem like such great fathers/father figures.

Probably Bilbo. Definately not Thingol (he was mean!).

Arathorn of course. Otherwise where would the fate of the hobbits rest?

<font color="gold">Hey Dunadan! Welcome to the Downs!

Ok, so far there's been Bilbo, Denethor, Elrond, the Gaffer, Pippin, Sam, Bungo, Arathorn, and sort of Gandalf. Oh, and "not Thingol". I'm having trouble thinking of any other fathers that were more than merely mentioned in LotR and the Hobbit. Who have been left out?
Fathers were a rare commodity in ME apparently. My vote goes to Bilbo or Elrond. I'm particularly impressed on Elrond's dating policies. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I imagine other elves might have talked about Arwent and a... human! Quite a scandal. Happy Father's Day!

Hey thanks. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Mae govannan, Dúnadan. Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo. Welcome to the downs. Have fun and post often.

Back to the question at hand, I'd say that in LotR that Biblo, Thengel (Theoden's Father) and Arathorn (Aragorn's Father) were the best.

In the Sil, I'd say Earendil - well really his ancestors were good father's too.

Pippin! Merry! Either one!

How about Beregond?

the Gaffer... Eomund... Hurin... but most of all the father of Elendil (I forgot his name), but I'll put it down later.

greetings,
lathspell

Sam, and Aragorn

Amrahil???? Earendil's father

Kalimac -- You took the words out of my mouth. When I posted the thread, I was thinking of two individuals, one of whom was Bilbo. I have an adopted daughter myself, so I definitely think adoptive father qualifies. I think he did a great job educating Frodo to the wider world outside the Shire. And Frodo was unusually polite - some of those manner must have come from Bilbo.

My second choice was J.R.R. Tolkien. He was always berating himself for not being a good father, but everyone who knew him said that was not so. He spent a lot of time worrying about how to provide for his family, but still found time to tell them amazing stories and write the Father Christmas letters.

I figure he's an Elf-friend so he qualifies as being an honorary Middle-earth resident.

Tolkien, himself, huh? Good one, Child!

My pick is Illuvatar. (Yeah, he was a father: the Ainur were the "offspring of his thought" and Men and Elves were his "children." Not to mention the rest of creation...) [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Oh! Evenstar1 that's the best answer of all!

What about Sam? We didn't hear too much about him being a father but look how loyal he was to Frodo! He did have like 13 kids anyways... But I do agree with all the people who said Arathorn

I don't think Iluvatar was a good father. He let his children fight themselves to death. They smashed the world he made for them. He let a whole army and an island drown to the bottom of the ocean, because he was ****ed off that the Meneltarma was cast down.

No, not a good father at all. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

greetings,
lathspell

But Iluvatar was a good father because he let his children choose between good and evil. If they chose to do something that he didn't like, he wouldn't say "Hey Manwe, would you send Eonwe to tell so-and-so that I don't like what they're doing and they've got to stop." Overall, I think Iluvatar is kind of like God in Middle-Earth. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

shouldn't Ilúvatar have told Manwë that a bit earlier than?... It was a bit late in my opinion [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
God, God?? Nay, he was the One, he was Neo.

I'd have to say that Samwise Gamgee was a good father. He raised twelve lovely children. Now that is a task.

I should have pulled this one back up yesterday, but didn't get to it since we were celebrating Father's Day.

A penny for your thoughts, especially from the newer members who weren't around when this thread first went up.

sharon

Haha! Even though Meela's going to kill me, I personally think that Denethor's one of the worst fathers around. I mean, Faramir pretty much had to raise himself, and look how Boromir turned out.

I think Celeborn is the best father in Middle-earth. (I'm surprised no one mentioned him!) I mean, he was smart enough to let Elrond marry his daughter, and didn't raise a fuss like his uncle Thingol or like Elrond later would. Although, with understandable reason, both Luthien and Arwen married humans.

Bilbo or Elrond. Feanor's dad (Finwe, wasn't that his name?) was also a good father in my opinion.

Why thank you dear! I do try!

Personally, I think Finwe was a horrible dad. He obviously favored Feanor above Fingolfin and Finarfin, and did nothing to smooth things over between Feanor and Fingolfin. And he even went into self-imposed exile at the thought of his beloved first son being exiled. Now tell me, is that a good parent?

I won't kill you [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
As much as I would love to say something good about Denethor, I will admit that he was a pretty pathetic father. Fortunately he'll be better the second time round. I mean, he's marrying me and he knows not to mess with me so the children will be safe.

Elrond, Celeborn, Imrahil, Theoden, Beregond, Faramir, Sam, and for some reason my head is saying Feanor. All good fathers.
That's al I can think of for now.
And also for some bizarre reason, I think Grima would have made a good father.

And I know Mothers Day has been and gone, but I want to give a hearty round of applause to Finduilas and Gilraen. Two wonderful mothers.

Lathspell, Iluvatar had no beginning and no end. He created the whole Middle-Earth and everything in it. He created everything. That sounds more like God than Neo. Neo was just a human. But I don't want to turn this forum into a huge religion debate, so I won't say anymore. I think the best M-E dad is probably Sam because he knew what being a dad was all about since he and Rosie had so many kids. Beregond comes to mind also.

The best dad probably was never mentioned and that was the father who kept his children out of all wars and troubles and sackings and all other evil in ME....

Father's day? What father's day ? We have only mother's day but if father's than father's it is . My vote goes to ......... humm..... I can't think of any good example ...... No , actually my head is full of examples only I can not make up my mind which one is the best . But the best one yet to cross my mind is definetly J. R. R. Tolkiens father , for whithout he's invaluable giving to this world I doubt this site's or this topic's existance . So let's give a big hand for Mr. Tolkien senior [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

He was only briefly mentioned in this thread, but I think Théoden was a very good father/father figure before and after he was corrupted by Wormtongue. Although it's hard to tell what he was like before Wormtongue came along, I think we can assume by the way Éomer and Éowyn turned out, and by the fact that Théodred died in a fairly noble way (if I recall correctly), that he did a pretty decent job. He was also so kind to Merry, and of course, Merry loved him as a father. And (again, if I recall correctly) his last thoughts were of Éowyn, who was practically a daughter to him.

And I agree with everyone else about Bilbo - just the fact that he was kind enough to take Frodo in after he was orphaned makes him seem like a great father figure to me.

As for Arathorn... don't get me wrong, I'm sure he was a great man, but I don't really consider him to be a good father. Not that it was his fault he was killed when his son was only a toddler, of course, but I've always seen Elrond as more of a father to Aragorn than Arathorn. Again, I'm not dissing Arathorn, I'm sure that, had he survived, he would've been a very good father; I just don't think he was around long enough to have been proven as such. To me, it was Elrond (for the most part) who raised Aragorn into the man we all know him as.

Now my personal favorites (besides Théoden) have to be Sam and his Gaffer. I think that the latter did a mighty fine job with raising the former (and come on, how can you not love the Gaffer? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ), and Sam just seems like a wonderful father figure to me. Besides, do you really think Rosie would've continued having all his children if he wasn't a good father to them? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]