Inside Middle-earth, the LOTR Glorfindel is indeed the same as the Gondolin character. Outside (as it were) it was a bit of a fix-up, as I understand it. Tolkien reused the name, and then retrospectively decided that they were the same character. He might have done this also with another reused name - Legolas - but didn't. This makes Glorfindel an interesting character, and possibly one with unfulfilled potential - so far as I'm aware, he was the only reborn elf to return from Valinor to Middle-earth (quite how he returned I'm not sure - are we ever told? Perhaps he came with the Istari). This would suggest some major role or fate, which never in fact happened.
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