Thread: Glorfindel?
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Old 12-07-2001, 03:05 PM   #11
Blaine Scott
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I just saw the reference to Miriel returning to Valinor but remaining apart from the other elves and due to her regret in choosing to 'die' as she did she began to write of her people's history. It was the first time I had seen this story. Michael Martinez referred to it in his latest offering of topics Middle earth on Suite 101.

As for Glorfindel. I do recall seeing the story of the explanation behind the two elves of that name. Another example of Tolkien struggling with the complexities that he created in writing such a monumental history over the course of a lifetime. I doubt even having access to storing ones ideas on computer would have saved him as a writer nowadays. I noted with interest that Glorfindel's fate was not specifically spelled out in any work. We assume that as a Noldor he left with Gildor and the other elves mentioned in the Grey Havens chapter at the end of TLotR's. But one would think that an elf of that importance would have been mentioned in those final pages. Did he stay? Did he see that perhaps the effects of Sauron were not yet fully done away with? I think so. Any story that is ventured set in the fourth age would find Glorfindel playing a key role with his living knowledge of Middle earth. He would be the eldest one around next to Cirdan. Was he born in Gondolin or in Valinor and arrive with the rest of the Noldor in the crossing?