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Old 04-01-2004, 04:17 PM   #34
Petty Dwarf
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Nulukkhizdīn
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We should solve one problem at a time, because it seems like we all have various directions we want to take certain parts of the story.

So far we have (in order of relative importance):

*Gil-galad's parentage and position at the time of the attack
*Incorporation of Lay of Eärendil & BoLT II materials
*Egalmoth and Galdor's inclusion in the attack
*Second Prophecy of Mandos

I didn't include the Ingwion & Finarfin discussion since it seems resolved.

So...Gil-galad.
I went back and closely considered the material.
Obscure as it is, the precedent Tolkien himself seems to have set out was a Gil-galad from the House of Finarfin (regardless of his generation) such as the geneologies, Aldarion and Erendis, The Shibboleth, the second text The Fall of Númenor, the unedited Of the Rings of Power, the Tale of Years, and additions to the . Most of these occurances make him son of Finrod Felagund, one says son of Orodreth, and once ambiguously "of the House of Finarfin". It did not seem to Tolkien a matter of much concern that the kingship would pass to Finarfin's folk. The hurdle was getting the kingship recognized from Serindë's descendants to Indis'.

Contrast the one time Gil-galad was placed as son of Fingon.
But even more surprising is the fact that his mother was to be Sindarin! That makes him a king of High Elves, without being one himself. The conclusion is he wasn't that kind of king, but "the last king of the Eldar in Middle-Earth".

The first additions of Gil-galad to the "Silmarillion" tradition were dealing with getting him out of the "Silmarillion" so to speak. From LQ:
Quote:
But fearing now that all strong places were doomed to fall at last before the might of Morgoth, he sent away his wife Meril to her own folk in Eglorest, and with her went their son, yet an elvenchild, and Gilgalad Starlight he was called for the brightness of his eye.

But foreseeing evil he commanded Orodreth to send away his son Gilgalad, and wife. [Struck out.]

But the Lady ____ wife of Inglor forsook the folk of Nargothrond and went with her son Gilgalad to the Havens of the Falas.
In the note on the geneologies the mother of Gil-galad and Finduilas "was a Sindarin lady of the North". This hardly seems that far from the origins speculated above. Though the Sindarin lady is now married to Orodreth, her son still finds safety among her people.

Why not adopt the name Meril for the Sindarin lady, and establish it for the story for when we get to Beren and Luthien . I'll lay something out (with notation only for additions/substitutions):

Quote:
But fearing now that all strong places were doomed to fall at last before the might of Morgoth, the Lady [Meril] wife of {Inglor}[Orodreth] forsook the folk of Nargothrond and went to her own folk in Eglorest, to the Havens of the Falas, and with her went their son, yet an elvenchild, and Gilgalad {Starlight}[Star of Radiance] he was called.
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