The effect of the Great Rings upon Men

[William Cloud Hicklin]

For Gil Galad was of Turgon's line*. So, in any case it's funny that the Kingship jumped to Ereinion rather that Elrond after Turgon's death. I don't get that, first of all, though it's an aside. Hence the *

Um, no: Turgon had only one child, Idril, and one male heir, Earendil.

Gil-galad's parentage is one of those areas of unfinished Tolkien uncertainy. T's original idea, explicily, was to make him (Inglor >) Finrod Felagund's son. But then he decided Felagund would remain single and childless, and it appears that after a brief flirtation with making him Fingon's son (which CT erroneously included in the 1977 edition) GG wound up Felagund's great-nephew, son of Orodreth son of Aegnor.

The final arrangement actually makes sense if we assume that the Noldor practiced Salic succession: the kingship could pass only in the male line. Fingolfin > Fingon > Turgon > Gil-Galad (Idril and Galadriel being disqualified, GG was the only surviving male-line heir of the House of Finwe). Note that even after GG's death, neither Elrond nor Galadriel ever claimed the crown.

What doesn't make sense is making GG Fingon's son; in that case why would the succession temporarily bypass him and go to his uncle?