Authority of the High King

[Tirned Tinnu]

Perhaps we need to look at "kingship" as "leadership".
In the course of participating with a medievalist group I have seen Kings come and go. In the group that I was with, each year they would create a new king thru combat. If the contestant wasn't a good fighter, or was a woman, they would choose a champion to fight for them.
I have seen men with good and bad leadership skills; I have even seen one impeached and banished. What strikes me is this:
No matter who was the king at the time, there was always one or two men in the group that had the respect of all their friends. They fought well, they had knightly bearing and knowlege (of music, dance, history and poetry). These men were the real leaders of our group. Through kingships and thru dukedoms, they consistantly stood for what was good and right. I believe that this was what Tolkien meant when he said "this person was king of his people." It was a title bestowed before Christianity. We must remember that our conceptions of Kingship allude to "god given" powers that were not in existance at the time of the rulers in The Sil. Rather we should think of the men in our lives who instill justness, gentleness, honor, and have our respect.
Those are the real kings in our lives just as the Kings were to the Elves, in their time.