legolas's hair

[Galin]

Not to derail things, but perhaps as a side topic, I was wondering about the following from The History of the Hobbit. In 'In The Halls Of The Elvenking' (Mr. Baggins part one), P. 407 John Rateliff writes:

'... and there is some evidence that he originally conceived of the Second Kindred or Noldor (the Deep-elves) as golden-haired: in the genealogies meant to accompany the ('Earliest) Annals of Beleriand' [early 1930s] they are referred to as Kuluqendi or 'Golden-elves' (HME V. [403]); the 1937 Quenta Silmarillion includes 'the Golden' as one of their many descriptors (HME V. 215) and Christopher Tolkien notes (BLT I. 43-4, HME XII. 77) that the passage in Appendix F of the first edition of The Lord of the Rings describing the Eldar (the Three Kindreds of the High Elves) as dark haired, 'save in the golden house of Finrod' (i. e., the character known as Finarfin in the published Silmarillion and more recent editions of The Lord of the Rings [cf. LotR. II71]: Galadriel's father not her brother, some of whose children were golden haired because of his Vanyar wife), was written as a description of the Noldor (the Second Kindred) before being applied to the Eldar as a whole'.

Anyway the last example confuses me a bit within the context of the idea raised.

I think the Gnomes in The Book of Lost Tales were given a relationship of sorts to golden light. In The Tale Of The Sun And Moon: 'Now golden light not even the Gods could tame much to their uses, and had suffered it to gather in the great vat Kulullin to the great increase of its fountains (...) 'Tis said indeed that those first makers of jewels, of whom Feanor has the greatest fame, alone of the Eldar knew the secret of subtly taming golden light to their uses, and they dared use their knowledge but very sparingly, and now is that perished with them out of the Earth.'

And the first makers of jewels are the Noldoli: '-- and therefrom did the Noldoli with great labour invent and fashion the first gems' (The Coming Of The Elves)

Well, as far as that goes anyway. And Mr. Rateliff surely knows the contex of the Silmarillion reference to the Noldor as the Golden from HME V, but looking at the other references (extremely edited here to do so), starting with the Lindar/Vanyar: '...they are the fair folk and the White. The Noldor are the Wise, and the Golden (...) The Teleri (...) the Blue Elves, the Pearl-gatherers (...) The Danas (...) the Hidden Elves, the Green-Elves (...)'

And jumping rather notably in the external timeline to Q&E, as posted already it's said that the Noldor loved gold.