Obscure Tolkien Characters

[Arvegil145]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

I can't remember which of the Lays of Beleriand Tolkien actually finished (if any). Could it simply be that he ended up changing the names later when he wrote the stories in prose form (where/if certain versions of the tales in prose were written after the verse ones) and never went back to finish the verse, so those names didn't end up having a proper backstory? Do any of the above names have sort of 'equivalent' characters in other versions of the tale?

As far as I am aware, no lay of Beleriand (or 99% of stories he has written, for that matter) was ever finished. One of the most frustrating experiences that happens time and time again while reading Tolkien, is his tendency to develop a certain story, in great detail, and break it off at the most inappropriate place in the narrative - for instance, The Lay of Leithian goes all the way up to the escape of Beren and Lúthien from Angband and their encounter with Carcharoth - you get immersed in a story, wonder what will happen next, and what do you get? An eternal cliffhanger! Of course, there are other, more complete (if brief), versions of the same story; but if you're not lucky enough to own all twelve volumes of HoME, you're in for a threat. But I digress...

As for the 'equivalent' characters...well...I don't know. I wouldn't really wager that Ogbar's spear is Aeglos, and that Ogbar is an alter-ego of Gil-galad, but there was an interesting theory I heard somewhere (I can't remember where) concerning Celeg Aithorn, the legendary sword mentioned in the Lay of the Children of Húrin. It states that it is not an actual sword, but rather a lightning, wielded by Manwë. A bit too deep in the crackpot zone for my taste, but hey, something's better than nothing.