Eldarin kingship and succession

[Gothmog, LoB]

The question how the hell Eldarin kingship and succession works is often discussed when the High-kingship of the Noldor comes up, and how the succession to Gil-galad works.

However, this is an intriguing question in a broader context.

1. Preliminary thoughts

The first and most interesting question is what the hell a king actually is in the eyes of the Eldar? We know that the kingship of the Edain (i.e. the Kings of the line of Elros Tar-Minyatur) comes from the Half-elven line of the descendants of Eärendil and Elros. Prior to them the Edain of Beleriand didn't have kings, but only chieftains and lords.

In that sense we can safely assume that the specialness that set the normal men apart from Edain royalty was indeed the elvish-divine ancestry of Elros and his descendants. This continues on all the way to Aragorn and the rejuvenated Kings of the Dúnedain at the end of Third Age symbolized by the marriage of Arwen Undómiel and King Elessar.

But the Eldar don't have such special infusions of divine blood aside from the special case of Lúthien Tinúviel (who never actually rules as queen over any realm).

Instead, the Eldar (and perhaps all the Quendi) have a specialty of their own. They are immortal and even if slain they never leave the circles of the world. A royal succession makes little for them and is actually a contradictory concept which only makes (some) sense under the special circumstances of Arda Marred (in the sense that a dead king in Middle-earth cannot really return to his people so that for pragmatic another king has to take his place).

Therefore it makes sense to grant administrative rights of the king to still living successors, especially in war-time. But the *true king* of, say, the Noldor would always remain Finwe, regardless where the hell his fea was hanging out right now,

And we know that the kingship can be given to the heirs of a king, usually a son or otherwise close descendant, if a king is actually slain.

2. Various kingdoms

Another matter are the various independent realms and kingdoms various Elves founded at different times. The nobles doing this simply seemed to have set themselves up as the rulers of new lands like Elwe claiming Doriath and Beleriand for himself, and the exiled Noldor later doing the same things with the realms they made themselves in Middle-earth (Nargothrond, Hithlum, Gondolin, and whatever political entities the sons of Feanor claimed to rule over). Those kingdoms were new and independent political constructs and the succession and laws therein were, most likely, dependent on whatever rules and laws the kings who founded them set up.

For instance, we know that Denethor, the son of Lenwe (who was either dead by this time or had chosen to remain wherever he and his people dwelt before Denethor's people came to Beleriand) was the King of Nandor living in Ossiriand until his death but after his death the Nandor didn't choose a new king - suggesting Denethor's kingship was either not hereditary or he did not leave any heirs of his own body who could inherit his crown.

The High-kingship seems to be independent from that because in the cause of the Noldor this goes back to the way things were back in Valinor and reflects, in a sense, the ideal situation of one people of the Eldar under the rule of one (eternally reigning) leader.

3. The status of Ingwe

Of most significance is Ingwe in all of that because his title refers to him as the High-king of all Elves. Granted, this office is effectively highly ceremonial due to the fact that Ingwe never actually interacted with any of his subjects outside of Valinor for a very long time, but it reflects still an authority that seems to be based on more than mere presumption. Considering the fact that the only Vanyar dying would have died before Orome came to Cuiviénen (or later during the War of Wrath) one would have to assume that Ingwe must either be identical with the first unbegotten Elf, Imin, or at least be of his line because else it would be difficult to explain how Ingwe could usurp or rise to the kingship of the Vanyar (and, in fact, all the other Elves) if he was just some random elf who ended up traveling with Orome to Aman. After all, the Elves would have leaders and chieftains even at this early stage in their history.

The time passing between the awakening of the Elves and Orome's arrival is only 35 Valian Years (about 330 Sun Years) so we would not assume that the Elves were able to multiply all that much - perhaps the 144 founders already had great-grandchildren by that time, but there couldn't have been many more generations than that.

If Imin, Tata, and Enel were still alive by this point they most likely would have been the leaders of their particular tribes, and most likely those Quendi who decided to go with Orome to see Valinor with their own eyes. It is, of course, imaginable that they had already been killed or abducted by Melkor's minions.

Anyway, my idea is that if Ingwe wasn't Imin, or at least his son or grandson, then his presumption to be the King of all Elves would be just that - a presumption. He wouldn't be universally recognized as such because it makes no sense that the guy who ended up at Manwe's feet in Valinor is the great high-king just because of that.

We also know that all of Imin's people, the Minyar, went to Aman, so there is no chance of Imin becoming an Avar.

The main argument against Imin being Ingwe is the fact that Indis was either his sister or his sister's daughter and that he later had children in Aman, as did Olwe and Finwe. While it would be strange for the Eldar to have children so late in life it is not unheard of (e.g. Elrond only fathering his children in the beginning of the Third Age) and such a development might actually be part of or a symptom of blessed life in Valinor (both Finwe's and Feanor's many children are very uncommon among the Eldar). Ingwe could easily already have had children back at Cuiviénen.

The fact of Ingwe having a sister is trickier, but there is no reason to assume that the unbegotten Elves did not consider their companions their siblings in a very ultimate sense - perhaps even more so than later generations perceive their blood relations.

However, it is quite clear that Finwe and Elwe/Olwe (and Elmo, if he existed) were among the First Elves. Elwe apparently didn't have any spouse until he met Melian (unless we assume she is only his second spouse, the first one being lost) and Feanor, Míriel's only child, was only born in Aman.

In any case, I think it is quite clear that Ingwe must be Imin's son or grandson, and Imin himself must have died or disappeared before Orome's arrival or else he would have been the leader of the Minyar.


4. High-kingship vs. 'normal kingship'

As said above, it seems that any 'noble Elda' could set up his own kingdom in unclaimed land rather easily. For the Teleri there doesn't seem to exist anything resembling a 'high-kingship' because the Falmari in Aman took Olwe as their king whereas the original senior leader of the Teleri on the Great Journey, Elwe, remained behind and became Elu Thingol, King of the Sindar, Doriath, and Beleriand.

The High-king of the Noldor in Middle-earth seems be considered to be Finwe's successor in Middle-earth (while the King of the Noldor back in Valinor became Finarfin).

5. Succession

This is really a tricky thing because of the whole male vs. female inheritance thing. There are a lot of special cases to consider.

If we take Gil-galad as Orodreth's son, son of Angrod, then the succession Finwe > Feanor > Fingolfin (with Maedhros as head of the House Feanor abdicating in his own name as well as the name of his brothers) > Fingon > Turgon > Gil-galad makes somewhat sense.

However, there are problems:

Gil-galad can only become High-king of the Noldor if we assume that the throne could not pass through Idril Celebrindal, sole child of Turgon, to Eärendil and his son Elrond who all belong the the elder line of Fingolfin.

At first glance a succession sort of modeled on the Salic Law (absolute exclusion of both females and male descendants through the female line) makes sense, but we know this was obviously not the case for the succession of the kingship of Doriath (and subsequently, presumably, the 'high-kingship' of the Sindar of Beleriand).

Elu Thingol and Melian only had one child, a daughter, Lúthien Tinúviel, and after the death of both Thingol and Lúthien the kingship of Doriath passed to Thingol's grandson by Lúthien and Beren, Dior (rather than, say, Thingol's younger brother Elmo or any descendants of Elmo - like Celeborn!). In a Salic Law scenario (or even agnatic primogeniture) descendants through the male line - like Elmo himself or his descendants - would have come before either Lúthien and Dior. But this clearly wasn't as the Sindar of Doriath saw it in the stories.

Therefore I'd actually see Idril as Turgon's viable heir, eligible either to inherit the crown of Gondolin herself should her father die or to at least pass it along to her son, Eärendil. Just as Lúthien passed her claim to Doriath on to her son, Dior.

In that sense Eärendil should have been the high-king of the Noldor of Middle-earth at the Mouths of Sirion rather than Gil-galad unless we assume that for the high-kingship the male line took precedence (i.e. Idril/Eärendil might have been able to rule over Gondolin but not the Noldor as a whole).

It is also imaginable that Eärendil - feeling closer to the Edain than the Eldar - gave up any claims he may have had just as Maedhros once did (and this could also explain why Elrond later could not claim the high-kingship after his father had disappeared because Eärendil would have decided for his entire house/line just as Maedhros once did).

Galadriel technically could have made a bid for the high-kingship after Gil-galad died without issue because she was the last remaining descendant of the House of Finarfin left in Middle-earth at this time. But one assumes that styling oneself 'High-king/queen of the Noldor' in those days would have been pretty moot because there were no longer enough Noldor (or Noldor kingdoms) left in Middle-earth for such a title to have any meaning. Even Lindon was no longer a Noldor kingdom.

If we assume the succession laws of the Númenórian kings were at least partially based on the rules of the Eldar then it is also clear that claims can pass through the female line, even before Tar-Aldarion changed the law. I'm actually inclined to believe that the early Númenórians based the rules on Eldarin wisdom because the prominence of a woman like Haleth among the early Edain makes it less likely that they would have excluded females from inheriting the Númenórian sceptre.

However, it seems that the Faithful were much more conservative and excluded women from the succession again or else one would have expected to see at least one Ruling Queen of either Gondor or Arnor/Arthedain in two millennia. Fíriel's claim to Gondor is cited by Arvedui but it is claim by right of his wife. He has no intention to have his wife crowned as the new Ruling Queen of Gondor so that their son can one day inherit both the crown of the northern and southern kingdom.

That's about it. Any comments on any of that?