Noldor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The main part of this article relates to a version of Middle-earth's history that is considered canon by many Tolkien fans (see: Middle-earth canon); it may contradict parts of The Silmarillion or other texts. This subject's portrayal in other versions is discussed in the concept and creation section.

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor (meaning those with knowledge) are of the second clan of the Elves who came to Aman, the Tatyar. According to legend, the clan was founded by Tata, the second Elf to awake at Cuiviénen, his spouse Tatië and their 54 companions, but it was Finwë, the first Noldo to come to Valinor with Oromë, who became their king, and led most of them to Valinor. They speak Quenya in Valinor, but the exiles who returned to Middle-earth speak Sindarin.

The Noldor are also known as Deep Elves, Golodhrim (by Sindarin-speakers) and Golug (by Orcs). The singular form of the noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin. They are the Second Clan of the Elves in both order and size, the other clans being the Vanyar and the Teleri. They typically had dark hair (except for those who had Vanyarin blood, most prominently the members of the House of Finarfin).

Contents 1 History 2 High Kings 3 House of Finwë 4 Other versions of the legendarium

[edit] History

The Noldor are accounted the greatest of the Elves in lore, warfare and smithcraft. Fëanor (son of Finwë by Míriel) was the greatest of their craftsmen, and their second and briefest-reigning High King. When Melkor killed Finwë and stole the Silmarils, Fëanor renamed Melkor: Morgoth ("Black Enemy"), and persuaded the Noldor to pursue him to Middle-earth and wage war against him.

The Noldor led by Fëanor demanded that the Teleri let them use their ships. When the Teleri refused, they took the ships by force, committing the first Kinslaying. A messenger from the Valar came and delivered the Prophecy of the North, pronouncing doom on the Noldor for the Kinslaying and warning that if they continued they would not recover the Silmarils and moreover that there would be great grief in the tragedy that would befall them. At this, some of the Noldor who had no hand in the Kinslaying, including Finarfin son of Finwë by Indis, returned to Valinor, and the Valar forgave them. Other Noldor led by Fingolfin son of Finwë by Indis (some of whom were blameless in the Kinslaying) remained determined to leave Valinor for Middle-earth. Prominent among these others was Finarfin's daughter, Galadriel.

The Noldor led by Fëanor crossed the sea to Middle-earth, leaving those led by Fingolfin, his half-brother, behind. Upon his arrival in Middle-earth, Fëanor had the ships burned. When the Noldor led by Fingolfin discovered their betrayal, they went farther north and crossed the sea at the Grinding Ice which cost them many lives. With the Silmarils stolen and the Two Trees destroyed by Melkor with the help of Ungoliant, the departure of the Noldor out of the Undying Lands marked the end of the Years of the Trees, and the beginning of the Years of the Sun when the Valar created the moon and the sun out of the remains of the Two Trees (from Telperion's last flower and Laurelin's last fruit).

Fëanor's company was soon attacked by Morgoth. When Fëanor rode too far from his bodyguard during the Battle under Stars (year 1 of the First Age) he was attacked by several Balrogs including Gothmog, Lord of the Balrogs, who had issued forth from Angband, the enemy's fortress in the north. Despite a valiant attempt, Fëanor himself slaying a number of Balrogs, he was mortally wounded and would have been captured and taken to Angband had it not been for the swift arrival of his sons. However Fëanor died whilst being taken back to his own people.

Because Fëanor had taken the ships and left the Noldor led by his half-brother on the west side of the sea, the royal houses of the Noldor were feuding, but Fingon son of Fingolfin, whom Fëanor had left behind, saved Maedhros, son of Fëanor, from Morgoth's evil and the feud was settled. Maedhros was due to succeed Fëanor, but he regretted his part of the Kinslaying and left the High Kingship of the Noldor to his uncle Fingolfin, who became the third High King of the Noldor. His brothers did not agree to this, and began to refer to themselves as the Dispossessed, because the High Kingship had passed them by.

Fingolfin reigned long in the land of Hithlum, and his younger son Turgon built the hidden city Gondolin. Fingolfin's reign was marked by warfare against Morgoth and in the year 75 of the First Age the Noldor started the siege of Angband, the great fortress of Morgoth. In the year 455 the siege was broken by Morgoth in the Battle of Sudden Flame, in which Morgoth conquered the north-eastern elvish realms, Ard-Galen, Lothlann and Dorthonion. Fingolfin rode to Angband and challenged Morgoth to single combat with him. He dealt Morgoth seven wounds but perished, and he was succeeded by his eldest son Fingon, who became the fourth High King of the Noldor.

In the year 471, Maedhros organized an all-out attack on Morgoth and this led to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The battle was a great disaster for the Noldor, and Fingon the Valiant was slain. He was succeeded by his brother Turgon. The lives of the retreating Elves were bought dearly by the Edain, men loyal to the Lords of the west, and it was at this point that Húrin son of Huor was captured and taken to Angband, an act that years later lead to the fall of the Noldor's Hidden City, Gondolin.

Turgon had withdrawn to Gondolin which was kept hidden from both Morgoth and other Elves. In 510, Gondolin was betrayed by Maeglin and sacked. During the attack Turgon was killed; however, many of his people escaped and found their way south. Turgon had had no sons, so Gil-galad, last surviving male descendant of a prince of the Noldor, became the sixth and last High King of the Noldor.

Finally the Valar came down to Middle-earth and in the year 583 the War of Wrath was fought and Morgoth was cast into the Void. But Beleriand sank into the sea, except for a part of Ossiriand (Lindon), and a few isles. The defeat of Morgoth marked the end of the First Age and the start of the Second Age.

Gil-galad founded a new kingdom at Lindon, and ruled throughout the Second Age, longer than any of the High Kings except for Finwë. He was also accepted as High King by the Noldor of Eregion. But at the end of the Second Age his allies in Númenor violated their agreement with Eru to never set foot in Valinor, and as punishment their island was cast into the sea. Only Elendil, Isildur and Anárion, the lords who did not violate the Valar's agreement, came to Middle-earth and they founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.

By this time Sauron had replaced his master Morgoth as the Dark Lord. He had deceived the Númenóreans and managed to return from Númenor to his refuge of Mordor. He hated the Númenóreans and Noldor, and attacked Eregion, destroying it, and tried to do the same to Gondor before it could take root. Both Elendil and Gil-galad set out for Mordor and defeated Sauron in the Battle of Dagorlad and finally in the Siege of Barad-dûr. There Gil-galad perished, and so ended the High Kingship of the Noldor. No new High King was elected, as no one claimed the throne. For this reason, the High Kingship of the Noldor was said to have passed overseas, to the Noldor of Valinor, ruled by Finarfin, the third son of Finwë who had never left. Because Tuor had been adopted by Turgon as a son, and had married his daughter Idril, Tuor's mortal descendants claimed the title High King: therefore Elros became first High King of Númenor, signifying this with the prefix Tar- (and later in Adûnaic Ar-). After the Downfall of Númenor, Elendil and his heirs of the older, northern line named themselves High Kings of Arnor, later signifying this with the royal prefix Ar(a)- in their names. Tuor's heirs did not, however, have a valid claim to the High Kingship of the Noldor, although his heir Elrond, who chose Elvish immortality, later was reckoned as a leader of the Noldor.

In the Third Age, the Noldor in Middle-earth dwindled, and by the end of the Third Age the only Noldor remaining in Middle-earth were in Rivendell and Lindon, with the exception of Galadriel in Lothlórien.

[edit] High Kings

1. Finwë, first High King
2. Fëanor, first son of Finwë
3. Fingolfin, second son of Finwë.
4. Fingon, first son of Fingolfin.
5. Turgon, second son of Fingolfin. Turgon was Fingolfin's last living son.
6. Gil-galad, only son of Fingon, and the last High King of the Noldor in exile.

The nominal ruler of the Noldor in Valinor and later in Exile was their High King, of the House of Finwë. Succession was under agnatic primogeniture, but the sons of Fëanor were passed over after the eldes (Maedhros) gave up his claim to the title. After the death of Gil-galad there was no descendant of Finwë by the male line left in Middle-earth, and the High Kingship ended.

It is not known exactly how Finwë became High King: he may have been a descendant of the Noldorin primogen "Tata", or simply have been accepted as leader based on his status as ambassador to the Valar. The Noldor had many princely houses besides that of Finwë: Glorfindel of Gondolin and Gwindor of Nargothrond, while not related to Finwë, were princes in their own right. These lesses houses held no realms, however: all the Noldorin realms of Beleriand and later Eriador were ruled by a descendant of Finwë.

The Mannish descendants of Elros (the Kings of Arnor) now claimed the title High King, although there is no indication that this referred anything other than a High Kingship over the Dúnedain. As descendants through the female line Elros and his brother Elrond were not considered eligible, and Elrond indeed never claimed Kingship.

It is perhaps notable that Galadriel, the last of the House of Finwë in Middle-earth (other than the Half-elven) and Gil-galad's great-aunt, likewise never claimed a king title let alone the title of High Queen. Indeed the only known Elven Kingdom in Middle-earth after the Second Age was the Silvan Elf realm of Mirkwood, ruled by the Sinda Thranduil.

As Finwë was never allowed to take bodily form again within Arda (as per the rules of the Statute of Finwë and Míriel), exactly who — if anyone — succeeded him as High King of the Noldor in Aman is in doubt. One possibility is that Finarfin, who had ruled over the Noldor of Tirion ever since the majority of the Noldor under Fëanor had left, now held the title. It is not known if Fingolfin or one of his sons was ever allowed to leave the Halls of Mandos after their death. However, even if they had been allowed to return to life, it is not likely that they regained the title. Another possibility is that, in Aman, there was no High King other than Ingwë.

[edit] House of Finwë

Main article: House of Finwë

(Version deviates from the published Silmarillion — see note at end. High Kings are numbered.)

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

In the early versions of Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium (see: The History of Middle-earth), the Noldor were most often called Noldoli or Gnomes. They were still called Gnomes in early editions of The Hobbit. They were also the ones who spoke the language that later became Sindarin (then called Gnomish).

The spelling Ñoldor rather than Noldor is used in later writings, but even in earlier versions the name Noldo came from a Primitive Quendian stem *NGolodo, which led to NGoldo (Ñoldo) in Quenya and 'Golodh' in Sindarin. The posthumously published and edited version of The Silmarillion uses the "Noldor" form.

The family tree given above is correct in the placement of Orodreth and Gil-galad: Orodreth was Angrod's son, and Gil-galad was Orodreth's son, thus the grandson of Angrod and great-grandson of Finarfin, and brother to Finduilas. These are wrongly placed in the published Silmarillion. (See Orodreth and Gil-galad articles for details). Argon, the third son of Fingolfin, does not appear in the published Silmarillion at all.