| Gildor Inglorion | |
|---|---|
| Tolkien's legendarium character | |
| Race | Elf |
| Book(s) | The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) |
Gildor Inglorion is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He was a Noldorin Elf of the House of Finrod. In The Lord of the Rings he met Frodo Baggins and his friends in the Shire. The appearance of his band (along with the chants to Elbereth) warded off the Black Rider searching for the Hobbits.
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Gildor's company of elves came from Rivendell and were returning home after a pilgrimage to the Emyn Beraid when they met Frodo.[1] The elves provided shelter to the hobbits. Gildor warned Frodo to avoid the Black Riders, gave the hobbits food and lodging for the night — and greatly impressed Sam. The next morning when the hobbits woke up, the elves had gone, but they left food for the hobbits.
Gildor sent ahead news of Frodo's flight. Tom Bombadil learned of Frodo's plight through Gildor. Aragorn understood from him also that Gandalf was missing, that Frodo had left the Shire without Gandalf, that Black Riders were trailing Frodo, and that Frodo had not been seen leaving Buckland.
At the end of The Lord of the Rings Gildor is seen accompanying Bilbo, Elrond, and Galadriel to the Grey Havens.
Gildor's ancestry appears to be a loose thread that Tolkien never properly tied up. Gildor calls himself "Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod". At the time Tolkien was writing this, the name Finrod referred to the third son of Finwë, and this Finrod had a son Inglor Felagund. Since Inglorion means "son of Inglor", the straight-forward reading is that "Gildor Inglorion" was the son of Inglor, son of Finrod, son of Finwë, which would make him an elf of very high lineage.[2]
But this is not borne out in any of the later genealogies that Tolkien left behind. Finrod son of Finwë was renamed Finarfin, and the name Finrod was transferred to his son Inglor, who became Finrod Felagund. Most of the published references to Finrod were corrected to Finarfin, but this one was not. Moreover, Gildor appears in none of the genealogies. We are left with Gildor as the son of an otherwise unknown Inglor, with no obvious genealogical connection to Finwë, Finarfin, or Finrod. Although Gildor had some standing among the Exiles, as his leadership of his party indicates, the phrase "of the House of Finrod" now has no clear meaning. Hammond and Scull point out that this might mean merely that Gildor belonged to the household of Finrod. We simply don't know whether Tolkien intended a blood connection.[3]
Gildor does not appear in the theatrical release of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, but the extended edition briefly shows the exile Elves walking through the woods. They are identified by Frodo Baggins as Elves "going into the West".
In the musical version of The Lord of the Rings, the character of Gildor is female and given the name Elránien (one of two Elven-lords to be made female for the production, Glorfindel being the other). She was played in Toronto by Monigue Lund and in London by Alexandra Bonnet. The character features in the musical number The Road Goes On, along with other exile Elves. The change of name is due to the fact that the name Gildor has the suffix 'dor', which in Tolkien's Elven languages is a masculine suffix used only in the names of male Elves. The name Glorfindel, the other Elf to receive a gender change in the musical, has a neutral suffix that could appear in male or female names. Therefore there was no need to change the latter's name. The name Elránien translates roughly as "Wandering Elf", in reference to the nature of the character's life as an exile Elf.
A species of Elachista moths, Elachista gildorella, has been named after Gildor Inglorion by Finnish entymologist Lauri Kaila along with a number of other species that were given names inspired by Tolkien's characters.[4]
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