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The Wars of the Glorfindels - Page 5

© Michael Martinez

So Glorfindel becomes a tragic figure who alone among a host of tragic characters is memorable. There is something deep and moving about Glorfindel's sacrifice. Echoes of the heroic fight with the Balrog would be passed down to later works such as the "Quenta Noldorinwa" and the "Later Annals of Beleriand". But the story of Gondolin itself was to languish and fall by the wayside. Tolkien never returned to the battle for the city, but he returned to Glorfindel. While writing "The Council of Elrond" Tolkien at one point considered having Glorfindel speak of his ancestry in Gondolin. Something of Gondolin was thus to be carried forward into the new Hobbit book. But Tolkien dropped the idea. Glorfindel of Rivendell became simply Glorfindel, and there was no reference to an earlier Glorfindel or an earlier story. The transformation of Glorfindel may represent nothing more than an author's need to tell a concise story. He would, after all, remove material concerning the romance of Aragorn and Arwen to an appendix. So the tale of Glorfindel would go on, and in fact Tolkien enlarged it several years later when he wrote the material for the appendices. There now appeared the account of Glorfindel's arrival on the field of battle with an Elven army, completing the Gondorian victory over the Witch-king of Angmar and in a way rebutting Melkor's crushing defeat and enslavement of Gondolin. Where darkness ruled Glorfindel brought light. But his light would soon fade and the Elves would return to their haunts, eventually to sail over Sea in great numbers, fleeing Middle-earth. Glorfindel would remain, but he was an exceptional elf, and the exception would haunt Tolkien's thoughts in later years. Who was Glorfindel, and what was he doing in Middle-earth? He wasn't much of an enigma for the fans. In 1958 Rhona Beare asked Tolkien (on behalf of other fans) why Asfaloth, Glorfindel's horse, had a bridle and bit "when Elves ride without bit, bridle, or saddle?" Tolkien responded quickly that he should have written "headstall", and this change was eventually made to the text. And that (but for the request of the use of Glorfindel's name for a cow) represents the sum total of early fannish interest in Middle-earth's most enigmatic Elf. The Glorfindel legend subsided. Tolkien attempted to rewrite the story of Tuor and Gondolin, but he only got as far as having Tuor look across the plain of Tunladen upon Gondolin for the first time. Glorfindel briefly appeared in the story of Aredhel and Maeglin as one of the lords Turgon appointed to escort her, but Tolkien decided that Glorfindel, Egalmoth, and Ecthelion were inappropriate choices for Elven lords who would become so dismayed by Nan Dungortheb they would turn back in despair and so lose their charge. He decided it would be best not to name them in the story. This decision, and a note concerning Elven death and possible resurrection accompanying "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", represents an elevation of Glorfindel's stature in the churning cauldron of Tolkien's thought.

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