The Manly Men of Myth and Middle-Earth - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
Well, except for Turgon, the Elves who made rash decisions and lost their lives (and battles) didn't really have reason to believe their causes were lost. Maybe Orodreth, watching his army wither away before Glaurung's fire, uttered a final "oops!" before donning his helm for the last time. Perhaps Thingol, pursuing the Dwarves in anger for their theft of the Silmaril (well, that's sort of what Tolkien wanted to happen), suddenly found himself surrounded with few friends by his side, and briefly wondered what he ever saw in the stupid gem anyway.
Middle-earth's heroism is not for the brave and foolish, unless your name is Turin. Turin had a lot going against him, but he managed to pull through every situation anyway. It was only when he came face to face with his own despair that he took his own life. But by then, he had slain Glaurung and removed a terrible evil from the world. There were still dragons left, but Turin couldn't have killed them all. Quite probably, had he lived (with or without Nienor), Turin would never have met another dragon anyway. Morgoth had other plans for them.
It does seem a bit odd, however, that with all the heroic Elves in Gondolin (Ecthelion, Glorfindel, Turgon, et. al.), they didn't wipe the floor with the dragons. It's not like they hadn't been in a fierce battle before. Turgon led ten thousand warriors to the Nirnaeth, and he actually retreated with some remnants of Fingon's army. So how is it that the mighty Elven warriors couldn't do the job? Or maybe they did. The conquest of Gondolin was the last major action Morgoth initiated. He apparently didn't feel threatened by the re-established Doriath, or by Gil-galad's refuge on Balar, or by Arvernien's small population. Or maybe he just didn't have the forces left to go up against any more Elves.
The Noldor of the First Age were tough, fierce, determined, valiant, and just downright hard to kill. They may not have had a chance to defeat Morgoth, but they certainly forced him to go back to the drawing board more than once. Sauron's strategies of the Third Age -- coupling a long, slow buildup of forces with arranging the estrangement of his enemies -- wouldn't have worked had the Noldor of the First Age hung around until the Third Age. They'd have brought together their armies and taken out Angmar rather than let it hang around for 700 years. Dol Guldur would have been surrounded and besieged.
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