It's All in the Family: The Finweans - Page 9
© Michael Martinez
Fingolfin asserted his royalty by taking his father's name. Finwe had named all three of his sons after himself: Curufinwe (Feanor), Nolofinwe (Fingolfin), and Aranfine (Finarfin). Fingolfin, it appears, initiated the custom of taking their father's name as a sign of royal authority. Hence, he called himself Finwe Nolofinwe, perhaps during the debate with Feanor in Tirion, more likely after the attack on Alqualonde. The Shibboleth says: "Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwe to Nolofinwe before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Noldor after the death of Finwe, and so enraged Feanor that it was no doubt one of the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and the stealing away with all the ships."
Finarfin did not take the name "Finwe". Curiously, the Shibboleth says that Finrod himself created the name "Finwe Arafinwe", or "Finarfin", after the death of Fingolfin, at which time the Noldor became divided into separate kingships. Although this statement would seem to contradict The Silmarillion (which explicitly mentions the kings of the Noldor prior to Fingolfin's death), Tolkien's intentions are not clear. Still, the use of Finwe's name as a prefix became a royal prerogative. At some point, Finwe's name may have become synonymous with the word title of "king", and it would be appropriate to speak of the ruler of the Noldor as The Finwe. After the First Age, Gil-galad would have been the Finwe in Middle-earth.
The wives of Finwe's sons received little attention from Tolkien. Feanor's wife, Nerdanel, was the daughter of a smith named Mahtan in The Silmarillion. Mahtan's family possessed brownish-red hair and he may have been the leader of a community of Noldor who dwelt close to Aule's halls. Nerdanel had a ruddy complexion which her son Caranthir inherited from her. It may be that they were freckled. In a note appended to "The Shibboleth of Feanor", Nerdanel's father is named Aulendur and Urundil, and Aulendur is said to have supplanted Mahtan, which nonetheless was the name Christopher used for him in The Silmarillion. Another name for this character, which Christopher is not sure of, may have been "Sarmo". He wore a copper circlet around his head and was very fond of copper. Maedhros was apparently much like him in temperament and appearance, and also wore a copper circlet. When Feanor became too contentious for Nerdanel to put up with him any more, she returned to her father's house. Aule persuaded Aulendur and his family not to follow Feanor into exile. Nerdanel asked Feanor to leave their youngest sons in Aman, but he refused. She then foresaw that the youngest would never set foot in Middle-earth.
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