Gil-galad

Gil-galad is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the last high king of the Noldor, one of the main divisions of Elves. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, where the hobbit Sam Gamgee recites a fragment of a poem about him, and The Silmarillion. In the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Gil-galad and Elendil laid siege to the Dark Lord Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, and fought him hand-to-hand for the One Ring. Both Gil-galad and Elendil were killed, and Elendil's son Isildur took the Ring for himself. Gil-galad briefly appears at the opening of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and features in several video games based on Tolkien's Middle-earth.

Gil-galad
Tolkien character
In-universe information
AliasesEreinion, Artanáro, Rodnor,
High King of the Noldor
RaceElves
Book(s)The Silmarillion (1977)

Appearances

Prose

Gil-galad was an Elf of a royal house of Beleriand; beyond that, accounts of his birth vary. According to The Silmarillion, he was born into the house of Finwë as a son of Fingon sometime in the First Age, and as a child, he was sent away during the Siege of Angband for safekeeping with Cirdan the shipwright in the Falas.[T 1] Alternatively, he was a son of Orodreth, who became a son of Angrod, son of Finarfin: Tolkien made these changes to allow Turgon, Fingon's brother, to inherit the crown before Gil-galad (leaving Fingon childless). Christopher Tolkien rejected these changes for The Silmarillion, a decision he later regretted.[T 2]

He became the High King of the Noldor-in-Exile in Beleriand after the fall of Gondolin and the death of the previous High King, Turgon.[T 3] After the War of Wrath and the end of the First Age, Gil-galad founded a realm in the coastal region of Lindon along the shores of Belegaer, the Great Sea. At its height, his realm extended eastward as far as the Misty Mountains.[T 4] King Tar-Aldarion of Númenor presented Gil-galad with the gift of some seeds of the Mallorn tree; he in turn gave some to Galadriel, who grew them in the guarded land of Lothlórien.[T 5] Gil-galad did not take a wife and had no children. He was the first of the Eldar to mistrust a stranger who called himself Annatar, and forbade him from entering Lindon. His mistrust was well founded, for Annatar was in fact Sauron.[T 4] About the year 1600 of the Second Age, Sauron secretly forged the One Ring. Celebrimbor, the creator of the Three Rings, gave two of them, Narya and Vilya, to Gil-galad for safe-keeping once he knew Sauron's intention to take them. Gil-galad passed Narya to Cirdan the shipwright, who stated that this was only to keep it secret; Cirdan never used it. Gil-galad chose to give Vilya, and control of Eriador, to Elrond.[1][T 6] War broke out between the Elves and Sauron; Gil-galad asked the Númenóreans for help, and their king Tar-Minastir brought a great force, enabling Gil-galad to defeat Sauron's army.[T 6]

After the Downfall of Númenor there was peace in Middle-earth. At the end of the Second Age, Sauron reappeared with a newly formed army and made war against the kingdom of Gondor, near his old home of Mordor. Gil-galad formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the High King of Men, Elendil. The armies of Elves and Men entered Mordor and laid siege to Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr. At the end of the siege, Sauron finally came forth and fought hand-to-hand against Gil-galad and Elendil on the slopes of Mount Doom, losing the One Ring but killing them both.[T 7] A record left by Isildur in Minas Tirith implies that Sauron himself killed Gil-galad with the heat of his bare hands. Recalling the encounter at the Council of Elrond at Rivendell before the Fellowship took the One Ring south, Elrond said that only he and Círdan stood by Gil-galad in that fight.[T 8]

Poetry
Further information: Poetry in The Lord of the Rings

In The Fellowship of the Ring, on the way to Weathertop, Aragorn mentions Gil-galad, prompting the hobbit Sam Gamgee to recite a fragment, three stanzas, of "Gil-galad was an Elven-king":[2]

Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the mountains and the sea.

His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen.
The countless stars of heaven's field
Were mirrored in his silver shield.

But long ago he rode away,
And where he dwelleth none can say.
For into darkness fell his star;
In Mordor, where the shadows are.[T 9]

Sam's companions are impressed, and ask for more; Sam admits that is all that he learnt from Bilbo. Aragorn says the fragment is a translation from "an ancient tongue" and suggests that the hobbits may hear the rest in Rivendell.[T 9] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey comments that the longer poem does not exist, and that Sam's fragment seems to have been composed while Tolkien was writing the chapter. He notes that it has the form of a ballad, each stanza being a quatrain in eulogy mode with end-rhymes in the rhyming pattern AABB/CCDD.[2]

Artefacts

Aeglos, the spear
Further information: List of Middle-earth weapons and armour

Gil-galad's spear was named Aeglos or Aiglos,[3] meaning "snow-point" or "snow-thorn" or more commonly "icicle"[T 10] (aeg: sharp, pointed; los: snow) because when orcs saw his spear, they would recognize it by its reputation to bring a cold death to them. Elrond said that at the battle of Dagorlad, "we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand."[T 8][T 11][T 12] It has been suggested that Tolkien might have based the spear on the god Odin's irresistible spear Gungnir in Norse mythology.[4]

Heraldic devices
Gil-galad's heraldic device with stars on a blue field[5][6]
Further information: Heraldry of Middle-earth

Tolkien created two sketches of heraldic devices for Gil-galad. They were drawn on an envelope posted to him in 1960, along with a device containing a star or Silmaril for Eärendil. The Tolkien scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull note that matching the description in the poem, "The countless stars of heaven's field / Were mirrored in his silver shield", the lozenge-shaped devices both contain stars, with an elongated star in each corner.[5] Margaret Purdy, in Mythlore, writes that Gil-galad's shield, like all elvish heraldry personal not inherited, seems to incorporate his stars, though the field is blue not silver.[6]

Family tree
Further information: Tolkien's Middle-earth family trees
House of Finwë family tree[T 13][T 14]
Míriel
"broideress"
Finwë
of the Noldor		Indis
of the Vanyar
Fëanor,
maker of Silmarils		Findis FingolfinIrimë
Finarfin
MaedhrosFive sonsCurufin Fingon TurgonAredhelArgonFinrodAngrodAegnorGaladriel
Celebrimbor,
maker of Rings		 Gil‑galadIdrilMaeglinOrodreth
EärendilFinduilas
ElrosElrondCelebrían
AragornArwenElladanElrohir
Eldarion
Colour key:
Colour Description
  Elves
  Men
  Maiar
  Half-Elven
  Half-Elven who chose the fate of Elves
  Half-Elven who chose the fate of mortal Men

Kings of the Noldor in Valinor

High Kings of the Noldor in exile in Middle-earth

Concept and creation

Gil-galad means "star of bright light" in Sindarin.[7] His names in Tolkien's invented languages of Quenya and Sindarin were Artanáro and Rodnor, respectively. His Sindarin birth name, Ereinion, means "scion of kings".[T 15]

Tolkien considered several different parentages for Gil-galad in different draft texts, including making him the son of Orodreth.[T 2] In the second version of The Fall of Númenor, he is called a descendant of Fëanor, who made the Silmarils.[T 16] Then Tolkien treated him as a son of Finrod Felagund.[T 17] Christopher Tolkien, editing the published version of The Silmarillion, made Gil-galad the son of Fingon, a decision he later regretted, saying he should have left the parentage obscure.[T 2]

Renee Vink, of the Dutch Tolkien Society, suggests that the only good reason for making him son of Fingon is the correspondence of the colours, blue and silver, of Gil-galad's heraldic device and Fingolfin's banner, noting that the publication of The Silmarillion, based on a limited "grasp of the material", created a "virtually unshakeable" tradition for this parentage. She argues that Orodreth has a better claim to paternity, for several reasons: the crown of the Noldor in exile (in Middle-earth) then comes to a descendant of Finarfin, king of the Noldor in Aman; a descendant of Finarfin would fight Sauron to avenge Finarfin's son Finrod; and as brother to Finduilas, he (alone of the Noldor's Kings) would fight with a spear, the weapon that killed his sister.[8]

The scholar of literature Lawrence Krikorian, in Mallorn, writes that Elrond's account of being Gil-galad's herald in the Second Age, thousands of years earlier, as recalled first-person observation helps to make the narrative function as history rather than allegory, lending an impression of depth.[9]

Adaptations


Film, TV, and radio
Gil-galad (played by Mark Ferguson, centre right) and his herald Elrond (Hugo Weaving, left), as envisaged in Peter Jackson's 2001 film The Fellowship of the Ring[10]

In the 1981 BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, the Lay of Gil-galad was set to music by Stephen Oliver.[11]

In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson, Gil-galad is portrayed by actor Mark Ferguson, who appears very briefly in The Fellowship of the Ring during the opening prologue sequence.[10] Gil-galad is mentioned in the behind-the-scenes documentaries included with the Special Extended Edition DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring and is listed in the credits. In an interview with Ferguson and Craig Parker (Haldir), Ferguson stated that it had been planned for his death to be depicted onscreen as in the book, but it was considered too violent.[12]

In the Amazon Prime Video The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series, which focuses on events in the Second Age,[13] Gil-Galad is played by Benjamin Walker.[14][15]

Games

Gil-galad has been included in multiple video games since Jackson's films were first shown. The 2004 video game The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age featured Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad.[16] Others are the 2007 The Lord of the Rings Online; the 2011 The Lord of the Rings: War in the North;[17] and the 2012 Lego The Lord of the Rings which has Gil-galad near Mount Doom.[18]

References

Primary
  1. Tolkien 1977 Chapter 18, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"
  2. Tolkien 1996 "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", "The parentage of Gil-galad"
  3. Tolkien 1977 Chapter 23, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"
  4. Tolkien 1977 "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  5. Tolkien 1980, Part II, Chapter 1 "A Description of Númenor"
  6. Tolkien 1980 "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
  7. Tolkien 1955 Appendix B, "The Second Age"
  8. Tolkien 1954a Book II, Chapter 2: "The Council of Elrond"
  9. Tolkien 1954a Book I, Chapter 11 "A Knife in the Dark"
  10. Tolkien 1977 p. 313
  11. Tolkien 1977 p. 294
  12. Tolkien 1980 pp. 148, 417
  13. Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age": Family Trees I and II: "The house of Finwë and the Noldorin descent of Elrond and Elros", and "The descendants of Olwë and Elwë"
  14. Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, I The Númenórean Kings
  15. Tolkien 1996 "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", "The names of Finwë's descendants"
  16. Tolkien 1987 Part One: II. The Fall of Númenor, (iii) "The second version of The Fall of Númenor"
  17. Tolkien 1994 Part Two: "The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"

Secondary
  1. Fisher, Jason (2008). "Three Rings for—Whom Exactly? And Why?: Justifying the Disposition of the Three Elven Rings". Tolkien Studies. 5 (1): 99–108. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0015. S2CID 171012566.
  2. Shippey, Tom (2013) [2006]. "Poems by Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings". In Michael D. C. Drout (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 245–246. ISBN 978-1-1358-8033-0.
  3. Burdge, Anthony; Burke, Jessica (2013) [2007]. "Weapons, Named". In Drout, Michael (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 703–705. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
  4. Day, David (17 October 2019). "Gungnir ('Swaying One')". A Dictionary of Sources of Tolkien: The History and Mythology That Inspired Tolkien's World. Hachette. ISBN 9780753734063.
  5. Hammond & Scull 1995, pp. 193–194.
  6. Purdy, Margaret R. (1982). "Symbols of Immortality: A Comparison of European and Elvish Heraldry". Mythlore. 9 (1). Article 5.
  7. Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 86.
  8. Vink, Renee (2013) [2003, rewritten 2009]. "The Parentage of Gil-galad". Lembas. Unquendor (Extra).
  9. Krikorian, Lawrence (2018). "Realism in fantasy: The Lord of the Rings as 'history . . . feigned'". Mallorn (59): 14–17.
  10. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  11. Sibley, Brian. "The Ring Goes Ever On: The Making of BBC Radio's 'The Lord of the Rings'". Brian Sibley. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  12. The Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended Edition (DVD). New Line Cinema. 2001. EDV9171.
  13. "Analysis: what can we deduce from the Amazon synopsis about the plot of the new Middle-earth series?". TheOneRing.net. 17 January 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  14. Williams, Caleb (30 January 2022). "Benjamin Walker Will Play High-Elven King Gil-Galad in Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' TV Series". Knight Edge Media. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  15. Clark, Campbell (1 February 2022). "Gil-Galad Casting For The Rings Of Power Revealed". LRM online. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  16. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Electronic Arts. November 2004.
  17. Snowblind Studios. The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North. WB Games. Level/area: Rivendell, Part 1.
  18. "Guide personnages de LEGO Le Seigneur des Anneaux : Gil-Galad". Daily Motion (in French). 8 December 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2022.

Sources
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