The Encyclopedia of Arda - House of Finrod (original) (raw)
The nobility of Nargothrond
The House of Finrod Felagund, showing Finrod's own descent from Finarfin, to whom the house's name may in fact refer (see the text for further explanation).
The family and followers of Finrod Felagund, the eldest son of Finarfin and the founder of the citadel of Nargothrond. Finrod himself died in the First Age and left no descendants, so when Gildor Inglorion claimed that he belonged to the House of Finrod in the late Third Age, he must mean that he came from a noble house connected with the King of Nargothrond, but not directly descended from him.
At least, that explanation fits the nomenclature laid out in the published Silmarillion. However, the writing of Gildor's passage in The Lord of the Rings predates a shift in names, so it seems that Gildor's 'Finrod' may not be the same character as the 'Finrod' of The Silmarillion, which postdates the name changes. According to the old scheme, 'Finrod' referred to the character now known as 'Finarfin', while that character's eldest son, later called 'Finrod', was originally named 'Inglor'. This is particularly interesting, because Gildor's surname Inglorion actually means 'son of Inglor'.
On that basis, it's possible that Gildor in fact meant that he belonged to the House of Finarfin, rather than that of Finrod, and that he himself was Finrod's son, not mentioned elsewhere. This is all open to question, though, because after the shift in names, Tolkien himself revised the text of The Lord of the Rings, but left Gildor's reference to the House of Finrod unchanged. Either this was a simple oversight, or he really did intend for the House's name to stand.
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- Updated 29 August 2013
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