Eldalótë by oshun

Eldalótë

Eldalótë is a Noldorin Elf said to be the wife of Angrod, son of Finarfin. The Index of Names to the published Silmarillion describes Angrod as the "[t]he third son of Finarfin, who with his brother Aegnor held the northern slopes of Dorthonion; slain in the Dagor Bragollach."¹ His wife Eldalótë is not mentioned at all in the published version of The Silmarillion. The only place one finds a reference to this character is in The Peoples of Middle-earth, the twelfth volume of the History of Middle-earth series.¹

One might assume that Eldalótë did not accompany Angrod to Middle-earth since there is no mention of her in The Silmarillion chapters that discuss the flight of the Noldor. However, this is contradicted in The Shibboleth of Fëanor, which Christopher Tolkien describes as "a long excursus on the names of the descendants of Finwë."¹ He notes that this text "was my father's final, or at any rate last, statement on many of the great names of Elvish legend" (emphasis mine).¹ He adds details about the Finwëans that appear nowhere else providing, among other things, personal characteristics, birth order, and mother- and father-names:

The children of Finarfin... were named: Findaráto Ingoldo; Angaráto; Aikanáro; and Nerwendë Artanis, surnamed Alatáriel. The wife of Angaráto was named Eldalótë, and his son Artaher.... The names of Sindarin form by which they were usually called in later song and legend were Finrod, Angrod (with wife Eðellos and son Arothir), Aegnor, and Galadriel.¹

According to the revisions of Tolkien's notes, Orodreth (Arothir) would be the son of Angrod and not his brother, and his son was Gil-galad. As explained below, Christopher Tolkien admitted his father’s final choice and ultimate preference was that Gil-galad was the grandson of Angrod and that the data included in the published version of The Silmarillion was a mistaken editorial decision. I am totally sympathetic as a reader to the interpretation of Lintamande, fanfiction writer and commenter on Tumblr, that

So this is a mess, and it’s a mess because it’s from the very late re-envisioning of this family which Chris Tolkien (imo wisely) kept out of the Silm. "Nerwendë Artanis, surnamed Alatáriel" is Galadriel; Alatáriel is the Telerin version of Galadriel, and this is the infamous version where Celeborn is Telerin Teleporno. This is also the version where Orodreth is Angrod’s son and named Artaher(Q) Sindarinizing to Arothir. Also Edellos is usually written Edhellos.¹

It’s a mess for sure. If Orodreth is the son of Angrod, then that presumably makes Gil-galad the grandson of Eldalótë. This gives her an actual role in Tolkien’s history. One, however, may have already assumed that Eldalótë did not accompany Angrod into exile because there is no mention of her in the narrative of the flight of the Noldor in The Silmarillion. And yet a Sindarin name is given her in The Shibboleth of Fëanor. This would only have been necessary, if one assumes she needed such a name:

The changes from the Quenya names of the Noldor to Sindarin forms when they settled in Beleriand in Middle-earth were on the other hand artificial and deliberate. They were made by the Noldor themselves. This was done because of the sensitiveness of the Eldar to languages and their styles. They felt it absurd and distasteful to call living persons who spoke Sindarin in daily life by names in quite a different linguistic mode.¹

Eldalótë becomes Eðellos when she arrives in Middle-earth as the wife of Angrod. In those later versions, Gil-galad, who becomes High King of the Noldor, is the son of Orodreth, not the son of Fingon as most of us had already assimilated from the previously published Silmarillion. Absolutely clear as mud? (I have to admit that I like Fingon as the father of Gil-galad because I like Fingon and, therefore, like the idea he survives into the continuing history of Middle-earth.) It is also easy to see why Christopher Tolkien had originally decided he could not incorporate that late vision of Orodreth as the father of Gil-galad:

In the last of the genealogical tables Artanáro (Rodnor) called Gil-galad appears, with the note that 'he escaped and dwelt at Sirion's Mouth'. The only further change was the rejection of the name Artaresto and its replacement by Artaher, Sindarin Arothir; and thus in the excursus (note 23) Arothir [Orodreth] is named as Finrod's 'kinsman and steward', and (note 47) Gil-galad is 'the son of Arothir, nephew of Finrod'. The final genealogy was:

Finrod Felagund
Angrod
Artaher/Arothir [Orodreth]
Artanáro/Rodnor/Gil-galad

Since Finduilas remained without correction in the last of the genealogies as the daughter of Arothir, she became the sister of Gil-galad. There can be no doubt that this was my father's last word on the subject; but nothing of this late and radically altered conception ever touched the existing narratives, and it was obviously impossible to introduce it into the published Silmarillion. It would nonetheless have been very much better to have left Gil-galad's parentage obscure.¹

One might suppose that, if one read only the published Silmarillion, Eldalótë would be merely the wife of Angrod, perhaps never having left Valinor. Whereas if one chooses to try to insert the partial changes mentioned in The Shibboleth (the only place she is mentioned) she would be likely to have made it to Middle-earth and also be the granny of Gil-galad. On the one hand, it’s a bit like reading one of those Choose Your Own Adventure children’s books—your choice is as defensible as anyone else’s choice. And, finally, one is always happy to find another woman given a name in Tolkien’s history.

Works Cited

1. The Silmarillion, Index of Names.
2. History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.
3. Ibid.
4. History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, Last Writings.
5. History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.
6. Lintamande, "The Feanorians Send Their Regards," Tumblr, Feb. 22, 2016, accessed Oct. 31, 2018.
7. History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.
8. Ibid.