Of Finwë

[Nóm]

Hmm… maybe this would pass for an essay. I'm no writer! Looking for someone to read it and ask questions, correct errors or suggest things to be added. It started as a sample that was to be tested for usefullness before a bunch of similar ones were made for a project I wanted to do a few months ago but abandoned and may take up again.


What does The Silmarillion tell us about Finwe?

He was born at Cuivieven before the Valar summoned the Quendi to dwell in Valinor. Along with Ingwe and his friend Elwe, he went to Valinor as ambassador. He was the leader of the Noldor, and King in Tirion where he dwelt until moving away to Formenos. He asked Ulmo to return to Middle-earth for the Teleri. His first wife was Miriel, and she passed away not long after the birth of Feanor, her only child. Finwe took a second wife, Indis of the Vanyar, and they had two children together - Fingolfin and then Finarfin. When Feanor was banished, his father went with him to Formenos. He left the rule in Tirion to Fingolfin. Finwe was eventually slain at his doors by Morgoth during the Darkening of Valinor, being the only person present who did not flee when the darkness came.

But lets take a look behind the scenes... see the birth of the tale, and find interesting bits left out of The Silmarillion.


We begin with the Lost Tales (began in 1916-17) where Finwe first came to exist on paper. Here Finwe was lord of the Noldoli, and Turgon is was son. Feanor existed at this point, but there is no indication he was of any relation to Finwe. Feanor's father is here Bruithwir - and guess what happens to him. He was slain by Melko along with other gnomes while protecting the treasure when Melko attacked during the festival! So, what became of Finwe? He went into exile with the gnomes, his son Turgon was born, and according to emmendations on the second draft Finwe was slain in the battle of Unnumbered tears, which happens differently here than in The Silmarillion. As CT notes, Finwe's leadership role and death in this battle is one Fingon (who does not yet exist) plays in later texts.

There is no banishment of Feanor yet, but the gnomes were previously made to leave Kor. When they were later permitted to return, Feanor stayed behind in Sirnumen with others.

Was Bruithwir Finwe by another name and Finwe just some passing elf whose name would be used for the character Bruithwir? I do not think so. Some that is told of Finwe here stays true of him after he becomes that father of Feanor slain in the Melko's attack on the Trees. Most importantly, he was the leader of the Noldoli and one of the three ambassadors of the Quendi. The characters were merged. On the matter of Finwe going into exile it is worth noting that when Feanor speaks before the gnomes persuading them to return to Middle-earth, Finwe counselled against him. He says that at the least they should seek Manwe's approval before departing. When Finwe sees his counsel is over-ruled here, he goes into exile just the same, so as not to be parted from his people. One cannot help being reminded of the roles of Fingolfin and to a degree even Finarfin (CT notes Finarfin in this regard) in the later versions of the tale.

The names of Finwe in Lost Tales:

Finwe
Nolome
Fingolma
Golfinweg - gnomish name

The elements of these names are given as skill & cunning, and knowledge/lore.

Turgon is a mighty son, but lets find the rest of Finwe's family!

There is an early prose fragment, where one Gelmir is named as King of the gnomes and his three sons are Delin, Golfin and Luthien. CT comments that Gelmir (also making an apearance in a lay of the fall of Gondolin) is to be identified with Finwe. These strange sons were a passing stage. There is no hint of kinship with Feanor, and that was the last of those sons.

We next hear about Finwe and family In The Lay of the Children of Hurin(1918-1925) and the poem fragment The Flight of the Noldoli. Both texts are found in HoME 3. In CT's commentary to that poem he gives an analysis of the new developements to the royal house of Finwe emerging in the lay, poem, and the Sketch (which I'll explain below). In the poem Finn is the father of Feanor, and Finn is elsewhere given as a gnomish name of Finwe. Goodbye Bruithwir! In the Lay Fingolfin emerges as a son of Finwe, as does Finrod (this Finrod is Finarfin by his early name while his son was called Inglor and Felagund). Things with names get complicated here, but Fingon had also emerged now, having been emended to 'Fingon' from 'Finweg' (an early name of Fingon and a name of Finwe) at places in the Lay. CT also gives here a table showing Finwe, his three sons, and all of their children. The descentans of Finwe in this table differ from The Silmarillion only in that Galadriel is not present yet, and some names are spelled differently, or as in the case of Isfin/Aredhel, a different name is used.

There is a Sketch of the mythology (originally written in 1926 but later revisions were made). This is brief outline of the Silmarillion, also called the Earliest Silmarillion is found in HoME 4. This Sketch is the first prose form of the tales (save a few fragments) since Lost Tales, and was written to give background information on the Turin lay (HoME 3). Emmendations were made to the lay after this Sketch was written. The change from Finweg (which is used in Sketch) to Fingon is one of them.

So what was Finwe up to in the late 20s and 30s? In the early annals found in HoME 4 and 5, along with the Sketch and the Quenta that was an expansion of that Sketch and the Quenta Silmarillion that was the version to follow that Quenta expansion, he is ambassador, still king of the Noldoli, but now unlike Lost Tales, he does not return to Middle-earth. He goes with Feanor into banishment, and is slain by Melkor at his doors. Other gnomes were slain there also, as in the Lost Tales they were with Bruithwir. Later he would die alone. There is no second marriage yet, and not any mention of Miriel.

continued below...

[Nóm]

It is also worth mentioning that Finwe had a fourth son in a table which gives the Old English names of descendants of Finwe, as part of Eriol’s translations (HoME 4). His name is Finrun Felagoemor, but he must have been dropped… there is no other mention of him.

But something more lurked behind that Feanor's maddness!

After the completion of The Lord of the Ring JRRT returned to The Silmarillion, and many new elements arose. Here the story of Miriel and Indis comes out (HoME 10). And here now Finwe was the only in Formenos to withstand the horror of Melkor's coming, and he fought to the death alone. The Later Quenta, along with the latest annals, Annals of Aman (much of which is used in The Silmarilion as published by CT), are found in HoME 10. These texts date from the early to late 50s.

In these annals is the first appearance of Feanor's mother. That is Indis, and furthmore Feanor was born in Middle-earth. Also note-worthy is that Finwe is here clearly one of the first generation of elves and even the first of these to have a child. Indis dies during the journey to Aman and Finwe no longer wants to go forward, so Orome speaks to him of Mandos in Aman and tells him that elves can return to life again. Finwe then decided to go forward. But all this was short-lived. The passages were struck through and changed to Feanor being born in Aman and Finwe's spouse is Miriel. Insertions are made for the death of Miriel and Finwe's marriage to Indis. Fingolfin and Finarfin are now half-brothers to Feanor. This is the story we find in The Silmarillion.

For more details we can look to the Later Quenta. Here CT gives several versions of the tale of Finwe and Miriel. The First was a manuscript added to the Later Quenta. In this version Finwe has not two but 5 children with Indis. The two sons, and then three daughters, in this order: Findis, Fingolfin, Faniel, Finarfin, and Irime/Irien. In a later excursus (1968 +) to The Shibboleth of Feanor found in HoME 12, Faniel is gone and Irime/Irien is moved up before Finarfin. In that excursus, we also learn the youngest daughter was called Lalwen, and she went into exile with Fingolfin. None of the daughters are mentioned in The Silmarillion. Of the biggest Finwe developement on the 50s, that is the death of his first wife and his second marriage, much is said in HoME 10. After the death of Miriel and her refusal to return to life, along with a claim that she would never return, Finwe sought the counsel of Manwe. The Valar held a debate and after much talk about the nature of elves and what the death of an Elda in the Blessed Realm might mean, it was decided that an elf may take a second spouse in special situations. The union of the elves is one that lasts forever, and so it can only be ended if one of the two have passed away and will not ever return to life. Miriel was given 12 years to change her mind, but when she continued to say she would not return to life Mandos deemed the union of her and Finwe was ended, and Miriel would not return. FInwe had held out hope of her return during that time, but at last, when it was believed that Miriel was gone forever, Finwe took up an invitation of Ingwe, and he met up with Indis and knew that she had always loved him, and he grew to love her. So they were married. Feanor resented this, and as is told in The Silmarillion was not too fond of his brothers.

An major element is present in these later texts that is not found in The Silmarillion. That is, after the death of Finwe, he met up with Miriel in Mandos, and she was glad about Indis and his new children and at last was willing to depart when Finwe suggested he could stay in Mandos forever, which would therefore allow Miriel to return without Finwe living with two wives which was forbidden. So Miriel returned.

There is a later text than the version of the tale given in HoME 10, and that is The Shibboleth of Feanor in HoME 12. A couple of things given here do not agree with the Later Quenta. Here Finwe loves Indis before he seeks the counsel of the Valar, and here it is not told that Miriel ever said that she would never return to life, but it was the Valar who deemed that she would not. So the debate was held, and the marriage of Finwe and Indis was sanctioned. But even more striking is the new idea that Miriel remained alive until Feanor was grown. It is told that while she lived Miriel did much to restrain Feanor with gentle counsel. Feanor kept vigil by her body for a while but became absorbed in his works. In either case, Miriel passed away and Indis was the second wife of Finwe. In the excursus to this late text, (reffered to above) on the names of Finwe's descendants, it is said that Finwe had the title Noldoran 'King of the Noldor'. Here we also learn of an additional grandson of Finwe. That is Arakano (Sindarin Argon) son of Fingolfin. There were three stories regarding his death. He was originally killed in the kinslaying of Alqualonde, according to a note on a genealogy table that was later struck out and replaced with the note that he died corssing the Helcaraxe. Finally, in the excursus on names Arakano died in a new battle when Fingolfin's host suffered an orc attacked at Lammoth.


In conclusion 1)

Here is a small list of what I think are the major Finwe points found in JRRT's late writing but do not appear in The Silmarillion:

Miriel lives until Feanor is grown.

The debate of the Valar on the matter of the Statute of Finwe and Miriel.

Finwe and Indis's daughters, one of which goes into exile with her brother.

Finwe willingly stays in Mandos forever so Miriel can return to life.

The batte of Fingolfin's host with orcs at Lammoth, and death of Finwe's grandson Argon in that battle.

Finwe's title Noldoran 'King of the Noldor'.

2) The many layers of texts are so complicated that tracking even a single character through the evolving mythology can be hours of fun. :D