Caranthir

Lineage

Caranthir was the fourth son of Fëanor and Nerdanel, Morifinwë to his father and Carnistir, red-face, to his mother, from the dark flush of his complexion when he was angry, which was often. He was the harshest of the seven and the readiest to take offence, and his brothers found him hard to live with. He swore the Oath with the rest and shared in the Kinslaying and the exile.

Thargelion

When Maedhros settled the house of Fëanor in the east, Caranthir took the farthest lands: Thargelion, between the river Gelion and the Blue Mountains, north of Ossiriand. He built his stronghold on the shores of Lake Helevorn under Mount Rerir. His country lay across the road from the Dwarf-cities of Belegost and Nogrod, and Caranthir was the first of the Noldor to have regular dealings with the Dwarves. He despised them and they did not love him, but both peoples profited, and Caranthir grew the richest of the sons of Fëanor from the trade in dwarven metalwork that passed through his land.

The quarrel with Angrod

Caranthir's temper made the feud in Finwë's house worse. At a council of the princes in F.A. 20, when Angrod brought word from Thingol that the Noldor were permitted to dwell only in certain lands, Caranthir answered with an insult to the sons of Finarfin, calling them the servants of the Sindarin king; Angrod left in anger and Maedhros rebuked his brother. The words did lasting harm, and the Fëanorians and the house of Finarfin were never afterward easy together.

The people of Haleth

In F.A. 375 the Haladin, a people of Men who had settled in Thargelion, were attacked by Orcs and besieged in a stockade; Haleth held out for seven days until Caranthir's cavalry came and destroyed the Orcs. Impressed by her courage, Caranthir offered her people land and his protection in the north of his country, which was the nearest to friendship the Dark ever came. Haleth refused and led her people west. Caranthir also welcomed the Easterlings of Ulfang and Bór when they came over the mountains, and it was through his lands that the treachery of Ulfang entered the Union of Maedhros.

Retreat and death

In the Dagor Bragollach, in F.A. 455, Thargelion was overrun; Helevorn was taken and defiled, and Caranthir fled south to join Amrod and Amras on Amon Ereb. He fought in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in the eastern host and escaped with his brothers into Ossiriand. When the Silmaril came to Dior, he joined the assault on Menegroth in F.A. 506 and was killed there, with Celegorm and Curufin, in the Second Kinslaying.

Legacy

Caranthir left no children and no realm. His name survives in the record of the first trade between Elves and Dwarves, in the rescue of Haleth, and in a temper that did more than its share to divide the Noldor.

Slain in Menegroth during the Second Kinslaying, F.A. 506.