Fingolfin

Lineage and youth in Aman

Fingolfin was the elder son of Finwë and his second wife Indis of the Vanyar, and so the half-brother of Fëanor and the full brother of Finarfin. He was the strongest and most steadfast of Finwë's sons, tall and dark-haired, with the Vanyarin steadiness of his mother rather than the fire of his half-brother. He married Anairë of the Noldor, who stayed in Aman, and had three children who went into exile with him: Fingon, Turgon and Aredhel. A fourth child, Argon, appears only in later writings.

From the first Fëanor resented him as the son of the wife who had replaced Míriel, and when Melkor spread his lies among the Noldor of Tirion, it was Fingolfin whom he named as the schemer plotting to displace Fëanor as heir. The quarrel came to a head when Fëanor drew his sword on Fingolfin in the king's hall. Fingolfin did not answer in kind; he went to the Valar for judgement, and when Fëanor was banished and Finwë followed him to Formenos, Fingolfin ruled the Noldor of Tirion in his father's stead. At the festival on Taniquetil that preceded the Darkening he was publicly reconciled with Fëanor and promised to follow where his brother led.

The flight and the Ice

When the Trees died and Finwë was slain, Fingolfin opposed Fëanor's plan to leave Aman, but the greater part of the Noldor looked to him rather than to Fëanor, and he would not abandon his people or break the word he had given. So he marched, though as the leader of the larger, more reluctant host. His people arrived at Alqualondë after the fighting had begun and joined it without knowing its cause, and so shared in the Doom of Mandos. Finarfin turned back; Fingolfin went on.

At Losgar Fëanor took the ships across the Sea and burned them rather than return for his half-brother. Fingolfin's host was left in Araman with a choice between a shameful return and the crossing of the Helcaraxë, the grinding ice of the far north where the two continents nearly met. Fingolfin chose the ice. The crossing was the greatest feat of endurance in the history of the Eldar; many died, among them Elenwë, the wife of Turgon, and the survivors came into Middle-earth hardened and embittered against the house of Fëanor. They arrived with the first rising of the Moon, and Fingolfin marched straight to the gates of Angband and beat on them, and Morgoth did not answer.

High King

Fëanor was already dead and Maedhros a captive on Thangorodrim, and the two hosts of the Noldor camped on opposite shores of Lake Mithrim in mutual hatred. The rift was healed by Fingolfin's son Fingon, who rescued Maedhros; and Maedhros, freed, renounced his claim to the kingship in favour of Fingolfin. So Fingolfin became High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth, and he ruled from Hithlum, north of the Ered Wethrin, with Fingon holding Dor-lómin beside him. He called the Mereth Aderthad, the Feast of Reuniting, at Ivrin in F.A. 20, where the Exiles and the Sindar met in council and friendship, though Thingol sent only envoys.

Fingolfin won the Dagor Aglareb, the Glorious Battle, in F.A. 60, when Morgoth tested the Noldor with an assault out of the north and was driven back to his gates. From that victory came the Siege of Angband, nearly four hundred years in which Morgoth was penned in and Beleriand flourished. Fingolfin was the anchor of the Siege in the west, as Maedhros was in the east. He wished to press the attack and destroy Angband while the Noldor were strong, but the other princes preferred the peace, and the chance passed.

The Dagor Bragollach

In F.A. 455 Morgoth broke the Siege with rivers of fire and the first assault of Glaurung in his full strength. The Battle of Sudden Flame destroyed Dorthonion and killed Fingolfin's nephews Angrod and Aegnor; Hithlum itself held, but the Noldor were scattered and their allies broken. Fingolfin, receiving reports of ruin on every side and believing that the whole cause of the Eldar was lost, was seized by a despair that turned to wrath.

The duel with Morgoth

He rode alone across Ard-galen, now the burnt plain of Anfauglith, to the gates of Angband, so terrible in his anger that the Orcs took him for a Vala. He struck the gates with his sword Ringil and challenged Morgoth to single combat. Morgoth could not refuse before his captains, and came out with the hammer Grond. Fingolfin, small beneath the Dark Lord, fought him for a long time and wounded him seven times, so that Morgoth cried aloud, until at last he was beaten down and Morgoth set his foot on his neck. With his last strength Fingolfin drove Ringil into Morgoth's foot, and Morgoth limped ever after. Thorondor, king of the Eagles, swooped down, marred Morgoth's face, and carried the body away to the mountains north of Gondolin, where Turgon built a cairn for his father. Fingolfin's death in F.A. 456 was mourned by all the Eldar, and Morgoth never spoke of it again.

Legacy

Fingon succeeded him as High King, then Turgon, and then Gil-galad, who in some accounts was of his line. His daughter Aredhel was the mother of Maeglin; his granddaughter Idril was the mother of Eärendil, and so Fingolfin's blood passed into the Half-elven and the kings of Númenor and Gondor. His duel with Morgoth was remembered as the highest deed of arms of any Elf, and his crossing of the Ice as the highest deed of endurance.

Slain by Morgoth before the gates of Angband in F.A. 456 after wounding him seven times; his body was borne by Thorondor to the Echoriath and buried by Turgon.