Gil-galad

Parentage

Gil-galad's parentage is the most disputed genealogy in the published texts. The Silmarillion makes him the son of Fingon, High King after Fingolfin; a note in Unfinished Tales records Tolkien's later decision that he was the son of Orodreth of Nargothrond, though the editor allowed the Silmarillion's version to stand. Either way he was of the house of Finwë, the last male heir of the High Kingship of the Noldor. His name Ereinion means scion of kings; Gil-galad, Star of Radiance, was the name by which he was known in all the histories. He was born in Beleriand in the First Age, and after the Dagor Bragollach, when the north became unsafe, he was sent as a boy to Círdan at the havens of the Falas, where he was raised.

The end of the First Age

When the havens of Brithombar and Eglarest were destroyed the year after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Gil-galad went with Círdan to the Isle of Balar, and from there the survivors of the Falathrim and later the refugees from Nargothrond and Doriath held out at the Mouths of Sirion. When Turgon died in the fall of Gondolin in F.A. 510, the High Kingship passed to Gil-galad, though he was king of little but ships and exiles. He was among those who sent Eärendil in search of the West, and when the host of the Valar came, he fought in the War of Wrath.

Lindon

After Beleriand was broken and drowned, those Elves who chose to remain in Middle-earth gathered in Lindon, the green country west of the Ered Luin, the only part of the old lands left above the Sea. Gil-galad ruled it from the Grey Havens as High King, with Círdan as his shipwright and Elrond as his herald and, in time, his vice-regent. His people were the Noldor of Forlindon and the Sindar of Harlindon under Celeborn; Galadriel also dwelt there in the first centuries of the Age. He was the friend of the Númenóreans from their first return to Middle-earth; Unfinished Tales preserves a letter he wrote to King Tar-Meneldur about the growing shadow, and tells that he was the friend of Tar-Aldarion, who built the haven of Vinyalondë partly in his service.

Sauron and the Rings

When the stranger Annatar came out of the East around S.A. 1200 offering knowledge and friendship, Gil-galad and Elrond refused him entry to Lindon; they could not name him, but they distrusted him, and they warned the smiths of Eregion. Celebrimbor did not listen. When the One Ring was forged in 1600 and its purpose known, Celebrimbor sent the two greatest of the Three, Vilya and Narya, to Gil-galad for safekeeping. Sauron's invasion of Eriador followed in 1695; Gil-galad sent Elrond to Eregion, and when it fell and Elrond was besieged, it was the fleet of Númenor under Tar-Minastir's admiral Ciryatur, answering Gil-galad's plea, that landed in 1700 and drove Sauron out of Eriador. Elrond founded Rivendell in the north, and Gil-galad gave him Vilya; Narya, according to the Silmarillion and the Appendices, he gave to Círdan, though Unfinished Tales says both went to Elrond and Círdan at once.

The Last Alliance

After the Downfall of Númenor Elendil and his sons came to Middle-earth, and Gil-galad gave them lands and friendship; Elendil built Annúminas near Lindon and the two kings shared the Tower Hills between them. When Sauron seized Minas Ithil in S.A. 3429, Gil-galad and Elendil formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and gathered at Rivendell the greatest host seen since the War of Wrath. In 3434 they crossed the Misty Mountains and won the battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate, where Oropher of Greenwood and Amdír of Lórien fell through charging too soon. The Alliance besieged Barad-dûr for seven years, and Anárion died in the siege. In S.A. 3441 Sauron came out himself, and on the slopes of Mount Doom Gil-galad and Elendil fought him. Both were killed, Gil-galad burned by the heat of Sauron's hand; but Sauron's body was thrown down, and Isildur cut the Ring from his finger with the shards of Narsil. Elrond and Círdan, who stood beside the king, urged Isildur to destroy it and were refused.

Legacy

With Gil-galad the High Kingship of the Noldor in Middle-earth ended; Elrond, who was his heir in all but name, never took a crown. The song of his fall was still sung in the Shire three thousand years later, and Sam Gamgee could recite the beginning of it. He had held his realm for over three thousand years against the shadow from the East, longer than any Elven-king of the Exiles; his spear Aeglos was remembered as the terror of Sauron's armies. Lindon endured under Círdan into the Fourth Age, but it was a haven for departure rather than a kingdom.

Slain by Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom in S.A. 3441, in the same combat in which Elendil fell and Sauron was overthrown.