Gildor Inglorion

Gildor Inglorion is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He was a Noldorin Elf of the House of Finrod. In "The Lord of the Rings" he met Frodo Baggins and his friends on the road out of the Shire. The appearance of his band (along with the chants to Elbereth) scared off the Black Rider who was looking for the Hobbits.

Gildor explains to Frodo that they are Elves from Rivendell and were returning home after a pilgrimage to the Emyn Beraid. The Elves provided shelter to the Hobbits and Gildor warned Frodo about the Black Riders, gave his company food and lodging for the night and greatly impressed Sam. The Elves were disappeared the next morning when the Hobbits woke up, but left food behind them.

Gildor is mentioned once more in Tom Bombadil's home, where Frodo learns that his band visited Bombadil on their way back to Rivendell.

At the end, he is seen at the Grey Havens accompanying Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel to Valinor.

Gildor's ancestry

The question has arisen of the identity of this character. Gildor calls himself "Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod." He also says: "We are Exiles, and most of our kindred have long departed and we too are only tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea.". At the time when "The Lord of the Rings" was written, Finrod still meant the character later known as Finarfin. Since "House of Finrod" is the same as "House of Finarfin", we can place him among the Noldor who joined the host of Finarfin during the Exile, and came to Beleriand under Finrod Felagund.

Some argue that the name "Inglorion", which means "son of Inglor", suggests that he was in fact the son of Finrod Felagund himself, who was at that time still called Inglor. There is, however, strong evidence against it.

In "The Silmarillion" it is stated that Finrod had no wife, since he loved Amarië of the Vanyar, who refused to go with him to the exile. This means that he could only have a son after he died in Middle-earth and went to the Halls of Mandos. He might have been resurrected by Mandos, and then married Amarië. It is very unlikely (probably impossible), however, that he would be allowed to return to Middle-earth. The only such instance would be Glorfindel, and it is doubtful that if that was the case, there would be no mention of it in Tolkien's writings. Furthermore, Gildor wouldn't describe himself as one of the Exiles.

Furthermore, if he were Finrod's son, he would have right to claim High Kingship of the Noldor instead of Gil-galad after Turgon's death. It is also said that there were only two children — Idril and Celebrimbor — "in the third generation from Finwë to go with the exiles".

It should also be noted that Tolkien initially used names from his (unpublished) "the Silmarillion" writings rather at random in "The Hobbit" and the first drafts of the sequel which would become "The Lord of the Rings": other examples are the mention of Gondolin and the appearance of Elrond in "The Hobbit", which were only later brought into alignment with "The Lord of the Rings" and the unpublished mythology by a third edition of the book. It is likely that after realizing what the work had become Tolkien would have removed "Inglorion" as a name of Gildor, just like he intended to rename Glorfindel. In the end, neither of these changes actually were made.

This all suggests that, while Gildor might have been initially intended to be Felagund's son, in the final version he probably became a member of the House of Finrod as one of its servants, not one of its sons — perhaps one of the knights of Nargothrond, and a son of Inglor — a character unconnected to Finrod Felagund.

Note that Inglor bears resemblance to the Quenya Ingalaure, an epithet of Finarfin, in the text Shibboleth of Fëanor. It's possible that according to the later continuity, Inglorion not only means 'Son of the House of Finrod', but 'House of Finarfin' in general.

However, there is some evidence that he may have been Finrod's son. It is immediately obvious that Gildor is of some high standing in Rivendell and elsewhere. Would this same deference be shown if Gildor was merely the son of a knight of Nargothrond?

Even if that were so, Inglor would have had to have been of the highest standing in Nargothrond. He is nowhere mentioned-even when Turin comes! If he was a knight of such high standing he would have been mentioned.

Also, Gildor was obviously originally supposed to be Felagund's son, and Tolkien is known for changing the facts to fit what he wrote. Also, it is possible that Finrod was married before he left for Middle-Earth; thus it is possible that young Gildor went with his father.