The Noldor

“And their own true name in High-elven is Noldor, Those that Know; for of the Three Kindreds of the Elves in the beginning, ever the Noldor were distinguished both by their knowledge of things that are and were in this world, and by the desire to know yet more.
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They belonged to a race high and beautiful, the Elder Children of the World, who now are gone. Tall they were, fairskinned and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, and their voices knew more melodies than any mortal speech that now is heard. Valiant they were and their history was lamentable.” (The Peoples of Middle-earth)

From Middle-earth to Valinor

Finwë was the original leader of the Noldor, and he was one of whose who awoke at Cuivíenen, the birthplace of Elvenkind. Sometime later, he was gathered up with two other elves by Oromë, one of the Valar, and taken from his homeland on a sightseeing tour over to the Blessed Realm – because the Valar had decided that they wanted the new and shiny Elves to come and live with them rather than in the darkness and gloom of Middle-earth. And because the Blessed Realm was also nice and shiny, Finwë and his friends came back full of the joys of light and merriment, and persuaded most of the Elves to move away to live with the Valar.

So off the Noldor went, forming the second of the hosts to leave Middle-earth (the first being the Vanyar, and the third being the Teleri). They set sail on an island pulled from the sea floor by Ulmo and eventually landed in the land of the Valar, living in a city called Tirion.

The Noldor were loved best by the Vala Aulë, and they became skilled in smithcraft and metalwork, but even greater than that was their thirst for knowledge. They had a great love of words, and forever sought to find fitting names for all things they knew or imagined. They delighted in the building of high towers, and one day while quarrying, they discovered earth-gems. They excavated the gems in countless myriads, and devised tools for their cutting, shaping and carving.

In Valinor

All we really know about the Noldor from here on concerns Finwë and his family. He married a Noldo called Míriel and they had a child, Fëanor. More on him later – he became just a little infamous. But after a while, Míriel became tired of her life, and eventually she died.

Many years later Finwë remarried, to a Vanya called Indis. They had two sons, Fingolfin and Finarfin, and like many families, the step-children and the step-parents just did not get on – not helped by the fact Melkor was meddling in their lives and trying to cause discontent. Fëanor thought that Fingolfin and Finarfin wanted to take over his status as eldest son and second in charge to Finwë, and Fingolfin and Finarfin thought that Fëanor was trying to take over from Finwë.

And so the normal kind of tragicomic soap opera drama ensued.

Fëanor and Fingolfin had a big fight in their father’s halls. Fëanor stomped off into exile, taking his father with him, and only coming back when he had made the Silmarils, and when the Valar ordered him back to make peace with his brother. This, however, did not go too well, and Fëanor started to dislike the Valar as well as his brothers. Eventually he decided to lead the Noldor back into Middle-earth, and thus got his people cursed by Mandos, who said that the Noldor would always have their lives and deeds end tragically and painfully, and that they would never be allowed back into the Blessed Realm.

Well, actually, to be absolutely correct, Fëanor led his own family in stolen swan boats over the Sea, and left Fingolfin, his family, and some of Finarfin’s family to struggle painfully across a huge great big ice cap to join them later. Brotherly love, eh?

Back in Middle-earth

The drama continued, though as the years went by, everyone forgot their differences and more or less became buddies. One of Fëanor’s sons got captured by Morgoth and was hung by the wrist from a big mountain until one of Fingolfin’s sons saved him.

Fëanor then had a particularly angsty day, went to challenge Morgoth and got killed horribly by some Balrogs. Years later, Fingolfin tried the same thing and got killed by Morgoth himself.

When Fëanor and Fingolfin had both died, their sons took over as the most important of the Noldor. Fëanor’s sons generally brooded about the lands, capturing beautiful maidens and trying to regain the stolen Silmarils by any nefarious means possible. Fingolfin’s sons were more honourable – Fingon became the king of the Noldor, and fought valorously and beautifully until he also died horribly. Aredhel married a rather strange elf called Eöl, and Turgon founded Gondolin, married Elenwë and became the ancestor of a dynasty reaching down to Elrond and Arwen.

Of Finarfin’s children, Finrod and Galadriel came with Fingolfin to Middle-earth. Finrod befriended the newly-found race of Men, while the feisty and impulsive Galadriel married someone rather boring and later founded Lothlórien.

But the Noldor weren’t destined to survive for long. Only one of Fëanor’s sons had a child, and that child was Celebrimbor – the creator of the Rings of Power. He also died horribly. Turgon’s line survived down through Eärendil and Elrond, and Galadriel hung around through the Ages, but all other lines died out, fulfilling the doom of Mandos. It seems that only Galadriel managed to survive long enough to repent enough for Mandos to lift his curse on her – after she rejected the Ring, she was allowed to sail back to the Blessed Realm.

by atalante_star