In favour of Fingolfin
Note: This isn't a story. I was pleased to see Fingolfin was getting a month to himself, but having a strange inability to write the Silmarillion characters I like best it seems doubtful I'll manage to come up with a story. I therefore decided to mark the month by writing a short appreciation of Fingolfin, explaining why I like him
Fingolfin is a character who has grown on me. When I first read the Silmarillion I didn't think much about him one way or the other. Over time, though, I've come to a greater appreciation of a character who is not one of Tolkien's more scene-stealing elves, and seldom seems to play the lead in fanfic. Doing your best for your followers, and honestly trying to overcome your own flaws may not have the fictional appeal of Doomed Oaths and fearful Quests, but at the end of the day they're quite good qualities to have.
True he was proud, and Feanor didn’t conduct all those quarrels single-handed. True too, that wasn’t a terribly smart stunt at the end (although it was also quite a way to go out). But if a character is too be condemned for being flawed Feanor would hardly have the following he does. And Fingolfin is hardly lacking in better qualities, there are moments in the Silm which seem to me to put his good side beyond doubt.
The first is right before Morgoth’s destruction of the Trees when he swallows his pride and makes a real effort to patch things over with Feanor. ‘Thou shalt lead and I will follow’ - that had to have cost him to say. And subsequent events show that he meant to follow through, it wasn’t just a public performance. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the original quarrel Feanor was the one who resorted to public threats (which I think we have to view as more shocking for the Elves than it would be for us) so kudos to Fingolfin for being prepared, not just to make the first move to reconciliation, but to sacrifice his pride to achieve it.
Let’s not forget either that most Elves are fairly considerable grudge bearers. One could draw up a long list ranging from the understandable (Turgon’s continuing bitterness over the ship-burning) to the near pathological (Celeborn still blaming all Dwarves for the death of Thingol several thousand years later.) Fingolfin, by contrast, makes a real effort to let bygones be bygones which, whilst not a unique attitude, is certainly refreshing. Nor is this the only time we see him do this; he also shows willingness to forgive Feanor’s sons for the ship burning. True, he got undisputed kingship from the deal, but the greater part of the Noldor were no doubt acknowledging him as king anyway. He could have clung to his grudge - quite a large size in grudges at this point - and I firmly believe that many elves would have done that, but he chose to put unity of the Noldor first.
That ties to my second point: that he loved his people. I think he’s the only leader of the First Age of whom that is said, although I’d like to think some of the others did. This indeed is given as a large part his motive for leaving Valinor “he marched against his wisdom, because Fingon his son so urged him, and because he would not be sundered from his people that were eager to go, nor leave them to the rash counsels of Feanor. Nor did he forget his words before the throne of Manwe...” A mixture of motives, but he’s clearly prepared to tie his own future to a course which he fully expects to turn out badly rather than let the Noldor face the consequences without him. And after the Doom of Mandos, whilst I respect Finarfin for going back, I also respect Fingolfin for going forwards, when he has no desire of his own to leave, for although we’re not given his individual motives what has been said about him before makes it likely that love and responsibility towards his people are the crux; he won't leave them, even when he knows it's wiser Not surprising that the Noldor loved him more than Feanor - no doubt they knew that he loved them. Whereas Feanor’s love was bound to his Jewels, not his people.
[If we are to take seriously the story, which appears only in the late Shibboleth, that Fingolfin tried actively to claim kingship of all the Noldor after Finwe’s death: then either we must reject the detailed account of the departure of the Noldor from Tirion, which contains no hint of such a thing and in fact implies the opposite in the passage quoted above; or we must assume that something happened after the departure to make him try to take the lead from Feanor. Probably the Kinslaying. I for one wouldn’t blame him if he thought Feanor had proved himself unfit to rule after that.]
And it’s that same love for his people that causes him to go on his kamikaze ride at the end. Whether he’s actually hoping to achieve anything or just looking for a brave way out isn’t clear, but it’s the apparently hopeless destruction of the Noldor that triggers it. That scene makes all the more of an impression because Fingolfin hasn’t been portrayed as a particularly notable warrior before this point, the impression is that he generally left that sort of thing to Fingon (no bad thing as Fingon was unquestionably good at it.) For all the pointlessness of it, it's a remarkably brave action and a tribute to sheer determination that he actually managed to wound Morgoth!
Up to that point Fingolfin seems to have made a good fist of things as king in somewhat difficult circumstances. In addition to the divisions within his own family he had to deal with the unhelpful attitude of Thingol, who continued to claim overlordship of Beleriand whilst persistently leaving the dirty work of fighting Morgoth to the Noldor. Again we see Fingolfin’s willingness to swallow his pride here. He kept on reasonable terms with the Feanorians, and it was good co-operation with Maedhros (who also deserves a lot of credit here) which win the Elves their most notable victory of the first Age. It’s a major success, achieved by reasonableness and hard work.
He doesn’t seem to have had much gratitude for it; the reward was to have his perfectly intelligent plans for a pre-emptive strike against Angband ignored by everyone except Angrod and Aegnor - and perhaps Fingon who was still living with his father. (Can’t help wondering what Finrod was thinking of there, perhaps he was just too busy making friends with mortals?) You have to feel that he got rather a raw deal too when Turgon and Aredhel cut themselves off in Gondolin, however good the intentions. (Did Turgon keep in touch at all, I wonder? Did he even tell Fingolfin when Aredhel died?). It must have been hard on him, although at least his eldest son was still with him (while there have been some excellent stories along those lines I do wonder why so much fanfiction portrays relations between Fingolfin and Fingon as strained, the natural inference from Tolkien’s writing would surely be that they were close).
Fingolfin’s not the most glamorous Elf around, he doesn’t go in for doomed oaths or - until the very end - dramatic gestures. He cares about his people and he does his best for them - and its not at all a bad best. He doesn’t let pride rule him, at least not all the time, he employs forgiveness and good sense instead of clinging to old grudges. He deserves credit for that.
Fingolfin is a character who has grown on me. When I first read the Silmarillion I didn't think much about him one way or the other. Over time, though, I've come to a greater appreciation of a character who is not one of Tolkien's more scene-stealing elves, and seldom seems to play the lead in fanfic. Doing your best for your followers, and honestly trying to overcome your own flaws may not have the fictional appeal of Doomed Oaths and fearful Quests, but at the end of the day they're quite good qualities to have.
True he was proud, and Feanor didn’t conduct all those quarrels single-handed. True too, that wasn’t a terribly smart stunt at the end (although it was also quite a way to go out). But if a character is too be condemned for being flawed Feanor would hardly have the following he does. And Fingolfin is hardly lacking in better qualities, there are moments in the Silm which seem to me to put his good side beyond doubt.
The first is right before Morgoth’s destruction of the Trees when he swallows his pride and makes a real effort to patch things over with Feanor. ‘Thou shalt lead and I will follow’ - that had to have cost him to say. And subsequent events show that he meant to follow through, it wasn’t just a public performance. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the original quarrel Feanor was the one who resorted to public threats (which I think we have to view as more shocking for the Elves than it would be for us) so kudos to Fingolfin for being prepared, not just to make the first move to reconciliation, but to sacrifice his pride to achieve it.
Let’s not forget either that most Elves are fairly considerable grudge bearers. One could draw up a long list ranging from the understandable (Turgon’s continuing bitterness over the ship-burning) to the near pathological (Celeborn still blaming all Dwarves for the death of Thingol several thousand years later.) Fingolfin, by contrast, makes a real effort to let bygones be bygones which, whilst not a unique attitude, is certainly refreshing. Nor is this the only time we see him do this; he also shows willingness to forgive Feanor’s sons for the ship burning. True, he got undisputed kingship from the deal, but the greater part of the Noldor were no doubt acknowledging him as king anyway. He could have clung to his grudge - quite a large size in grudges at this point - and I firmly believe that many elves would have done that, but he chose to put unity of the Noldor first.
That ties to my second point: that he loved his people. I think he’s the only leader of the First Age of whom that is said, although I’d like to think some of the others did. This indeed is given as a large part his motive for leaving Valinor “he marched against his wisdom, because Fingon his son so urged him, and because he would not be sundered from his people that were eager to go, nor leave them to the rash counsels of Feanor. Nor did he forget his words before the throne of Manwe...” A mixture of motives, but he’s clearly prepared to tie his own future to a course which he fully expects to turn out badly rather than let the Noldor face the consequences without him. And after the Doom of Mandos, whilst I respect Finarfin for going back, I also respect Fingolfin for going forwards, when he has no desire of his own to leave, for although we’re not given his individual motives what has been said about him before makes it likely that love and responsibility towards his people are the crux; he won't leave them, even when he knows it's wiser Not surprising that the Noldor loved him more than Feanor - no doubt they knew that he loved them. Whereas Feanor’s love was bound to his Jewels, not his people.
[If we are to take seriously the story, which appears only in the late Shibboleth, that Fingolfin tried actively to claim kingship of all the Noldor after Finwe’s death: then either we must reject the detailed account of the departure of the Noldor from Tirion, which contains no hint of such a thing and in fact implies the opposite in the passage quoted above; or we must assume that something happened after the departure to make him try to take the lead from Feanor. Probably the Kinslaying. I for one wouldn’t blame him if he thought Feanor had proved himself unfit to rule after that.]
And it’s that same love for his people that causes him to go on his kamikaze ride at the end. Whether he’s actually hoping to achieve anything or just looking for a brave way out isn’t clear, but it’s the apparently hopeless destruction of the Noldor that triggers it. That scene makes all the more of an impression because Fingolfin hasn’t been portrayed as a particularly notable warrior before this point, the impression is that he generally left that sort of thing to Fingon (no bad thing as Fingon was unquestionably good at it.) For all the pointlessness of it, it's a remarkably brave action and a tribute to sheer determination that he actually managed to wound Morgoth!
Up to that point Fingolfin seems to have made a good fist of things as king in somewhat difficult circumstances. In addition to the divisions within his own family he had to deal with the unhelpful attitude of Thingol, who continued to claim overlordship of Beleriand whilst persistently leaving the dirty work of fighting Morgoth to the Noldor. Again we see Fingolfin’s willingness to swallow his pride here. He kept on reasonable terms with the Feanorians, and it was good co-operation with Maedhros (who also deserves a lot of credit here) which win the Elves their most notable victory of the first Age. It’s a major success, achieved by reasonableness and hard work.
He doesn’t seem to have had much gratitude for it; the reward was to have his perfectly intelligent plans for a pre-emptive strike against Angband ignored by everyone except Angrod and Aegnor - and perhaps Fingon who was still living with his father. (Can’t help wondering what Finrod was thinking of there, perhaps he was just too busy making friends with mortals?) You have to feel that he got rather a raw deal too when Turgon and Aredhel cut themselves off in Gondolin, however good the intentions. (Did Turgon keep in touch at all, I wonder? Did he even tell Fingolfin when Aredhel died?). It must have been hard on him, although at least his eldest son was still with him (while there have been some excellent stories along those lines I do wonder why so much fanfiction portrays relations between Fingolfin and Fingon as strained, the natural inference from Tolkien’s writing would surely be that they were close).
Fingolfin’s not the most glamorous Elf around, he doesn’t go in for doomed oaths or - until the very end - dramatic gestures. He cares about his people and he does his best for them - and its not at all a bad best. He doesn’t let pride rule him, at least not all the time, he employs forgiveness and good sense instead of clinging to old grudges. He deserves credit for that.