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Thingol

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Fictional character
Thingol
Tolkien character
A battle between Thingol (right) and theOrc chieftain Boldog. Illustration byTom Loback.
In-universe information
AliasesElwë Singollo,
Elu Thingol
RaceElves
GenderMale
Book(s)The Silmarillion,
The Children of Húrin,
The Lays of Beleriand,
Beren & Lúthien

Elu Thingol orElwë Singollo is a fictional character inJ.R.R. Tolkien'sMiddle-earthlegendarium. He appears inThe Silmarillion,The Lays of Beleriand andThe Children of Húrin and in numerous stories inThe History of Middle-earth. The King ofDoriath, King of theSindar Elves, High-king[T 1] and Lord ofBeleriand, he is a major character in theFirst Age of Middle-earth[1] and an essential part of the ancestral backgrounding of the romance betweenAragorn andArwen inThe Lord of the Rings. Alone among the Elves, he married anangelicMaia,Melian.

Scholars have written that Thingol turns away from the light, so that when he receives aSilmaril, he is unable to appreciate it. They have stated, too, that he fails to take advantage of his marriage to Melian, instead ignoring her advice about the Silmaril, leading to the downfall of his kingdom.

Fictional history

[edit]
Further information:Sundering of the Elves
Arda in theFirst Age. The Elves awaken inMiddle-earth (right). Elwë (Thingol),Finwë, and Ingwë encourage their peoples to obey the call of theValar and travel toValinor (green arrows to the left), but some refuse, causing the firstSundering of the Elves.[2] When theNoldor return toBeleriand (red arrows to the left), Thingol is suspicious of them and refuses to fight the common enemyMorgoth alongside them.

InThe Silmarillion, Thingol is introduced as Elwë, one of the three chieftains (withFinwë and Ingwë) of theElves who depart fromCuiviénen, the place where the Elves awaken, with the ValaOromë as ambassadors toValinor, and who later become Kings. Upon his return, he persuades many of his people to follow him west to Valinor. This host becomes known as theTeleri.[T 2] Some of the Teleri go to Valinor, following Thingol's younger brother Olwë.[T 3] Thingol meanwhile meetsMelian theMaia, anangelic immortal, and falls in love with her; they create an enchantment which keeps his people from finding him.[T 4] Others of the Teleri reach the northwestern region ofBeleriand, but choose to remain there to look for Thingol, who had disappeared there. They later inhabit the forest realm ofDoriath, when Thingol reappears and sets up his Kingdom of Doriath and his city of Menegroth; they are among the Sindar or Grey Elves of Beleriand. Alone of his people, he is anElf of the Light as he has seen the light of theTwo Trees of Valinor.[T 5][T 6][3]

Sketch map ofBeleriand. Thingol's forest realm of Doriath with itsSindar Elves is in the centre; theNoldor cities ofGondolin andNargothrond are to its northwest and southwest respectively.

Thingol and Melian have a daughter,Lúthien, who in turn falls in love with the mortal ManBeren. Disapproving of their relationship, Thingol sets numerous quests that he thinks impossible for Beren, so as to prevent him from marrying Lúthien. One of these quests is to recover one of the priceless star-jewels, theSilmarils whichFëanor had created, and theDark LordMorgoth had stolen and set in his crown; but even that quest succeeds.[T 7]

Thingol fights several wars with Morgoth.[T 5] He is suspicious of theNoldor Elves when they arrive in Beleriand,[T 8] and refuses to assist them when they fight Morgoth.[T 9] The hero of Men,Húrin, comes to Menegroth in his old age, lamenting the death of his sonTúrin. In bitter rage he hurls the treasured necklace of the fallen Noldor city ofNargothrond, the Nauglamír, at Thingol's feet. Melian sees Húrin's thought, and deals with him gently; Húrin is sorry, and gives Thingol the Nauglamír. Thingol gets someDwarves to set his Silmaril in the necklace. The Dwarves do so, but come to covet the unequalled work, and ask Thingol if they may keep it as payment. Thingol angrily refuses; offended, the Dwarves kill him and sack Menegroth. The Sons of Fëanor, who had sworn a terrible oath to recover the Silmarils on behalf of their father, later destroy Doriath to recover the Silmaril; they kill Dior, Thingol's grandson, the second and last King of Doriath.[T 10]

Analysis

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InTolkien's constructed languages, Thingol isSindarin for "grey cloak", "greymantle", while theQuenya form of his name, Singollo, has the same meaning.[T 11] The medievalist andTolkien scholarVerlyn Flieger writes that while the name Elwë ("the star") indicates light, this is dimmed by the character's second name, the light being "cloaked or mantled over".[4] Further, Flieger comments that the softening of "Singollo" to "Thingol" can also be taken as a diminishment, reflecting the "sound shifts that occur as light-infused Quenya modifies to twilight Sindarin".[4]

Flieger states that Thingol's actions may seem unjustified thematically, but they make sense in terms of his politics and dynastic needs. She contrasts him with Beren, who though aMan is constantly drawn towards the light. With the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth, perhaps threatening his kingdom, Thingol's mood darkens. After he learns of the Elf-on-ElfKinslaying at Alqualondë perpetrated by the Noldor on the Teleri, Thingol (Teleri himself) bans the use of their language Quenya in his lands, and Sindarin becomes the most prevalent Elven tongue in Middle-earth. He takes successively darker actions, moving further and further from the light, so that even when he receives the Silmaril from Beren, he knows neither how to appreciate it nor how to use it.[5]

Robley Evans, writing inMythlore, draws a parallel between Thingol and Fëanor: like him, he turns away from the Light, and chooses to remain in Middle-earth with Melian, who could stop time and its changes.[6] Evans states that Thingol's marriage with Melian seems to "promise a model union of diverse created beings" on first impression. He comments that Thingol is however the "complementary opposite of Fëanor in Tolkien's structural counterpoint" in that he is ultimately destroyed by his own version of Fëanor's oath; the act of claiming the Silmaril recovered by Beren places his kingdom under the Doom ofMandos. This warned that the Elves would come to harm if they continued their rebellion against the Valar.[6]

The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey writes that Thingol forms part of the tightly-woven plot ofThe Silmarillion, each part leading ultimately to tragedy. There are three Hidden Elvish Kingdoms, including Doriath, founded by Thingol and his relatives, and they are each betrayed and destroyed. The Kingdoms are each penetrated by a mortal Man, in Doriath's case Beren; and the sense of Doom, which Shippey glosses as "future disaster", hangs heavy over all of them in the tale.[7]

Tom Shippey's analysis of the Hidden Kingdoms of Beleriand[7]
Hidden
Kingdom		Elvish Kings
(all relatives)		Man who penetrates
the Kingdom		Result
NargothrondFinrodTúrinCity destroyed
DoriathThingolBerenCity destroyed
GondolinTurgonTuorCity destroyed

The medievalistMarjorie Burns states that Thingol gains "great power" through his marriage to Melian, writing that she resemblesRider Haggard's infinitely desirableArthurian muse, Ayesha of his 1887 novelShe: A History of Adventure.[8]

The scholar of religion Lisa Coutras compares Melanie Rawls's account of Thingol and Melian to Lisa Hopkins's analysis of Tuor and Idril. Rawls presents Thingol as a prideful king who rarely listens to his wife's counsel, even though she has immense foresight and wisdom; this helps to bring about the downfall of his kingdom. Hopkins discusses the heroTuor, who is all the wiser for listening to his wife Idril.[9][10][11]

The House of Thingol

[edit]
Family tree[T 3][T 12][T 13]
Melian
theMaia		Thingol
(Elwë)		Elmo §OlwëCírdan
the shipwright
Galadhon §EärwenFinarfin
LúthienGalathil §CelebornGaladrielAngrodEdhellos ¶FinrodAegnor
DiorNimlothOrodreth ¶
ElurédElurínElwingFinduilasGil-galad
ElrosElrondCelebrían
Elendil
IsildurAnárion
ArveduiFíriel
AragornArwenElladanElrohir
Eldarion
Colour key:
ColourDescription
 Elves
 Men
 Maiar
 Half-elven
 Half-Elven who chose the fate of Elves
 Half-Elven who chose the fate of mortal Men

§ These figures appear inUnfinished Tales, but not in the published Silmarillion. Late in life Tolkien revised the descent of Celeborn to make him a Teler of Alqualondë.

¶ In the published Silmarillion, Edhellos does not appear, Orodreth is Finarfin's son (and still Finduilas' father), and Gil-galad is Fingon's son (and thus would not be on this tree).

References

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Primary

[edit]
  1. ^Tolkien 1994, p. 21, "Fingolfin...acknowledged the high-kingship of Thingol"; p. 380, Thingol is acknowledged high-king by Círdan and his following; p. 410, the Grey-elves of Mithrim acknowledged Thingol as high-king.
  2. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 3 "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor"
  3. ^abTolkien 1996, "Last Writings"
  4. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 4 "Of Thingol and Melian"
  5. ^abTolkien 1977, ch. 10 "Of the Sindar"
  6. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 21 "Of Túrin Turambar"
  7. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
  8. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 13 "Of the Return of the Noldo"
  9. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 15 "Of the Noldor in Beleriand"
  10. ^Tolkien 1977, ch. 22 "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
  11. ^Tolkien 1977, annotated index entry for "Thingol"
  12. ^Tolkien 1980, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
  13. ^Tolkien 1996, "The Shibboleth of Fëanor"

Secondary

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  1. ^Bülles, Marcel R. (2013) [2006]."Thingol". InMichael D. C. Drout (ed.).J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 646.ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
  2. ^Flieger 1983, p. 73.
  3. ^Shippey 2005, p. 283.
  4. ^abFlieger 1983, p. 85.
  5. ^Flieger 1983, pp. 120–130
  6. ^abEvans, Robley (1987)."Tolkien's World Creation: Degenerative Recurrence".Mythlore.14 (1). article 55.
  7. ^abShippey 2005, pp. 287–296.
  8. ^Burns, Marjorie (2005).Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth.University of Toronto Press. p. 123.ISBN 978-0-8020-3806-7.
  9. ^Coutras, Lisa (2016).Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth.Springer. p. 193.ISBN 978-1-1375-5345-4.
  10. ^Rawls, Melanie (1984)."The Feminine Principle in Tolkien".Mythlore.10 (4). Article 2.
  11. ^Hopkins, Lisa (1996)."Female Authority Figures in the Works of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams".Mythlore.21 (2). Article 55.

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