Q: Of Which Elvish Kindred Was Elrond Accounted?
ANSWER: I have been mulling over this question for a long time because it is such a complicated issue. Here is what a reader sent to me a few months ago:
So if this math is correct, Elrond was technically born a mortal but for all intents and purposes is counted among the (Eldar? because he didn’t see the trees of Valinor) elves, he was 12/32 or ⅜ Man, 10/32 or 5/16 Sindar, 7/32 Noldor, 2/32 or 1/16 Maiar, and 1/32 Vanyar. However during the end of the first age and sequential ages he is considered a Noldor. I find this odd because he is technically more of a Man than a Noldorin Elf. My basic question boils do to why couldn’t Elrond establish a Sindarin Kingdom (since he is descended from Thingol and could claim kingship not only from Thingol but also being part Maiar). I do not recall a discussion about the paternal kingships in other elven cultures so why couldnt Elrond become a king of a group of Sindar and be considered a High King of the Sindarn in Middle Earth. Thranduil does it and rules as a king of elves for the second and third ages. Given Elrond’s lineage, why couldn’t have have done this?
So as you can see, he was really not asking so much about Elrond’s given kindred as why Elrond could not establish a kingdom among the Sindar (or any other elves).
Let me address that last question first. Elrond could certainly have established a kingdom. Elvish kingdoms were established throughout the First, Second, and Third Ages. Celeborn’s was the last named kingdom (East Lorien) to be established. There was no point of law preventing Elrond from becoming a king over Noldor, Sindar, Silvan Elves, or anyone.
This matter touches upon another issue that is wildly misunderstood and misrepresented by some people on the Internet: Dior’s kingship in Doriath. Some people claim that, on the basis of Dior’s being accepted as king by the Sindar, and also because he was known as Dior Eluchil (“Elu’s Heir”, Elu being Thingol), Dior must have been included among the Eldar. However, Tolkien makes it clear in various writings (especially as published in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth) that all half-elven were born mortal. They had no more right to be immortal or Elvish than any Man born to two mortal parents.
The gift of choice of kindred was only given to Eärendil and Elwing and their two sons after Earendil pleaded on behalf of all Elves and Men for the intervention of the Valar. Although Tolkien had changed much when he transitioned away from the mythology for England (The Book of Lost Tales) to the world of The Silmarillion, he retained many of the elements of the Earendil story. Earendil was a mortal man when he sailed to Valinor. Had he not undertaken that mission he and Elwing would have died as mortals.
Hence, Dior (Elwing’s father) was also a mortal man. He was a man who was born to Luthien after she had been restored to life as a mortal woman (she was no longer accounted an Elf).
Tolkien made it virtually impossible for anyone to become something other than what they had been born to be except through the intervention of Ilúvatar. The Valar were granted a special grace to give the gift of choice to Eärendil, Elwing, and their sons. But this gift was never extended to anyone else (except Elrond’s children as a consequence of his choice).
But if Dior was only a mortal man, how could he be King of Doriath? How is simple: the Folk of Doriath accepted him as king. As long as they were willing to be his subjects he needed no other authority. He was figuratively called Thingol’s Heir. Tolkien never said that Thingol named Dior as his heir. No one sent for Dior to assume the crown of Doriath. The kingdom had been destroyed in the war with the Dwarves. Dior simply re-established it.
There are other examples of mortal men ruling over Elves in Tolkien’s fiction. Tuor ruled the survivors of Gondolin and also the survivors of Doriath when they joined his people in Arvernien. Although some people argue that Tuor was later made one of the Noldor, that is actually an idea Tolkien abandoned. Christopher Tolkien left it in the story as an assumption made by mortals, a myth within the mythology. Tuor is never heard from again. Nor is he mentioned among the immortal Eldar living in Aman, although Eärendil is in “Akallabeth”. The omission of Tuor from the discussion between the Numenorean king and the Eldarin messengers from Manwë is significant. If the case could have been made for two mortal men being transformed into immortals then the Numenoreans might have been able to plead for another such gift.
Aragorn was also King of Gondor when Legolas led some of the Silvan Elves of his father’s realm to live in Ithilien. They were subject to Aragorn’s authority.
It’s not clear if the Elves of Edhellond ever accepted the authority of the Kings of Gondor but if Tolkien meant for them to retain their sovereignty through the centuries of being surrounded by Gondor’s realm (at least since the days of Tarannon Falastur) that would still have been an exception among his fictional kingdoms.
And so let us return to the matter of Elrond’s kindred. He was born a mortal man, the child of two mortal parents. He did not become immortal until after his parents had already made their choices. Tolkien does not say specifically when Elrond and Elros made their choices but I have always believed they did so only after the end of the War of Wrath. Elrond would have to wait thousands of years to see his parents again and Elros would never see them again.
Once Elrond became an Elf he would probably have been accounted of mixed heritage, part Noldo and part Sinda. Having been raised by the Noldor Elrond probably identified with them more than with the Sindar.
But Gil-galad was also of mixed heritage and yet he had become High King of the Noldor-in-Exile and High King of the Elves of the West (some people argue these titles are equivalent). It does not matter when Tolkien decided that Gil-galad was of mixed heritage because if he made that decision before writing that Gil-galad became High King he established the precedent of someone of mixed heritage ruling as High King; whereas if he made the decision after having already made Gil-galad High King then he was adding the precedent to his historical timeline. So either way Tolkien made the conscious choice to allow an Elf of mixed Noldorin and Sindarin heritage to rule as High King over the Noldor in Middle-earth.
Elrond thus had the credentials by descent (from both Finwë and Thingol) to be deemed of noble blood. But he could not inherit either of their lordships because he was not descended of the male line from either family. He could only have become a king in his own right, should he have so chosen. But he never made that choice. He simply retreated to Rivendell and dwelt there as lord of the Noldor, Sindar, and any other Elves (or Men) who chose to live there under his rule.
There is no canonical “why” Elrond did not become king. He simply did not become king. That was the canon. That was the way his character was made. He chose not to establish any new realm. Remember that Tolkien wrote in Appendix A that the Eldar attempted nothing new in the Third Age. Elrond was instrumental in that choice to leave things as they were. Tolkien could have written a nice thoughtful essay explaining the choices of Master Elrond but apparently he did not.
We’ll just have to decide for ourselves why Elrond followed the path he chose in the Third Age.
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Weren’t all the High Kings of the Noldor-in-Exile of mixed heritage, being as they were all descendants of Finwë and his second wife, Indis of the Vanya?
Indeed they were. And anyone descended from Finarfin would also have been of mixed heritage because he married Eärwen of Alqualondë. Only the Fëanorians were of pure Noldorin descent, and they quickly lost the High Kingship.
Perhaps he knew it was not in his nature? He is a scholar, deep thinker, but also a man of action when it is required. He also suffered during the last alliance and probably felt some responsibility for not turning his kins-man from keeping the ring. That would eat at a man’s confidence and make them introspective.
Elrond certainly wielded great authority under Elvenking Gil-Galad, he was herald and vice-regent of Eriador, he simply never staked any claim for power, (it may well be he didn’t want to) so he was content to be lord of Imladris that he himself established (after the First White Council meeting according to Unfinished Tales) in Second Age after being besieged in that beautiful valley in War of Elves and Sauron that saw destruction of Eregion.
“At this time [following the expulsion of Sauron from Eriador in the Second Age] the first Council was held, and it was there determined that an Elvish stronghold in the east of Eriador should be maintained at Imladris rather than in Eregion. At that time also Gil-Galad gave Vilya, the Blue Ring, to Elrond, and appointed him to be his vice-regent in Eriador;”
– Unfinished Tales, History of Galadriel and Celeborn
In Second Age after survivors of Beleriand established new realm in Lindon and build Mithlond the Grey Havens, Elrond became part of those elven peoples that acknowledged Gil-Galad’s authority.
It’s too bad that he didn’t attempt to become a king. I feel for this reason many elves decided to leave besides the fact that they were growing waery of fighting Sauron. Imagine if there was still a small Noldor kingdom(larger and more powerful than Lindon ended up being) similar to Lothlorien or Mirkwood. Things could have been a lot different.
Elrond was the ruler of Rivendell, was he not? What title did they give him?
Anyway the person asking “why not” seems to be assuming that anyone who could claim kingship would automatically want to.
Tolkien wrote that during the Third Age the surviving Elves in Middle-Earth “attempted nothing new, living in memory of the past”. In the Second Age, Gil-Galad was the High King of the Nolder-in-Exile. When he died, they didn’t choose another.
I was just re-reading Fellowship of the Ring and I encountered a peculiar inconsistency/plot-hole, whatever you want to call it. When Gandalf is explaining the history of the Ring to Frodo, he says that Sauron “believed that the Ring had perished; that the Elves had destroyed it, as should have been done.” This is at odds with a number of statements made later in the books. Even in the same chapter Gandalf says that the Ring can not be destroyed by any means the Elves have access to, wouldn’t Sauron know that? Also, at the Council of Elrond, it is stated that it’s inconceivable to Sauron that someone would want to destroy the Ring. It follows then, that Sauron could not have thought that the Elves destroyed his precious Ring. Why do you think Tolkien would make such an oversight?
The Elves could have destroyed it after Sauron was defeated, as they then had access to Mt. Doom, and had only to drop the Ring in.
Also, even if he considered it “inconceivable”, he probably felt much the same about being defeated, and that had happened. If he couldn’t detect it anywhere, he would almost have to at least consider the possibility that it was destroyed, no matter how unlikely it would seem.
I don’t have a reference for this right now, but there’s something nagging at me about a note somewhere stating that Elrond viewed himself moreso of the kin of the Teleri than of the Noldor.
I think it is in ‘The Peoples of Middle-earth’, in the 19th note of ‘The Problem of Ros’.
Treat everything associated with “The Problem of Ros” with grave reservations. It’s not a good source of information on Tolkien’s thinking. It was an experimental essay that he abandoned when he realized it contradicted too many other points.