Lord Glorfindel of the Golden Flower - Epic Character History (Updated)

[Music] then glorfindel leapt forward upon him and his golden armor gleamed strangely in the moon and he hewed at that demon that it leapt again upon a great boulder in the after now there was a deadly combat upon that high rock above the folk and these pressed behind and hindered ahead were grown so close that while nigh all could see yet was it over air glorfendel's men could leap to his side the ardor of glorfendol draved that balrog from point to point and his mail fended him from its whip and claw michael vonnen and well met my friends joist in here and i hope you all are doing well wherever you are in middle earth on this fine day today we will once more be discussing lord glorfendel of the golden flower here is an elf whose valor speaks for itself in tolkien's works but is still somewhat unknown and underrepresented i'll of course link related articles and videos in the description and cards as well that helped in the creation of today's video my friends thank you all so much for joining me today let's begin our tale glorfendell whose name means golden hair and sindarin was born sometime in the years of the trees probably in tirion in amman and likely to a family of royal elves that served the house of fingelfin for in his first life he would serve lord torgon son of fingofun who would be the high king he was a tall and noble elf glorfendela with long golden hair torgon his friend and liege would be the sole reason glorfendell embraced the exile of the noldor for he was reluctant in doing so and he took the long and cold road through hellcarraxay into middle-earth not of course taking part in the kinslang at aqualande before long torgon and his folk would come to vinyamar in neverest where dwelt the noldor who looked to the west from valerian and most missed their home and tyrion but torgon would come to build the great city of gondolin which was akin to tyrion of the west and it was completed in 116 of the first age there in gondolin within the encircling mountains the naldor and sindar who followed torgon would have peace and solitude and glorfendel would be appointed to be the head of the house of the golden flower one of the noble houses of gondolin and glorfendell would continue to be a chief servant and friend of the then king torgon alongside those such as xthalion of the fountain and a gelmoth of the folk of the heavenly arch it's possible that glorfendell served as one of the members of aerithal's escort when she left gondolin to visit her brother fingon the gondolinedrim the people of gondolin would love lord glorfendel during times of peace and war speaking of war glorfendell would accompany his liege tour gone when unlooked for out of the south the gondolindrim arrived to fight in the nerniathernoidyad the battle of unnumbered tears however this battle would go ill and torgon's brother fingon would be slain by balrogs making turgon the new high king of all the noldor afterwards glorfendell alongside his friend thalion would guard the retreat of the host of torgon back to the pass of sirion and onwards back to gondolin indeed glorfendell and the others would make it back to gondolin and would remain there even as the threat of morgoth grew outside the encircling mountains and his malice was ever turned towards finding and destroying the city of gondolin such a time would come in 5 10 of the first age some years after the arrival of tour the man of the house of hador who would marry idril daughter of torgon and have a son named erendia during the gates of summer festival in the morning morgoth's host would invade the valley of tomladen and attack the hidden city tour's warning for turgon to leave the city and go to the havens of phallus with his people went unheeded to the great disaster of torgon and his city during the fall of gondolin glorfendel along with his fellow elven warriors would put up a great fight even as women and children made to flee the city through idril's secret way glorfendell as it is told in the fall of gondolin and book of lost tales 2 helped fight off the armies of morgoth dawned in golden embroidered armor and with a raid sun upon his shield as was the attire of the house of the golden flower that held fast during the battle glorfendell and his elves would battle against the orcs in the streets to hold the great market of gondolin but the fire drake or one of the many of the fall of gondolin destroyed many elves and pushed them back glorfendell with some of his strong folk would cut their way out and eventually come to the square of the king and glorfendell would join tour in defending the square but once more dragon would come forth this time accompanied by orcs and balrogs glorfendell's friend and ally xthalion would kill gothmog lord of the balrogs being slain himself in the process and his sacrifice would buy time for many women and children to flee the city and glorfendyl would attend them holding the rear guard king torgon would be slain for his own tower fell upon him but glorfendell would pass on through idril's pass still holding the rear guard but even when they were on the mountain pass of kirith thoronoth the eagles cleft orcs and even a balrog would waylay the people of gondolin now whether you are a man a hobbit a dwarf or even an elf there come times in one's life when you meet a challenge that might just defeat you but you must meet it nonetheless not for your own good necessarily but for the good of many decent folk many are the characters in tolkien's works that face such times and this was the hour of glorfendela he was the strongest of the refugees of gondolin for most others were wounded or were those who could not defend themselves so glorfendyl gave up his life unflinchingly to save them which as we know with the tale of aerendil would save the son of tour and idril who would go on to save the world from morgoth glorfendel engaged the balrog twice his size fighting him upon that mountain pass he would beat the creature upon its iron helm hue off its whip arm at the elbow and stab it in the belly but in doing so the balrog pulled glorfendell by the hair with him and the two fell from the mountains into the chasm below at the balrog's death cry the orcs with him were dismayed fleeing or being slain in doing this deed tour and idril were able to lead the survivors of gondolin away and these people would never forget the sacrifice of glorfendel the mighty and they would make songs about him the no dolly would remember him every time the eldar saw a powerful fight between good and evil saying it was glorfendyland the balrog and thorandor the lord of the great eagles of that age would retrieve glorfendel's body from the chasm and tor allowed the people of the golden flower to raise a cairn for the fallen hero and though thorn seer the eagle stream was a river at the bottom of a gorge in the encircling mountains and it was a dangerous place yellow flowers would grow upon the mount and lord thorandor would always protect it until the fall of belarian the folk of the golden flower wept for him but it was not the end for the elves have a different doom than that of men and they were bound to these hither circles of the world whereas men go off beyond glorfendell's spirit would pass to the halls of waiting where amongst his company he could not be ashamed not for how he came to be there due to glorfendell's valiant actions in life his reluctance to join in the exile of the noldor and his deeds that saved tour idril erendil and the others manway allowed him to be re-embodied reincarnated after a short amount of time others who were also great in valor such as finrod the beloved were given such a boon and glorfendell would go on living in valinor amongst elves mayar and valar and he had earned much respect in his first life but his story does not end here he would even likely go on to become a follower and friend of eloren he who would become gandalf he would be sent likely in 1600 of the second age back to middle earth by manway similarly to the wizards who were sent there as emissaries of the valar it's possible he came earlier as early as 1200 of the second age or far later around 1 000 of the third age like gandalf but it seems most canonically correct and likely to say 1600 of the second h there's conjecture about if the glorfendell of the second and third ages is the same being as the one of the first age for tolkien does reuse many names throughout the ages but most of the canon points to this being the case that glorfendyl of the second and third ages was the reincarnation of glorfendell of the first age it's also more rare for elves than men to reuse names depending on what roles he was allowed to play as one of the strongest elves in middle earth glorfendell would do what he could to aid the eldar and all of the free peoples and i most definitely think he would be a part of the white councils of both the second and third ages i like to cure down the shipwright i would be unsurprised if he played a greater role in some of the events and wars of the second age and we just haven't really heard about it such as the war of the elves and sauron or the war of the last alliance but we do know that during the angmar war in the third age glorfendel would lead the elven host in the battle of fornost helping to end the witch king's campaign in the north that had destroyed arnor but the prince ayarner of gondor would be humiliated by the witch king during that fight and though the prince of gondor wanted to pursue the nazgul glorfendell realized the true power and nature of the witch king and bade ayarnor not to pursue him saying that he would not return to these lands prophesizing that the death of the witch king was far off and that it would not be by the hand of man that he would fall this was surely powerful foresight on behalf of glorfendel and of course he would be right a arnor would go on to challenge the witch king in menace morgul and he would be lost to the world of men after this glorfendyl would not play too much of an active role in the events of the world but if he was indeed in the white council he most likely would have taken part in all of those meetings as well as the assault on dole goldor in 2941 in 3018 during the events of the lord of the rings glorfendell would be assigned by elrond to go forth from rivendell and search for frodo the ring bearer and his company glorfendell would come upon some of the nazgul in this venture and he would leave an elf barrel on the last bridge which strider took as a good sign during their passing into the troll shaws the nazgul would flee from glorfendel eventually the elf would find his quarry and would aid frodo and his companions along and giving frodo to the care of his horse azvaloth the steed bore frodo away from the nine across the bruning river towards rivendell while from the other side of the nazgul glorfendel whose power came out in a great light chased the nazgul into the flood of the river that took them for indeed his power was great and quite frightening to the noz ghoul glorfendell as did all high elves of valinor existed in both the mortal and unseen realms even as the cloaks of the nosql gave them forms in the former but they existed more totally in the latter after this glorfendell helped bear frodo to rivendell and he would take part in the council of elrond speaking that he knew tom bombadil would not be a good keeper of the ring should he receive it and that a few options were before them as a council they could send the one ring over the sea to the mighty west drop it deep into the ocean like the lies of sauron stated or destroy it the first could not be so for as elrond said the lords of the west would not receive the ring as it was bound to middle earth the second would only prolong the defeat of the west and the victory of sauron for eventually the ring would come back ashore either to others or eventually to him and the third was their only choice it would seem that tolkien toyed with the idea of putting glorfendel in the fellowship but decided and stated in the fellowship of the ring that he would be too powerful and indeed would be too revealing to sauron in his strength for the quest would be one of secrecy legless would take the place of being the only elf in the fellowship for he did not possess the same innate power that glorfendyl had for the lord was one of the last high elves in middle earth and so it would seem that glorfendyl would stay in rivendell during the rest of the war of the ring attending the wedding of aragorn and darwin afterwards in the end since the darkness of sauron who had served under morgoth of old was gone glorfendell would go back into the west his deeds and councils having come to their full fruition whether it would be with the ring bearers in 3021 or afterwards i'm unsure but he would return to the undying lands nonetheless to live out the rest of the ages of this world in a well-earned peace and so we come to the end of our tale about lord glorfendel from the history of glorfendell we see that we cannot deny the moments that call upon us to perform valiant deeds when our greatest hours have come for better or for worse we must answer the call and go forth to victory thank you all so much for watching i hope you all enjoyed this epic character history if you did please be sure to hit that like button and share this with a friend what are your thoughts questions additions and corrections about glorfendell let me know in the comments below glorfendell is such a great elf definitely one of my favorites his valor in battle times of peace and council all deserve great recognition in the vast expanse of tolkien's works and i'm always glad when he comes into the story to further support the channel please check out our music channel facebook twitter merch and patreon for podcast and discord server all of those links are in the description below we just did a 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Channel: Men of the West

Views: 74,375

Rating: 4.9778829 out of 5

Keywords: Men of the West, Lore, Middle-earth, Yoystan, Epic Character History, Glorfindel, Aragorn, Gondolin, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, Turgon, Elves, Elrond, Angmar, Witch-king

Id: Shv8WJGh64Y

Length: 14min 18sec (858 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021