Gildor Inglorion - Ancestry

Ancestry

Gildor's ancestry appears to be a loose thread that Tolkien never properly tied up. Gildor calls himself "Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod". At the time Tolkien was writing this, the name Finrod referred to the third son of Finwë, and this Finrod had a son, Inglor Felagund. Since Inglorion means "son of Inglor", the straightforward reading is that "Gildor Inglorion" was the son of Inglor, son of Finrod, son of Finwë, which would make him an elf of very high lineage.

But this is not borne out in any of the later genealogies that Tolkien left behind. Finrod son of Finwë was renamed Finarfin, and the name Finrod was transferred to his son Inglor, who became Finrod Felagund. Most of the published references to Finrod were corrected to Finarfin, but this one was not. Moreover, Gildor appears in none of the genealogies. We are left with Gildor as the son of an otherwise unknown Inglor, with no obvious genealogical connection to Finwë, Finarfin, or Finrod. Although Gildor had some standing among the Exiles, as his leadership of his party indicates, the phrase "of the House of Finrod" now has no clear meaning. Hammond and Scull point out that this might mean merely that Gildor belonged to the household of Finrod. We simply don't know whether Tolkien intended a blood connection.