Glorfindel is a fictional character in JR R Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium.
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Glorfindel is a fictional character in JR R Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium.
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Glorfindel is a member of the Noldor, one of the three groups of the Calaquendi or High Elves.
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Glorfindel's name indicates his hair as a mark of his distinction, as the Noldor were generally dark-haired.
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Glorfindel worked out how both characters named Glorfindel could be one and the same, something not evident from the published version of The Lord of the Rings; the question has been debated by scholars.
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Glorfindel proposed that Glorfindel is sent back to Middle-earth by the Valar during the Second Age circa 1600, when Barad-dur was completed and Sauron forged the One Ring, and while Numenor was still friendly with the Elves under Tar-Minastir.
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Glorfindel was part of the host of Turgon, but only followed Turgon because of their kinship.
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Glorfindel took no part in the Kinslaying at Alqualonde, but followed the rest of the Noldor host in their exile.
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Glorfindel later appears as a noble lord, one of King Turgon's chief lieutenants who oversees his retreat during the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
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Glorfindel fought the Balrog and succeeded in slaying the monster, but was himself mortally wounded.
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Glorfindel's body was recovered by the great eagle Thorondor and buried under a stone cairn, where afterward grew yellow flowers.
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Glorfindel set Frodo on his horse, Asfaloth, and has the hobbit riding ahead to the other side of the Ford of Bruinen, where he defies his pursuers.
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Glorfindel showed unusual wisdom by voicing caution about sending the Ring to the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, and suggested that the Ring be destroyed and that the Three Rings of the Elves be sacrifice to accomplish this quest.
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Glorfindel justified the inclusion of Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took by saying:.
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Earnur wished to pursue him, but Glorfindel bade him not to and prophesied the Witch-king would fall in the far future, but not by "the hand of man".
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Alexander Lewis and Elizabeth Currie wrote that Glorfindel was a "chance reuse of no significance", and argued that Tolkien "tied himself, as well as readers and critics, in knots over the question of whether there were one or two characters of the name".
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Glorfindel explained that as much of the background material for Glorfindel was unpublished when The Silmarillion was posthumously released, various Tolkien compendiums were "forced" into speculation to sate the curiosity of readers concerning the mystery of the character's death and sudden "reappearance" in The Lord of the Rings, citing The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: from The Hobbit to The Silmarillion as an example.
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Edmund Wainwright noted that Glorfindel is the best example of a male Elf in The Lord of the Rings who embodies his people's aspect as semi-divine beings given his immense power.
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Glorfindel noted that Tolkien sought to make his "secondary world" compatible with his "primary world", and so he reconsidered his focus on metaphysical and philosophical explorations from the 1950s and his revisions gradually moved the texts of his legendarium closer in alignment with biblical accounts and Christian ideals.
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Whittingham observed that Glorfindel is a notable exception to Tolkien's later stance on abandoning one of his oldest concepts, reincarnation through rebirth, and that he is Tolkien's first attempt of contemplating the portrayal of a reincarnated elf.
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Glorfindel noted that his previous battle with the Balrog in the First Age essentially serves as an "initiation" to a shamanic trial and journey.
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Glorfindel appears as a non player character in the 2002 video game The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
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Glorfindel is featured on the game's box art, and is one of the playable hero units of the Elvish faction who rides his steed Asfaloth.
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