Even so, when Fëanor stole ships and left Aman, Fingolfin chose to follow him back to Middle-earth, taking the dangerous route over the ice of the Helcaraxë.

Fingolfin was the second son of Finwë, High King of the Noldor, a division of the Elves lower than the Vanyar but higher than the Teleri.

His father-name in Quenya—one of Tolkien's fictional languages—was Nolofinwë, or "wise Finwë," while his mother-name was Aracáno, or "High Chieftain", the same name as his youngest son Argon.

[T 5] Fingolfin led the largest host of the Noldor when they fled Aman for Middle-earth, even though he thought this unwise; he did not want to abandon his people to Fëanor.

Its colours are like those for his father Finwë's device, but as the Tolkien scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull note, its eight curling points are more like those of Fëanor's.

[1] Catherine McIlwaine, who curated the Bodleian Library exhibition of his artwork, wrote that Tolkien liked to create decorative patterns, leading up to pattern-based designs such as a carpet from Númenor.

[T 8][T 9][T 10] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that in The Silmarillion, as in Norse tradition and sagas, people are defined by their ancestry.

The Vanyar are the senior division of the Elves; so Fëanor's fourth son Caranthir is quite wrong to treat his father's half-brothers Finarfin and Fingolfin with contempt, something that was both dangerous and ill-founded.

The Tolkien scholar Megan Fontenot, on Tor.com, writes that mental images of Fingolfin are "unforgettable": his ride across Dor-nu-Fauglith to the gates of Morgoth's fortress of Angband, or the image of him "pounding upon the great gates of the dark fortress, blowing great blasts upon a silver horn, demanding that Morgoth show his face and join him in single combat.

He is absent from the earliest Fëanor stories in The Book of Lost Tales, and that in Tolkien's many drafts, such as in The Lays of Beleriand, Fingolfin has several different fathers and siblings; further, his name is temporarily assigned to various other characters.

Hartley interprets the Christian Tolkien to mean by this an increase in power equivalent to what the New Testament calls being filled with the Holy Spirit.

In his view, the imagery and the increase in Fingolfin's strength "suggest that the Secret Fire has taken possession of him; that perhaps he is no longer merely the King of the Noldor but a chosen instrument of the Valar", the gods of Arda.

Fingolfin's oath to follow Fëanor back to Middle-earth means his own exile from the blessed realm of Valinor, and his own death.

The song "Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)", on the German power-metal band Blind Guardian's 1998 album Nightfall in Middle-Earth, tells the story of the fight between Morgoth and Fingolfin.

"[8] The song (in Russian) "Do Not Ask Me To Praise Him" [Ты славить его меня не проси] by Aire and Saruman [Айрэ и Саруман] on their album "A Elberet[h] Gilt[h]oniel" [А Элберет Гилтониэль] is a lament for Fingolfin by his minstrel some time after that last battle: '... do not ask me to praise him, the day won't be brighter for a candle...'.

[12][13] Artists including John Howe and Pete Amachree have depicted Fingolfin challenging Morgoth at the gates of Angband.