Noldor

Among Elves, the Noldor show the greatest talents for intellectual pursuits, technical skills and physical strength, yet are prone to unchecked ambition and pride in their ability to create.

Scholars such as Tom Shippey have commented that these attributes lead to their decline and fall, especially through Fëanor who creates and covets the magical jewels, the Silmarils.

Others including Dimitra Fimi have linked the Noldor to the mythical Irish warriors and sorcerers, the Tuatha Dé Danann.

[1][2] Tolkien had chosen "gnome" thinking that it derived from the Greek γνῶσις, gnōsis (knowledge), and hence was a good name for the wisest of the elves.

[4] The most distinctive aspect of Noldorin culture is their fondness for craftwork and skill of their workmanship, which ranges from lapidary to embroidery to the craft of language.

Following their return to Middle-earth at the end of the First Age, the Noldor build great cities within their realms in the land of Beleriand, such as Nargothrond and Gondolin.

[6] Tolkien gave some Noldorin leaders like Finwë and Fingolfin their own heraldic devices, carefully distinguishing their ranks by the number of points touching the rim.

The fate of Tata and Tatië is not recorded; it is Finwë who leads the Noldor to Valinor, where he becomes their King, and their chief dwelling-place is the city of Tirion upon Túna.

They were changeful in speech, for they had great love of words, and sought ever to find names more fit for all things they knew or imagined.

[T 8] With the aid of the spider spirit Ungoliant, Melkor destroys the Two Trees of Valinor,[T 9] slays Finwë, steals the Silmarils and departs from Aman.

Driven by vengeance, Fëanor rebels against the Valar and rouses the Noldor to leave Valinor, follows Melkor to Middle-earth and wages war against him for the recovery of the Silmarils.

In the port city of Alqualondë, the Noldor hosts led by Fëanor demand that the Falmari, those of the Teleri who had come to Valinor, let them use their ships.

A messenger from the Valar comes later and delivers the Prophecy of the North, pronouncing the Doom of Mandos on the Noldor for the Kinslaying, and warning that a grim fate awaits them should they proceed with their rebellion.

Maedhros's brothers dissent and begin to call themselves the Dispossessed, paying little deference to Fingolfin or his successors, and are still determined to fulfil the oath they swore to recover the Silmarils on behalf of their father.

In 455 the siege is broken by Morgoth in the Dagor Bragollach, or Battle of Sudden Flame, in which the north-eastern Elvish realms are conquered, with the exception of Maedhros' fortress at Himring.

[a] Fingolfin in despair rides to Angband and challenges Morgoth to single combat, dealing the Dark Lord seven wounds before perishing.

The defeat of Morgoth marks the end of the First Age and the start of the Second, when most of the Noldor return to Aman, though some like Galadriel or Celebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor, refuse the pardon of the Valar and remain in Middle-earth.

After Sauron re-emerges and manipulates Celebrimbor and the smiths of Eregion into forging the Rings of Power, he fortifies Mordor and begins the long war with the remaining Elves in Middle-earth.

[T 16] In The Fellowship of the Ring Frodo meets a band of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion from the House of Finrod who are returning from a pilgrimage at the White Towers.

[4] Scholars including Dimitra Fimi, Anne Kinniburgh, and John Garth have connected the Noldor with the Irish Tuatha Dé Danaan as a possible influence.

In Irish mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danaan invade Ireland as a tall pale fair-haired race of immortal warriors and sorcerers.

He comments that in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, Tolkien consistently chooses to write about the "restless desire to make things".

In Valinor, Shippey writes, the equivalent of the Fall "came when conscious creatures became 'more interested in their own creations than in God's'", with Fëanor's forging of the Silmarils.

[6] The Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist writes that Tolkien's account of Finrod Felagund includes "a transparently colonial passage" where the Elf, having arrived in a new country, "immediately takes up the White Man's Burden and spends a year educating the humans about his religious beliefs ('true knowledge').

"[17] Nightfall in Middle-Earth, a 1998 studio album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian, contained multiple references to the Noldor and the events they experience within the narrative of The Silmarillion.

For example, "Face the Truth" has Fingolfin tell how he crossed the icy Helcaraxë, while in "Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)" he regrets having left Valinor; "Battle of Sudden Flame" recalls the battle of Dagor Bragollach, which marked the turning point of the Noldor's war against Morgoth in the Dark Lord's favour; "The Dark Elf" recounts the birth of Maeglin, the son of Fingolfin's daughter Aredhel and Eöl the titular Dark Elf; "Nom the Wise" is an elegy by Beren to his friend Finrod Felagund.

Emblem of Finwë , King of the Noldor, his highest of ranks signified in Elvish heraldry by sixteen points touching the rim [ 7 ]
Arda in the First Age . The Elves awaken at Cuiviénen, on the Sea of Helcar (right) in Middle-earth , and migrate westwards towards Valinor in Aman, some not arriving there. Fëanor 's people of the Noldor, return to Beleriand (top) in stolen Falmari ships, leaving an angry Fingolfin to return over the Grinding Ice. Locations are diagrammatic.
Sketch map of Beleriand in the First Age . Fingolfin's land of Hithlum is at upper left; Turgon's city of Gondolin is more central, Finrod's city of Nargothrond below it. Morgoth is based in the Iron Mountains, in the top centre.
The Tuatha Dé Danann depicted in John Duncan 's 1911 Riders of the Sidhe
The Noldor have skill in weaving and needlework through Finwë's marriage to Míriel . Tolkien was aware that Germanic women were called weavers or embroiderers. Baldishol Tapestry pictured. [ 13 ]