Tolkien Heroes

I never planned to talk about Tolkien's ancient heroes in a certain order but as I decided (after thinking long and hard about who the next hero should be) on today's hero I realized that I was going in somewhat of a chronological order. We're going to roll with that from here on out. So here we are, talking about Fingon!

Obviously Fingon is kick-awesomely cool because he made this renowned list. Let it be known that Fingon was an OG. Fingon was actually the son of Fingolfin. Fingolfin just died in the Battle of Sudden Flame and Fingon was next in line to be the High King of the Noldor. Chalk one up there for High King, in Middle Earth, number two!

His entire army dead beside him; Fingon faces battle with Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs.

Before he was made king was when he did his most famous deed. Which I would tell in brief, but we need a little back story for it to be more effective. So rewind.......... and stop. Ok, begin: All the elves said "peace out" to the Valar and took off from Aman because they wanted to go lay the smackdown on Melkor for taking their stuff. Well it turns out the elves were all united against Melkor, when he was around, but when he [Melkor] wasn't around they really didn't like each other that much either. So much so, it turns out, that when they get to a stopping point in their journey a portion of the elves take the ships secretly and then burn them when they get to Middle Earth. They assume that the other elves wont be able to make it and they'll get all their stuff by themselves. Meanwhile all the elves that got left are all sorts of ticked off so they're doing anything they can get to Middle Earth so they can show up their relatives... You know how it is.

They finally make it. It was rough, people died, they're not in a good mood and they're hating on the other elves right now. Fingon knew they needed to make amends because now it was time to get down to business and kick Melkor's tooshie. Fingon learns that one of his good friends was captured and chained by one hand to a mountain because of Melkor. Fingon decides he's going to go rescue him. (This is a big deal because this "friend" of his is a leader of the group of elves that left Fingon's group to die back on the journey from Aman). Fingon sneaks into Melkor's land and is searching all around, for days. He has no luck and is so hot, bothered, and frustrated that he sits down and plays a song on his harp, right in the middle of Melkor's land! Just to defy all the evil! While he plays he hears a voice singing. He follows it and it turns out to be Maedhros, his "friend" chained to the mountain. The mountain is sheer and there is no way to ascend it. Maedhros, in such pain, asks Fingon to just shoot him so he wont have to endure it any more. Just as Fingon is about to shoot, the King of the Eagles swoops down and picks Fingon up. Fingon is carried, by the eagle, to where Maedhros is and frees Maedhros by cutting his hand off at the wrist (don't worry there was no other way).

Maedhros lives and becomes a fierce ally of Fingon and his father. The other elves are blown away when they find out this happens because Fingon didn't even tell anybody! He just left, and then when he comes back he brought Maedhros! All the elves were like: "Jigga what!" This act really mediated the hatred between the two divisions of elves and they became more lovey dovey after this event. There is so much more I want to divulge, but alas I have not the time... Suffice it to say Fingon and his valiant deeds are some of the gosh-darn coolest reading in the Silmarillion.

Today, our hero of the week is seriously one of the most gangster elves that ever walked the face of Arda. Oh my freaking heck he is cool! I literally had a drop of saliva slowly dripping from my mouth when I started typing this. It was either because of how cool he is, or, it was because I was thinking of making a juicy pork tenderloin for dinner... Probably both. I am going to need to cut back on what I want to say about this guy because there is so so so much I could talk about. I will attempt to focus on one memorable event in his magnificent life.

Fingolfin's Heraldic Device

Fingolfin, like the title says, was the first High King of the Noldor that returned to Beleriand. He was beast and when he went in to beast mode nobody wanted to be around him. No way! Some name him the greatest warrior of all-time between elves and men. After Melkor stole the Silmarils the elves went all crazy and tracked him down to Beleriand. (Middle Earth today is what remains of Beleriand essentially.) Melkor, who's now called Morgoth, is chilling in his fortress of death when Fingolfin leads his army right up to Morgoth's gate and starts banging on it. Morgoth doesn't have the resources to fight all the elves so he just continues to chill because the elves can't get in anyway. Fingolfin then leads a 400 year siege of Utumno! (Morgoth's fortress) Talk about endure to the end.

During these 400 years Fingolfin is walking around being a baller and dominating whoever he pleases, as long as they're allies of Morgoth. Fingolfin is pretty confident that they're going to outlast Morgoth pretty soon, when Morgoth sends a massive force screaming out of Utumno. No one is expecting it because Fingolfin trusted some, good for nothing, nephews of his to be in charge of watching Utumno (which they knowingly neglected for many reasons...stupid). Morgoth's force seriously put the hurt on the elves and although they were able to hold him back, the elves started fleeing. When Fingolfin heard this he was filled with despair thinking that it was the end, because all the elves were giving up. This then fueled his wrath and when Fingolfin is wrathful you better take cover.

Thinking all was lost, Fingolfin straps on his sword, gets on his horse and rides up to Utumno again. His blazing fury is so awesome that all his foes think that he is a one of the war Vala (a god) and they're scrambling to get out of his way as he rides. He rides right up to Utumno and bangs on the gate again challenging Morgoth to a one on one fight. Now it bears note that Morgoth is an actual Vala and can't die, but when he see's Fingolfin he is scared and straight up doesn't want to fight him. This time, however, Morogth's whole army can see him and if he doesn't fight they'll think he's a wimp and wont fight for him anymore. Grudgingly Morgoth comes outside his gate to fight with Fingolfin.

The fight begins and Fingolfin is weaving and bobbing, biting and stinging. He deals Morgoth seven terrible blows, and each time Morgoth screamed in anguish and the whole host of Morgoth quailed in fear that he would be defeated. However, like we said, Morgoth is one of the Valar and cannot die and while elves are immortal they can fatigue and so Fingolfin began to fatigue. After hours of fighting his strength began to wain until he stumbled on a crater (from Morgoth's hammer). Morgoth pinned Fingolfin with his foot on his neck but before the final blow was struck Fingolfin heaved one last mighty blow at Morgoth's foot. The blow was strong and so deep that, ever after, Morgoth would walk with a limp. With that blow Morgoth snapped Fingolfin's neck. After suffering so much pain and anguish at the hand of just one elf, Morgoth was want to desecrate Fingolfin's body. Before he could lay another hand on the body a great eagle swooped down, picked up the body and carried it to Turgon, Fingolfin's son, to bury properly.

The adventures and tales of Fingolfin's bravery, wisdom, and kindness are likely endless and memorable. Even if it must be remembered in sadness because of the final outcome, his last epic stand at the gates of Angband is the most memorable of all and represents well why he is such a superbly awesome hero!

See! Love struck. No likey.

Hop diggity dang, here we go again. I said I would go in chronological order, but now I'm kind of regretting it. Mainly because of Beren. I would much rather skip him, but to do so would be disrespect to what he did. Don't get me wrong, he was a champ, but his story is intertwined in a story of love. For some people that makes it only better. For myself, I don't know why but once love is involved I don't like it near as much... It doesn't make sense... Maybe it's because I feel that when characters do something heroic out of love for their "beloved" they do it only because of their beloved, and placed in a similar situation but with no "beloved" would not have done what they did. But a great many things are done and accomplished in the name of love. It seems with just half a moment of thought that most of the great things that are accomplished in this world could stem from love. Maybe not love of someone, but love of something or love of a group of things or people. Love isn't bad I do things out of love..... I digress. I am writing of Beren the One Handed, first mortal hero of Arda.