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.