Meeting Gildor

[Alcuin]

Earlier I posted on the talking fox of Woody End. What followed for Frodo and his friends were two close encounters with a Nazgûl. In the second encounter, the Nazgûl began to hunt them, only to be interrupted by the arrival of a group of Elves. We aren’t told how many there are, though they seem to have been more numerous than the Hobbits: perhaps as few as five or six, perhaps as many as ten or even a dozen. They’re singing until they reach Frodo and his companions, but stop: are they done with singing, or do they sense the Nazgûl who has merely withdrawn into the shadows? As they have just passed the Hobbits hiding nearby, the last Elf turns and calls to Frodo by name.

I argue in the thread on the fox that the purpose of the “talking fox” is to demarcate the end of the idyllic life Frodo has led and the end of the introductory part of the storyline. We are three chapters into the Fellowship of the Ring, but only now is Frodo at last on the move.

Over the years, I’ve read a great deal of speculation about who exactly “Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod” might be. It is true that Tolkien once considered that he might a member of the royal house of Finwë, first King of the Noldor, and a descendent of Finrod’s, but seems later to have abandoned that notion. I want to avoid that issue if I can by taking a more minimalist approach. This is a side issue, but makes what Gildor tells Frodo profoundly poignant.

In the First Age, Barahir, chieftain of the First House of the Edain, saved Finrod in battle. Finrod gave Barahir his ring and vowed to help Barahir should he need it. After Barahir died, his son Beren wore the ring. When Thingol demanded a Silmaril in exchange for the hand of his daughter Lúthien, Beren went to Nargothrond, the kingdom of Finrod, showed him the ring, and asked for his help. The brothers Celegorm and Curufin, sons of Fëanor, were also in Nargothrond at that time. When Finrod spoke to his people about his oath to Barahir, Celegorm and Curufin spoke against him. The Noldor of Nargothrond refused to help Beren, but Finrod held to his oath to Beren’s father. He gave the rule of Nargothrond to his brother Orodreth (the father, perhaps, of Gil-galad, though the genealogy is unsettled), and with ten companions, set out with Beren. They were captured by Sauron, and after the ten companions were killed one by one in Sauron’s dungeons, Finrod gave his life to save Beren, who was saved and freed by Lúthien.

I think Gildor must have been one of Finrod’s counselors, and later of Orodreth’s and Gil-galad’s. As I pointed out in the thread on the fox, he advises Frodo exactly as he might advised Finrod: “[D]o not go alone. Take such friends as are trusty and willing.” When Finrod left Nargothrond, Celegorm and Curufin had turned the hearts of the people against him. And from all his long years in Middle-earth, Gildor has learned, “[A]dvice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”

After the fall of Gil-galad, Gildor seems to have taken to wandering Eriador. But he is in contact with many folk: Lindon, certainly, where it seems the greater part of the Noldor remained in company with the surviving Sindar; and Rivendell, where Elrond led the surviving Noldor of Eregion (Hollin) after Sauron destroyed it, along with the Sindar and Noldor sent with him from Lindon in the futile attempt to stave off Sauron’s assault upon Eregion. He is also in contact with the Dúnedain who remain, the Rangers; and with the other denizens of Eriador.

Gildor gently draws out Frodo in their conversation. He tells Frodo nothing of Bilbo’s whereabouts when Frodo asks about Bilbo. Then he reveals that he understands the Nazgûl is hunting Frodo. He turns away Frodo’s questions on the nature of the Ringwraiths, but though more gentle prodding, discovers that Gandalf is missing. This pulls him up short. When Frodo asks for advice, Gildor hesitates - resists, almost - and recites an aphorism about meddling in the affairs of wizards. Frodo responds with a sharp retort (in context, almost certainly a saying among the Dúnedain, the only folk who had close interaction with Elves) that Gildor has clearly never heard before.

Gildor is old. I think he came from Eldamar, and if so, he’s at least 7,000 years old. He probably hasn’t heard anything new, much less something funny, in centuries. The only Hobbit that speaks Quenya, or Sindarin for that matter, that he’s met before is probably Bilbo, so when Frodo speaks to the Elves in Quenya, they proclaim him “a jewel among Hobbits.” Reader’s Companion says that Elves played with their language so that one of their ways of saying “no” had evolved into implying “yes”. (The same thing happens in English, at least: the first time I heard someone say, “Oh, that’s wicked!” to express approval I took it at face value and was shocked.) When Frodo retorts, “Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes,” I think Gildor laughs - really laughs - from surprise and delight and amusement for the first time many hundreds of years.

Then he tells Frodo, “The Wandering Companies shall know of your journey, and those that have power for good shall be on the watch.” Gildor is good to his word. The profound results of this are easy to overlook.

• The arrival of Gildor and his companions prevents the Nazgûl from discovering and seizing Frodo and the Ring at the very outset of the story.
• When Frodo and his friends become lost and trapped in the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil rescues them, telling them, “‘We heard news of you, and learned that you were wandering,’” and later Frodo learned that “it seemed that in some fashion, news had reached [Tom Bombadil] from Gildor concerning the flight of Frodo.”
• At The Prancing Pony, Strider says that he had heard that Gandalf was missing, the Black Riders had appeared, and that Frodo had left Bag End and disappeared, explaining, “It was the Elven-folk of Gildor that told me this”.
• When Strider and the Hobbits meet Glorfindel, Glorfindel tells them, “Some of my kindred, journeying in your land … learned that things were amiss, and sent messages as swiftly as they could.” His kindred, of course, were Gildor and his companions.

The whole success of Frodo’s mission to carry the Ring to Rivendell relies upon his “chance” encounter with Gildor.

Finally, the encounter with Gildor is the beginning of Frodo’s journey into a new and different world. Aragorn and the surviving Dúnedain of Arnor live in that world, the world their forefathers, the Edain, lived in, the world of the Elves. He will remain in that world for the rest of his life. As Frodo left his old life, we readers encounter the talking fox; he enters his new life when he meets Gildor.