Was Orodreth a bad king?

Orodreth didn't seem like a very good king. He let Turin do whatever he wanted, like build the bridge and took his advice over Ulmo's.

More like a weak king, with a lack of force of personality.

Or more likely Turin had won over most of the young hotheads in Nargothrond. Finrod was long gone, most of the older lords probably were lost at Dagor Bragollach (Finrod barely escaped from that).

It's like a President trying to work with an unruly Congress. Worse, he was appointed regent until Finrod returned, which may mean his claim to Lordship can be disputed.

I'd have had Turin executed or exiled.

I definately have to agree that Orodreth was somewhat weak of will. I blame him and Turin for the sack of Nargothrond. Did it not come out later that Orodreth was not even Finrod's brother, but his nephew? But even after that he still would be the one to take Finrod's throne. Pity.

It didn't exactly 'come out' like a secret long hidden, Tolkien changed the idea. The info. is in The parentage of Gil-Galad in the Shibboleth of Fëanor of The Peoples of Middle-earth [I omit a good part of it, that which precedes the following]:

The name of Angrod's son (still retaining the identity of 'Orodreth') was then changed from Artanáro to Artaresto. In an isolated note found with the genealogies, scribbled at great speed but nonetheless dated, August 1965, my father suggested that the best solution to the problem of Gil-galad's parentage was to find him in 'the son of Orodreth', who is here given the Quenya name of Artaresto, and continued:

Finrod left his wife in Valinor and had no children in exile. Angrod's son was Artaresto, who was beloved by Finrod and escaped when Angrod was slain, and dwelt with Finrod. Finrod made him his 'steward' and he succeeded him in Nargothrond. His Sindarin name was Rodreth (altered to Orodreth because of his love of the mountains) .. ..... His children were Finduilas and Artanáro = Rodnor later called Gil-galad. (Their mother was a Sindarin lady of the North. She called her son Gil-galad.) Rodnor Gil-galad escaped and eventually came to Sirion's Mouth and was King of the Noldor there.

The words that I cannot read contain apparently a preposition and a proper name, and this latter could be Faroth (the High Faroth west of the river Narog). - In the last of the genealogical tables Artanáro (Rodnor) called Gil-galad appears, with the note that 'he escaped and dwelt at SÃ*rion's Mouth'. The only further change was the rejection of the name Artaresto and its replacement by Artaher, Sindarin Arothir . [reference to a note found elsewhere] ... The final genaology was:

I represent the genealogy crudely thus:

Angrod-------------------------Finrod
I
Artaher/Arothir [Orodreth]
I
Artanáro/Rodnor/Gil-galad

The passage continues:

Since Finduilas remained without correction in the last of the genealogies as the daughter of Arothir, she became the sister of Gil-galad.

There can be no doubt that this was my father's last word on the subject; but nothing of this late and radically altered conception ever touched the existing narratives, and it was obviously impossible to introduce it into the published Silmarillion. It would nonetheless have been very much better to have left Gil-galad's parentage obscure.

The last part of this section of the book states Gil-galad as the son of Fingon was an ephemeral idea.

I include all this seemingly irrevelent stuff about Gil-galad because I thought someone would have asked curiously about the relationship of this passage to those of the published Silmarillion.


By the way, do you think we could possibly get the italics smaller? I like someone to hurt their eyes trying to read my posts,

Orodreth like all of the Noldor [w/ the possible exception of galadriel] was firmly enmeshed in the doom of the Noldor, w/ the added bonus of the curse on turin froim Morgoth so it is not so much a case of being a bad king I think but being dealt a hand that is doomed to lose.
HE 'should' have destroyed the bridge and not gone out to fight, but Turin's will and charisma and doom were overwhelming.

My old, old quote remains two months later? Wow, that's pretty cool