Characters: Turgon

Last week I posted some audio from "The House of Fingolfin" which was focussed on Turgon. But if you haven't read through the book, you'd be lost as to who the fellow actually was. To my recollection, he was not mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, though the great city he built, Gondolin, was. Elrond mentions Turgon obliquely in the Hobbit "This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!'" (The Hobbit, Chapter 3).

So how does Elrond know Turgon? And what is Gondolin?

Turgon was an elf from the House of Fingolfin. The House of Fingolfin was the House from which the High Kings of the Noldor (the Noldor are one of three groups of Elves) came. The first king of the Noldor was Finwe, Fingolfin's father, and Turgon's grandfather. Both Fingolfin and Turgon played a pivotal part in the events of the First Age of Middle Earth. Fingolfin was the first High King of the Noldor in Middle Earth, and had three children, Fingon, Turgon and Aredhel (there's also, apparently a son named Argon, but he doesn't figure into The Silmarillion).

At the beginning of the First Age, Turgon lived a bit to the west of his father, and would often hunt with a friend named Finrod (who I will talk about in another post). While on this hunting trip, both Elves had dreams about hidden kingdoms, but spoke none of it to each other. Turgon went on to find the Hidden Vale amidst a place known as "the Encircling Mountains" and began to construct the city of Gondolin. Gondolin survived longest of all the Elven kingdoms of the First Age before its tragic sack. Had Gondolin not been made, or survived as long as it did, much of the hope of the First Age would have been lost.

Turgon is in fact Elrond's forefather. Elrond mentions that "Eärendil was my sire, who was born in Gondolin before its fall; and my mother was Elwing, daughter of Dior, son of Lúthien of Doriath." (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond). Earendil, was the son of Turgon's daughter Idril, who married a man named Tuor. To sum up, the genealogy goes like this:

Fingolfin---Turgon---Idril (and Tuor)---Earendil (and Elwing)---Elrond etc. I hope this helps place a few of the many relationships in the book. As you can see, Turgon is vital to much of the mythology of Middle Earth and certainly to the events of the First Age.