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The defender of Gondolin's refugeesOne identity and several textual stagesPrimary referencesRelated encyclopedia entries
The defender of Gondolin's refugees
In the First Age, Glorfindel belongs to Gondolin. During the escape after the city’s fall, he fights a Balrog above the pass and falls with it, preserving the way for the survivors. The episode places his death within the rescue of a people rather than within a successful defence of the ruined city.
In The Lord of the Rings, Glorfindel rides out from Rivendell in search of the Ring-bearer. He helps the company reach the Ford of Bruinen, where Frodo confronts the pursuing Nazgûl. The later council also makes clear that great individual power does not remove the need for secrecy or make a small quest unnecessary.
One identity and several textual stages
The Peoples of Middle-earth contains the late essays in which Tolkien considers the shared identity and re-embodiment. These should be cited when the two lives are joined. The exact timing and circumstances of his return should not be presented with a certainty greater than the surviving discussions support.
This is an important example of why an encyclopedia needs both an intelligible principal account and clear distinctions between textual stages. The published Silmarillion and the novel provide the two appearances; the later essays address their relationship explicitly.
The films transfer the rescue ride at the Ford to Arwen. That adaptation does not change the identity of the book’s rider, and it should not lead a reader to remove Glorfindel from a reference account of Frodo’s journey to Rivendell.
Primary references
The Silmarillion, “Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin”; The Lord of the Rings, Book I, “Flight to the Ford”, and Book II, “Many Meetings” and “The Council of Elrond”; The Peoples of Middle-earth, “Last Writings: Glorfindel”.
