Question about the Kings of the Noldor

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

Has anyone got any evidence for the title of High King being used by any King of the Noldor before Fingolfin?  I can't find any to Finwe using it, and Feanor is said only to have claimed the 'kingship' on Finwe's death.  It was also 'kingship' that Maedhros gave up to Fingolfin, although the title of High King is used of Fingolfin later.

 A High King (I'd assume Tolkien's usage is basically from the Irish Ard Ri) is a king who rules other kings.  I've always assumed Fingolfin adopted the title after Finrod and Turgon started calling themselves kings.  Finwe did not rule other kings, so it makes sense he wouldn't be a High King.  The elf in Aman who is referred to as Hign King is Ingwe, presumably because he was felt to have some authority, or at least seniority, over Finwe and Olwe.  High King would still have fitted as a title for Fingon and (just about) for Turgon.  It would not have fitted Gil-galad, although he is said to have used it, but I would assume the title had become fossilised by then.

I also can't find any evidence for Finarfin being called High King, and there wouldn't seem to be any reason why he would be, unless he adopted the title after the First Age when the Valar started reembodying other Noldor kings.

I have though noticed a fanfic tendency to refer to any king of the Noldor as High King, so have I missed something?  Is there any evidence for the title being used before Fingolfin?

Comments

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

There's some discussion of this in the Etymologies, although that's an earlier work (from the days when Tolkien was still calling the Sindarin language 'Noldorin') so may not be entirely canon. (Depending on what you think of as canon anyway...)


There are two different words in Elvish for 'king':

(Q) Tár (S) Taur or Tôr
- refers to the "legitimate king of a whole tribe". Tolkien refers to five people by name as using this title: "Ingwë of the Lindar, Finwë of the Noldor (and later Fingolfin and Fingon of all the exiled Gnomes)"... The Sindarin version was only ever used of Thingol, and was considered archaic or poetic otherwise. However, there's no indication whether limiting it to those five was exclusive (nobody else claimed the title) or illustrative. The derivation is from a root word meaning 'lofty' or 'noble'.

Tári is the feminine form, as in Elentári 'Star-queen'. In Sindarin that became tóril, a title only used to refer to Melian of Doriath.


(Q) Haran (S) Aran (plural Erain)
-refers to the lord or king of a specified region. It's derived from a root meaning 'to possess'.

Tolkien uses as an example of the difference between the two words that Fingolfin was both taur of the Exiles and aran of Hithlum.



Assuming that's all still valid, then my assumption would be that the English word 'king' is being used to translate both Elvish words depending on context. It's only when it's necessary to distinguish between the two that tár/taur is translated as 'High King' instead.

In Valinor, I suggest, the word tár was the only one in common use. When the Ñoldor arrived back in Middle-earth, part of their motivation was to claim kingdoms for themselves: and so they started using the word haran/aran to describe the rulers of each of the new kingdoms.

[hhimring]

That's fascinating and may really be the background of Tolkien's use of "High King".
But I don't think Tolkien can have stuck with this distinction all the way because he calls Finwe Noldoran, which is supposed to be "King of the Noldor". (Also the kings of Numenor are all Tar- and I had assumed they were Kings of the country rather than kings of all the Edain.)

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Whether he did stick with it I can't say, of course. But I think a case can be argued that he did.

Tar-Minyatur was King of Númenor the physical place, yes, but he was also High King of the Edain. That is, all the Edain of the Three Kindreds who survived the First Age moved to Númenor and accepted his rulership, so he was as much their Tár as Fingolfin was Tár of the Noldor in Exile. (And as grandson of Tuor and great-grandson of Beren he was descended from the leaders of all three Houses.)

And the later rulers of Númenor certainly seemed to think they had a manifest destiny to be the rulers of all of humanity,too... :)

As for Finwë; Tolkien wrote in the Etymologies that Tár was his formal title; but presumably the Quenya word haran already existed then, even before the Exiles founded their territorial kingdoms. So as a speculation, perhaps it was simply an alternative word meaning 'lord' or 'chieftain' in those days, until the returning Ñoldor realised they needed a word to use as the formal title for their newly-appointed kings?

[clotho123.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's interesting. Especially as, I *think* Tolkien is saying that in Beleriand Quenya 'Taro' = King fell together with Q 'Tara' = High (and a couple of other words as well) to produce 'Taur', which might then be a word meaning both King and High. Although he might have qualified that later, given his translation of Tar-Minyatur as 'High First-ruler' rather than 'King First-ruler' (which was something I hadn't considered before).

Anyway it appears the answer is 'complicated translation choices'. And I'm now really wondering what title, if any, Finarfin would have used, given that the Noldor who remained in Aman were nobody's idea of a whole tribe.

Thank you!