I'm with you entirely! And I am writing a personal-canon which makes a huge issue out of Fingon being Gil-galad's father.
The more I do research for the character bios the more reasons/hints I can see for envisioning Orodreth as his father--subtle ways in which that paternity reflects/enhances Tolkien's positions in other areas (Gil-galad fits in the House of Finarfin in a lot of ways (just does not fit very well with Oropher for me). I am not going to defend my thinking here today--sadly do not have time and that could be a doctoral thesis--but I will write some of them up some day.
But the problem is that Tolkien initially was obscure or undecided, and C.T. made a choice and went to print with it. I read that version and it informed my vivid internal images of those characters and events for years before I read in the HoMe that he had regretted his decision! If it were real world history, I might be forced to abandon Fingon with great sadness and embrace Orodreth, but it's fiction and hardly likely that any primary sources will be added to our knowledge at this point. So I get to give Gil-galad an incomparably attractive and valiant father guilt-free!!
"The final version of the tale is Orodreth becoming Angrod’s son and the father of Gil-galad."
I think you're reaching here a little to say this was final--actually, that part was never finished. C.T. says he believes that his father may have entertained Fingon as the father of Gil-galad in only an ephemeral sense. But that again is only an opinion--we have no way of reaching Tolkien for clarification and he did not complete his edit of the documents.
Not going to lie--I love the poignancy and added complexity that fatherhood gives to Fingon for purposes of my ongoing saga of the undying love of Fingon and Maedhros.
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timeasmymeasure
Who's Gil-galad's daddy? Give him a blood test!
Date: 2014-09-02 07:56 pm (UTC)The more I do research for the character bios the more reasons/hints I can see for envisioning Orodreth as his father--subtle ways in which that paternity reflects/enhances Tolkien's positions in other areas (Gil-galad fits in the House of Finarfin in a lot of ways (just does not fit very well with Oropher for me). I am not going to defend my thinking here today--sadly do not have time and that could be a doctoral thesis--but I will write some of them up some day.
But the problem is that Tolkien initially was obscure or undecided, and C.T. made a choice and went to print with it. I read that version and it informed my vivid internal images of those characters and events for years before I read in the HoMe that he had regretted his decision! If it were real world history, I might be forced to abandon Fingon with great sadness and embrace Orodreth, but it's fiction and hardly likely that any primary sources will be added to our knowledge at this point. So I get to give Gil-galad an incomparably attractive and valiant father guilt-free!!
"The final version of the tale is Orodreth becoming Angrod’s son and the father of Gil-galad."
I think you're reaching here a little to say this was final--actually, that part was never finished. C.T. says he believes that his father may have entertained Fingon as the father of Gil-galad in only an ephemeral sense. But that again is only an opinion--we have no way of reaching Tolkien for clarification and he did not complete his edit of the documents.
Not going to lie--I love the poignancy and added complexity that fatherhood gives to Fingon for purposes of my ongoing saga of the undying love of Fingon and Maedhros.