Editing Glorfindel (section)

==Development==

===Conception and creation===
[[File:Bar-en-Lothglor.svg|upright|thumb|Coat of arms of Bar-en-Lothglor (House of the Golden Flower), borne on the shields of armed forces led by Glorfindel.<ref name="lt2" group=T/>]]
In ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]'', which details the conquest of the Elven city [[Gondolin]] by the Dark Lord [[Morgoth]], Tolkien writes that Glorfindel's name "meaneth Goldtress for his hair was golden".<ref name="lt2" group=T/> It was the first part of ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'' to be written, circa 1916–17, and the story was read aloud by Tolkien to the [[Exeter College, Oxford|Exeter College]] Essay Club in the spring of 1920.<ref name="lt2" group=T/> ''The Fall of Gondolin'' appears in compressed form in ''The Silmarillion'', where the character is called "yellow-haired Glorfindel".<ref name="sil" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=}}</ref> According to Tolkien's son, [[Christopher Tolkien]],  "this was from the beginning the meaning of his name".<ref name="lt2" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1984b|loc=III "The Fall of Gondolin"}}</ref> An Elf of the same name appears in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', written many years after the original draft of ''The Fall of Gondolin'': in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', he appears to assist the hobbit [[Frodo Baggins]] in his attempt to escape the servants of the Dark Lord [[Sauron]], Morgoth's successor.<ref name="Flight to the Ford" group=T/>

As his ideas changed and evolved over the years, Tolkien wrote about Glorfindel's backstory at various times.<ref name="Evolution"/> In the very first draft of the "[[Council of Elrond]]", which was to become ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', the members of the Fellowship were to be Frodo, [[Gandalf]], [[Trotter (Lord of the Rings)|Trotter]] (later Strider/[[Aragorn]]), Glorfindel, Durin son of [[Balin (Middle-earth)|Balin]] (who became [[Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli]] son of [[Glóin]]), [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]; [[Boromir]] and [[Legolas]] did not come in until much later.<ref name="rots" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988|loc=}}</ref> Early notes for the [[Council of Elrond]] state that Glorfindel "tells of his ancestry in Gondolin". In the final published version of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', Legolas is the representative of the Elven people, though the power that Tolkien attributed to Glorfindel remains as he is depicted as being strong enough to stand against the [[Nazgûl]], and so he is chosen to guide Frodo to safety from them.<ref name="Flight to the Ford" group=T/>

Towards the end of his life, Tolkien would devote his last writings to the issue of Glorfindel and some related topics, as detailed in ''[[The Peoples of Middle-earth]]''.<ref name="POME Five Wizards" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1996|loc=ch. 13 "Last Writings", "The Five Wizards"}}</ref><ref name="Encyclopedia"/> [[Christopher Tolkien]] stated that his father had not conceived the Glorfindel of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' as the same person as the similarly named Elf of Gondolin, but had simply reused the name.<ref name="POME Glorfindel" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1996|loc=ch. 13 "Last Writings", "Glorfindel"}}</ref> The issue lay in Tolkien's original conception of the spirits of dead Elves as being re-embodied in their old bodies after a [[Purgatory]]-like period in the Halls of Mandos in [[Valinor]], the home of Tolkien's "gods", the [[Vala (Middle-earth)|Valar]] and [[Maia (Middle-earth)|Maiar]], where Elves previously lived before (re)migrating to Middle-earth. After being re-embodied, previously dead Elves stay in Valinor permanently.<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Anger |first=Don A. |chapter=Glorfindel |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D.C. Drout |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |pages=243–244}}</ref>

Tolkien eventually decided that each Elf's name should be unique, and therefore the two Glorfindels should be one and the same.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> In 1972, he wrote an essay in which he explains how Glorfindel returns to Middle-earth following his death in the First Age. On Glorfindel's status as a Noldor Exile, Tolkien noted that Glorfindel left Valinor reluctantly and is blameless in the Kinslaying, and since his sacrifice in defeating the Balrog was deemed to be "of vital importance to the designs of the Valar", he is granted an exemption to the Exiles' ban and purged of any guilt. Once restored and allowed to dwell in Valinor, his spiritual power is greatly enhanced, almost an equal of the Maiar.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> Tolkien considered having Glorfindel as a companion to Gandalf during the latter's travel to Middle-earth in the Third Age,<ref name="Evolution"/> but changed his mind as breaching the divide between Valinor and the "Circles of the World" would make him "of greater power and importance than seems fitting".<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> He proposed that Glorfindel is sent back to Middle-earth by the [[Vala (Middle-earth)|Valar]] during the [[Second Age]] {{circa|1600}}, when [[Barad-dûr]] was completed and [[Sauron]] forged the [[One Ring]], and while [[Númenor]] was still friendly with the Elves under Tar-Minastir.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> In one version he is sent as a predecessor to the [[Wizard (Middle-earth)|Istari]] (Wizards); in a different version, he arrived in Middle-earth together with the [[Blue Wizards]]. At one point he was even considered as a possibility for the identity of one of the Wizards, but Tolkien abandoned the idea since the Elves were not initially conceived as possibilities for the Wizards, and he had come to the conclusion that they were exclusively [[Maia (Middle-earth)|Maiar]].<ref name="POME Five Wizards" group=T/>