Finwë
High King of the Noldor; father of the Fëanorians
Names and Title
Finwë — “the first King of the Noldor”, the prince of the second kindred of the Elves at their awakening, and the head of the greatest Elvish house. The name Finwë is given as “the wise” — in the Valar-myth the name is ancient; its sense is bound to his craft (“skilled”); he is also the father of the line that bears his name — the three houses of the Noldor all descend from him.
Life
- Finwë was one of the first Elves who woke at Cuiviénen, chosen (with Ingwë and Elwë) as a companion of Oromë to go and see the Valar in Aman; on his return his counsel induced most of his people to take the Great Journey, and he became their king. -
In Aman he founded the city of Tirion upon Túna, under the two trees, and his people the Noldor grew great and wise under his rule.
- His two marriages: Finwë’s first wife Míriel (Serindë the Needle-woman) bore him Fëanor and, worn by the labor of his conception, “was consumed” — she released herself and went to the Halls of Mandos, never to return to the body. Finwë, mourning, took a second wife, Indis, of the Vanyar, and had Fingolfin and Finarfin. This second marriage (the first of its kind, forbidden thereafter) is the root of the division of the Noldor — and of Tolkien’s deeper theme of the one-fëa marriage.
- His death: When Melkor and Ungoliant darkened Aman and Melkor would steal the Silmarils, he came to Formenos, where Finwë kept the jewels; Finwë stood guard — “the Dark Slayer” — he was slain by Melkor at the door of the treasure-vault, before the theft of the Silmarils. A king in exile — The slaying of Finwë is the first of the great beauties — the first murder of an Elf — it is the cry that wakes the Oath of Fëanor: “then Fëanor… seeing his father slain… and the jewels borne off, swore the terrible Oath.”
Significance
Finwë is the hinge of the whole tragedy: from his death spring the Kinslayings, the Exile, and the Doom of the Noldor — and from his second marriage the division of his sons that neither enmity nor reconciliation could ever heal. He is not a hero of the tale but its first victim — the murdered king whose loss ignites the fires of the age.