Gwindor
the lord of Nargothrond; the broken friend
Name and Story
Gwindor — a lord of Nargothrond, once among the boldest of its captains: he rode with his friend Gelmir in the great sortie at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and was taken captive and tortured in Angband for years, “broken” — when at last he escaped, he was “shrunken and destroyed” — the shadow of the pits was upon him, and he returned bent to the caves.
The Friend and the Betrayed
Gwindor, escaped from the mines of Angband and broken by his long captivity, wandered the wilds; Gwindor met Túrin (the fugitive Agarwaen) and led him to Nargothrond; it was through him that Túrin entered the Caverns — where, as the Black Sword, he rose high.
- The love and loss: Gwindor’s betrothed, the princess Finduilas, in her grief turned her love upon the newcomer Túrin — and Gwindor, old and broken, the Quenta’s sorrow: — he warned Túrin that Finduilas should not be courted, and the loves twisted into the tale’s ruin.
- The death: When the dragon came and Nargothrond fell, Gwindor, fighting, was mortally wounded by the orcs — he died (having comforted Túrin with the name of Finduilas and counseled him), and his body was laid by the stones — one of the quieter deaths of the age.
Significance
Gwindor is the “broken noble” of the tale — the prisoner returned, the friend whose warnings went unheeded, whose love and grief (and corpse) are threaded through the ruin of Nargothrond — a testimony to the price of Angband’s torture and the curse’s working through even the best.