House of Fingolfin
The second house of the Noldor; the House of the Proud
The House of Fingolfin
The Line
History in Beleriand
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The feud in Valinor: Fingolfin’s house was long set against the house of Fëanor (the enmity of the half-brothers, fanned by Melkor’s whisperings); Fingolfin remained the greatest and most respected of Finwë’s sons, “the strongest, the firmest, and the most valiant” — he who would have stayed in Aman but for the Oath his brother forced.
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The crossing of the Helcaraxë: when Fëanor burned the swan-ships and deserted them far north, Fingolfin’s host crossed the grinding ice of the Grinding Ice rather than return — the most terrible journey of the mythology. From that passage dates the feud’s bitterest wound.
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The High Kingship and the wars: after Fëanor’s death by the balrogs, Fingolfin was made High King; he entered Beleriand with the first of the Noldor and never broke faith, even granting his son Turgon’s hidden city its secrecy. His death is among the most famous of the Quenta: when the days darkened after the Dagor Bragollach, Fingolfin rode alone to the gates of Angband and challenged Morgoth himself, wounding the Dark Lord seven — he gave Morgoth seven wounds, crippling him forever, before Morgoth’s might beat him down; his body was borne off by Thorondor and buried amid the mountains — “the fairest” — his whole house thus became the bastion of the West.
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The line’s end: Fingon succeeded and fell at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad; Turgon of Gondolin succeeded and died in the sack of his city; with Turgon the High-Kingship passed to Gil-galad of the house of Finarfin — his line ended, but their deeds and Oaths are the noblest music of the First Age.
Significance
The House of Fingolfin is the “good” Noldor — the house that joined the rebellion only under oath, that redeemed its curse by valour and loyalty, and that suffered the bloodiest fate. Fingolfin’s challenge is the archetype of heroic defiance; Gondolin is its fortress; and its descendants through Idril and Eärendil carry the hope of the Third strand into the sea-journeys of the Half-elven.