Thingol
Elu Thingol; the Grey-cloak; King of Doriath
Names and Lineage
Thingol — in Sindarin Elu Thingol, in Quenya Elwë Singollo (“Grey-cloak”) — is the King of Doriath and of all the Sindar; his brother is Olwë of the Teleri. He was one of the three ambassadors (with Ingwë and Finwë) who saw Aman in the beginning, and the most powerful of the princes of the Teleri — the only Elf who ever wed a Maia, Melian.
The Meeting in Nan Elmoth
The Quenta’s most haunting romance: while his people loitered on the Great Journey in the woods of Beleriand, Elwë wandered alone into Nan Elmoth and there met the Maia Melian in the dusk; they stood gazing for years, “and time stood still” — and when he returned to awareness, Elwë was changed: he would not continue the Journey, and “the greater part of his people would not leave him, and remained with him in Beleriand” — the Grey Elves, the Sindar. Melian’s love made him king; the “Girdle of Melian” made Doriath a fenced land.
King of the Grey Elves
- The true-born king: Under Thingol the Sindar — never in Aman, never seeing the Trees — built the fairest realm of the starlight: the Thousand Caves of Menegroth, the wonder of Doriath, its pillars carved by the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost.
- The Long Peace: For ages Doriath stood untouched under the Girdle, and Thingol grew proud — “the proudest of all the kings of the Elves” — the Quenta: — his refusal to join the Union of the Noldor, his resentment of the exile, and his long keeping of his daughter — all the seeds of the age’s worst division were in his pride.
- The quest: When the mortal Beren won “in love the hand of his daughter” — Thingol, despising Men and seeing a way to refuse, set an impossible bride-price: “a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth” — the terrible jest that brought the whole age down: he thought any man would die in the attempt; and by that haughty wit made Lúthien’s doom and the doom of Doriath itself.
The Death
The ending the Quenta gives him : when Beren and Lúthien (dead and returned, and the quest fulfilled) brought the Silmaril, Thingol — at last won — the Dwarves of Nogrod whom he employed to set the jewel in the great Nauglamír were seized by greed for the treasure and slew him in his own halls, Thingol, the maker of the greatest Elvish realm of the dark, was murdered by the smiths he trusted; and Doriath, by Melian’s departure, was left naked and doomed.
Significance
Thingol’s tragedy is the tragedy of the “Long Peace” — grandeur, pride and contempt, the impossible quest, and the death that looses the final ruin. He is also the last great king of the “starlight Elves”, whose blood (through Lúthien and the Half-elven) flows into every later age while his kingdom passes utterly away.