A thought just now- this must have been blindingly obvious to everyone else.
So it seems like about every thing an elf (or anyone) is said to use a musical instrument, its a harp. Fingon plays a harp, one of the human bards -Glirhuin- played a harp and composed a song about the Narn, Tuor plays a harp (assuming here he learned how to make one from Annael.) It doesn’t look like the published Silmarillion actually says if Maglor played a harp, but he probably did. [Edit: I checked the text and nope. Maglor is never said to have a harp in the Silm, only Fingon, Finrod, and Glirhuin. But at least in the older Lay of Leithian is has one line of "Maglor, son of Fëanor, / forgotten harper, singer doomed".]
Bëor has a crude harp which Finrod will pick up and play- and even Finrod has a harp in silver on his sigil.
And then it hit me- that silver harp of Elrond is a symbol of the friendship between men and elves, of the Edain and Friend of Man. And symbolically Elrond fulls that role as the Friend of Men in the Third Age, so of course he’s going to play his silver harp- it’s as strong a symbol as the Ring of Barahir of this bound, and as the symbol given to Finrod by the people of Bëor, in that context an older and pure one.
[cut]
Still thinking about Elrond’s silver harp. And how it’s Finrod.
Because this:
“Then he [Finrod] went among the sleeping people, and sat beside their dying fire where none kept watch; and he took up a rude harp which Bëor had laid aside, and he played music upon it such as the ears of Men had not heard; for they had as yet no teachers in the art, save only the Dark Elves in the wild lands. Now men awoke and listened to Felagund as he harped and sang, and each thought that he was in some fair dream, until he saw that his fellows were awake also beside him; but they did not speak or stir while Felagund still played, because of the beauty of the music and the wonder of the song.”
and his sigil, designed by Tolkien with a silver harp:
coupled with the quotes on Elrond and the Hall of Fire, when Frodo enters after the feast and the music starts:
At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven words in elven-tongues, even though he understood them little, held him in a spell, as soon as as he began to attend to them. Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above the seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more and more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitudinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned him. swiftly he sank under its shining weight into a deep realm of sleep.
which sounds almost exactly like what happens when Finrod began to play, (and here’s the rest of the quote):
Now men awoke and listened to Felagund as he harped and sang, and each thought that he was in some fair dream, until he saw that his fellows were awake also beside him; but they did not speak or stir while Felagund still played, because of the beauty of the music and the wonder of the song. Wisdom was in the words of the Elven-king, and the hearts grew wiser that hearkened to him; for the things of which he sang, of the making of Arda, and the bliss of Aman beyond the shadows of the Sea, came as clear visions before their eyes, and his Elvish speech was interpreted in each mind according to its measure.
(Tolkien does well in describing the transportive nature of listening to music)
And then later, travelling with old Bilbo, and all my Finrod and House of Bëor feelings~ Because Elrond has carried on the tradition of Finrod, of Friend of Men, not just in the legacy of Beren and Lúthien through the heritage he is so proud of, of the Half-elven and the fostering of the heirs of the Dúnedain, but of Nóm with Bëor the Old. That Biblo stayed in Rivendell into his twilight years, as Balan did in Nargothrond.
But yeah, silver harp of Finrod:
“Elrond wore a mantle of grey and had a star upon his forehead, and a silver harp was in his hand, and upon his finger was a ring of gold with a great blue stone.”
(Also, star on brow, how very Eärendil and Erendis).
But yeah, can Elrond’s harp please be the harp of Finrod, passed down all these years?
Okay, it feels as if I’m jumping on the bandwagon but your headcanon was so beautiful I couldn’t help.
So, I have a possible explanation for how Elrond got Finrod’s harp, but it basically involves Gil-Galad being Orodreth’s son.
My headcanon about Gil-Galad is that he was born in Beleriand. Not entirely sure about Finduilas though. I think there’s a pretty big age-gap between the two siblings, and Finduilas being born in Valinor and Ereinion in exile would be a good explanation. However, I also like the idea that Gil-Galad’s mother is a Sinda, and even better, a member of the Falathrim. Because then you’d have Orodreth acting as Finrod envoy/representative in Falas and meeting his wife there. Soooo… Or you could have Orodreth pulling a Finwë and marrying a second time after his first wife died on the Ice, which would link to Finduilas falling for Turin over Gwindor.
But nevermind that, basically Gil-Galad is Orodreth’s son. Mother unknown and he was born in Beleriand, i’m adamant. And also I really like the idea that the last High King of the Noldor in Exile is… actually not in Exile ? And really more of a Sinda then a Noldo ? Basically the Noldor end up rulled by a Sinda. And Feänor’s spirit is spinning so fast in his cell, you can power Valmar AND Tirion with it. Or alternatively Alqualondë because screw you Feänor.
But the point is that Gil is very young so after the Nirnaeth, when things start to get really bad, he is sent away (to his mother’s kin). Finduilas stays because she’s older and doesn’t want to live, because it’s her kingdom as well and Morgoth can damn well try to take it.
Anyway so after Finrod’s departure and subsequent death, Finduilas gets the harp. (Also Finrod teaching Finduilas how to play I say yes !). After the fall of Nargothrond, the survivors rally Cirdan, they take the harp with them and that’s how Gil-Galad receives the last heirloom of the House of Finarfin. I also really like the idea that Thingol’s house, here the only things we have left are a harp and the ring of Barahir which represents the alliance between Men and Elves ? I mean that’s glorious !
And you know that Gil-Galad’s hero and role model as a king would be Finrod Felagund. So Gil-Galad clings to the idea of the alliance. And he fulfills the role of Friend of Men during the Second Age. And after his death, that role goes to Elrond along with the harp and Viilya.
😀 Thank you!
While i don’t headcanon Gil-galad as Orodreth’s son (recent post reiterated), I do firmly believe his mother and Finduilas’s motehr were cousins and very close, that baby Gil-galad stayed for a while in Nargothrond with his cousins and was treated as a younger brother, adn that Finduilas’s mother was the one that took Gil-galad to Círdan and thanks to the war, ended up staying with him on the refugee island and became his second mother. Oh, and that yes! Gil-galad is Noldo in name only.
Looks for another old post –HERE! So it’s not the silver harp of the Bëorian meeting, but I have already posited that Finduilas saves/inherits her uncle’s harp, so yes, there had to have been more than one harp, of course Finduilas has them all. Hmm, actually, with the timeline, you could even say that when Gil-galad goes down to Círdan via Nargothrond, Finrod himself is still king and he could have bequeathed little Gil-galad a harp (same one? Who knows)- but that harp, from the very hands of Nóm himself, is the one that Gil-galad passes onto Elrond and is the one in the Hall of Fire. Yes. Head-canon accepted. Yes!
And lool yes, quickest way to say ‘wanna be friends?’ with me might be “screw you Fëanor.”
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