Who was Gil-galads father, Fingon or Orodreth?
J.R.R. Tolkien says Orodreth, but millions of fans seem to disagree with him. After all, The Silmarillion says it was Fingon. “That Gil-galad was the son of Fingon (The Silmarillion p. 154) derives from the late note pencilled on the manuscript of [Grey Annals] ($157),” Christopher Tolkien tells us in The War of the Jewels (p. 243 of my Houghton Mifflin edition), “stating that when Fingon became King of the Noldor on the death of Fingolfin ‘his young son (?Findor) [sic] Gilgalad he sent to the Havens.’ But this, adopted after much hesitation, was not in fact by any means the last of my father’s speculations.” This tantalizing hint fired the first of the Gil-galad debates. If Fingon wasn’t his father, and Finrod Felagund couldn’t be (earlier discussion showed that idea had been abandoned), then who was the father of Gil-galad? Some people stood squarely by The Silmarillion, stating it must be canon, as it was faithfully produced by Christopher Tolkien according to his father’s wishes. B
