Celegorm by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Part 1: Celegorm Takes Shape

Nearly twenty years ago as of this writing, I began working on a series of character studies of the Fëanorians, early in their history, that would become my novel Another Man's Cage. I remember sitting at my desk at my first (and so far dullest) professional job with nothing work-related to do, preparing to write out of boredom and thinking about which character I wanted to begin with. I chose Celegorm, and I chose him for the very distinct reason that I felt like he was the character it was most difficult to like and empathize with. (To be fair, Curufin hadn't been born at this point in my story.)

In the published Silmarillion, Celegorm, along with Curufin, does the lion's share of the work in making the Fëanorians live up to their fell and fated reputation. At the same time, Tolkien deftly included details that hint at something more than pure villainy, and it was those details that I seized on twenty years ago when writing to find some way to connect on a human level with this otherwise villain.

Tolkien is not often lauded for his complex characterizations. Depending on the reader, The Lord of the Rings is loved and loathed for its heroes-and-villains binary, and while I'd argue that The Silmarillion is not so this-or-that as The Lord of the Rings, I also have to acknowledge that part of the reason why is the bareness with the characters are drawn, inviting inference that can add layers of complexity. Even as I've loved The Silmarillion for closing on two decades for the characters it contains, I would not have included Tolkien as a master of characterization. Yet as I wrote this biography, I became increasingly aware that, for Celegorm, Tolkien seemed very aware of his character and never allowed him to tumble over the brink into pure villainy. Instead, he penned a villain whose worst actions are contrasted with his early history in Valinor and his later meaningful relationships with other characters, establishing a character who illustrates foremost a susceptibility to a moral fall.

The Fëanorians are introduced in the published text as a group, the sons of Fëanor. Celegorm, however, stands out from this family portrait. A hunter, he is a follower of Oromë (not Aulë, like most of his house) and can speak with animals.¹ This mild, even slightly whimsical, depiction is quickly complicated, however. The next time we see Celegorm, he is swearing the oath of the Fëanorians, again alongside his brothers, the seven acting, seemingly, as a single unit. The family unit next marches on Alqualondë and commits the kinslaying there, then sails to Middle-earth, sets up camp on Lake Mithrim, and are set upon by Melkor's army in the Battle-under-stars. Here, Celegorm is granted a rare solo appearance:

There the armies of Morgoth that had passed south into the Vale of Sirion and beleaguered Círdan in the Havens of the Falas came up to their aid, and were caught in their ruin. For Celegorm, Fëanor’s son, having news of them, waylaid them with a part of the Elven-host, and coming down upon them out of the hills near Eithel Sirion drove them into the Fen of Serech. Evil indeed were the tidings that came at last to Angband, and Morgoth was dismayed. Ten days that battle lasted, and from it returned of all the hosts that he had prepared for the conquest of Beleriand no more than a handful of leaves.²

Even this early in the story, before the full host of the Noldor has arrived in Beleriand, we really have the components of Celegorm's character in place: his skill with language, martial prowess, and tendency toward ethically fraught actions.

As the full host of the Noldor arrive in and colonize Beleriand, Celegorm (with Curufin now a permanent installation at his side) settles in the land of Himlad and "held it with great strength."³ Their realm receives scant description and in fact is a blank on the map at the back of the book, seemingly without settlements or even much in the way of geographical features. When Aredhel breaks from her intention to visit Fingon and go to her cousins instead, it is to "the land of Celegorm" that the march-wardens of Doriath direct her. She is said to seek Celegorm specifically (not Curufin) and is welcomed by his people; when Celegorm (not Curufin) fails to arrive in a timely manner, she begins to wander, ending with her fateful arrival in Nan Elmoth. When, later, Eöl reverses Aredhel's journey, he is reluctant to pass into Himlad, for "Celegorm and Curufin were mighty lords who loved Eöl not at all." Here, it is Curufin who receives the focus, being the brother whom Eöl fears most and who interrogates Eöl after he is waylaid by Curufin's scouts; Celegorm is not mentioned in the encounter with Eöl.⁴

During the Battle of Sudden Flame, Himlad is overrun by Morgoth's forces (though the text notes that this comes "with great cost to the host of Morgoth"), and Celegorm and Curufin flee to Nargothrond. This is a defining moment for both men: the moment when they turn from morally complicated characters to almost indefensibly evil. The narrator acknowledges but swiftly brushes aside the benefits the people of Celegorm brought to Nargothrond: "Thus it came to pass that their people swelled the strength of Nargothrond; but it would have been better, as was after seen, if they had remained in the east among their own kin."⁵ The vaunted strength of their people cannot compensate for the damage Celegorm and Curufin would do to the realm.

At first, the brothers' presence in Nargothrond is unremarkable. "'They have shown friendship to me in every need,'" Finrod remarks to Beren when he arrives in Nargothrond, holding aloft his father's ring and demanding Finrod make good on his oath, "'but I fear that they will show neither love nor mercy to you, if your quest be told. Yet my own oath holds; and thus we are all ensnared.’" Finrod also notes that "'though I, Finarfin’s son, am King, they have won a strong power in the realm, and lead many of their own people.'"⁶ Here, we likely see the potent combination of Celegorm's verbal and martial prowess into a leader who is hard to countermand. This potency will spell Nargothrond's ruin.

Bound by his oath, Finrod announces to his people that he will be aiding Beren in his quest to retrieve a Silmaril. This, of course, awakens Celegorm and Curufin's oath. Celegorm leaps to his feet and first rouses the people of Nargothrond with his words, leaving them susceptible to Curufin's more measured—if more apocalyptic—predictions to follow. The people of Nargothrond, save ten, refuse to follow Finrod, their king, being fearful of the verbal conjurings of Celegorm and Curufin. Finrod is ultimately unmoved from his course and passes his crown to Orodreth. At this, "Celegorm and Curufin said nothing, but they smiled and went from the halls,"⁷ suggesting that they believed that the politically weak Orodreth would be easy to manipulate to their own advantage—one that ideally involves the recovery of one of the Silmarils demanded by their oath.

With Finrod gone and Orodreth on the throne, Celegorm and Curufin take to hunting the wolves sent southward by Morgoth, with the ulterior motive of hoping to catch news of what happened to Finrod. At this point, Huan enters the story, and readers are reminded of Celegorm's early history, as Huan is identified as a gift from Oromë during their time together in Valinor. It is Huan who finds Lúthien and takes her to his master. Believing Celegorm an ally, Lúthien reveals her identity to him. Celegorm falls into the immediate infatuation only Lúthien can inspire, offers to aid her, but says nothing to her of his knowledge of Beren's quest, nor his role in ensuring its failure. Returning to Nargothrond, she is imprisoned by and permitted to speak with none save the brothers, who quickly concoct a role for her in their master plan:

For now, believing that Beren and Felagund were prisoners beyond hope of aid, they purposed to let the King perish, and to keep Lúthien, and force Thingol to give her hand to Celegorm. Thus they would advance their power, and become the mightiest of the princes of the Noldor. And they did not purpose to seek the Silmarils by craft or war, or to suffer any others to do so, until they had all the might of the Elf-kingdoms under their hands. Orodreth had no power to withstand them, for they swayed the hearts of the people of Nargothrond; and Celegorm sent messengers to Thingol urging his suit.⁸

It is Huan who foils their plot. First, he frees Lúthien, aids her escape, and spirits her to Tol Sirion to rescue Beren. Ever the loyal companion, Huan returns to Celegorm after this betrayal, "yet their love was less than before," and Huan's role in Lúthien's ultimate triumph (and Celegorm's disgrace) is not complete. First, the political supremacy Celegorm and Curufin counted on in Nargothrond unravels as word of Beren's freedom reaches its people and they "perceived that it was treachery rather than fear that had guided Celegorm and Curufin." The people wish to slay the brothers; it is the "weak" Orodreth who stays their hands, instead casting Celegorm and Curufin from his halls, refusing them all aid, and swearing "there should be little love between Nargothrond and the sons of Fëanor thereafter."⁹

Ever the tempestuous and vocal one, "‘Let it be so!’ said Celegorm, and there was a light of menace in his eyes; but Curufin smiled." The brothers leave Nargothrond—Huan still follows his master—and in their journeying away from the realm, they happen upon Beren and Lúthien near the borders of Doriath. Deep in conversation, the lovers do not hear Celegorm and Curufin approach. Infuriated, Celegorm moves to trample Beren, but the crafty Curufin scoops up Lúthien into his saddle instead. Leaping from Celegorm's path, Beren seizes Curufin from his horse and throttles him unto death. Meaning to save his brother's life, Celegorm threatens Beren with a spear but finds himself confronted by his own loyal dog, who refuses to allow Celegorm to injure Beren; it is Lúthien who stays Beren's hand and allows Curufin to live. The couple divests the brothers of their weaponry and sends them off upon a single horse. As they ride away, Curufin seizes Celegorm's bow and manages to land a near-deadly shot upon Beren.¹⁰

Meanwhile, Celegorm's message to Thingol has arrived. Thingol is understandably wrathful, but his spies report that Celegorm and Curufin have been driven from Nargothrond. Thingol turns his attention instead to Himring, demanding Maedhros's aid in recovering Lúthien, now missing, given his brothers' role in her disappearance. These messengers never make it north; they are assailed by a Silmaril-maddened Carcharoth.¹¹ The actions of Celegorm and Curufin, therefore, have repercussions for the geopolitical relations between the Fëanorians and both Nargothrond and Doriath, repercussions that the narrator of The Silmarillion credits, in part, for the defeat of the Union of Maedhros.¹² The Fëanorians demand the return of the Silmaril; Thingol, under its sway, refuses. Foreshadowing the second kinslaying, "Celegorm and Curufin vowed openly to slay Thingol and destroy his people, if they came victorious from war, and the jewel were not surrendered of free will."¹³

This is, of course, exactly what happens, and Celegorm plays a leading role throughout, again using his powers of speech to sinister purpose. After the Fëanorians demand the Silmaril of Dior, now the king in Doriath,

Dior returned no answer to the sons of Fëanor; and Celegorm stirred up his brothers to prepare an assault upon Doriath. They came at unawares in the middle of winter, and fought with Dior in the Thousand Caves; and so befell the second slaying of Elf by Elf. There fell Celegorm by Dior’s hand, and there fell Curufin, and dark Caranthir; but Dior was slain also, and Nimloth his wife, and the cruel servants of Celegorm seized his young sons and left them to starve in the forest.¹⁴

Celegorm pays part of the price for his own impetuousness here, yet the viciousness he had come to embody inspires a cruel legacy in the murder of the innocent sons of Dior.

This is the published version of Celegorm's story, and it is one of a fall into ruin. Beginning with the favor of a Vala and a particular skill for speech—an aptitude understandably valued by Tolkien, a philologist and fan of myth cycles that likely originated in the oral tradition—Celegorm had the potential to live up to his epithet the fair in the fullest meaning of the word. The unnamed narrator of The Silmarillion identifies the oath as the turning point for his character and the choice that drives him to his ruin. We see as his powerful voice and hunting prowess is slowly turned, first to lust for power, then to outright evil.

It is worth recalling, however, that the published Silmarillion exists nowhere as a single coherent text written by Tolkien. It is, instead, a compilation of many versions of the story, existing in multiple drafts. Christopher Tolkien has gifted fans and scholars of his father's work with The History of Middle-earth and similar collections that show how he arrived at the published work. Celegorm's emergence in these drafts is a fascinating one, showing how Tolkien crafted a character, beginning with a name, eventually settling on a role for the person bearing that name, and finally considering the finer points of character complexity such that Celegorm's fall to villainy is ultimately one of the many tragedies of The Silmarillion.

Celegorm: Character in a Capsule

One cannot discuss characters in Tolkien's legendarium without touching on the subject of names. Tolkien crafted names for his characters with an eye toward both the meaning and sound of the name, and names in his world often reveal character details.

In Celegorm's case, the name is foregrounded in a different way. By all appearances, Tolkien wanted a character named Celegorm and then engaged in a sort of roulette to decide who that character would be. As detailed below, he went through several identities for Celegorm before settling on the one we know from the published text.

Tolkien's first notes on Celegorm's name are in a translation of a 1930 draft of the "Silmarillion" into Old English: Cynegrim Fægerfeax. Fægerfeax means "fairfax" or "fair-haired"; Christopher Tolkien supposes that "Cynegrim is probably the substitution of an [Old English] name with some similarity of sound."¹⁵ The name does not reveal much of the temperament of its holder—unsurprisingly, given that Celegorm's character was still very much in a state of flux.

Sometime in the years 1930 to 1937, Tolkien changes the name slightly to Celegorn. The Etymologies, written in 1937, provide two roots from which the name is derived: GOR-, which is glossed as "violence, impetus, haste," and KYELEK-, meaning "swift, agile."¹⁶ These encapsulate Celegorm's character quite effectively, capturing both his impulsivity and his physical prowess. The former, with its reference to violence, also suggests his inclination toward applying his traits toward evil ends. Celegorn became Celegorm again in the early 1950s. When marking up the 1951-2 text The Annals of Aman for revisions, Tolkien underlined the n in the name Celegorn.¹⁷ In a text written around the same time, the name shifts to Celegorm, where it would remain.¹⁸ In the late text The Shibboleth of Fëanor, Tolkien retains these early meanings, providing mother- and father-names for Celegorm in Quenya. His father-name is Turkafinwë, meaning "strong, powerful (in body)," while his mother-name, Tyelkormo, means

'hasty-riser'. Quenya tyelka 'hasty'. Possibly in reference to his quick temper, and his habit of leaping up when suddenly angered.¹⁹

If Celegorm's name encapsulates his character, so does the evolution of that name serve as a microcosm of the history of his character: at first unsettled but, once established, defined by a potent combination of athletic skill and impulsivity. His skill with language and hunting go unmentioned, much as they are subsumed in his storyline by his violent deeds.

Death Before Life

There is no evidence to suggest that, at any point in his early work on the "Silmarillion," Tolkien developed from whole cloth a character named Celegorm who resembles the character we see in the published text. Rather, Celegorm emerged from the sons of Fëanor as a name that then hopscotched among several identities before settling on the character Tolkien would develop across several drafts.

The sons of Fëanor first appear as a collective in The Book of Lost Tales, begun 1916-17 and abandoned a few years later, and specifically in The Tale of the Sun and Moon. None of the sons have names at this point, and they appear here, having having hidden a "store of crystals and delicate glasses" that, once discovered, are used by Aulë to make the Ship of the Moon.²⁰ The sons of Fëanor immediately assume the dread aspect they will be known for in the published text. Of course, there is the above implication of hoarding wealth, and next they are mentioned in the Lost Tales in the context of their oath and participation in the wars of Beleriand. Celegorm's identity within this group will unfold with less certainty.

As the Lost Tales progress, the various sons of Fëanor will receive their names—including Celegorm, who became a named character sometime between 1917 and 1919 with Tolkien's writing of The Nauglafring, the final completed narrative in the Lost Tales. Here, Celegorm is named for the first time in the context of the Second Kinslaying at Doriath. That the story in the published Silmarillion bears a close resemblance to this early text is no surprise: It is the chapter in the published Silmarillion that received the least work subsequently and thus pulled most heavily from its Lost Tales version.²¹ Celegorm is first named in the passage where Maedhros incites his brothers to attack Doriath, a role that Celegorm himself will later assume:

Now those were days of happiness in the vales of Hithlum, for there was peace with Melko and the Dwarves who had but one thought as they plotted against Gondolin, and Angband was full of labour; yet is it to tell that bitterness entered into the hearts of the seven sons of Fëanor, remembering their oath. Now Maidros, whom Melko maimed, was their leader; and he called to his brethren Maglor and Dinithel, and to Damrod, and to Celegorm, to Cranthor and to Curufin the Crafty, and he said to them how it was now known to him that a Silmaril of those their father Fëanor had made was now the pride and glory of Dior of the southern vales, "and Elwing his daughter bears it whitherso she goes—but do you not forget," said he, "that we swore to have no peace with Melko nor any of his folk, nor with any other of Earth-dwellers that held the Silmarils of Fëanor from us. For what," said Maidros, "do we suffer exile and wandering and rule over a scant and forgotten folk, if others gather to their hoard the heirlooms that are ours?"²²

Note, however, that Celegorm does not have an identity beyond a (now named) son of Fëanor. The first time Celegorm is distinguished as an individual amid the rabble, the sons of Fëanor attack Doriath, where "Celegorm was pierced with a hundred arrows."²³ Celegorm's death was in place, therefore, before his life had taken shape.

How was the entrée of Celegorm into the story shaped by this first conception of his character as a kinslayer who died a violent death? One cannot, of course, definitively say that this mattered at all. But as we will see, as Tolkien filled in the life before Celegorm's death, he was constantly drawn to see Celegorm as a character adjacent to a villain in a way that he was not for any of the other Fëanorians, with the exception of Curufin.

A Name to Be Filled

After abandoning work on the Lost Tales, Tolkien turned anew to the "Silmarillion" materials from about 1925-30. Work at this stage involved the poetic texts collected as part of The Lays of Beleriand and the much pared-down prose text "The Sketch of the Mythology" or "The Earliest Silmarillion." Work on these two texts at times overlapped, and with close scrutiny, one can see ideas emerging in one place to be used in the other and vice versa, as though the texts are in conversation with each other: a habit that would recur across his lifetime, where he frequently worked on texts about similar historical moments in the legendarium in different formats..

Celegorm's role (along with Curufin's) during this stage of composing the "Silmarillion" was precarious and changed often—sometimes in very surprising ways—with only glancing associations with the character he would become. At this point, as will be seen, Tolkien does not seem overly committed that the violent character in the Lost Tales should be called Celegorm. Instead, it seems like Tolkien wanted, foremost, a character named Celegorm—who that character actually was seems less established in his mind.

In perhaps the most astonishing example of this, the name Celegorm was briefly given to Thingol in The Lay of Leithian, a text composed well after Celegorm had been introduced into the legendarium as a son of Fëanor in the Lost Tales.²⁴ This was a short-lived substitution; nonetheless, it begs the question of how firmly Tolkien regarded the character of Celegorm at all at this point or whether it was a name he simply liked and knew he wanted to use somehow. Although only briefly swapped with Thingol, Celegorm enjoyed several years in what is perhaps an even more surprising role: that of Finrod Felagund.

After receiving his name in association with the kinslaying at Doriath, Celegorm's story begins to take tentative shape in The Lays of Beleriand. In The Lay of the Children of Húrin, written in the years 1918-25, Celegorm's association with Nargothrond emerges—but not in the way we know from the published Silmarillion. Initially, Celegorm and Curufin were the founders of Nargothrond. In one passage, Túrin asks Gwindor (here called Flinding) where they should head next, and Gwindor replies:

'To Nargothrond of the Gnomes, methinks,'
said Flinding, 'my feet would fain wander,
that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons<
of Fëanor founded when they fled southward;
there built a bulwark against Bauglir's hate,
who live now lurking in league secret
with those five others in the forests of the East,
fell unflinching foes of Morgoth.²⁵

In the commentary on the Failivrin section of The Lay of the Children of Húrin, Christopher Tolkien outlines the evolution of the founding of Nargothrond. Initially, Nargothrond was founded after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, first by Orodreth, then Celegorm and Curufin. Later, it is established after the breaking of the Leaguer of Angband, still with Celegorm and Curufin as founders. Going to the Nirnaeth—perhaps a germ of the later story where a small host from Nargothrond fights in that war—they never return, and Orodreth rules in their stead. In the final version of Nargothrond's founding, Finrod Felagund and his brothers Orodreth, Aegnor, and Angrod found the realm, again after the breaking of the Leaguer of Angband, and Celegorm and Curufin are demoted to mere residents therein.²⁶

The idea of Celegorm and Curufin as the founders of Nargothrond persisted for at least several years and across multiple versions of the early legendarium. The A-text of The Lay of Leithian, which can be more precisely dated than most of Tolkien's drafts, introduces the ring of Barahir in 1925, given to him for "a deed of service long ago for" Celegorm, i.e., his rescue during the Battle of Sudden Flame.²⁷

In early 1926, Tolkien began work on "The Sketch of the Mythology," which identifies Celegorm and Curufin as the founders of Nargothrond and Celegorm particularly as a friend of Barahir.²⁸ Later in 1926, Tolkien penned an outline of The Lay of Leithian called Synopsis I. In this text, Celegorm gives Beren a disguise and "magic knife" to aid him on his journey to Angband.²⁹ By 1928, Beren is flashing a ring about in Nargothrond that was "the token of a lasting bond / that [Celegorm] of Nargothrond / once swore in love to Barahir."^{30 .} In short, this was not a fleeting idea but one that was in place for at least three years and possibly as long as ten.

As noted above, when Tolkien decided to place Finrod Felagund on the throne of Nargothrond, Celegorm and Curufin's role did not reverse immediately. The passage in the "Sketch" was eventually changed to "[Finrod Felagund] and his brothers found the realm of Nargothrond on the banks of Narog in the south of the Northern lands. They are aided by Celegorm and Curufin who long while dwelt in Nargothrond."³¹ Celegorm and Curufin remain in a benevolent role here, even "aiding" the illustrious realm of Nargothrond, but as Christopher Tolkien remarks, "the emergence of [Finrod Felagund] as the one saved by Barahir and the founder of Nargothrond, thrust[s] Celegorm and Curufin into a very different role."³² Left in Nargothrond but demoted from his role as Beren's benefactor, Celegorm's character development centered more upon the consequences of his oath, and the next phase of development of his story returned more to the original conception of Celegorm found in the Lost Tales—villainous and ruined—bearing little resemblance to the noble lord who gave so generously to Beren. After years of uncertainty as to the man who would fill the name of this character Celegorm, Tolkien at last seemed to settle on a character who would perform some of the most terrible deeds of the Noldor. Yet as Tolkien developed his character beyond this point, the early concept of Celegorm as a friend will remain, leaving us with an enticingly complex villain.

Celegorm in Revolution

What Christopher Tolkien terms the "Nargothrond Element"—the nefarious intervention of Celegorm and Curufin into the multiple quests of Finrod, Beren, and Lúthien—first appeared in 1928 while Tolkien was working on the A-text for The Lay of Leithian. As the Oath of the Fëanorians loomed larger in the story—the oath first appears in the Lost Tales and is written out in the 1925 poem The Flight of the Noldoli—Tolkien may have given more consideration to its impact on the rest of the nascent legendarium. In 1926, in the "Sketch of the Mythology," Beren seeks the aid of Finrod, and Celegorm only becomes aware of their mission after they depart. This is intentional: Finrod "warns him [Beren] of the oath of the sons of Fëanor, and that even if he gets the Silmaril they will not, if they can prevent it, allow him to take it to Thingol." While this is the earliest mention of the Oath influencing Celegorm in Nargothrond, he is not a sinister character yet. Though he tracks Beren and Finrod, there is no indication that he has malevolent motives, and when he happens upon Lúthien, though he "bears her off," he also "offers redress" for the harm done to her by Huan during her capture.³³ (Christopher questions if this "redress" may have been the use of Huan in pursuing Beren, a nod to Celegorm's previous assistance to Beren in earlier drafts.³⁴) Likewise in the 1926 Synopsis I, Celegorm can offer only redress and not outright aid to Lúthien because he has already "lent his Gnomes to Beren."³⁵ Ironically, although Tolkien has already written the nadir of Celegorm's oath—his ignominious death as a kinslayer in Doriath—he does not yet seem fully aware of how deeply the oath will impact Celegorm's behavior in this episode.

When the Nargothrond Element emerges in The Lay of Leithian, it begins with the events surrounding Beren's arrival and Finrod's fulfillment of his oath to Barahir. Celegorm and Curufin are guests in Nargothrond—Celegorm is no longer the lord of that realm—they are driven by their oath, and they are the reason why Finrod's people reject him, forcing Orodreth to take the crown and leaving Finrod with only ten companions on his quest with Beren.³⁶

No longer a name in need of a personality, with the introduction of the Nargothrond Element, Celegorm's character comes into sharper focus. His skill with summoning the emotional power of language, similar to his late father Fëanor, stands in contrast to the more benevolent version of his character who presided over Nargothrond, even offering his own soldiers to Beren:

… But up there starts
amid the throng, and loudly cries
for hearing, one with flaming eyes,
proud Celegorm with gleaming hair
and shining sword. Then all men stare
upon his stern unyielding face,
and a great hush falls upon that place.

. . .

Many wild and potent words he spoke,
and as before in Tûn awoke
his father's voice their hearts to fire,
so now dark fear and brooding ire
he cast on them, foreboding war
of friend with friend; and pools of gore
their minds imagined lying red
in Nargothrond about the dead,
did Narog's host with Beren go;
or haply battle, ruin, and woe
in Doriath where great Thingol reigned,
if Fëanor's fatal jewel he gained.³⁷

After the dishonorable departure of Beren and Finrod, wolves from Angband make incursions into Nargothrond. Celegorm, with Huan, and Curufin set out to hunt them. Curufin—whose character is also crystallizing into its icy Machiavellian final form—puts into his brother's mind that these hunts could involve more than wolves. Namely, they could use the pretense of hunting to seek information about Finrod and, if he was successful, waylay him upon his return and steal not just the Silmaril but his throne, reckoning that Orodreth won't pose much of an obstacle. "Celegorm listened. Nought he said, / but forth a mighty host he led," we are told—a rather opaque response to his brother's machinations.³⁸

But when opportunity presents itself, Celegorm is not opaque. Huan finds Lúthien, and Celegorm identifies himself as a friend. Lúthien does not perceive the "guile upon his smiling face,"³⁹ though he remarks privately to Curufin: "Now news we win / of Felagund."⁴⁰ Claiming his host is not up to the task of pursuing Beren right then and there, Celegorm convinces Lúthien to return with him, and though she is beginning to experience misgivings, it is too little too late. She returns to Nargothrond, where the brothers take her magical cloak and hold her in bond.

This canto in The Lay of Leithian is based off of a text that Christopher labels "Synopsis II." In the margins of Synopsis II, Tolkien wrote, "It is Curufin who put evil into Celegorm's heart," and Christopher sees this marginal note as driving the development of the two characters and the relationship between them, which he describes as rife with "subtleties."⁴¹ Certainly, the original Synopsis II and the final canto show escalation in Celegorm's malevolence. Initially, Celegorm succumbs to Lúthien's tears and returns her cloak. Tolkien emended this draft, however, and Celegorm refuses any aid, including the cloak, and it is Huan who enables Lúthien's escape minus her cloak.⁴² The outline of Synopsis II provides the plot for the poem Tolkien would eventually write.

After her escape, Lúthien returns with Beren—Finrod having perished in Sauron's dungeons—and the people of Nargothrond repent of how they treated their lord. They turn on Celegorm and Curufin, demanding their deaths as the price for the loss of their king, but Orodreth refuses, instead driving them from his doors:

Scornful, unbowed, and unashamed
stood Celegorm. In his eye there flamed
a light of menace. Curufin
smiled with his crafty mouth and thin.⁴³

In exile, Celegorm and Curufin come across Beren and Lúthien in the wild. Here, we have the story from the published Silmarillion with the exception that Curufin does not loose an arrow at Beren but a "dwarvish dart" from a bow, which strikes and wounds Beren.⁴⁴

Not yet present is the political element with Thingol: the message from Celegorm, the demand of Lúthien's hand in marriage, or Thingol's recourse to Maedhros to aid him in locating his daughter. Later synopses of the poem include the first mentions of these elements, but Tolkien never reached the point of presenting this idea in verse.⁴⁵ However, through these synopses, we see how, as Tolkien developed Celegorm's role in the Nargothrond Element, he amplified his villainy beyond what Celegorm felt compelled to do to fulfill his oath. The political element with Thingol evokes the fairy-tale trope of the captured princess with all the allusions to evil princes it recalls.

As the legendarium evolves, the Oath of the Fëanorians is frequently blamed for the myriad misfortunes afflicting people in the First Age. Other oaths do not bring similar levels of accountability; Finrod, for example, is never reproached for the damage his oath to Barahir wreaked on Nargothrond. Similarly, Curufin's action here becomes "the dart heard around the world" … or around Beleriand, at least. "Morgoth's will its hatred helped," according to The Lay of Leithian,⁴⁶ because it was remembered by Mortals during the Union of Maedhros and presumably impacted (negatively) their willingness to unite with the Noldor against their common enemy. Following this lead, in later writings, the deeds of Celegorm and Curufin would be blamed for Thingol's refusal to join the Union of Maedhros⁴⁷ and Nargothrond's poor showing at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.⁴⁸ Scrutiny of the many characters who swear (and have their lives upended) by oaths is unevenly borne; furthermore, blame settles tidily on two characters who commit a singular act rather than on the policies of those realms that would allow that singular act to define their foreign policy. Just as easily, the blame could be shifted to those leaders who allowed Celegorm and Curufin to distract them from the more important purpose—and shared goal—of the defeat of Melkor. That is not to defend the actions of Celegorm (or Curufin), which are surely reprehensible but to offer a reminder that a shift of perspective can easily bring new biases to bear.

The Nargothrond Element was Celegorm's revolution: not just his literal attempt at a coup in Nargothrond but a single narrative element that took his character from a benevolent leader (if one who feels the first stirrings of a ruinous oath) and reversed him into a traitorous, conniving malefactor who was willing to lubricate his path to power with the blood of his cousin, or else commit sexual assault for the same prize. He becomes so detestable that even his dog rejects him—surely a bellwether of evil if ever there was one. Christopher's observation that Celegorm's demotion from lord to guest in Nargothrond changes his purpose in the story is an understatement. In subsequent drafts, Tolkien would draw Celegorm back somewhat from the brink of total depravity while also intensifying the significance of his behavior.

Oaths, Hounds, and Treacherous Locks

As we have seen, the most important plot arc of Celegorm's story is now in place: the Nargothrond Element. However, other aspects of his story were also under development at the same time, though not as thoroughly, in the early "Silmarillion" texts.

The Oath of Fëanor

Most importantly is the Oath. As noted above, the Oath of the Fëanorians would eventually function in-universe as an explanation of history: looked upon in hindsight as the root of many of the tragedies of the First Age. Whether this is the sole (much less "correct") cause of those disparate events, it is the one provided in the published text and therefore looms large in its importance. The Oath of the Fëanorians first emerged in Gilfanon's Tale, a story in The Book of Lost Tales that was outlined but never written. Here, it was sworn in Middle-earth rather than Valinor,⁴⁹ but as the completed Lost Tales narrative The Nauglafring shows, it was already beginning to exert its deadly effects both on the house of Fëanor and those who happened into their path.⁵⁰ In the 1925 poem fragment The Flight of the Noldoli, the Oath resurfaces. Recall that, at this point in Tolkien's work on the legendarium, Celegorm was still several years from being dethroned in Nargothrond and, in other texts, was continuing to render aid unto Beren, so the Oath in its new form and Celegorm's benevolent aspect coexisted for some time. In its new form, the Oath is sworn in Valinor and given the weight of actual words:

Then his sons beside him, the seven kinsmen,
crafty Curufin, Celegorm the fair,
Damrod and Diriel and dark Cranthir,
Maglor the mighty, and Maidros tall
(the eldest, whose ardour yet more eager burnt
than his father's flame, than Feanor's wrath;
him fate awaited with fell purpose),
these leapt with laughter their lord beside,
with linked hands there lightly took
the oath unbreakable; blood thereafter
it spilled like a sea and spent the swords
of endless armies, nor hath ended yet:
"Be he friend or foe or foul offspring
of Morgoth Bauglir, be he mortal dark
that in after days on earth shall dwell,
shall no law nor love nor league of Gods,
no might nor mercy, not moveless fate,
defend him for ever from the fierce vengeance
of the sons of Feanor, whoso seize or steal
or finding keep the fair enchanted
globes of crystal whose glory dies not,
the Silmarils. We have sworn for ever!"⁵¹

 

Three years later, in The Lay of Leithian, the Oath would appear in a very similar form.⁵²

We have seen, in the Lost Tales, that Celegorm's first appearance in the story was a violent one: an attack on innocents, driven by his oath, that resulted in his own violent death as well. We have also seen that, when Tolkien altered Celegorm's role in Nargothrond, then the Oath took on a centrality to his character that I suspect was partly due to how the Oath is presented here. There are two important changes to the Oath here that influence Celegorm's character specifically. First is the change in setting. With the Oath now sworn in Valinor—not in Middle-earth—it begins to take on some of the cosmic significance that will later make it a driving force in the story. Although Celegorm and his brothers do not yet take the name of Eru Ilúvatar in vain and name Manwë and Varda in witness, the Oath now takes place in the land of the gods and is thus approaching literal proximity to its final form. Secondly, the Oath being given actual words centers it in the story in a way that its off-stage occurrence (which is where it was left in the Lost Tales) does not. We are left little doubt as to Celegorm's role here: He laughs as he "lightly took" an unbreakable oath that sentences Middle-earth to a tide of bloodshed that cannot be defended against for the remainder of time.

As described above in "A Name to Be Filled," Tolkien originally wrote Celegorm as the founder of Nargothrond. Those texts were being penned at about the same time as The Flight of the Noldoli. At this juncture in the development of the "Silmarillion," then, it seems that Tolkien had two competing ideas of who exactly Celegorm was: the benevolent lord of Nargothrond or the bloodthirsty oath-taker? While it is wholly possible for a person to be both heroic and evil—the Western world's reckoning with national heroes who were also colonizers and enslavers provide a current example—the particular coexistence of Celegorm, patron of Beren, and the Nargothrond Element did not work. As Tolkien negotiated these two new plot elements, it seems the villainous won out, and we see Celegorm's role in Nargothrond first diminish and then reemerge in the context of a character defined by his oath.

Huan and Oromë

Another key component of Celegorm's character—and one used frequently in fanworks that depict Celegorm—is his relationship with the Vala of the hunt, Oromë, and the hound Huan. From these elements, we learn that Celegorm was a great hunter and, in Valinor, was a follower of Oromë, setting him apart from the rest of his family, who were followers of Aulë. In the published Silmarillion, Huan was a gift from Oromë. We learn also that, from his association with Oromë, Celegorm was an expert on and could speak with all of the birds and beasts.

The evolution of Celegorm's relationships to Huan and Oromë were entwined with each other, with development of the Oromë Element (to borrow Christopher's nomenclature) deriving from the evolution of Huan's role in the Nargothrond Element, leading to further independent development of Celegorm's backstory relative to Oromë. Huan's initial appearance in The Lay of the Children of Húrin was as a free agent, unconnected to Celegorm, but Tolkien made that connection in the 1926 Synopsis I outline of The Lay of Leithian. With the introduction of the Nargothrond Element seems to have come the idea that Huan was of Valinorean origin, from which derived the first intimations of Celegorm's connection to Oromë. At this point, the story shifts (as noted above) so that Huan aids Lúthien in defiance of his master and out of love for her.⁵³ The most evocative passage from this time concerning the relationship between Celegorm, Oromë, and Huan comes from a 1928 passage in The Lay of Leithian:

In Tavros' [Oromë's] friths and pastures green
had Huan once a young whelp been.
He grew the swiftest of the swift,
and Oromë gave him as a gift
to Celegorm, who loved to follow
the great God's horn o'er hill and hollow.
Alone of hounds of the Land of Light,
when sons of Fëanor took to flight
and came into the North, he stayed
beside his master. Every raid
and every foray wild he shared,
and into mortal battle dared.
Often he saved his Gnomish [Noldorin] lord
from Orc and wolf and leaping sword.
A wolf-hound, tireless, grey and fierce
he grew; his gleaming eyes would pierce
all shadows and all mist, the scent
>moons old he found through fen and bent,
through rustling leaves and dusty sand;
all paths of wide Beleriand
he knew.⁵⁴

Here, we learn that Huan was only one of several "hounds of the Land of Light" and the only one to venture forth to Middle-earth. This detail does not appear outside this text (hence, it is not found in the published Silmarillion either). "The Sketch of the Mythology" remains mum on Huan's origins, suggesting that these ideas did emerge in conjunction with the Nargothrond Element, which makes for interesting speculation as to what was on Tolkien's mind as he simultaneously demoted Celegorm in Nargothrond but connected him deeper to Valinor through Huan. Was this to add another element of conflict to the Nargothrond Element? To serve as evidence of Celegorm's fall (versus being evil all along)? Or was it simply coincidental? Regardless, Tolkien seemed to have liked both elements: They would remain in the 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa.⁵⁵

Sometime between late 1937 and early 1938, Tolkien wrote passages of the Quenta Silmarillion text that further embellished on Celegorm's story in relation to Oromë. Here, the idea that Celegorm "got great knowledge of all birds and beasts, and all their tongues he knew" due to his affiliation with Oromë emerges.⁵⁶ Interestingly, this passage occurs alongside a new addition about the drawing together of the languages of Túna and Alqualondë,⁵⁷ which suggests (to this reader anyway) that Tolkien may have wanted Celegorm's talent to be viewed as a linguistic rather than preternatural ability.

These elements are intriguing for several reasons. First, Celegorm's skill with language, as Tolkien depicts it, both connects him and alienates him from the rest of his family. As discussed above, from the very first appearance of the Nargothrond Element in The Lay of Leithian and the "revolution" of Celegorm to evil, his power with words is likened to his father Fëanor's similar talent. Like Fëanor, Celegorm conjures a dark future for his listeners unless they take revolutionary action: departing Valinor, in the case of Fëanor, and rejecting their king Finrod, in the case of Celegorm. Both men manage to ensnare their audience, many of whom come to rue their choice made under the influence of words with spell-like power.

Celegorm's skill with language would seem to connect too with his ability to communicate with animals and his dog Huan's preternatural ability to speak—yet Tolkien is explicit that Celegorm's skill is learned not just from Oromë but that this friendship breaks tradition with the rest of the Fëanorians, who prefer the company of Aulë. This creates an interesting tension in Celegorm's character: At once, he displays one of his father's most prized traits—his skill with language and words—and yet most of its practice seems to have come in circles very different from Fëanor's own. (Fëanor is the founder of the Noldorin linguistics club, the Lambengolmor⁵⁸; presumably, Celegorm's tutelage by and association with Oromë implies that he was not one of its members.)

In addition, Celegorm's ability to speak with birds and beasts stands in contrast with his status as a great hunter. For many of us, this would be an uneasy coupling of skills: to understand the experiences through speech of sentient beings that one then proceeds to kill and eat. This could be interpreted a couple of ways. First would be in line with Oromë's own proclivities in this regard, for presumably he also hunts animals with whom he is able to speak. This hearkens to an ancient, verging-on-paganistic understanding of death as part of a larger cycle of nature, where all living beings are involved in cyclic episodes of killing and being eaten.

Another, perhaps more outré interpretation, connects these two abilities with Celegorm's later cruelty towards his own kind, especially considering that the Elves nearest to nature, the Avari, do not hunt and in fact persecute those who enter their wood to do so.⁵⁹ Celegorm is one of the Elven characters most difficult to empathize with. His motives seem entirely derived from the Oath and a hunger for power that Tolkien derides through his writing in the legendarium. Fëanor's fall derives from a tragic youth and Melkor's machinations, and among his sons, most either behave neutrally or even compassionately much of the time (Caranthir, Amrod, and Amras) or work toward a greater good and desire repentance (Maedhros and Maglor). Other "evildoing Elves," such as Eöl and Maeglin, act out of hurt and desire for love (however warped the shape of that desire may seem). Only Celegorm and Curufin compound evil deeds without much in the way of explanation beyond pure lust for power. There is no reference to human emotion or connection in what they do.

Could this be connected to Celegorm's ability to speak with beasts and then hunt and kill those same creatures violently? I certainly don't think that Tolkien intended this connection, but the parallels between the Celegorm who emerged in Valinor and the one we see later in Middle-earth offer intriguing possibilities for how one can at once connect deeply with another being—I will discuss in Part Two the many (and remarkably deep) relationships that Tolkien allowed Celegorm—while simultaneously able to use that being, when expedient, to sate one's own urges.

A Digression on Hair

On that somber note is one final (and much more frivolous) consideration of the early texts. Tolkien fanfiction writers have often remarked on the contentiousness of character hair colors among fellow fans. Celegorm is one of the reasons why. The color of Celegorm's hair is one of those small details that, early in the history of online Silmarillion fanfiction fandom, incited controversy disproportionate to its importance. Illustrating (literally) the two stances are early influential fan artists: Jenny Dolfen shows Celegorm with blond hair, while Kasiopea shows him with dark. Our late and much-loved moderator Rhapsody wrote dark-haired Celegorm; I and other authors wrote him as golden-haired. It seems silly to devote paragraphs to this single minor detail, but as it loomed large in the fandom's history, it also seems negligent to pretend it hasn't mattered greatly to some in the past.

The debate hinged on the meaning of the word fair that was, in multiple contexts, applied to Celegorm. Does fair mean pale? Or beautiful? (Here, Rhapsody would note that Lúthien herself was described as both fair and dark-haired.) Perhaps the only thing for sure: We know it does not mean just!

The debate on this matter seems to have simmered in the ensuing years-verging-on-decades. (At least, my quick search of the #celegorm tag on Tumblr turns up only blonds and no dark-haired third-born Fëanorians.) This is likely because—and here I must apologize to Rhapsody, who would argue stridently with this biography were she still around to do so—the texts do favor an interpretation of the word fair as inclusive of its meaning of pale (i.e., it doesn't mean that Celegorm wasn't also beautiful. Perhaps he was. But Tolkien certainly seemed to want fair in Celegorm's case to also suggest that he was a rare golden-haired Finwean outside the house of Finarfin.)

Celegorm was first named "Celegorm the fair" in the 1926 "Sketch of the Mythology"⁶⁰—though the crux of the fandom debate is that this alone cannot be seen as evidence of hair color. However, his hair soon became one of his key features. A 1928 passage from The Lay of Leithian contains the first instance of Celegorm speaking out in Nargothrond against Finrod's aid to Beren; he is described as "proud Celegorm with gleaming hair."⁶¹ Not long after, Tolkien began the 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa, part of which he translated into Old English, including the names of the sons of Fëanor. Celegorm is translated as Cynegrim Fægerfeax, the latter meaning "fairfax" or "fair-haired."⁶² This is fairly solid evidence, although its occurrence only here and in translation perhaps calls it into question more than a detail that recurs throughout multiple drafts of the "Silmarillion." However, a detail from the section "Of Beren and Lúthien" in the 1937 Quenta Silmarillion (QS) text removes all doubt. In discussing the changes between the QS and published Silmarillion texts, Christopher notes:

In QS this is followed by 'golden was his long hair'. … The phrase was removed in The Silmarillion text on account of the dark hair of the Noldorin princes other than in 'the golden house of Finarfin' … but he remains 'Celegorm the fair' in The Silmarillion.⁶³

Taken together, the two passages not only leave little doubt that Tolkien wanted fair, as applied to Celegorm, to mean at least pale. Furthermore, Christopher explains why this detail was omitted from the published Silmarillion. Interestingly, it is the same reason given by many of the fans of a dark-haired Celegorm: that this detail contradicts Tolkien's statement that golden hair appeared only in the house of Finarfin. Depending on the texts one considers to be "canon," then, both dark- and golden-haired Celegorms remain possible—it is valid, for example, to consider the published Silmarillion to be a canon text or supercedent to the History of Middle-earth texts—but the argument that Tolkien used fair in this instance to mean beautiful can no longer be sustained.

Conclusion: A Name Fulfilled

By the late 1930s, Celegorm's character has stepped almost entirely into the role he will take in the published Silmarillion, though he took the roundabout way into it. Introduced via his death, Celegorm briefly occupied Thingol's role and then, less briefly, Finrod's. I note above that this shapeshifting suggests that Tolkien wanted a character named Celegorm more than he envisioned the character Celegorm as we'd come to know him in the published text. As is often the case with Tolkien, the tangled welter of various drafts of various texts makes it hard to assign causality. When Tolkien recast him, first as Thingol and then as Finrod, did he imagine him as the same character who died "pierced with a hundred arrows" in Doriath? Committed as he was to the name Celegorm, did Tolkien understand its meaning as "hasty" and "violent" when he first constructed it—meaning the character followed the name, as is often the case with Tolkien—or did the meaning come after?

We are lucky that Celegorm's character developed in the productive period of Tolkien's work on the "Silmarillion" in the 1920s and 1930s, documenting what appears to be a rapidfire evolution of a character. This gives us many points on Celegorm's timeline from which to theorize about how Tolkien's conception of his character might have unfolded. It's easy to conclude that Celegorm's sinister origins—dying a kinslayer, only having just emerged as a name amid the ruthless rabble that is the sons of Fëanor—constantly drew Celegorm's character toward evil, pulling him from Nargothrond's throne as the friend first of Barahir, then of Beren. And it's very possible that this is what happened. At the same time, Celegorm sat upon that throne for many years and was defined by that word friend, and this seems to have shaped his character in important ways as well.

In Part Two, I will look at how Celegorm's character continued to evolve, especially considering his character in the context of this role: a friend. Celegorm is identified as a friend at many different periods in his history, and this complicates his character in interesting ways. He is not a cardboard villain but someone who was loved and whose company was desired by others, an aspect of his character that leaves an uneasy reminder: villains are not a people apart but walk among us—and take our hands as friends.

Part 2: Celegorm Complicated

Celegorm's story doesn't get much brighter after the closure of the Nargothrond Element. Recall that, in the Lost Tales version of the story, Maedhros is the character who stokes his brothers into pursuing the Silmaril held by Thingol. The Quenta Noldorinwa shifts that role somewhat onto Celegorm and Curufin. While they do not necessarily warmonger, theirs are definitely fighting words (where Maedhros's role shifts to one of neutrality):

… Maidros and his brethren had before sent unto Doriath and reminded Thingol with exceedingly haughty words of their oath, and summoned him to yield up the Silmaril. This Melian counselled him to do, and maybe he would have done, but their words were overproud, and he thought how the jewel had been gained by the sorrows of Thingol's people, and despite the crooked deeds of the sons of Fëanor; and greed too, it may be, had some part in the heart of Thingol, as afterwards was shown. Wherefore he sent the messengers of Maidros back in scorn. Maidros said nought, for at that time he was beginning to ponder the reunion of the forces of the Elves. But Celegorm and Curufin vowed aloud to slay Thingol or any of his folk they should ever see, by night or day, in war or peace.⁶⁴

This passage also hearkens back to Celegorm's "wild and potent" words in Nargothrond, which themselves—as discussed in Part 1—nod to Fëanor's influence on his third-born son.

As noted above, the refusal of certain realms to participate in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (or to participate minimally) was later attributed to the deeds of Celegorm and Curufin. Surely, all this "vowing aloud" to slay their neighbors didn't help their cause. The Nirnaeth, first mentioned in the outline of Gilfanon's Tale, then written out briefly in "The Sketch of the Mythology," emerged during that awkward time where Celegorm was at once the Lord of Nargothrond and had sworn an increasingly perilous oath. At first, it had Celegorm and Curufin dispatching troops to the battle—though they both refuse to fight under Fingon's banner, and instead "go in search of the hosts of Maidros and Maglor." This text also says that, while they sent troops, it was "not all they could gather, thus breaking their word."⁶⁵ It is tempting to speculate that, at this moment of transition, the failure to fulfill their promise is an early intimation of the treacherous characters Celegorm and Curufin will shortly become. It also provides the germ for the later story: the refusal of Nargothrond to fight for certain leaders and the inadequate host Orodreth grudgingly allows to attend. In fact, as the Nargothrond story evolved and Finrod supplanted Celegorm as its lord, Tolkien corrected the "Sketch" text so that "Celegorm and Curufin come from their wandering" to attend the battle, though as in the earliest version, they insist on fighting under Maedhros's banner and not Fingon's, and Orodreth refuses to participate at all on account of their role in his brother's death.⁶⁶ Once at the battle, though, Celegorm and Curufin distinguish themselves by ensuring the safe retreat of at least some of the Elven contingent: "The remainder of the Gnomes [Noldor] and Ilkorins [Sindar] would have been all slain or taken, but for the arrival of Maidros, Curufin and Celegorm—too late for the main battle."⁶⁷ (The phrase "too late for the main battle," even though it means the rescue of the remaining Elven forces, also carries a subtle whiff of judgment.)

Finally, we end up back where Celegorm's story began: in Doriath, at the Second Kinslaying. Recall that, as Part 1 documents, early in Celegorm's history, he shuffled through several odd roles: briefly as Thingol and much longer as Finrod. Tolkien came back to the original idea of his death in Doriath, however, in the mid-1930s text⁶⁸The Later Annals of Beleriand: "This was the second kinslaying, and the fruit of the oath. Celegorm fell in that battle, and Curufin, and Cranthir." It is in this same passage that the desertion of Dior's young sons Eluréd and Elurín first appears, though they "were taken captive by the evil men of Maidros' following, and they were left to starve in the woods; but Maidros lamented the cruel deed, and sought unavailingly for them."⁶⁹

At this point, Tolkien's work on his "Silmarillion" materials paused as he began writing The Lord of the Rings (LotR). He would pick up the "Silmarillion" stories again post-LotR, as we will see, Celegorm's character development is nearly complete by this early point, and only a few additional details were added.

Relationships

At this point, however, it is worth considering Celegorm's relationships with other characters. Some of these made it into the published text; others endured for a while but were ultimately rejected.

As noted above, Celegorm can be a hard character to like. His motives seem entirely rooted in blind adherence to his oath and a lust for power. The multiple close bonds he forms with other characters exert a softening effect over his character: He is a person who is loved. He is a person whom others want to spend time with. In some cases, he is someone who acts with magnanimity toward those he cares about. When attention shifts away from the domineering Nargothrond Element, one will observe that Tolkien devoted considerable page-space across multiple drafts and years to the friendships of Celegorm. One introduced in the course of developing the Nargothrond Element and discussed in Part 1 is the friendship with first Oromë and then Huan. Interestingly, most of Celegorm's friendships were developed once the Nargothrond Element was in place. While Tolkien's intentions will never be known, one way to read these additions in the context of the chronology of Celegorm's character development is as a complicating factor that places the Nargothrond Element as evidence of Celegorm's fall—and Melkor's evil—rather than as proof of Celegorm's inherently evil nature.

Curufin

No relationship is more important than that with Curufin. These characters appeared to be linked in Tolkien's mind. Early in his development of the legendarium, Celegorm was a solo act (he was, after all, Thingol and then Finrod), and as we'll see, Tolkien's later work set Celegorm apart from his brother somewhat. However, for the most part, Celegorm and Curufin appear to have been rather interchangeable in Tolkien's mind. (Maedhros and Maglor were similar—see polutropos's excellent comparison of their roles across texts in her Maglor biography—and of course Amrod and Amras also.) In the early (1918-25) Lay of the Children of Húrin, Celegorm was labeled "the crafty" along with Curufin, an epithet that had already been applied to Curufin alone in his debut in The Nauglafring.⁷⁰ Likewise, in early texts, it was Curufin—not Celegorm—who fell in love with Lúthien.⁷¹

As the story evolved, Celegorm and Curufin are depicted together more often than not. In fact, in writing this biography, I had to several times remind myself that it was Celegorm's biography, not Celegorm and Curufin's. They live together in Himlad, they go to Nargothrond together, they attempt a coup in Nargothrond together, they rave about Thingol together, and finally, they die together in the caves of Menegroth. It is easy to slip into seeing them as a composite character, especially when working with the published Silmarillion alone.

Christopher Tolkien, however, identifies "subtleties in the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin" that he says were passed over in the published Silmarillion. The most obvious distinction comes during their speech in Nargothrond, where Celegorm very much exemplifies the "hasty" meaning of his name by stirring the crowd to a fervor, after which Curufin acts as the cool-headed closer, bringing the game to a decisive end. In their later interaction with Lúthien and eventually Thingol, Christopher sees subtle plays in power and authority. Recall Tolkien's marginal note on The Lay of Leithian that Curufin "put evil into Celegorm's heart." In the ensuing scene, Christopher identifies Curufin as the "evil genius of the brothers" who plays a long game that Celegorm apparently cannot see. Yet Curufin does not overtake his brother in this scene. He steps back, allowing Celegorm to exercise his authority as the elder of the brothers while puppeting him beyond the scenes.⁷²

The relationship between Celegorm and Curufin is certainly a challenging one. While Tolkien clearly saw them as distinct characters acting in synergy together, there is little evidence of genuine affection between them, aside from the inference (or perhaps question) that if they spent so much time together, they must have at least liked each other? Celegorm's other relationships do not create this doubt: They are depicted as genuine friendships, defined by affection and love. The contrast here brings the true nature of Celegorm's relationship with Curufin even further into question.

The Sons of Finarfin

The most surprising of these was the friendship between Celegorm (and, again, Curufin) with the sons of Finarfin. While this plot point was rejected eventually, it not only surfaced at multiple points in the narrative but endured across several drafts that span about seven years. This perhaps derived from Celegorm's association with Nargothrond and certainly adds a layer of complexity to the Nargothrond Element, when it fully emerges. The 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa is the first time that Celegorm is given a relationship with the sons of Finarfin. In this text, he is named the friend of Finrod Felagund, who "[on] a time … was the guest of Celegorm in the East, and rode a-hunting with him."⁷³ This friendship was short-lived, appearing only in this text. (Note also that it is a rare instance where Celegorm appears alone! In all friendships going forward, he is named with Curufin.)

The Quenta Noldorinwa also has Celegorm as the friend of Orodreth, Angrod, and Aegnor. This friendship, in various permutations, would last much longer in the legendarium (though it, too, was eventually rejected). In this text, these three sons of Finarfin "took the part of Fëanor" in the debate before the flight of the Noldor,⁷⁴ which in the slightly later 1930s text The Earliest Annals of Valinor is specified as "great fellowship … with Celegorm and Curufin, sons of Fëanor."⁷⁵ In fact, in this text, when Fëanor steals the ships and sails to Middle-earth, he goes "with all his folk and no others save Orodreth, Angrod, and Egnor, whom Celegorm and Curufin loved."⁷⁶ Christopher Tolkien finds a connection with the Nargothrond Element, stating that the specific friendship between the sons of Finarfin and Celegorm and Curufin "is no doubt to be related to the evolution of the Nargothrond legend."⁷⁷

Christopher doesn't elaborate why he connects the two events, but it is likely he assumes that the friendship provided the pretense to explain Celegorm and Curufin's presence in Nargothrond. As evidenced further below, Tolkien mentioned several times in earlier texts that Celegorm and Curufin were friends with Orodreth, and that connection is used to explain their movement into Nargothrond. However, from the perspective of the characterization of Celegorm (and Curufin), Christopher's hypothesis is even more interesting. It suggests that, as enmity increases toward one of the brothers (Finrod), friendship is cemented with the others. This offers more than a pretense for the Fëanorian brothers' presence in Nargothrond but heightens the tension between them and Orodreth, their friend. It also transforms Celegorm and Curufin's attempt to overthrow Nargothrond from a simple power grab into a more emotionally complex calculation, doubtlessly with high emotions on all sides.

This friendship was not a passing fancy. It was identified again in the Earliest Annals of Beleriand⁷⁸ and then in the Later Annals of Valinor.⁷⁹ This is the point where Tolkien seems to have considered that the "great friendship" with Orodreth surely could not allow—even with the corrupting influence of the Oath—Celegorm and Curufin's later actions against him. Tolkien revised the Later Annals of Valinor, but he did not remove the friendship with the sons of Finarfin entirely: Angrod and Aegnor remain their companions, and Orodreth's friendship shifts to the sons of Fingolfin, along with his brother Finrod, with whom he crosses the Helcaraxë while Angrod and Aegnor remain onboard the stolen Telerin ships.⁸⁰ This friendship remains in place into the 1937 Quenta Silmarillion, where their friendship with Celegorm and Curufin is given as the reason why Angrod and Aegnor will not return to Valinor with their father.⁸¹

As noted above, the Quenta Noldorinwa and the Earliest Annals of Beleriand also mention this friendship after the Noldorin arrival in Middle-earth, specifically with Orodreth. It is their friendship with Orodreth that brings Celegorm and Curufin to Nargothrond. In the first occurrence of this, "There came Orodreth after a time of breathless flight and perilous wanderings, and with him Celegorm and Curufin, the sons of Fëanor, his friends."⁸² Orodreth's realm is also described as "nighest to his friends the sons of Fëanor," in the first mention of the Fëanorian realms in the "Silmarillion" material.⁸³

It is not until Tolkien resumed work on the "Silmarillion" post-LotR that the friendship between Celegorm, Curufin, and the sons of Finarfin was removed from the text. In the 1951-1952 Annals of Aman, the inclusion of the sons of Finarfin in the crossing by ship to Middle-earth and their friendship with Celegorm and Curufin in Beleriand simply fails to appear in the text.⁸⁴ Instead, he reintroduced the idea—originally appearing in the Later Annals of Beleriand but struck out there—that Celegorm and Curufin, during the Battle of Sudden Flame, arrived in the nick of time at Tol Sirion, where "they fought fiercely, and stemmed the tide for a while; and thus Orodreth escaped and came to Nargothrond." Accompanying Orodreth in ultimately fleeing Sauron, Celegorm, Curufin, and their people "were harboured in Nargothrond gratefully, and the griefs that lay between the houses of Finrod and Fëanor were for that time forgotten." This new turn of events—which retains the heroism of Celegorm and Curufin without the explicit motive of friendship, even with Angrod and Aegnor—was developed in the 1951 post-LotR text The Grey Annals.⁸⁵ What motivated Tolkien to undertake this change cannot be determined, but the loss of one friendship came with the addition of another, one that made it into the published Silmarillion: Celegorm's fateful friendship with Aredhel.

Aredhel

Two texts from 1951 develop the story of Celegorm's friendship with Aredhel that appears in the published Silmarillion: The Grey Annals and Of Maeglin. The latter, originally written in 1951, was revised as a typescript no earlier than 1970, showing the persistence of this storyline—although with multiple ideas begun and swiftly abandoned, as is often the case with Tolkien—across about two decades. What is interesting about this introduction of this particular storyline is Tolkien's accompanying commentary, which gives us rare insight into how he developed the story with characterization in mind.

It is in The Grey Annals that the familiar story of Aredhel's restlessness in Gondolin, her permitted sojourn to Fingon, and her turn to her cousin's land first appears:

Here Isfin the White, sister of Turgon, wearying of the city, went from Gondolin against the [will >] wish of Turgon. And she went not to Fingon, as he bade, but sought the ways to the East, to the land of Celegorm and his brethren, her friends of old in Valinor.⁸⁶

Notable here is her specific friendship with Celegorm—not Celegorm and Curufin. As noted above, the two so often appear together as to become almost a composite character. Late in his work on the "Silmarillion," perhaps with the benefit of some distance from his earlier work, Tolkien is disrupting this tendency and allowing Celegorm to stand apart. Also notable is that Aredhel and Celegorm's friendship originated in Valinor, similar to his friendship with Oromë, Huan, and the sons of Finarfin. Beleriand is a place where the political situation is shaped by loyalties from the Years of the Trees but where distance and distrust seem to make forging new alliances, at least among the Noldor, unlikely.

The text Of Maeglin provides much more detail. Here, the story above expands so that Celegorm and Curufin are away (riding with Caranthir), "[b]ut the folk of Celegorm welcomed her, and did all that she asked; and for a while she had great joy in the freedom of the woods," another element familiar from the published Silmarillion.⁸⁷ Another addition to this text, made in 1951, was struck out before the later typescript was made but remains interesting because of what it shows of how Tolkien regarded Celegorm's character post-LotR. In this text, it is Maeglin who seeks the aid of Celegorm in aiding Aredhel's and his escape from Eöl:

But Morleg [Maeglin] had also mistrusted his father, and he took cunning counsel, and so he went not at once by the East Road, but rode first to Celegorm and found him in the hills south of Himring. And of Celegorm he got horses surpassing swift, and the promise of other aid. Then Morleg and Isfin passed over Aros and Esgalduin far to the north where they spilled from the highlands of Dorthonion, and turned then southward, and came to the East Road far to the west. But Celegorm and Curufin waylaid the East Road and its ford over Aros, and denied it to Eöl, and though he escaped from them in the darkness he was long delayed.⁸⁸

The "promise of aid" recalls the very earliest texts involving Celegorm, where he acted similarly toward Lúthien and Beren. If we step back and consider all of the many versions of the multiple texts under discussion so far, what emerges is a tendency to have Celegorm to act out of benevolence toward characters in need of his aid. Barahir, Beren, Lúthien, Orodreth, and now Aredhel and Maeglin all receive his intercession as the texts evolve toward their published form. This thread of kindness suggests that Tolkien wished to temper Celegorm's villainy. As I've noted above, this centers the oath—not Celegorm's inherent nature—as the cause of his fall. And it is a fall. Tolkien found the concept of a fall central to all stories and discussed the legendarium in these terms.⁸⁹ Celegorm emerges a tragic—not an inherently villainous—character, ultimately a victim of Morgoth's machinations and the tremendous trauma inflicted at the Darkening of Valinor, who went on to victimize others in turn.

It appears, therefore, that Tolkien felt Celegorm needed the opportunity to present himself heroically by helping others. That he settled on Aredhel and Maeglin as the recipients of that assistance is itself interesting, as these characters also occupy a moral gray area.⁹⁰ Celegorm's previous beneficiaries were unequivocally engaged in the war against Morgoth. Given that an organizing principle of the history recorded by the narrator(s) of the "Silmarillion" is the corrupting influence of the oath of the Fëanorians, having Celegorm—so clearly under its sway—aid productively in the advancement of the cause against Morgoth directly counters that historical narrative. Aredhel, on the other hand, is not engaged in the cause against Morgoth. Her desire to leave Gondolin is entirely personal—and no matter how relatable modern readers of Tolkien's work find Aredhel's plight, as it is presented in The Silmarillion, we understand that we should judge Aredhel for being impatient, self-interested, and ultimately unwilling to defer to the (we are to understand) superior judgment of her male relative, Turgon.

When Celegorm intercedes for Aredhel, it is in no way due to the war with Morgoth. He is, at best, involving himself in a family conflict where he takes the part of the afflicted wife and her son. In this, Tolkien manages to have the best of both worlds. He shows the impetuous Celegorm in a rare heroic light that forbids his being waved off as solely a villain. At the same time, Celegorm's kindness does not advance the cause against Morgoth.

In fact, it is quite the opposite. Aredhel's motives for leaving Gondolin aren't just subtly judged; they set off a chain of events that leads to the fall of Gondolin. Aredhel's impatience leads to her leaving Gondolin; her impatience when Celegorm fails to show up promptly leads to an ever-widening gyre of explorations that, eventually, put her into contact with Eöl. In the tradition of Eve, Lilith, and Pandora, we are to understand that Aredhel's desire to know her world exceeds what is proper, and her failure to curb that desire brings harm and death to innocents. Once in Eöl's household, the same restlessness takes hold, and she ultimately brings the person to Gondolin as an honored guest who will betray its location to Morgoth: Maeglin, her son.

Celegorm's aid to her is wrapped up in that ultimate outcome and so, cleverly, Tolkien allows Celegorm to act the hero but also for his status as one sworn to a heretical oath to again turn even acts of kindness into evil. In this instance, we imagine that if Celegorm (and his people) had withheld aid from Aredhel and Maeglin, then the story would have turned out differently: Celegorm would have been a minor villain in a marital conflict, Aredhel's will would have been thwarted and she would have returned to her cage (the one in Nan Elmoth), and Gondolin would not have fallen.

Returning to the early Of Maeglin text, one element stricken from the original draft would resurface: the idea that Celegorm and Curufin waylaid Eöl on his way to Gondolin and, while not preventing his passage to the Hidden City, did delay and discomfort his journey. Tolkien wrote at some length about his choice to include this episode. (Tolkien's full rationale can be found in the Of Maeglin text in The War of the Jewels.)

"The meeting between Eöl and Curufin (if not too long an interruption) is good," Tolkien wrote, "since it shows (as is desirable) Curufin, too often the villain (especially in the Tale of Tinuviel), in a better and more honourable light—though still one of dangerous mood and contemptuous speech."⁹¹

Here he is, of course, speaking of Curufin, who takes the lead in the encounter with Eöl in the published Silmarillion. What stands out to me is the simple phrase "as is desirable" when speaking of showing Curufin "in a better and more honourable light," making explicit that he did not want Curufin to occupy the role of an unmitigated villain. It is not a radical stretch to assume the same of Celegorm, so often present at Curufin's side and, as we've seen over and over again, assigned roles where a measure of honor becomes possible. The role of both brothers, then, can be understood not only in terms of where they best fit in the plot and political situation of the First Age but as characters intentionally crafted to be complex.

Tolkien writes at length on Curufin's motives in the encounter with Eöl (which will be explored in greater depth in Curufin's forthcoming biography), then turning back to both brothers, adds: "An important point not made clear is Curufin and Celegorm's earlier action in the matter of Aredel. She had actually stayed with them, and made no secret of who she was—indeed they knew her well from of old. Why did they not send word to Gondolin?"⁹²

Tolkien concludes that fear of Nan Dungortheb would have prevented them from being eager to do so. However, this was not their sole motive. He continues:

Now there had [been] since Gondolin was 'closed' no communication at all between the sons of Feanor and Turgon. It was known of course that any of these sons (or any fully accredited messengers) bearing tidings of Aredel would at once have been admitted. But Aredel had evidently told Curufin (and later Celegorm of whom she was most fond) enough of herself, to understand that she had escaped from Gondolin by her own will and was glad to dwell [with] them and be free. Now they could only get word to Gondolin by facing evil perils, which only her rescue from misery would have seemed to them sufficient reason. Moreover while she was happy and at ease they delayed—believing that even if Turgon was informed he would only have demanded her return (since his permission to her to depart was void after her disobedience).⁹³

This passage includes several intriguing details. First, Aredhel's preference for Celegorm—which can be inferred from her identifying him, not Curufin, as her destination upon leaving Gondolin—is made explicit. Next comes the startling revelation that Gondolin is not quite as inviolable as it would seem, that even personae non gratae such as Celegorm and Curufin could in fact gain entrance under the right circumstances. (And news of Aredhel would constitute such circumstances, it seems.)

But what also emerges here is a consideration of Aredhel's desires and circumstances that is absent in how both Turgon and Eöl regard her. Aredhel exists in a condition similar to the old English legal concept of coverture where she fails—despite her age and status—to exist fully as a person but is always "covered" by a male relative able to exert legal authority over her. As the passage above reveals, Turgon clearly considered that he retained this authority over her, even after she left: He would have been able to demand her return, and the sons of Fëanor would have presumably been under pressure with some legal force behind it to oblige. Eöl's (lack of) regard for her freedom is similar.

Yet Celegorm and Curufin prioritize Aredhel's desires in this episode. She is their friend; she has left voluntarily and wishes to remain with them rather than to return. This allows the dread of the Nan Dungortheb to become a convenient pretense for not honoring Turgon's authority over Aredhel's own wishes: a remarkably feminist perspective and one that employs a similar guile as exhibited in the Nargothrond Element, this time without the nefarious intentions.

Eventually, Aredhel is "lost," having been taken by Eöl. Celegorm and Curufin do not know what has become of her, though distrusting Eöl, they maintain a strict watch on the border of Nan Elmoth. As the extent of her wandering again expands beyond his home, their scouts eventually catch sight of her:

But now it seemed too late [to] them; and they all [? read they thought that all] they would get for any peril would be the rebuke or wrath of Turgon. And this [they] wished in no way to receive. For they were now under a shadow of fear, and beginning to prepare for war again ere the strength of Thangorodrim became insuperable.⁹⁴

This is a rare moment where Celegorm (and Curufin) appear motivated by something other than power and control. We see this brief resumption of their friendship with their cousin subsumed by worry over the outcome of war with Morgoth. We also see their usual arrogant bluster toward other kings in Beleriand isn't as bulletproof as their treatment of Thingol would make it seem. Turgon's opinion apparently matters to them enough that it would contribute to their growing distress over the forthcoming conflict with Morgoth. Although the details of this text did not make it into the published Silmarillion, we again see Tolkien considering the human emotions of Celegorm and Curufin and, unfiltered by the narrative point of view of the "Silmarillion," allowing room for those emotions—not just lust for the Silmarils—to shape their actions.

Later Celegorm

When Tolkien began writing LotR in 1937 and set aside his work on the "Silmarillion," Celegorm's character was mostly in place. His early association with Oromë in Valinor, the Nargothrond Element, his impetuous temperament, and his tendency to associate with others in friendship were all established.

On the latter, a major change in Tolkien's post-LotR work on the "Silmarillion" was the abandonment of friendship with the sons of Finarfin in favor of friendship with Aredhel instead. As discussed above, this appears to come with the benefits of distance from the story, as Tolkien retained Celegorm's friendly association with others—he was loved, therefore, and not wholly evil—while ensuring that that friendship did not countermand the narrator's explanation of the oath as the driver of history in the First Age. In the published Silmarillion, when Celegorm and Curufin arrive at Nargothrond, it is not in a gust of heroism but as refugees; they do not, therefore, contribute positively to Finrod and Orodreth's stance against Morgoth and Sauron. In their aid to Aredhel, we see those same heroic tendencies applied in a situation that ends up aiding Morgoth, even if they had no way to know that at the time.

Two 1951 texts, The Grey Annals and The Tale of Years, include some small additions to Celegorm's character. The Grey Annals is also where Celegorm's heroic appearance at the Battle-under-Stars is introduced, an element that Christopher Tolkien retained in compiling the published Silmarillion:

The Orcs fled before them, and they were driven forth from Mithrim with great slaughter, and hunted over that great plain that lay north of Dorthonion, and was then called Ardgalen. There the armies that had passed south into the vales of Sirion and had beleaguered Círdan came up to their succour, and were caught in their ruin. For Celegorn Fëanor's son, having news of them, waylaid them with a part of the Elven-host, and coming down upon them out of the hills nigh Eithel Sirion drove them into the Fen of Serech.⁹⁵

In The Grey Annals, the Nargothrond Element keeps its pre-LotR shape⁹⁶ with the exception that the second version of the text includes a passage where Finrod addresses Celegorm specifically in regards to both of their oaths:

'I also have sworn an oath,' said Felagund, 'and I seek no release from it. Save thine own, until thou knowest more. But this I will say to you, … Celegorn the fell, by the sight that is given me in this hour, that neither thou nor any son of Fëanor shall regain the Silmarils ever unto world's end. And this that we now seek shall come indeed, but never to your hands. Nay, your oath shall devour you, and deliver to other keeping the bride-price of Lúthien.'⁹⁷

Celegorm's character is, by now, more than three decades in the making. We have seen how the oath emerged as a significant—perhaps the most significant—factor in shaping his character. Finrod's direct address here—which was not retained in the published text—marks the capstone of that unfolding characterization. Celegorm the fair has become Celegorm the fell—his status as a fallen character summarized in just three words—and Finrod spells out explicitly the futility of Celegorm's oath, which we see in the published text. Not only will even the best-intentioned deeds turn to evil due to the oath, even embracing the degeneracy needed to fulfill the oath will ultimately come to naught. As I've noted at several points, the history of the First Age—with the Silmarils and therefore the oath of the Fëanorians at its center—is explained by the narrator of The Silmarillion in these terms.

A final addition to the Nargothrond Element as depicted in The Grey Annals concerns the eventual fall of Nargothrond: "News of the fall of Nargothrond came to sons of Fëanor, and dismayed Maedros, but did not all displease Celeg[orn] and Curufin."⁹⁸ Here we see another element, starkly apparent in the published text, that emerged in the later working on the "Silmarillion": the positioning of Celegorm and Curufin as moral foils to Maedhros and Maglor, who seem more capable of seeing pursuit of the Silmarils as subsidiary to the war against Morgoth and who come to regret the negative impacts of their oath. Celegorm and Curufin do not seem to have reached these realizations, and the story that emerges in the published text juxtaposes these two pairs of brothers as outcomes of the oath: having taken different paths to the same tragic end.

The Tale of Years, which Christopher Tolkien believes to have been written alongside The Grey Annals, exists as a series of outlines and drafts. Here, we see Celegorm's role in Doriath developed. In this text, Celegorm and Curufin take the role of ambushing the Dwarves at the Fords of Ascar as they retreat from the sack of Menegroth. The Dwarves scatter the dragon-gold in the river, and the Fëanorians are enraged when they discovered the Silmaril is not among the treasure; it has been taken by Melian to Beren and Lúthien, and the brothers do not dare attack Lúthien. Across four drafts, Celegorm and Curufin perform this task; it is only in a 1963 letter that the role is shifted to Beren, where we find it in the published Silmarillion.⁹⁹

Also in The Tale of Years, Celegorm assumes his role, present in the published text, of first inciting the attack on Doriath and then, by association, participating in one of its worst atrocities. In the D-text, the same draft where Celegorm and Curufin's assault on the Dwarves at Ascar disappears, "Celegorn inflames the brethren, and they prepare an assault on Doriath. They come up at unawares in winter."¹⁰⁰ Previously, it was Maedhros who incited this attack; in fact, as noted in Part 1, this was the passage where Celegorm was first named, in the late 1910s Lost Tales, where his death was established before Tolkien had written much of his life. This provides evidence, yet again, of the post-LotR shift of Maedhros and Celegorm toward opposite moral poles.

Even more apparent is the evolution, in the post-LotR texts, of the fate of the sons of Dior, Eluréd and Elurín. As noted above, shortly before beginning LotR, Tolkien placed the blame for this act on the servants of Maedhros (and Maedhros repented of it and searched for the brothers in vain). When he resumed work on the "Silmarillion" after publishing LotR, he also shifted blame for this atrocity (though not the attempted restitution) off of Maedhros. In The Tale of Years C-text, the desertion of the children remains, but none of the Fëanorians are specifically associated with it, either in committing it or searching for the boys.¹⁰¹ By the D-text, Tolkien has resurrected the idea that the "cruel servants" of the Fëanorians are responsible for this reprehensible act, but those servants are now associated with Celegorm. In the margin, Tolkien notes that Maedhros "repenting" searches for the lost children, without success.¹⁰² Again, we see Tolkien aligning Celegorm more explicitly with the intentional evils committed as part of the oath. Maedhros, on the other hand, while far from innocent—he did after all participate in the second kinslaying orchestrated by his younger brother without seeming to have done much to prevent it—takes on a role of repentance and is distanced from intentional evil associated with the oath.

At this point, Celegorm's story is in place. His name would surface in the late 1960s texts Of Dwarves and Men in a footnote stating that, due to his pursuit of Lúthien's hand in marriage, he must have been unmarried prior to that point¹⁰³ and The Shibboleth of Fëanor, where his Quenya names are given as Turkafinwë, "strong, powerful (in body)," and Tyelkormo, "hasty-riser." The latter is described as "[p]ossibly in reference to his quick temper, and his habit of leaping up when suddenly angered."¹⁰⁴

By this time, Celegorm has existed as a named character in the legendarium for forty years, and in Tolkien's glosses of his names, this is where we land: strength and anger. This is illuminating—these were likely the dominant traits Tolkien bore in mind as he made his final edits to Celegorm's story—but also seem to oversimplify the five decades leading to this point, especially given that Tolkien was intentional in wanting to maintain nuance in Celegorm's character. Much like the regretful actions provoked by his oath overshadow the other deeds of his life, these two traits—strong, angry—dominate Celegorm's reception by many fans as well.

Conclusion

As an author, Tolkien gets a lot of credit for popularizing the modern fantasy genre. The depth of his worldbuilding in particular receives praise, and the fantasy authors after him have attempted to follow in his footsteps in this regard. Less commonly is he recognized for excellence in the writing techniques typically assigned to literary fiction, chief among them complex characterizations. As a very new Tolkien fan, still lurking in fandom, I remember very clearly reading a work of meta that argued that the good-evil binary into which the Lord of the Rings characters fall is a strength of that work. Rather than creating morally muddled characters whom one struggled to root for (or against), this author argued that Tolkien offered a refreshing clarity where pure heroes were still possible (as we receive frequent reminders, in our real world, that they too often are not).

Of course, I swiftly became obsessed with The Silmarillion after reading this meta and felt like that book wasn't as simple as this author made LotR out to be. Unlike the Christian good-against-evil narrative of LotR, The Silmarillion more reflected the Northern pagan cultures that interested Tolkien as a scholar, cultures where fragile chances of survival in a harsh climate and a welter of constantly shifting tribal allegiances meant that everyone was good and awful at least some of the time.

Perhaps no character better illustrates this than Celegorm. But Celegorm also gives lie to the notion that Tolkien didn't draw characters with care and intention. His work on Celegorm's character spanned five decades. It began with Celegorm's death, and Tolkien then backfilled a life that is complicated to say the least. Furthermore, Tolkien gives, in multiple places, a rare glimpse of himself thinking aloud as he shapes the characters of Celegorm and Curufin, both as independent people and in relation to each other.

With the entirety of Celegorm's evolution now laid out in the pages above, it is worth taking a step back and attempting to see the big picture. Celegorm began as a name without an identity. He was Thingol; he was Finrod; he was the Celegorm we know, dead in Doriath. It was the introduction of the Nargothrond Element, in place before Tolkien commenced writing The Lord of the Rings, that solidified Celegorm's role as a villain in the story.

Do not let the word "villain" throw you, however; as far as The Silmarillion is concerned, I do not ascribe to that work of meta, read so long ago now, that would have Tolkien's characters shuffled to opposite sides of the room as "good" and "evil." With Celegorm's identity pinned down via the Nargothrond Element, Tolkien almost immediately set out to complicate that identity. He took two main approaches.

First, he gave Celegorm a backstory in Valinor where he was favored by Oromë. This thread continues through to the Nargothrond Element with the presence of Huan, who reminds us of Celegorm's origins and hints at a complex and possibly painful rupturing of that earlier allegiance. The importance of Tolkien's addition of this backstory is that it rescues Celegorm from being explained away as a "bad seed," inherently evil and a product of his father's troubled inclinations. Instead, Celegorm's story becomes one of a fall from innocence, and Celegorm himself is understood as having become ensnared in a primordial conflict much larger than his deeds or even his all-consuming oath.

Second was Tolkien's emphasis on Celegorm's friendships. Who received Celegorm's affection shifted multiple times over the forty years Tolkien worked on his character, but the fact that Celegorm always had at least one person (other than Curufin) who regarded him with love suggests that this was an important dimension of his character to Tolkien and possibly a positive effect of his magnetic personality. Where his allegiance to Oromë sets his narrative trajectory as a fall, his friendships give depth to a character who is otherwise quickly dominated by his horrible deeds. Despite these deeds, Celegorm was loved and capable of love: a villain foremost but not simply a villain.

Celegorm's character was mostly in place when Tolkien began writing The Lord of the Rings in 1937. Christopher Tolkien emphasizes the importance of this twelve-year interruption of work on the "Silmarillion" in how the latter would come to be shaped; it is after LotR is complete that Tolkien considers some of his more radical reworkings of the "Silmarillion" material, such as the Round World cosmogony and the contemplated changes in narrator. Celegorm does not seem to have undergone radical changes, although his break in work on the "Silmarillion" seems to have allowed Tolkien to approach Celegorm's character—who began and remained in a somewhat messy state by 1937—with a new sense of clarity. Here, we see Tolkien shift Maedhros and Maglor onto a different moral trajectory than Celegorm and Curufin. Both pairs of brothers stood together to swear the same oath, though their lives took very different paths upon their arrival in Middle-earth. Yet both pairs of brothers end up akin in their tragic fates, a potent illustration of the futility of their oath and the larger tendency, in the First Age, of all to come to ruin, no matter the efforts or intentions of the various key players—another nod to the Northern pagan (versus Christian) inspiration for the "Silmarillion."

Celegorm is unique among Tolkien's characters because his long history is documented in more detail than most. This offers a rare window into Tolkien's creative process and illustrates his intention where his characters were concerned and, above all, how they bring forth the meaning of his work.

Works Cited

1. The Silmarillion, "Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië."
2. Ibid., "Of the Return of the Noldor."
3. Ibid., "Of Beleriand and Its Realms."
4. Ibid., "Of Maeglin."
5. Ibid., "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."
6. Ibid., "Of Beren and Lúthien."
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."
13. Ibid.
14. The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Doriath."
15. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, Appendix 1.
16. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Etymologies, -KYELEK.
17. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, The Annals of Aman, "Commentary on the fifth section of the Annals of Aman," §134.
18. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion I, "Commentary on Chapter 5, 'Of Eldanor and the Princes of the Eldalië," §§41-2.
19. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, "The names of the Sons of Fëanor with the legend of the fate of Amrod."
20. The History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Tale of the Sun and Moon, note 16.
21. Douglas Charles Kane, Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion (Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press, 2009), 207.
22. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, The Nauglafring.
23. Ibid.
24. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, "Commentary on Canto I."
25. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of the Children of Húrin, 1708-15.
26. Ibid., "Commentary on Part III, 'Failivrin: The founding of Nargothrond."
27. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, 303-4.
28. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, "The Sketch of the Mythology," Section 9, note 4, and Section 10.
29. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, "Commentary on Canto VI."
30. Ibid., 1085-8 and "Commentary on Canto IV."
31. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, "The Sketch of the Mythology," Section 9, note 4 For the parallel text in The Lay of Leithian, see The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, 1703-11.
32. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, "Commentary on Canto II."
33. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, "The Sketch of the Mythology," Section 10, note 2.
34. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, "Commentary on Canto VIII."
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid., 1802-1923.
37. Ibid., 1841-69.
38. Ibid., 2338-9.
39. Ibid., 2414.
40. Ibid., 2449-50.
41. Ibid., "Commentary on Canto VIII."
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid., 2902-5.
44. Ibid., Canto X.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., 3104.
47. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Later Annals of Beleriand, 265-70, and The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI, The Grey Annals, §212. In most texts, Thingol's reticence is ascribed to the "haughty words" of the Fëanorians in demanding return of the Silmaril, but Tolkien clearly did consider the idea that blame should lie more precisely on Celegorm and Curufin such that it was preserved across multiple drafts of the annalistic tradition.
48. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, "Commentary on the Annals of Beleriand (text AB 1), Annal 165-70.
49. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, The Nauglafring, "Commentary on The Tale of the Nauglafring."
50. Ibid.
51. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, Poems Early Abandoned, The Flight of the Noldoli, 120-41.
52. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, 1628-43.
53. Ibid., 2902-5.
54. Ibid., 2264-83.
55. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §3 and §10.
56. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion, "Of Kôr and Alqualondë," §45.
57. Ibid., "Commentary on Chapter 3(c)."
58. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar.
59. The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of Men into the West."
60. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle Earth, "The Sketch of the Mythology," Section 3, note 2.
61. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, 1844.
62. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, Appendix 1. Christopher Tolkien states that Cynegrim is "probably the substitution of an O.E. [Old English] name with some similarity of sound."
63. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion, "Of Beren and Tinúviel."
64. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §11.
65. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, "The Sketch of the Mythology," Section 11.
66. Ibid., note 1.
67. Ibid.
68. The textual history of the "Silmarillion" in the 1930s, before Tolkien began working on LotR, is  complicated. "[A] definitive and demonstrable sequence seems unattainable on the evidence," Christopher Tolkien writes; "and the attempt may be in any case somewhat unreal, for my father did not necessarily complete one before beginning another." We do, within this collection of texts, have definitive beginning and end points: the Quenta Noldorinwa was written in 1930, and Tolkien paused work on the "Silmarillion" to begin LotR in 1937, the same year he submitted the new Quenta Silmarillion text to Allen & Unwin for consideration for publication. Within that timeframe, Christopher Tolkien (cautiously) proposes a possible order for the texts discussed in this article, bearing in mind his note about overlap: Quenta Noldorinwa, Earliest Annals of Beleriand (ABI), Earliest Annals of Valinor, Earliest Annals of Beleriand (ABII), Later Annals of Beleriand, Later Annals of Valinor, and the Quenta Silmarillion. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, "The Texts and Their Relations."
69. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Later Annals of Beleriand, 306.
70. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of the Children of Húrin, "Commentary on Part III, 'Failivrin: The founding of Nargothrond."
71. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, Canto VIII; The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §10.
72. The History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, The Lay of Leithian, "Commentary on Canto VIII."
73. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §9.
74. Ibid., §5.
75. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Valinor, 2993.
76. Ibid., note 21.
77. Ibid., "Commentary on the Earliest Annals of Valinor, Valian Year 2993."
78. Ibid., 50.
79. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Later Annals of Valinor, V.Y. 2993.
80. Ibid., notes 9 and 10.
81. The History of Middle-earth, Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor," §72.
82. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §9. See also The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, 155 and 157.
83. The History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Earliest Annals of Beleriand, "The second version of the earliest Annals of Beleriand," 51.
84. The History of Middle-earth, Volume X: Morgoth's Ring, The Annals of Aman, "Commentary on the fifth section of the Annals of Aman," §159.
85. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, §153.
86. Ibid., "Isfin and Eöl," §118; all bracketed text appears in the original.
87. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, Of Maeglin, §7.
88. Ibid., §§14ff.
89. "There cannot be any 'story' without a fall—all stories are ultimately about the fall—at least not for human minds as we know them and have them." Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "131 To Milton Waldman." This letter is reprinted as the preface to the second edition of The Silmarillion.
90. In my analysis of narrative bias in The Silmarillion, I found ten characters subject to negative bias; Aredhel and Maeglin were two of them. Dawn M. Walls-Thumma, "Attainable Vistas: Historical Bias in Tolkien's Legendarium as a Motive for Transformative Works," Journal of Tolkien Research 3, no. 3 (2016): 26.
91. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, Of Maeglin, §23.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.; all bracketed text appears in the original.
94. Ibid.; all bracketed text appears in the original.
95. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Grey Annals, "Of the Coming of the Noldor," §44.
96. Ibid., §179-82 (Version I) and §192-202.
97. Ibid. §194.
98. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Wanderings of Húrin, 501.
99. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Tale of Years; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "247 To Colonel Worskett."
100. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Tale of Years, D-text, Year 506.
101. Ibid.,, C-text, Year 511 [> 509].
102. Ibid., D-text, Year 506-507.
103. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, Of Dwarves and Men, note 7.
104. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, "The names of the Sons of Fëanor with the legend of the fate of Amrod."