Genealogy

Genealogy

In The Silmarillion, Orodreth is a son of Finarfin, with the Quenya name Artanáro. This was an editorial decision by Christopher Tolkien, made on the grounds that the later revision was not fully integrated into the extant texts by his father. Gil-galad, later High King of the Ñoldor, was his son, but in The Silmarillion, Gil-galad is made into Fingon's son instead. An earlier idea was that Orodreth's son was named Hallas, but Gil-galad replaced him.

As the son of Angrod, the earlier name for Orodreth was Artanáro and later changed to Artaresto. After Angrod was slain, Orodreth dwelt with Finrod and became his "steward".^[2] Tolkien apparently intended to make Orodreth the son of Angrod and the father of Gil-galad. However, this would have impacted a number of other characters and storylines and therefore the change was not made in the published Silmarillion.

In earlier versions, since Orodreth was described as the son of Angrod, it held true then that together with Turgon's daughter Idril and Curufin's son Celebrimbor, he was one of the three members of the Ñoldorin royal family in the third generation to come into exile. His father held Dorthonion, but Gil-galad was sent to the safer Nargothrond with his uncle Finrod.

Other versions of the legendarium

In earlier versions of Tolkien's legendarium, as detailed in The History of Middle-earth, Orodreth had been a more important character and the original King of Nargothrond, but his importance diminished over time.

In his last writings, Tolkien changed Orodreth's name to Artaher (Quenya) or Arothir (Sindarin), but it was never introduced in any narratives, so Christopher Tolkien left the name Orodreth unchanged. It is probable the Sindarin name Orodreth would have been retained nonetheless: Tolkien seldom changed names after they had long been used, even if only in unpublished writings.

House of Finwë