[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I am actually not sure what edition of The Hobbit this statement about Elrond belongs to)

All of them from the first printing and onward.

It is quite easy to read this passage from The Hobbit in that light, making "chief" the equivalent of "eldest."

It is not easy for me since the word chief does not mean the same as eldest, though often (but not always) the eldest living male of a clan would also be the chief. This was not the case with the Dúnedain of the North who had their own kings and later chiefs of which Elrond was not one, unless he was possibly an acting chief during the period between the death of Arathorn and Argorn’s assumption of the chieftainship. It was also not the case with the Dúnedain of the South who never, so far as we are told, considered asking Elrond to take over their kingship when the line of Anárion failed.

I don't think there's any need to make a case for Elrond being the interim chieftain of the Dúnedain to explain this passage however--"chief" does not only denote "chieftain" but also simply means "foremost," and I doubt that anyone would argue that Elrond was the foremost member of this "race," regardless of whatever formal status he had.

I would be quite willing to argue that Elrond at this time was the foremost member of the descendants of Lúthien then alive. I quite agree that there is no need to make Elrond into an interim chief. There is also no need for my entire post or your post. The word need does not fit here.

All of which is a lot of extracted thought from The Lord of the Rings on a fairly minor point in the text of The Hobbit, but it shows a compatibility between the texts--even if it was written before the The Lord of the Rings was ever conceived. And, if so, it demonstrates I guess the consistency of artistic vision that Tolkien possessed.

This compatibility of text only exists if one plays somewhat dubious games with the meaning of chief. In that case the text is only dubiously compatible.

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

But if you recall, from Melian (and Luthien hearting Beren---and their descendants via Numenor) there is, especially in the Dunedain and through them extending eventually through Men a trace of elvishness. Perhaps that is what is alluded to.

That is what I said (or thought I said, near enough).

When Tolkien originally wrote this sentence he had not yet, so far as can be told, invented Elros and his descendants. If one is taking The Lord of the Rings into account, Elrond was never the actual chief of any of the people descended from Elros, so far as Tolkien indicates, unless the reader assumes an interim chieftainship when Elrond had undertaken the position of foster-father to Aragorn who was the future chief of the Dúnedain of the North by heredity.

Or one might take chief to be used loosely to mean not the actual ruling chief but a person of great authority and power among the Dúnedain of the North.

Tolkien never indicates who was the actual chief of the Dúnedain of the North during Aragorn’s minority. The passage I cite from The Hobbit suggests it was Elrond, but no more than suggests it.