Verily my compassion overcometh my wrath. Who are YOUR famous five?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Well, my favorite of all Tolkien's characters has always been

1). Gandalf,

so that's one. From LotR, I have also long been fond of

2). Frodo and
3). Aragorn,

but if I had to choose characters based on compassion, I would have to say

4). Namo (who would want his job?) and

5). Maglor (who seems to keep wanting to do the right thing, then gets suckered into the wrong thing because of pressure from his dysfunctional family -- a thing with which I can STRONGLY identify ).

[skip spence]

Off the top of my head and without any specific order.

Andróg.
He's awesome, isn't he? A bitter and hard man who initially wants to kill Beleg but ends up saving his life.

Sador.
What a humble and wise man he is: "A man who flies from his fear might find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."

Maedros
A great guy bound by a terrible oath. Just imagine what would have happened if Fingon never saved him. The remaining brothers would've gone on a rampage.

Feanor
But you gotta love the passion of his father too.

Boromir
Perhaps the only LotR character I can relate to.