Oropher - brother of Celeborn?

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Actually, silver hair runs in the house of Elwe/Olwe; Galadriel got that aspect of her hair from her mother Earwen of Alqualonde. Thranduil's golden hair is nowhere explained, except by observing that sports do occur (for example, the red hair of Mahtan, which he passed to his daughter and some of his grandsons).

The fact that Galadriel managed to combine 'blonde' and 'silver' to make 'silver-gold' suggests that there's something super weird in Elvish hair genetics, but that's neither here nor there.

Do we actually know Thranduil had golden hair? The only source text I can find is this:

Originally Posted by The Hobbit: Flies and Spiders

The feast that they now saw was greater and more magnificent than before; and at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair, very much as Bombur had described the figure in his dream. The elvish folk were passing bowls from hand to hand and across the fires, and some were harping and many were singing. Their gleaming hair was twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on their collars and their belts; and their faces and their songs were filled with mirth.

And yes, it says golden - but it's also very clear that he's lit by firelight, and that the elves' hair is reflecting the light ('gleaming'). Silver hair under firelight could easily come out gold.

(I know, it's a stretch. I was somewhat led astray by Movie Thranduil, whose hair is if anything paler than Galadriel's.)

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Of course, at the time he wrote the chapter, he viewed all the Elves of Northern Mirkwood including their royal house as Nandor,* as also were Celeborn and the population of Lorien. The idea of an incoming Sindarin ruling caste came about much later.

Not that much later - it's in Appendix B, and Lorien was written after Tolkien's stop in Moria. But yes, there's a few years between 'He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted' and 'In Lindon south of the Lune dwelt for a time Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol'.

Which confirms what we kind of knew already: the Celeborn-Thingol family tree was cobbled together after the fact, based on existing texts, in order to make exactly the kind of connections I'm talking about between the Third Age and the Elder Days. That being the case, it's not wholly relevant that Thranduil's hair doesn't match Celeborn's and Thingol's - we've already established that they weren't created to be relatives. The question becomes whether Tolkien would have looked at them and thought 'hey, those two could be related'.

I think the key piece of evidence would be whether Oropher and Galathil were created at the same time. If they were, then the 'tree-names' would suggest a connection.

Unfortunately, Unfinished Tales doesn't pin many dates on things. Oropher comes entirely from 'The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves', which is parts of two essays described as 'late philological writings'; Malgalad comes from the same source. Galathil... doesn't appear in any narrative source.

Elmo does, with the mention of 'Celeborn, grandson of Elmo the brother of Thingol', and no other grandchildren named. But there's no indication of whether Christopher's statement that 'Elmo's son was named Galadhon, and his sons were Celeborn and Galathil' is based on a text saying as much, or on a separate mention of Galathil as a son of Galadhon, without reference to his brother(s).

'Celeborn of Alqualonde' appears to post-date Oropher's appearance: CT mentions it as a 'very late and primarily philological essay', as opposed to simply 'late' for Oropher. But the chronology of the various philological and etymological essays mentioned in Unfinished Tales is tragically unclear, and (other than a mention of what has to be LaCE) I don't think any of them are in HoME.

hS

[Huinesoron]

It may actually make more sense to imagine Oropher as a cousin of Celeborn - or more precisely, Oropher and Amdir Malgalad as first cousins of Celeborn and Galathil, sons of an unrecorded sibling of Galadhon. Let's lay out the evidence:

1. Amdir Malgalad was blond

The biggest pointer at this is that second name, 'golden tree'. Amdir came to Lorien before mellryn grew there, so he can't be named after them; he's a Sinda, so he can't be named after Laurelin, and a Doriathrin Sinda, so Glingal of Gondolin is out too.

So why 'golden tree'? Well, Celeborn was originally intended to mean 'silver tree', and he's got silver hair. The same logic can be applied to Malgalad; the 'tree' part can be explained by Tolkien's description of Legolas as 'tall as a young tree' (and the fact that Thingol was the tallest of all elves is relevant here).

A second line of evidence comes through one of Amdir's people: Haldir, the marchwarden of Lorien. Like Thranduil, he is confirmed as having golden hair, but look at his name: it has that same -dir ending. Tolkien translated an earlier use of the name as 'Hidden Hero', but it makes equal sense as a tribute to the late king: 'Amdir of the Shadows'. The most logical reason to name your child in honour of the king would be if he looks like him - say, if he had that same golden hair...

2. Since blond hair is rare among the Sindar, we can assume its bearers are related.

Tolkien went to great lengths to ensure that all silver hair descended from Thingol's family. He went to the same lengths to tie red hair solely to Mahtan's line. And every instance of gold hair in the House of Finwe has a Vanyarian origin. So why would things be any different when it came to the Sindar? If Amdir (see above) and Oropher (see Thranduil) are both blond, then it seems likely they were siblings.

(What does this say about Haldir, then? Um... pass. )

3. Amdir and Oropher were royalty before they were kings.

I mentioned this already, but didn't realise the significance. Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn: Appendix B is entitled 'The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves'. But... Thranduil is the Elvenking. Amdir and Amroth are kings of Lorien. Assuming that 'princes' goes back to Tolkien rather than being a Christopher turn of phrase (he uses it twice), it seems clear that Amdir and Oropher were of royal blood - which means they were tied in some way to the House of Thingol.

(Incidentally, it seems likely that Oropher was the elder of the two: it was he, and not Amdir, who let the Silvan host at Dagorlad.)

4. Their names tie them to Galadhon's line.

This is the original theory again: Oropher and Malgalad share 'tree-names' with Celeborn, Galathil, Nimloth, and Galadhon. All the evidence from the original post - Thranduil's halls, the Enchanted River - still applies here.

5. Cousins makes sense of the power dynamics.

It is pretty clear that Oropher didn't stand in a position of authority over Celeborn: if he did, he wouldn't have moved his entire kingdom north to get away from him. But equally, Celeborn doesn't have clear authority over Amdir: he entered Lorien as a guest, rather than accumulating power even by accident. So none of them fall easily into the 'elder brother' position. Equally, Oropher and Amdir can't be brothers of Galadhon - they would have almost parental authority over Celeborn, which they clearly don't.

But Elmo's grandchildren down a different line? A brother or sister of Galadhon who married a golden-haired elf? That makes sense. It also avoids going against the non-narrative implication that Celeborn and Galathil are Galadhon's only children - there doesn't seem to be a similar implied claim that Elmo only had one son.

hS

[Ivriniel]

Kin from the North, makes sense, as posted upstream. I suppose it's possible. Perhaps cousins, or distant cousins. We don't know how small the Cuivinen population was, and if it grew before the Migrations.

Add to that, Celeborn remained behind, while Galadriel went home to Valinor. Celeborn seems to have had a heart's call to settle or rule Mirkwood's south, I seem to recall.

I've always had a headache when tracing Celeborn's birth and lineage. It got very weird in some of UT's notes, with inbreeding implied by the 'Valinor birth' version of Celeborn's heritage.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Whatever T had in mind when he wrote the Lorien chapter, around the time of Pearl Harbor, and whatever he might have speculated in very late scribblings, if we need a 'canonical' answer then I think we are forced to accept Appendix B, which was published and therefore carries the authorial stamp of 'finality': Celeborn was a kinsman of Thingol, who did not live in Lorien in the Second Age, and thus was of Doriathrin origin. And this itself counts as "late", since it was added to the Second Edition in 1965; the First Ed read "...many of the Sindar passed eastward and established realms in the forests far away. The chief of these were Thranduil in the north of Greenwood the Great, and Celeborn in the south of the forest. But the wife of Celeborn was Noldorin: Galadriel sister of Felagund of the House of Finrod."

So both ca 1955, and formally ratified a decade later, Celeborn was a Sinda. (Note that as of the First Edition, Oropher didn't yet exist)