6 Degrees of Separation

[Urwen]

In that case, I'll accept your first answer.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

In that case, I'll accept your first answer.

But my first answer was not correct (except technically, which is the best kind of correct).

I wouldn't be able to put up another one tonight anyway, so there's no harm letting people think for longer than 12 hours.

hS

[Huinesoron]

So then, where can we go from Eldacar?

-Down towards Mithrellas. This takes far too many steps.

-Across to Castamir the Usurper. So far as I can tell, Castamir and his descendents never had direct contact with Sauron, so this looks like a dead end.

-Up to his Northman ancestry. But where then? They're entirely self-contained, and their battles contain no named enemies (for instance, Nazgul).

-Up the family tree? Eldacar directly overlaps as far up as Calmacil, who overlaps up to Hyarmendacil I, who overlaps up to Falastar and Beruthiel. That's nine Kings of Gondor; surely at least one of them must have met Gil-Galad or someone?

... no. Apparently not. Not according to their own Gateway pages, at any rate.

So who might have run into the Kings of Gondor? Saruman is an option, but he was in the East for most of this time period. Galadriel and Celeborn maybe; apparently they were hanging out in Edhellond, but there's no recorded contact with Minas Anor. Amroth and Elrond seem to have kept to themselves.

How about this?

-Eldacar overlaps by 110 years with his grandfather
-Romendacil II, who built the
-Pillars of the Arganoth, which were later passed by
-Aragorn, who was fostered by
-Elrond, who fought alongside
-Elendil, who knew
-Zimraphel.

Only that's seven. But there is this:

-Eldacar fought in the Kin-Strife, during which the
-Osgiliath-stone was lost, having been originally placed by
-Elendil, who obviously knew
-Zimraphel?

Only, y'know... inanimate objects. So how about this?

-Eldacar overlapped by 36 years with his great-grandson
-Minardil, who overlapped by about fifty years with his grandson
-Tarondor, who planted the
-Third White Tree of Gondor, which was a sapling of the
-Second White Tree of Gondor, which was planted by
-Isildur, who knew
-Zimraphel.

Only living things, but it still hits seven.

Any pointers on where to start out?

hS

[Urwen]

Your second solution is good to go.

Try my riddle as well.

[Huinesoron]

So did your solution also go via the palantir of Orthanc? I'm insatiably curious.

hS

[Urwen]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

So did your solution also go via the palantir of Orthanc? I'm insatiably curious.

hS

I had no real solution. I just threw that one to be evil.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

I had no real solution. I just threw that one to be evil.

:O You fiend!

So, the original Miriel was (according to one account) known as Firiel after her rebirth, since she was hanging out with Vaire. There are a couple of other Firiels, but let's do the less tragic* one:

Firiel (AKA Miriel) -- Firiel Fairbairn

(And if you can pass through Firiel of Gondor, so much the better!)

*Unless the connection of her with the Firiel of 'The Last Ship' is correct.

hS