Gil-galad Variations, featuring all the gil galad theories i've encountered.

My favorite theory I think is the one where Gil-Galad is actually Elured. Bc canon doriath makes me hella mad and sad. also yes, the firefly motif is just gonna be everywhere. because I said so.

A flickering flame

She looks at the babe in her arms, blissfully asleep and unaware of the world he just entered. This little boy who shouldn’t be, her miracle and her curse.

Drained, she leans back against the pillows as the midwife cleans the room. It’s a sad place, to bring a child to life in, this rickety little cabin in the woods. And yet, it is the only way to keep her secret, to keep her son safe.

“Do you have a name for him?” the midwife asks quietly. It is not the first time she asks, and not the first time silence is her only answer.

No, she doesn’t have a name for her son, because she did not mean to have a son. Because, by any mean, he should not even exist.

Yet, exist he does, and his warm weight against her breast chases some of the pain and melancholy away. She presses a light kiss to his soft dark hair. His eyes are blue, for now, and she wonders if they will change to her own brown or stay as blue as his sire’s. She considered calling him his father, even if just in her heart, but the wound is still too fresh and the word stings at this gaping absence. He left her, alone with this tiny, flickering life; he does not desserves any other title than sire of her son. And yet…

And yet this is not her son, she muses, not entirely, for the life in him is brighter and stronger than it ought to be. This babe a mere hours old already has a keen gaze, his large eyes reflecting the light. She wonders if they will reflect the stars, if she brings him outside.

She does not have foresight, for this is a gift of the Eldar, but she knows her time with her son is limited. That she has to secret him away and rip yet another piece of her heart if she wants him to live. He does not belong to the green forests of Ladros and the villages scattered there. He is not destined to the simple life of the men of this land.

With a heavy sigh, she carefully lays her son next to her on the bed and asks the midwife for the paper and ink she packed with her own supplies. The letter is short and to the point, just cryptic enough that anyone unaware of her identity can’t understand the message. There is precious little wax in the cabin, but she sacrifices a bit of her candle to seal the letter before handing it to the midwife.

“Give this to the closest courrier you can find,” she says, an order despite her tired voice. The midwife nods and tucks the letter in her bag. She won’t speak, she knows.

***

The answer comes swifter than she expected, in the form of a tall, cloaked figure entering the cabin at night. She almost screams in fear, reaching for the knife on the bedside, before recognising the face half hidden by the hood. The bright eyes shine in the dim light of the lone candle.

“You called for me?” the figure asks, his voice melodious and fair. If she did not know the identity of her visitor, she could have mistaken his voice for another, beloved one, just for the faintest moment. But he is not him. She will never see him again and she thinks ‘good riddance’ even as her heart bleeds.

Mutely, she signals to the visitor to sit on the side of the bed, and places her son in his arms. “Take him to safety, my Lord,” she says. “Tell whatever lies you want about his origins but keep him safe with his kin.”

“But you are his kin, my friend,” he replies calmly, even as he rocks the babe in his arms. And what a picture it would be, to see this great Lord playing nursemaid, if the situation wasn’t so painful.

She shakes her head. “He may share my blood but not my soul; I can see it in his eyes. He belongs with you. Please, take him and tell no one the truth!” and she hates how her voice shakes, how she is reduced to beg to have her son taken away from her. But she cannot keep him, she knew that from the very moment she felt this little life growing within her.

Her visitor sighs softly in defeat, and even this sound is music. “Very well, my nephew has a young daughter and his wife is still nursing. They will be happy to call him their son.” And his words sound like a promise.

A knot loosens in her chest at the knowledge her son will be well cared for. “Thank you, my friend,” she whispers quietly. “But go now, before dawn comes. There is a basket with supplies for the babe on the table.”

The visitor raises, towering over the bed she has spent the last few weeks in, close to her son, and secures the still sleeping babe in a sling against his heart with the uttermost care. Yes, her son will be safe in these hands.

He is about to leave, basket in hand, when he pauses by the door and turns to look at her. “You never told me his name.” His voice is serious and his gaze piercing.

She looks back at him, calm and sure of herself for the first time since he entered the cabin. “Artanáro,” she says with a tight little thing of a smile. “For his life is bright as a flame.”

Her friend smiles faintly as he looks back and forth between her and the babe. “Artanáro. Yes, it suits him.”

Merry Christmas

Elrond, singing: I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need— Gil Galad: A father. Celebrimbor: A less violent family. Galadriel: Mental stability. Annatar: *grinning* Rings?

So like, after the first elves awoke, they woke up the others that were still sleeping, right? What if one of them was just. Not noticed. By any of them.

(Maybe he was under a bush or something)

What if he kinda stayed there.

What if he was found a few thousand years later under a pile of moss and fungus. What if he was GIL GALAD EREINI-

Gil-galad theory of the evening, he's Amrod.

Fëanor and co. burnt the ships, Amras is like "dad where's my brother?!" Fëanor goes "oh fuck" and the drama ensues, but! Amrod didn't actually die! He woke up in time to leap off the boat and float down the shore on some scrap of a ship. He's mad at his family because he feels like he was betrayed and abandoned (reasonable) so he decides not to rejoin the Fëanorian host and find somewhere else to live. He makes his way to the Falas and lives with Cirdan's people. There are initially weird looks because he has red hair and that's weird to them, but Amrod uses elf hair dye to blend in (sometimes he goes dark, sometimes he uses elf bleach) He goes by the name Artanaro (noble fire) at first because he survived a burning attempt and he lives there as a hunter.

Whenever his lineage is called into question he'll say something vague like "oh my family were nobles" and try to drop the topic. After a while he tells some people "I'm from Finwë's family in Valinor, no not those kinslaying ones what are you talking about" and he gets called the equally vague "decent of kings" for that.

Once everything goes to shit and Gondolin falls, Cirdan is like "you're the only one left from Finwë's line who's not a Fëanorian right? You're the king now" and Amrod just rolls with it because why not? What's the worst that could happen? And then he dies in fire and everything makes a full circle and it's cinematic something something poetry something something irony

Some more thoughts on Gil Galad, son of no one (or, my particular interpretation of this post I made a few days ago)

First, if maia are manifestations of a Concept willed into sentient being by Eru, theoretically if a concept emerged later, and enough people believed in it, could it also come into being? (Eru probably helps, but still.) So darling Gil Galad is the Idea of the High King of the Noldor in the East, and is technically a maia- But because The High King of the Noldor in the East should by all accounts be an elf and he's at least partially created from the thoughts of elves... things get a bit weird. Gil Galad wakes up on a beach with no knowledge of who he is or where he's come from other than that he's supposed to Become The High King. Hell, he just assumes he's an elf because he looks like one, since he doesn't have the context to know that he's experiencing the world in a fundamentally different way. (His eyes blink open. That’s exciting! Gil Galad hadn’t known he had eyes.) He knows everything he could possibly know about politics and strategy, and gets flashes of memory and insight based on the lives of the past high kings- ("Nooooo Gil Galad, don't ride up to the gates of Angband and challenge Morgoth you're too sexy aha-") but that doesn't mean he knows how to be A Person. So we've got a Gil Galad who's one part maia, one part pooled knowledge from all the High Kings, and one part all the remaining Noldor's Peter Pan wishes for a high king who won't charge ahead in battle or challenge a dark god to single combat or disappear into a hidden city or-

Oh that's also why, in this universe, when Sauron kills Gil Galad there is no High King of the Noldor in the East after him, since the very Idea of it is dead.

My current blorbo´s; Melkor, Ereinion (Gil-Galad), Caranthir, and Elrond.

Explanation of some of their looks, as I've noticed that my designs for some characters are a bit unusual for many in the fandom

Melkor:

Oh boy, do I have thoughts on this creature!

So, he loses all his color when he pours himself into Arda (that takes a lot of years so I´m saying it only gets consequences right before he´s being sat in timeout in Mandos for 300 years) and now can only take a form with no color so yes he can still choose a form of his own wish, but it will be without pigment. Then later at the theft of the Silmarils, it´s said that he loses his ability to create a "fair form" talking about him being stuck in an "ugly" body, yet still, when he meets the Edain he´s described as taking a majestic and beautiful body, wich translates to me as it´s hard for him to change his body, he still can, but he has a preferred one, he can´t loose his scars, and he´s bound to a physical form as the first Ainur ever.

The hair is just him deciding to cut it at three in the morning and Mairon trying to save it the next day because he won't use energy to grow it out fast. It gets in his way you see. Sensory issues. He probably bites it off.

Ereinion:

I like to think of Ereinion as a child of Angband that got picked up by Maedhros and then given to Fingon for safekeeping. The pigment "flaws" are a turnout of being near Maiar who doesn´t try to make their effect on the world around them minimal, in a young age. (I also have a headcanon about that happening to some of the elves living in Valinor but much less since the Ainur residents there tries to keep it minimal)

I go a lot more on him in this post (also about pigment "flaws" in Valinor and Doriath) explaining both parentage and appearance.

Caranthir:

I think my Caranthir explains himself, red birthmark for his name and gold since he´s very ✨rich✨ 

Elrond:

Elrond is part Maia and I headcanon lesser Maiar to have some form of orb floating close to their head they can´t hide as it´s part of their fea, meaning it´s more or less how they would look without a body, so only stronger Maiar can hide their fea totally. He can shapeshift a little but not lose his body, but he can turn his teeth sharper and turn a bit taller, so small things like that.

closer to stars

beleriand cant have been all that awful - there must have been time to plait your obscenely long hair surely right guy srigjht right

(young lad gil-galad some time in falas shrugs)

Gil-Galad origin story of the day: he is the son of Finrod and Amarië. Or rather, he is the son of Finrod and Edrahil.

We are told that Amarië wanted to follow Finrod into exile, but was not permitted to. So she didn’t. In the general confusion that occurred, I imagine it would be easy for someone to disappear (Amarië is angry now, she is just ignoring everyone, give her a moment and she will come back, right?). Nobody hears about Amarië following Finrod, it’s Edrahil who follows him instead (by the time her family realizes what happened they are already on the ice). Is Amarië pretending to be a guy because it’s easier at the moment? Is Edrahil a trans guy who used that moment to come out? Who knows.

When Beren comes to Nargothrond, Edrahil decides to follow Finrod into the danger again. The moment he picks the crown and asks Finrod to choose the steward it be given to, he also asks him to choose the guardian for their underage son. 

The events of Tol-in-Gaurhoth are already one of the most dramatic moments in Silmarillion, let’s make them even more depressing by making it the moment Gil-Galad loses both of his parents

Big fan of most of his possible lineages, but the "He's just some dude" has to be up there for my favorite Gil-Galad origines. Anyway, here's rando sinda ex-thrall Gil.

My two favourite FAVOURITE Gil Galad theories are Gil Galad son of No-one Really and Gil Galad son of Everyone Kind Of?

Like I adore the idea that someone who by blood is no-one, parents were random noldo or sinda soldiers, doesn't even know who his parents are, that this strange elf becomes one of the best Kings of the Noldor and the only one to rule mostly in peace since finwe. That this person who was not Finwe's heir is the one to inherit his mantle in its truest form.

But also... what if he's everyone's son?

I have seen this done both as weird magic stuff and also as the worlds most complicated polycule and the kid that resulted. But i prefer the Hot Potato Origin: That in his life Gil Galad has been passed through so many of the Noldorin and Sindarin Lords and been adopted so many times that no one is sure at this point who actually contributed genetically.

Post rebirth there's a tally system of whose traits he shows the most of out of the finweans (concerningly, Argon is currently in the lead) and no one wants to ask him directly because if They are one of the parents it would be horrendously embarrassing to not Know That. This also means that most of them have adopted a sort of parental attitude towards him even if they're fairly certain that they aren't related.

Some of them have become full conspiracy theorists about it (Fingon: what if I DID have a wife and i just FORGOT because of head trauma?? Galadriel: subtly interrogating all her siblings to build a full timeline of their entire lives in Beleriand) others are throwing fuel on the fire for their own amusement (Nerdanel: actually he's our Secret 8th Son, we sent him on later, that's why he has freckles. Elrond: he's actually Elros, we were lying for fun, ignore that we dont look at all alike.) Some of them have just kind of shrugged and acknowledged that they are a possible candidate and moved on (Caranthir: if Haleth had a child she Absolutely would not have told me and she's clever enough to have organised this, the timeline works out. Aredhel: unfortunately large chunks of my time in nan elmoth are fuzzy and i would not put it past Eol to rid himself of any "unsuitable" children.) Finrod and Maedhros have remained So silent on the issue that others are Sure they Know something (the pestering results in Both of them suddenly claiming to be his parents: Finrod is his father, Maedhros his mother Actually. The charade of being star crossed lovers is convincing enough that people start doubting their real marriages.)

Gil Galad is honestly completely uninvested in this and is just glad that they're bickering between themselves instead of questioning him constantly. Besides he has lunch with his birth parents every Wednesday; if they wanted to stop the rumours they would.

Gil-Galads true origin

The other day I had a dream about Gil-Galad. In this dream he reveald to me, that he actually was Anakin Skywalker, hiding from the other force ghosts, especially the younglings. He also knew that Annatar was bad, because he felt his darkness through the force.

So... here is a picture of Gil-Galad Skywalker chasing Annatar across his border with his lightsaber. I also have no idea where he got it from...

Gil-Galad son of plot hole theory of the day: Gil-Galad is Fingon’s son. With Orodreth (Orodreth being a son of Finarfin in this case).

They were both very drunk and sad and lonely one night, fell in bed together, one of them is trans (Fingon?), and Gil-Galad happened.

Orodreth raises him in safety in Nargothrond and everyone assumes the other parent is Orodreth’s wife because she’s a dark haired Sinda and Gil-Galad has dark hair too. But since Fingon named Gil-Galad as his heir and he kind of look A Lot like the king, people start saying he was just fostered by Orodreth and he’s actually Fingon’s son with his very elusive wife who died short after Gil-Galad’s birth.

Gil-Galad knows his true parentage and has a good laugh each time a new, more improbable rumour reaches him.

Actually gil galad spawned from maedhros' cut hand Dr who style