Oh! Haha. I did a double-take when I saw the same avatar as mine. "I didn't write that!" was going through my head.

5 hours ago, Finch204 said:

- Third reason is because he was shunned in the movie trilogy. Like seriously, Glorfindel was a bad-*** in the books, but you wouldn't know if you only watched the movies. If my memory serves me right, aside from Gandalf, Glorfindel is the only other character/hero I know, that has taken on and defeated a Balrog. And he's not even an Istari, just an Elf.

Loads of Balrogs die in the fall of Gondolin. Ecthelion kills the biggest, baddest Balrog about twenty minutes before Glorfindel kills his (both die doing it, which is a bit repetitive tbh).

1 hour ago, Edheliad said:

Loads of Balrogs die in the fall of Gondolin. Ecthelion kills the biggest, baddest Balrog about twenty minutes before Glorfindel kills his (both die doing it, which is a bit repetitive tbh).

Ooh I never even knew about this Ecthelion character until you mentioned it. He seems to be an even bigger hero than Glorfindel, except looks like he wasn't reincarnated like Glorfindel and Gandalf were. Glorfindel was mentioned in the first LOTR book, but I don't remember reading about Ecthelion, but in my defense, it has been a decade since I last read the books. So the three of them died battling Balrogs, I wonder why that is.

It would be cool if there were Ecthelion hero/ally cards, but as it is, the only Ecthelion card I could find is a treachery card. They probably couldn't make him a hero/ally anyway, considering he probably died in the First Age.

Ecthelion may well have been reincarnated, but that would have been in Valinor, where Mandos receives elvish souls for future reincarnation. Glorfindel's an exceptional case, possibly unique, in that after being reincarnated in Valinor he was sent back to Middle Earth (either second or third age; Tolkien changes his mind on these sort of things quite frequently).

@Finch204 You probably don't remember Ecthelion because he was in the Silmarillion, not LotR.

Hurin Thalion, son of Galdor of the House of Hador (a mortal man, albeit an Edain) single-handedly kills a multitude of Balrogs in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

30 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Hurin Thalion, son of Galdor of the House of Hador (a mortal man, albeit an Edain) single-handedly kills a multitude of Balrogs in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

I'm not sure that's correct. I recall that Hurin slays dozens of orcs and trolls -- to the extent that he's eventually trapped beneath their bodies -- while covering Turgon's retreat, but not any actual Balrogs.

Tolkien's idea of what a Balrog actually was changed between drafts of his various stories, so the defence of Gondolin from an army of them riding armoured wurms isn't necessarily as great a feat as Gandalf breaking a little bridge and falling off.

1 hour ago, Kjeld said:

I'm not sure that's correct. I recall that Hurin slays dozens of orcs and trolls -- to the extent that he's eventually trapped beneath their bodies -- while covering Turgon's retreat, but not any actual Balrogs.

Ack. That's right. My brain was referring to Trolls as Balrogs for some reason. Nevermind.

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 5:40 PM, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

@Finch204 You probably don't remember Ecthelion because he was in the Silmarillion, not LotR.

You're right. I have not read the Silmarillion, but I plan to do so later this year. I've been putting off reading it because it is supposedly a tough read. I want to pick up the new book Fall of Gondolin first.

The best version of The Fall of Gondolin was in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two. I don't know how the new book differs from that, though.

3 hours ago, Finch204 said:

I've been putting off reading it because it is supposedly a tough read.

Not at all tough, IMHO. I breezed through it, but then again I do enjoy heavier books.

21 hours ago, Finch204 said:

You're right. I have not read the Silmarillion, but I plan to do so later this year. I've been putting off reading it because it is supposedly a tough read.

Read it, will clear a lot of things before reading fall of Gondolin ...

Also after reading about Fingolfin, all this Gandalf, Glorfindel etc debate will have no meaning ?

BTW, my best ones are Glorfindel (Sp), Aragorn (Lo), Galadriel, Treebeard, but there are lots of others I also like a lot

My favorite Heroes are the ones whose powers are thematic. Tactics Eowyn, Frodo, Galadriel (of course), and (you may think I'm crazy) Fatty Bolger.