see. the absolutely insane thing to me. is. before nargothrond. it seems likely to me that the arafinweans had the smallest land holdings. the feanorians were carving up eastern beleriand and the nolofinweans the northwestern mountains. thingol expressly forbids the noldor from controlling west beleriand (which by the bragollach is comprised of the falas and the realm of nargothrond) because most of the non-iathrim/laiquendi sindar live there. so the arafinweans take the central northern highlands. finrod himself only seems to personally rule a very small region covering the pass of the sirion, centered on minas tirith. but then. but then! finrod tells thingol about his ambitions to build a hidden city (something he did not even tell turgon about!), and thingol has some of his people show finrod a cave system to build it in. and then we see the creation of the realm of nargothrond, the largest of the individual noldorin kingdoms in beleriand, out of the very land that thingol had forbidden the other factions from ruling, with a capitol city modeled after menegroth. do you see why i can't stop thinking about finrod's political position.
