Some theories about Glorfindel's origins.
Who is Glorfindel? A captain and a lord of Gondolin? Sure. We also know that he is blond and followed the Noldor into exile. So: a Noldo, but most likely half-Vanya. No groundbreaking discovery there.
BUT.
In LOTR, Gandalf says that “he is an elf-lord of a house of princes.” (emphasis mine)
It could just be Gandalf being poetic about Glorfindel’s nobility OR it could be meant more literally.
So I have two theories:
1. Glorfindel is the son of a lord close to Fingolfin and of a Vanyarin princess related to Ingwë and thus to Indis, which could explain why he pledges fealty to the second branch of the House of Finwë. Why Turgon specifically, rather than Fingolfin directly or Fingon? Turgon and Glorfindel could have been close in age: two young lords who grew up alongside one another at Finwë’s court.
2. Glorfindel is directly related to Finwë.
In Nature of Middle-earth, it is stated that Finwë was not one of the Unbegotten. Tolkien even attempts to determine the growth of the Elven population before and after the Finding (by Oromë) and the March. He concludes that Ingwë, Olwë, and Finwë were born in the 6th generation, and that the average number of children in the 5th and 6th generations was four.
So Finwë most likely had brothers and sisters, and there is a strong possibility that at least some of them went with him during the March, just as Olwë and Elmo went with Elwë.
It is therefore not impossible that Glorfindel could be the son or grandson of one of Finwë’s brothers or sisters and of a lady or a lord of the Vanyar.
That would make him a prince of the Noldor by blood, though not of Finwë’s line and therefore not part of the royal House itself.










