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Argon

Meaning: high chieftain

Other Names:
Arakáno (Quenya)

Location(s):
Tirion
Beleriand

Race/Species: Elf

Type/Kind: Noldor

Parents:
father: Fingolfin, 1st High King of the Noldor in Beleriand
mother: Anairë

Siblings:
Fingon, 2nd High King of the Noldor in Beleriand
Turgon, King of Gondolin &
3rd High King of the Noldor in Beleriand
Aredhel

Description:

Argon is the Sindarin version of Arakáno, the name of the third son of Fingolfin; he is mentioned in The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME volume 12, though he does not appear in the genealogy of The House of Finwë in The Silmarillion. The Sindarin form of his name was never used in his lifetime, but it is used for the title of this entry, in parallel with the entries for his siblings.
Fingolfin's wife Anairë refused to leave Aman.... But all her children went with their father: Findekáno, Turukáno, Arakáno, and Írissë his daughter and third child.... Findekáno had no wife or child; neither had Arakáno.

These names were probably father-names, though Arakáno had been the mother-name of Fingolfin.1 Káno meant in Quenya 'commander', usually as the title of a lesser chief, especially one acting as the deputy of one higher in rank....

Arakáno was the tallest of the brothers and the most impetuous, but his name was never changed to Sindarin form, for he perished in the first battle of Fingolfin's host with the [Orcs2], the Battle of the Lammoth (but the Sindarin form Argon was often later given as a name by Ñoldor and Sindar in memory of his valour).

The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 2, Ch 11, The Shibboleth of Fëanor: The Names of Finwë's Descendants

When the onset of the [Orcs2] caught the host at unawares as they marched southwards and the ranks of the Eldar were giving way, he sprang forward and hewed a path through the foes, daunted by his stature and the terrible light of his eyes, till he came to the [Orc-captain] and felled him. Then though he himself was surrounded and slain, the [Orcs] were dismayed, and the Ñoldor pursued them with slaughter.

The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 2, Ch 11, The Shibboleth of Fëanor: Notes, Note 38


Notes
The third son of Fingolfin, [Arakáno] (Argon), emerged in the course of the making of the genealogies. A pencilled note on the last of the four tables says that he fell in the fighting at Alqualondë; this was struck out, and my father noted that a preferable story was that he perished in the Ice. It is curious that this third son, of whom there had never before been any mention, entered (as it seems) without a story, and the manner of his death was twice changed before the remarkable appearance here of 'the first battle of Fingolfin's host with the [Orcs], the Battle of the Lammoth', in which he fell.

The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 2, Ch 11, The Shibboleth of Fëanor: Notes, Note 38

1 [The] mother-name... Arakáno 'high chieftain' that Indis gave to Nolofinwë [Fingolfin] was held to be 'prophetic'.

The Peoples of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 2, Ch 11, The Shibboleth of Fëanor: Notes, Note 30

2 This text is from one of Tolkien's early drafts. For the sake of clarity, earlier versions of proper names used by Tolkien in this draft have been replaced with the versions in use in the canon sources. All substitutions are marked with brackets.

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 17Oct07

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