Thread by @NerdGerhl

You know, sometimes it takes years of comics stories and writers/artists to create the need for retcons to sort out continuity mistakes.

And sometimes you just have to be J.R.R. Tolkien and get really attached to the name Glorfindel.

Let me explain the Glorfindel problem.

You remember Glorfindel. He was in The Lord of the Rings. He finds Aragorn and Frodo and co. in the forest and helps them escape the Black Riders and then disappears from the story entirely whoops.

Glorfindel is also in the Silmarillion. He's around for the Fall of Gondolin and fights the FUCK out of a Balrog, killing it but also dying heroically. "Glorfindel and the Balrog" is the elven "Shaka when the walls fell" for "Man it was a fuckin FIGHT you don even KNOW."

Two Glorfindels was not initially a problem for good ol J.R. There could just be two elves with the same name. He liked the name!

But eventually he remembered/decided that every elf lives forever, and that's where the problem started.

When elves "die" their spirits go to the Halls of Mandos in the Undying Lands in the far west of Middle-Earth and they are eventually re-embodied there (it's implied that it takes longer/might take forever if they were particularly bad elves). Elves don't die.

So elves don't name their kids after a famous elves — because every famous elf is still around, and that'd be weird.

Glorfindel singlehandedly killed a balrog. He was a fucking GOAT elf.

Even Tolkein was like "shit, I shoulda named LotR Glorfindel something else." But he still had simple solution. He could just rename Silmarillion Glorfindel.

But he didn't because he liked the name too much.

Instead he decided to double down on it and make them the SAME CHARACTER. Which is where all the OTHER problems started.

Now he had to answer questions like "How did Glorfindel get back to Middle Earth after dying?" and "Why was a dude who could kill a Balrog on his own just chillin in Rivendell, waiting to go say Boo to Black Riders so some hobbits could get a place?"

I mean. Jonathan.

Tolkien was literally like "Well, I guess I better fix that before I die."

So Tolkien invented this new concept where before sending the Istari (i.e., Gandalf, Saruman and the other wizards) back as Middle-Earth's guardians, the Valar sent Glorfindel as a, like scout, and he's been hanging out ever since.

As for why he isn't in the final draft of the Fellowship (he was in early drafts, but Legolas would eventually replace him), Tolkien made the kind of flimsy explanation you and your DM agree to treat as reasonable so that your vorpal sword doesn't break the entire plot:

Gandalf: We should send Merry and Pippin because Glorfindel isn't OMNIPOTENT so he's not as strong as the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP.

He might not be omnipotent but I'm pretty sure you'll want Glorfindel "I killed a Balrog" along later, Gandalf my dude.

In conclusion: First, if you think writers should be better about not papering over continuity mistakes with retcons, know that J.R.R. Tolkien made them with a project on which he was THE SOLE CREATOR.

Second, god help us all if Tolkien had been able to use Scrivener.

He would have had terabytes of notes but dude would never have actually written ANYTHING.