Name(s):
• Ellassëa (Q. ‘joyful star’) - given name at birth and used throughout the First Age
• Gîlrandir (S. ‘star wanderer’) - adopted name from the Second Age onward
Rank: Tûr, Bar-en-Celandine
Class: Champion
Heritage Full blooded Noldo. Both parents were of the Calaquendi, and returned to Middle-earth with Fingolfin across the Helcaraxë during the Exile of the Noldor.
Brief Life-Story
I am Ellassëa o Ondolindë, or in the common tongue of the grey elves Gîlrandir o Gondolin. I am Noldo of the First Age, born FA125 of Celebor and Elena of the Gondolindrim House of the Golden Flower (Bar-en-Lothglor); the household of Glorfindel.
Like many of my kind, I am embittered by the events of my youth and my kind’s so called golden age. I carried my father’s lifeless body home from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, after fighting to defeat alongside him as his squire upon the field’s west wing under our mighty High King Turgon and the Host of Fingon. My mother Elena followed her husband’s doom but three short decades later at the Fall of Gondolin, and joined him in the Halls of Mandos.
I finally left my beloved home under the banner of Tuor amongst Hîr Glorfindel’s company escorting women and children from the Fall of Gondolin by way of the Cirith Thoronath, whence I witnessed my lord’s heroic single-handed battle with the balrog, and their ultimate fall.
Wrest and torn, I was driven by the tragedy of my losses; father, mother, home, and lord, I battled and survived the War of Wrath, and the Sinking of Beleriand, but with a broken heart I refused to depart to Valinor with most of my kind, and thus lived for a while in Forlindon under Ereinion Gil-galad. Some time later I then settled in Eregion at Ost-in-Edhil under Celeborn and Galadriel, then later Celebrimbor.
It is during these halcyon days as one of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain that my spirit thawed and healed. I put down my sword and picked up the smithing hammer, for inspired by those around me a love for my father’s jewellers art grew in me. Happier times saw me wed the fair maiden Lorwen, and Hîr Glorfindel returned to the shores of Middle-earth from the Halls of Mandos.
The sacking of Ost-in-Edhil drew me into the War of Elves and Sauron, where I served in Elrond’s company, ultimately resettling with my wife and Glorfindel in Imladris under our new half-elf lord. Defending at the siege of Imladris, I then joined Elrond in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and fought at both the Battle of Dagorlad, and the Siege of Barad-dûr.
Throughout the Third Age I served at my House Lord Glorfindel’s side, and with him Elrond’s guardianship of Eriador from Imladris, ultimately participating in the Battle of Fornost as captain of a company alongside my returned lord.
At Imladris Lorwen bore me a son; Elenion, and rose herself to a role at the side of Celebrían, daughter of Galadriel, and wife of Elrond. Yet it was during a fateful return journey from Lórien that she was waylaid together with her lady by orcs and captured with her. I fought alongside my son Elenion in the company of Elladan and Elrohir in the rescue of their mother, but ours was a lost cause - for Lorwen had been mortally wounded during their capture, and passed into the Halls of Mandos before our rescue was complete.
That loss is a wound I carry along with Elenion, a wound that is hard for either of us to heal from, and does little to help the slightly distant relationship we share as father and son.
In recent years I briefly served the House of Elodu, even for a while as Tûr of the Eldar i Silelen, but now I have returned to my Gondolindrim lord’s side again, and in Glorfindel’s name I lead the House of the Celandine (Bar-en-Celandine). Elf-Captains, or squires whom would aspire to be so, vigorously pursuing the agents of the Enemy, and putting their designs to the sword.
I have for some time now counted Elidir as my sworn-brother, and Aldalin as my consort. These two stand alongside my slightly estranged son Elenion, and my ageless House Lord Glorfindel, as the closest and most dearest people in my life.
I am well-travelled, my desire to roam, explore, and travel is made use of by my House Lord Glorfindel (and Elrond), as an agent, a messenger, a representative and courier between Imladris and Mithlond in the west, and Lórien in the south. My love of jewellery smithing is only bettered by my utter hatred of the corrupted fell servants of Morgoth - troll and orc, whom I can never tolerate if I pause to recall the fate of my wife, my parents, or fair Gondolin.
Like many Noldor of the First Age, I know I have more than my fair share of arrogance, bitterness, a fiery spirit which can be quick to anger and prone to over-reaction, yet I plead also burns with a love of creation and crafting precious metals and stones. In quiet times I can be found to lament the passing of the time of my people - the Noldor, the fair places we have built and lost, and the loss of family and friends dear to me.
Duty keeps me in Middle-earth, duty to Glorfindel and Elrond, duty to my heritage of the Noldor, and a refusal to cheapen and cheat lamentation by travelling into the West.