The Home of Gildor's Group

Tungol

Member
When the elves and the hobbits sit down to eat it reads:
'This is poor fare,' they said to the hobbits; 'for we are lodging in the greenwood far from our halls. If you are ever a guest at our home, we will treat you bettter.'

It doesn't seem to add up that their home is in Rivendell, because earlier Gildor says: "Some of our kinsfolk dwell still in peace in Rivendell." There we have, "our kinsfolk", not the group itself.

TThurston suggested that they could be from the Tower Hills, which I think is a good guess. Apparently they still have a home somewhere, even though they are "tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea."

Maybe they are out for one last journey east from the Tower Hills before turning back west? Does this make sense?
 
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Thank you for adressing my question professor. I agree that I probably too literal in interpreting Gildor's "tarrying here a while".

Interestingly, I have since found an article citing Tolkien in The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle, where he wrote this about Gildor's company:
No doubt Gildor and his companions (Vol. I, Chap. 3), since they appear to have been going eastward, were Elves living in or near Rivendell returning from the palantir of the Tower Hills. On such visits they were sometimes rewarded by a vision, clear but remote, of Elbereth, as a majestic figure, shining white, standing upon the mountain Oiolossë (S. Uilos). It was then that she was also addressed by the title Fanúilos ["Snow-white].

However, the author of this article goes on to argue that Gildor's company living near Rivendell doesn't seem to line up with the rest of the textual evidence, as I noted. There is a real mystery here still in my mind, which unfortunately might not have a definitive answer.

Edit: I have created a seperate discussion thread in the other section.
 
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