...that he attracted a very wide array of the otherwise unattached or
disaffected. I mean, isn't Tolkien fundamentally interested in words,
their sound and style? And isn't Finrod Felagund just the coolest name on
record? It just naturally follows that he's the coolest dude in a field
littered with with supercool.
Take the discovery of Men. It's Finrod who finds
them, sneaks unnnoticed into their camp, picks up a harp they've been using,
and then makes music so beautiful that they swear undying allegiance to him on
the spot. It's hard to imagine any of the other Elf-Lords pulling that
off - they're either too stern, or standoffish, or contemptuous.
And he's tops on chivalry too. The Ring of Barahir is
his; who else who swear his life for the life of a man, and pay off without
hesitation? (spurning his throne for honor, no less).
The evidence is that Nargothrond was the most cosmoploitan
of the Elf-cities, earning the free allegiance of everyone in reach. He
actually started out with the smallest of the realms, just the Tower of (ahem)
Minas Tirith on a dinky island in the Sirion. His realm could only
outgrow the others by recruitment. I have to believe that the character
of the King was a prime factor. People WANTED to call him Lord.
Besides, he was a
blonde.
