[Aewithen]

Is there anyone out there with information on this elf? I have read Silm and the LOTR books, but I do not have the time to go looking through them again for references to Cirdan before I start writing a fic for a challenge.

I know these basic things:

1. He was a lord of the Teleri, and ruled Falas for much of the First Age

2. After the destruction of Beleriand, he founded the Grey Havens and remained lord there until the end of the Second Age and Gil-galad's fall. Also ruled Lindon after Gil-galad's death because Elrond had long since been in Rivendell.

3. Given Narya, and wore it until he gave to Gandalf.

As you can see, all basic Encyclopedia of Arda things.

There is no mention of family. Is canon vague on this issue? Do you think it would be premissable, if he did marry/have children and none were named, to invent these family members?

And for other attributes... Did he have any special powers like foretelling of the future? (I saw that somewhere and did not know if it as made up or canon).

Basically, anything you lovely people can give me on the subject of Cirdan would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Aewithen

[SpaceWeavil]

I'm away from home at the moment and so don't have my books handy, but one thing I can answer is the foretelling the future thing - I used that in a fanfic as I read it in the Appendices. I think it says something like he gave Gandalf Narya because he could see further into the future of Middle Earth than most and so could see the part Gandalf had to play.
If that is any help

[Andreth]

Oooo, Cirdan - one of my favorite Elves. If you've read the Silm and the trilogy then you already know the basics. I'll cut and paste a document I scanned for a friend a while back. It comes from the Last Writings chapter in Peoples of Middle-earth, HoMe Vol. XII.

There's no mention of Cirdan's family, other than his relation to Elwe and Olwe, so you should be safe inventing them. It never says one way or the other if he had a wife or kids.

Since Miss Weavil's already pointed you toward the 'saw further and deeper than any other in Middle-earth' section, I'll just add a theory I once read about that. I don't have time to look all this up and double check it, so hopefully memory will serve.

Somewhere (maybe UT) it says that when Elendil arrived from Numenor and he brought the palantiri, he kept a palantir in Elostirion, which was the tallest tower of the three Gil-galad had built for Elendil in the Tower Hills. Elendil left the seeing stone to Cirdan and it remained under Cirdan's care in Elostirion. But Elostirion's palantir was different than all the others - it only communicated with the Master Stone, which the Elves of Aman kept, located in the Tower of Avallone on Eressea. The theory is that maybe Cirdan used this palantir to get insider information from the Elves in Aman, that maybe they warned him about certain things to help him out.

It's all speculation of course, but I thought it made sense. Here's that chapter from PoMe:


CIRDAN

This brief manuscript is also associated with the discussion of Glorfindel: rough drafting for it is found on the verso of one of the pages of the text Glorfindel II.

This is the Sindarin for 'Shipwright', (29) and describes his later functions in the history of the First Three Ages; but his 'proper' name, sc. his original name among the Teleri, to whom he belonged, is never used. (30) (Pengolod alone mentions a tradition among the Sindar of Doriath that it was in archaic form of Nowe, the original meaning of which was uncertain, as was that of Olwe.) He is said in the Annals of the Third Age (c.1000) to have seen further and deeper into the future than anyone else in Middle-earth. (31) This does not include the Istari (who came from Valinor), but must include even Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn.

Cirdan was a Telerin Elf, one of the highest of those who were not transported to Valinor but became known as the Sindar, the Grey-elves; (32) he was akin to Olwe, one of the two kings of the Teleri, and lord of those who departed over the Great Sea. He was thus also akin to Elwe, (33) Olwe's elder brother, acknowl-edged as high-king of all the Teleri in Beleriand, even after he withdrew to the guarded realm of Doriath. But Cirdan and his people remained in many ways distinct from the rest of the Sindar. They retained the old name Teleri (in later Sindarin (34) form Telir, or Telerrim) and remained in many ways a separate folk, speaking even in later days a more archaic language. (35) The Noldor called them the Falmari, 'wave-folk', and the other Sindar Falathrim 'people of the foaming shore'.

It was during the long waiting of the Teleri for the return of the floating isle, upon which the Vanyar and Noldor had been transported over the Great Sea, that Cirdan had turned his thoughts and skill to the making of ships, for he and all the other Teleri became impatient. Nonetheless it is said that for love of his kin and allegiance Cirdan was the leader of those who sought longest for Elwe when he was lost and did not come to the shores to depart from Middle-earth. Thus he forfeited the fulfilment of his greatest desire: to see the Blessed Realm and find again there Olwe and his own nearest kin. Alas, he did not reach the shores until nearly all the Teleri of Olwe's following had departed.

Then, it is said, he stood forlorn looking out to sea, and it was night, but far away he could see a glimmer of light upon Eressea ere it vanished into the West. Then he cried aloud: 'I will follow that light, alone if none will come with me, for the ship that I have been building is now almost ready.' But even as he said this he received in his heart a message, which he knew to come from the Valar, though in his mind it was remembered as a voice speaking in his own tongue. And the voice warned him not to attempt this peril; for his strength and skill would not be able to build any ship able to dare the winds and waves of the Great Sea for many long years yet. 'Abide now that time, for when it comes then will your work be of utmost worth, and it will be remembered in song .for many ages after.' 'I obey,' Cirdan answered, and then it seemed to him that he saw (in a. vision maybe) a shape like a white boat, shining above him, that sailed west through the air, and as it dwindled in the.distance it looked like a star of so great a brilliance that it cast a shadow of Cirdan upon the strand where he stood.

As we now perceive, this was a foretelling of the ship which after apprenticeship to Cirdan, and ever with his advice and help, Earendil built, and in which at last he reached the shores of Valin or. From that night onwards Cirdan received a foresight touching all matters of importance, beyond the measure of all other Elves upon Middle-earth.

This text is remarkable in that on the one hand nothing is said of the history and importance of Cirdan as it appears elsewhere, while on the other hand almost everything that is told here is unique. In the Grey Annals it was said (XI.8, §14):

Osse therefore persuaded many to remain in Beleriand, and when King Olwe and his host were embarked upon the isle and passed over the Sea they abode still by the shore; and Osse returned to them, and continued in friendship with them. And he taught to them the craft of shipbuilding and of sailing; and they became a folk of mariners, the first in Middle-earth...

But of Osse there is now no mention; shipbuilding on the coasts of Beleriand is said to have begun in the long years during which the Teleri awaited Ulmo's return, and is indeed spoken of (see note 29) as the further evolution of a craft already developed among the Teleri during the Great Journey.

Other features of this account that appear nowhere else (in addition of course to the story of Cirdan's desire to cross the Sea to Valinor, and his vision of the white ship passing westward through the night above him) are that the Teleri delayed long on the shores of the Sea of Rhun on the Great Journey (note 29; d. p. 373, note 13); that Clrdan was the leader of those who sought for Elwe Thingol, his kinsman; and that Earendil was 'apprenticed' to Cirdan, who aided him in the building of Vingilot.

The footnotes to this section read:

29) Before ever they came to Beleriand the TEleri had developed a craft of boat-making; first as rafts, and soon as light boats with paddles made in imitation of the water-birds upon the lakes near their first homes, and later on the Great Journey in crossing rivers, or especially during their long tarrying on the shores of the 'Sea of Rhun', where their ships became larger and stronger. But in all this work Cirdan had ever been the foremost and most inventive and skillful.

30) Pengolod alone mentions a tradition among the Sindar of Doriath that it was in archaic form Nowe, the original meaning of which was uncertain, as was that of Olwe.

31) [cf Appendix B (head-note to the Third Age): 'For Cirdan saw further and deeper than any other in MIddle-earth' (said in the conext of his surrender of Narya, the Ring of Fire, to Mithrandir). The statement here that this is said 'in the Annals of the Third Age c.1000 is puzzling but is presumably to be related to the words in the same passage of Appendix B 'When maybe a thousand years had passed ... the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth.']

35 [Cf. Quendi and Eldar, XI.380: 'The Eglain became a people somewhat apart from the inland Elves, and at the time of the coming of the Exiles their language was in many ways different.' (The Eglain are the people of Cirdan.)]

[Aewithen]

WOW! That was great info Andreth and SpaceWeavil... thanks to both of you!

If there is anything else anyone can add, please feel free to leave a post!