Tinfang

This article is about the character. For the poem, see Tinfang Warble.

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The canonicity of this subject is uncertain. The precise canonical status of this article's subject is unclear. To find out about what is considered "canon" see LOTR:Canon.

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Tinfang Gelion
Biographical information
Other names	Timpinen
Titles	Warble
Realms	Alalvinórë in Tol Eressëa Far regions in the Great Lands
Physical description
Race	Elves
Gender	Male
Hair	Old, white, and glistening
Culture	Ñoldor or Teleri

"He was the greatest of the musicians of the Elves, and Maglor son of Fëanor and Tinfang Gelion alone are named with him."

—Tinfang's last mention in "The Shaping of Middle-earth"

Tinfang Gelion, called Timpinen by Vairë, and Tinfang Warble by the children, was an eerie Elf mentioned within the earlier versions of the legendarium.

He was whimsical and capricious; his piping was enchanting and made everyone wish to find out where the music came from and hear more. But his talent was matched by his shyness, and always evaded those who wanted to approach, as he was playing only for himself.

History

Tinfang Gelion was a famous Elvish piper whose origins and nature were shrouded in mystery, but it is likely that he was one of the Ñoldor or possibly one of the Teleri.

He was said to be a strange, but a wondrously wise flautist who "played and danced in summer dusks for joy of the first stars". He was more shy than a fawn, tending to hide as swiftly as a vole, even at a sound as subtle as a footstep snapping a twig. Yet, he had some prideful nature, going as far as using his flute to mock from afar all those who try to see him. Despite his pride, he led the Eldar forth on the Great Journey while "piping strangely" or aloof, but never marched or rested among them.

Tinfang's fluting had an enchantment that made the stars twinkle according to his notes. The Ñoldor claimed that the stars appeared in the sky too soon when he played. His talent with the flute was so great that that not even the Teleri could rival his fluting, despite their claim of shared kinship.

Tinfang Gelion was named by the Elves alongside Daeron and Maglor as being "the three most magic players", and the Moon was said to be able to enchant him during summer nights in June, kindling "the pale firstling star".

He usually played his flute in the gardens of Tol Eressëa, where he trod upon "the shadowy lawns unseen", loving Alalvinórë the best. Whenever his piping was absent for long months, the Ñoldor believed that he had "gone heart-breaking in the Great Lands", where many people in far regions would hear his piping during the dusk on those nights when Tinfang Gelion would "play beneath a goodly moon and the stars go bright and blue".

When Eriol spoke to Vairë about hearing "dream-musics", she replied that it was Tinfang Gelion, who had not been heard for many nights. In many days afterwards, Eriol heard Tinfang many dusks in starlight and the gleam of the moon.

Etymology

Tinfang is a Sindarin name meaning "Fluter" or "Starbeard", derived from tîn ("emit slender beams; spark, sparkle; star") and fang ("beard").

Timpinen(d) and Timpando are the Quenya cognates of Tinfang. They are derived from the word Timpinen ("a fluter"), which is itself derived from the root TIFI ("flute, hoot"). The first element of timpinen is related to timpë ("fine rain") from the root TIPI ("spray").

Gelion is a Sindarin name glossed as "merry singer, surname of Tinfang". The name consists of the elements gel(l) ("joy, triumph, victory") and either the noun ion(n) ("son") or the suffix -ion ("region; in place names, regional ending")

Warble is a shortened form of the Gnomish name Gwarbilinc ("birdwarden" or "birdward"), which consists of gwar- ("guard; to watch and to keep by vigilance wherefore") and a mutation of filigod ("sparrow; a small bird").

Varavilindo is the Quenya cognate of Gwarbilinc of the same meaning. It is derived from the roots (G)WARA ("care for, guard, watch over"), WIL ("fly, float in air"), and lindo ("singer, singing bird").

In other versions

Tinfang predates the earliest legendarium, first appearing as a "leprawn" in the 1914 poem Tinfang Warble and then in the 1915 poem Over Old Hills and Far Away. His fluting is associated with stars, either kindling the first one, or making them shimmer.

In The Book of Lost Tales, Tinfang appears as a half-fay. In this version, it was believed everywhere that he was not completely of the Valar nor fully of the Eldar. Rather, he was "half a fay of the woods and dells, one of the great companies of the children of Palúrien and half a Gnome or a Shoreland Piper". Given that the Gnomes became the Ñoldor and the Shoreland Pipers became the Teleri, it is possible that Tinfang was of these kindreds given that he was reimagined as a full Elf in his later appearances.

In a crossed out note, Timpinen was the son of King Tinwelint and Queen Gwendeling. After Tinwelint was enchanted, Timpinen and his sister Tinúviel "long after joined the Eldar again, and tales there are concerning them both, though they are seldom told". Even after this rejected notion, Tinúviel's brother became Tifanto, a possible cognate of Tinfang, before becoming Dairon, whose musical talent is compared to Tinfang's; Tinfang's remaining mentions are associated with Daeron.

In the second typed draft of The Lay of Leithian, the epithet Warble was quickly amended to Gelion. While nothing else of his appearance here changed, the names of Dairon and Ivárë were changed to Daeron and Maglor. While there is no mention of Tinfang's fay nature, but his fluting still "kindles the pale firstling star", reflecting the first poem.

The last narrative reference to Tinfang was only by name in The Quenta, where Gelion was reverted back to Warble. Subsequently, Tolkien revised the epithet yet again to the surname.

Inspiration

Tinfang represents typical fairy-like elements, such as moving from faery to the mortal world, and enchanting the mortals, sometimes to the point of madness.

Tolkien first coined the name for the poem Tinfang Warble, but the character is barely defined there. Its visual equivalence would be taken from Estella Louisa Michaela Canziani's picture Piper of Dreams, in which a child plays the pipe for some fairies. The image was widely reproduced by the Medici Society in the same year, and was quite prevalent among the English troops during the Great War.

In adaptations

Middle-earth Role Playing

In the cancelled final module for the Middle-earth Role Playing game, Tinfang Gelion is described as being a piper who is "the tutelary spirit of the Gelion" similar in nature to Goldberry. After much of the Gelion was lost during the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, Tinfang's fána was weakened. As a result, in the Second and Third Ages, Tinfang could walk "only with aid of a crutch" and no longer danced "to his tunes" anymore.