Salgant

Salgant was an Elf-lord of Gondolin who is first mentioned in the The Book of Lost Tales Part 2 in the Fall of Gondolin. He was the chief of the House of the Harp, who bore the emblem of a golden harp upon a sable field. He was said to be heavy and squat, and he "fawned upon Maeglin".

He and Maeglin alone convinced Turgon to hold the city and guard the treasures, and though Maeglin spoke he backed him up. But later when Maeglin revealed his plots to Salgant, Salgant became frightened, and "lay... aquake on his bed". During the fall Turgon ordered him to the Great Market to reinforce Glorfindel and the House of the Golden Flower. But in his treachery he ordered them to the Lesser Market, though his men rebelled.

It is suggested that he either perished in the Fall or became a buffoon of Morgoth, "an ill fate for a noble of the good race of the Gnomes". It is said later that a young Eärendil mourned him, because he had "told him quaint tales or played drolleries with him at time".

It has been suggested that had Tolkien revised the Fall, he would have replaced or at least changed the character of Salgant, as his character is not what (in his later works) he envisioned Elves to be (for example, it is unlikely that Tolkien thought of elves as "fat" in his later works, or as an elf-lord laying aquake in his bed).

References

• The Book of Lost Tales Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin