Finduilas was the daughter of Orodreth, King of Nargothrond, golden-haired as the house of Finarfin were. Before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears she had loved Gwindor, a lord of her city, and he had named her Faelivrin, the gleam of the sun on the pools of Ivrin.1
Gwindor came back from years of slavery in Angband broken and aged, and he brought with him a young Man, Túrin son of Húrin. Finduilas's heart turned from Gwindor to Túrin, against her will. Túrin did not see it; he loved her as a sister. Gwindor saw it, and warned her who Túrin was and what curse lay on his kin.1
When Nargothrond fell to Glaurung, Finduilas was taken captive with the other women and maidens, and led away past Túrin, crying to him. He could not move to help her, bound by the dragon's gaze; and Glaurung then told him his mother and sister were in peril in Dor-lómin, and Túrin, believing the lie, went north instead of following her.1
The Orcs drove their captives towards Angband. At the Crossings of Teiglin the men of Brethil fell on them to free the prisoners, and the Orcs slew the captives rather than lose them. Finduilas was killed there, pinned to a tree with a spear. The men of Brethil buried her in a mound near the crossing, which they called Haudh-en-Elleth, the Mound of the Elf-maid.1
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 21, “Of Túrin Turambar”