I always thought Fingon’s death echoed Fingolfin’s in many ways.
“Thus [Fingolfin] came alone to Angband’s gates,” and, “At last Fingon stood alone.” Of Fingolfin’s death it says, “Morgoth took the body of the Elven-king and broke it, and would cast it to his wolves…” while after Fingon’s death, “they beat him into the dust with their maces, and his banner, blue and silver, they trod into the mire of his blood.”
There’s just something so unbearable, in both these cases, about the loss of someone so heroic and selfless and good, the fact that they died so tragically, and that their bodies were desecrated. But there is no rescue of Fingon’s body by Thorondor—and no body to rescue.
The other difference is in the context of their final moments. Fingolfin challenged Morgoth in “wrath and despair,” seeing the “utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses” after the Battle of the Sudden Flame.
Whereas before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, “Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon his brother, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: ‘Utúlie’n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie’n aurë! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!’”
LISTEN TO ME… this hurts so much. Fingolfin challenged Morgoth to single combat because he was in despair. But Fingon had so much hope for the course of the battle that day, and then in many ways his demise was even worse than his father’s. In the end, the Elves’ loss at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad was far worse than at the Dagor Bragollach.
