A great minstrel of the Elves with the sobriquet Gelion appearing in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s and the earliest Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (LB/174, SM/113). His name is gloss “Starbeard” in The Etymologies, a combination of tint “star” and fang “beard” (Ety/SPÁNAG, EtyAC/TIN).
Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, G. Tinfang was had the sobriquet Warble and was a half-fey creature who was a fluter for the Valar (LT1/94-5). In the Gnomish Lexicon from the 1910s, his name was simply glossed “The Fluter” (GL/70). It seems he was reconceived as an Elf in the Lays of Beleriand, as noted above. This character disappeared from the narratives starting with the Silmarillion drafts from mid-30s.
A sobriquet of Tinfang appearing in the Lays of Beleriand from the 1920s (LB/174) and Silmarillion drafts from the early 1930s (SM/115). The name reappeared in The Etymologies from mid-1930s with the gloss “Merry Singer”, but the character did not appear in the Silmarillion drafts from the same period.