Everyone Dies (Except Galadriel)

Elves 101

@InkAndAsh is the whole reason this book exists, and I finally know her username on here.

Ehehehehehehehehehehehehe

I see you.

And see, I don't have to apologize for being creepy, because she's known how friggin' weird I am for a lot longer than this book has existed. 

Lmao, two updates in a row. Procrastination does wonders. 

Let's finish up what happens in Chapter 3: Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor very quickly

So, the Valar decided that the Elves should come to Valinor. Or rather, it seems like Mandos proclaimed Doom and then Manwë pressured everyone into agreeing. 

Which is how a lot of decisions are made in Valinor, apparently. 

In short, here's what happened. 

The Valar went to the elves and were like, "eyy guys, come on over to Valinor and live with us!"

Most of the elves were eventually like "ok yeah sounds good," but others were like "eh how about no". 

There were several groups of the elves, each led by a Head Elf Dude; Finwë, Lenwë, Ingwë, and Elwë. This leads to the creation of the various elven...I guess races? 

Let me just say this. When it comes to organizing the groups, things get really complicated. At first, we just have two categories: those who agreed to go to Valinor, and those who did not. From there, we go into Noldor and Vanyar, etc. to who qualifies as a High Elf...but one step at a time. Welcome to Elves 101. 

We have a lot more categories in the ones who agreed to go, so let's start there. 

These guys are called the Eldar, which means "Elves". The Valar named them this when they came along, so it does make sense that only they would fall under this category. 

If you've seen the Peter Jackson movies, you've probably heard that word thrown around a couple of times. I know Elrond used it, and Galadriel may have used it as well. In these cases, they used Eldar to refer to all elves ever. Which is inaccurate. 

I hate the movies. So much. 

At any rate, the kings of these various groups are called Elwë, Olwë, Finwë, Lenwë, and Ingwë. 

So, usually I would do Lenwë first, but I need his folks to tie in with the people who stayed, so...let's go in reverse order. 

Ingwë. After this part, you pretty much don't hear from him or his folks again, save a few mentions here and there. 

The two groups you may be familiar with (if you haven't read the Silm) are the Sindar, the group of which Thranduil and Legolas are a part of, and possibly the Noldor but...if you haven't read the Silm, probably not. 

Even in the Silm, though, Ingwë's people, who become known as the Vanyar, don't really come up again. They were the most excited to go to Valinor; to get there, they rode an island over like a boat. 

If this doesn't make sense to you, it's because it doesn't at all. 

Anyway, the Vanyar go and hang out in their city called Valmar, though some of them actually got to live with Manwë because...

...wait for it...

He liked them best.

Why. Why are we still doing the favoritism thing?! Have we not figured out that that's a bad idea?!

Goddamn it Manwë.

Next up, the Noldor, who are pretty much the MVPs of this particular book. They're Finwë's people, and their name means The Deep Elves. They were taught the skills of mining and blacksmithing by Aulë, and became quite skilled at this. 

Most of the Noldor have dark hair. 

They settled in Tirion, and for the most part, I'll get into them later. 

Elwë and Olwë are brothers, and they led the elves who would later be known as the Teleri. They got to Valinor last, mostly because Elwë, the elder brother who would later be known as Thingol, disappeared. 

The next chapter is legit called Of Thingol and Men so no worries folks, we'll figure out where he went later. 

After waiting awhile, Olwë got super impatient. He and the other Teleri ditched Elwë and headed off to Valinor without him. 

Those three groups are the High Elves. Now I mentioned that the Eldar contain four groups, so let's get to the final one---who are not High Elves. 

Lenwë and his people got halfway to Valinor before changing their minds, thus becoming known as the Nandor---The Ones Who Went Back.

"Wait, Sarissë," says my trusty invisible reader, "I've never heard of the Nandor." 

Aha. You probably haven't. But what about the Sinda? 

The Nandor split into two groups. One, the Green Elves, were quite secretive, and they lived deep in the woods, quite closed off from others. It's not like they were never heard from again, but they just kept to themselves, and that was that. 

The others, the Sindar, gave way to the group of Thranduil and Legolas (and Celeborn). 

If you recall in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, Thranduil calls Tauriel, "a lowly Silvan elf". 

I hate Tauriel. Hate her. Hate the movies. Hate everything that has to do with Tauriel and the absolute horrifying trainwreck the movies became. 

I liked the book, ok. 

Rant aside, at least Peter Jackson tried to do his research. 

The Sindar who came to Mirkwood ruled over/protected the Woodland Elves, aka Silvan Elves. So yes, Thranduil and Legolas are not of the same race/line/whatever as the people they rule over. 

Who are the Silvan elves? 

Well. Let's talk about the people who refused to go to Valinor. 

They are called the Avari, "The Refusers". The Avari preferred the then-starlit world that they already lived in, and so they remained. The Eldar looked down upon the Avari because they had disobeyed the Valar. The Avari thought the Eldar were deserters. All in all, not too much love lost there. 

We get a couple of different things from the Avari. First off, it's suggested that Orcs were bred from Avari whom Melkor captured or corrupted, although it's not 100% confirmed; there's no one source that says for certain that this is true, but it is quite often implied. 

Second, we get the people known as Dark Elves. This will come back later when we get to Eöl.

Finally, it is said that some of the Avari moved into Mirkwood and surrounding areas. Those people became known as the Silvan elves. 

I believe that should cover the elves, but feel free to ask any questions. It took me forever to get all the information straightened out. 

Adios!