Food For Thought: A Meta Feast by Grundy

Fish - Naming the Sea-Elves

In water they had great delight, and those that came at last to the western shores were enamored of the sea.  –The Silmarillion

…though they also loved water, and before the Separation never moved far from the lake and waterfall of Cuiviénen. – The War of the Jewels

When reading the Silmarillion, it is important to bear in mind the point of view being presented. The text is concerned primarily with the Noldor and presents most events from their point of view.

Nowhere is this more readily apparent than in the treatment of the third group of elves to undertake the Great Journey – first named as the ‘Teleri’ (‘Last-comers’ or ‘Hindmost’), for they tarried on the road, and were not wholly of a mind to pass from the dusk to the light of Valinor. It is explained only later that this is not their own name for themselves, but the name given to them ‘by those before them on the march.’[1] Indeed, ‘Hindmost’ is not the only marker of how the Noldor regard those they call Teleri – in War of the Jewels, it is stated the Noldor ‘asserted that most of the ‘Teleri’ were at heart Avari, and that only the Eglain really regretted being left in Beleriand. (The Teleri, for their part, held that ‘most of the Noldor in Aman were in heart Avari, and returned when they recognized their mistake; they needed room to quarrel in.’) [2]

Throughout the history of Middle-earth, the people of the third clan are as a rule referred to by the names the Noldor used for them – Teleri used primarily for those who complete the Journey but also occasionally applied to the third clan as a whole, Nandor (‘those who go back’[3]) for those who turned aside from the Journey prior to crossing into Beleriand, and Sindar (Grey elves/people) for those who remained in Beleriand.

This is not to say that we are not given the names the at least some groups of elves of the third clan use for themselves. The Silmarillion states that ‘their own name for themselves was Lindar, the Singers’[4], a name which was used on both sides of the Sea. This is the name that seems to be preferred as the name for their people by the elves of the third clan in general, with those Lindar of Beleriand the Noldor termed Nandor rendering the name Lindi. However, once the Minyar and Noldor had departed from Beleriand, the Lindar of Beleriand had little call to use ‘Lindar’ as a description, since nearly all elves in Beleriand were Lindar – in ordinary speech, they were all Edhil[5]. They instead had names to distinguish subsets of their people.

One such name was Eglath, the Forsaken People[6], for those who had been left behind seeking their missing king Elwë when the main body of the Lindar led by Olwë departed for Valinor. War of the Jewels, however, suggests that the Sindarin form was Eglain or Egladrim, and properly applied only to those who wished to depart and waited in vain for the return of Ulmo, taking up their abode on or near the coasts[7].  By the time of the arrival of the Noldor Exiles, the language of the coastal Eglain differed from that of the inland Lindar.

The Lindar of Beleriand also applied names to distinguish groups based on what region they lived in, Falathrim for those on the coast, Iathrim for those in Doriath (from iath, fence), and Mithrim for those who lived around the lake that afterwards bore their name. They also sometimes named those (Lindar) subject to Thingol the Eluwaith[8].

[1] Silmarillion, Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor; Silmarillion, Index of Names

[2] War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, C. The Clan-names

[3] War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, C. The Clan-names, Nandor

[4] Silmarillion, Index of Names

[5] War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, B. Meanings and use of the various terms applied to the Elves, Sindarin, 3.

[6] Silmarillion, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

[7] War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, B. Meanings and use of the various terms applied to the Elves, Sindarin, 4. Eglan

[8] War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, B. Meanings and use of the various terms applied to the Elves, Sindarin