LOTR: Migration of the Elves

Cafe Society
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Hi. I’m new here. I chanced upon this site via LOTR-related links.

I will be seeing my 14 year old niece next month, and I hope to encourage her to pick up reading as a worthwhile pastime. I hope to make her keen on reading LOTR.

She has watched the movie version, but has not read the books. I hope to supplement her knowledge acquired from the movie version with a backstory I will share with her.

This backstory is about where and why the Elves are leaving Middle-Earth.

I have read the LOTR books but not Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. The backstory here has been cobbled together from helpful posts I have read here at Straight Dope as well as from the University of Arda website.

I know that for purposes of sharing a story with a 14 year old child, inaccuracies may not be that important, but still, I hope to tell the story correctly. If for nothing else it’s for my own knowledge.

Did I get the backstory right? (The backstory will be posted in my next post.)

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23,000 years before the events told in the Lord Of The Rings, Iluvatar (God) sang the song of creation. Illuvatar wanted to create two new living beings—Elves and Men, both of which he called Children of Illuvatar. Elves (the Firstborn) were to be given life first, followed by Men (the Secondborn).

Illuvatar instructed his fourteen Valars (powerful gods) to create a new world in preparation for the coming of his children. These fourteen Valars created Arda (the world), which contained one large landmass, surrounded on all sides by seas. This was how Middle-Earth got its name—it was a landmass in the middle of Arda. The fourteen Valars (gods) each had his or her own field of specialised knowledge—one was specialised in wind, another in water, yet another in metal, etc. They used their knowledge to create all the complexities of Arda. When Arda was completed, all the Valars came down from their spirit plane to inhabit this new physical world. As I understand it, it was a one-way trip: the Valars could not go back up to their spirit plane. They would walk the lands of Middle-Earth as gods (that they properly were).

The 15th and last was a most powerful Valar named Melkor, who did not have any specialised knowledge, but who was decreed by Illuvatar to be the custodian of Middle-Earth. Melkor knew a little bit of everyone else’s specialised knowledge—somewhat like a jack of all trades but master of none. Using his little bit of knowledge in every field, he perverted the creation in all manners of little ways.

Melkor did not want to share Middle-Earth with the other Valars, so he battled and defeated them, and chased them all to a corner, north of Middle-Earth. The fourteen Valars were unhappy that they were hurdled into a tight corner, so they went and created a second landmass, west of Middle-Earth. This second landmass was called the Undying Lands. Middle-Earth and the Undying Lands were separated by sea, but with a finger landmass connecting the northern portions of both continents. At this point of the story, the geography of Arda had become very different from the original creation. (Two land masses now versus one previously.)

So the evil Melkor ruled the entirety of Middle-Earth, while the other 14 gods stayed in the Undying Lands.

In the meanwhile, the first Elves were beginning to stir in Middle-Earth. The first Elves arose from their assigned place of “birth”—a magical lake somewhere near the centre of Middle-Earth. The first Elves, who were born 3000 years before the beginning of the First Age, were treated horribly by Melkor. Some of the first Elves were re-shaped by Melkor into Orcs.

Imagine the horror that the 14 Valars felt when they realised that the Firstborn Children of Illuvatar would arise in the land corrupted and ruled by Melkor. Three Valars made secret incursions into Middle-Earth to convince the first Elves to migrate to the Undying Lands. The first Elves were suspicious of the Valars at first—understandably so, since the circumstances of their birth and early life had been harsh and cruel.

After much convincing, three Elven leaders organised three tribes to trek their way across the land to the western shores of Middle-Earth, where they could then set sail for the Undying Lands. Thus began The Great Journey of the Elves, which started 3000 years before the First Age and continued all the way till the end of the Third Age. (Some Elves stayed behind, refusing to leave Middle-Earth. These Elves were called The Unwilling.) Each of the three willing tribes took a different route when they came up against the obstacle that was the Misty Mountains. One tribe went through the mountain range, the other two went southwards, going around the obstacle instead of through it. Along the way, some Elves saw the beauty of Middle-Earth and decided to discontinue their journey to set up new Elven villages, such as Lothlorien.

The Elven population in Middle-Earth grew because those Elves who stayed behind married and beget Elven children, and also because the magical lake kept creating new Elves (???).

The Valars always kept the option open through the ages for these unwilling Elves to migrate to the Undying Lands. That is why you see in the movie these Elves that seem to be journeying somewhere (but we never quite knew where they were headed to).

But the story doesn’t end here.

Soon after the beginning of the First Age, Men appeared. Towards the end of the First Age, a great war took place, which saw Men helping the 14 Valars vanquish the evil Melkor once and for all. Melkor was killed, but Melkor’s servant, Sauron, managed to escape. The 14 Valars were very happy with the contribution of Men to Melkor’s defeat, and in gratitude created a new island in the sea (positioned in between Middle-Earth and the Undying Lands) called Numenor for these men to inhabit. The Men of Numenor were blessed with longer life spans than normal men. (In the EE of The Two Towers, Aragorn revealed to Eowyn that he was 87 years old, much to her shock. Aragorn was the last of the Numenors.)

But the Valars prohibited Men from sailing to the Undying Lands. Only the Elves were allowed to set foot there.

The Men of Numenor grew in power and ambition during the first half of the Second Age. Sauron poisoned the minds of these Numenoreans by whispering to them that immortal life could become theirs if they (the Men) ignored the prohibition and stayed in the Undying Lands. So an armada of ships sailed from the island of Numenor to the Undying Lands. When the men were about to step foot on the Undying Lands, the Valars punished men by having the sea rise up to swallow the ships and the island of Numenor. Numenor went under the sea; Tolkien’s version of Atlantis.

The Valars also disconnected the Undying Lands from the world of Arda. The Underlying Lands now ceased to become part of Arda. One could no longer sail via ship from Middle-Earth to the Undying Lands. The Undying Lands existed on a different plane of existence. The Undying Lands were not a spiritual plane—it still remained a physical world, but a physical world ripped from Arda. This marked the end of the Second Age.

During the Third Age, Elves who wanted to migrate to the Undying Lands could still do so. They could no longer use ordinary ships because ordinary ships cannot reach the Undying Lands. The Elves set up the port of Grey Havens, where special ships would take them “on a straight road” to the Undying Lands. When Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf and Frodo set sail from the Grey Havens, this marked the end of the Third Age.

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It’s right in many places, yet so wrong in others. You’d better read Ainulindalë at the very least. 45 minutes with that, and you’d understand it a lot better.

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Yeah, that’s pretty much right. Some theological nitpicks: Melkor wasn’t killed: he was banished, but will return at The End. I’m not sure if the Valar “created” Arda, or merely “shaped” what Iluvatar created.

And “Valar” is plural.

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God propounded the first theme to all the Ainur, the Ainur sang it. When Melkor didn’t follow the theme, Eru (god) created the second theme, centrally voiced by Manwë. When Melkor persisted, Eru created and performed the 3rd theme, which contained the Children of Iluvatar.

Eru invited those Ainur who wished to go into the creation, and physically realize it. By doing so, they were committed to the creation until its end. Many Ainur went, the 14 most powerful were called the Valar, the rest were the Maiar. Melkor was the most powerful and was considered a Vala in the beginning, but got kicked out of the Valar club for bad behavior.

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Melkor was the mightiest in the mind of Eru in the beginning. More like “boss of all bosses” than “jack of all trades”

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Battle raged on between Melkor and his allies and the Vala and theirs for ages and ages, but finally the Vala created something similar to what was called for in the original plans, built the Lamps to illuminate the World, and the Isle of Almaren in the center of the world for them to live on. Melkor knocked over the lamps, pretty much ruining everything and knocking down mountains and spilling seas. Then Melkor ran away and hid in his fortress of Utumno. The Valar were demoralized and pissed, and went to the far West of the world to make a safe, fortified land which could withstand such an attack. This land became Valinor on the West side of the great ocean. Big piece of property.

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Well, he did what he wanted in the northwest corner of the land mass which came to be called Beleriand. The rest of the world was pretty big, and not a lot was going on there. The Valar and Maiar made Valinor nice and cozy.

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No magical lake. The Elves awoke besides the sea of Cuivienen, under the stars. Melkor learned of them first, and kidnapped some, and (according to JRRT’s early cosmology) turned them slowly into orcs. (JRRT was never happy with this, and was trying to figure out how to change this origin for his orcs).

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The Vala knew the elves would awaken in middle earth. One of the reasons they didn’t make war on Melkor was because they didn’t know where or when the elves would awaken, and didn’t want to destroy their birthland by accident during the war. Oromë discovered the elves, and pursuaded Ingwë, Elwë, and Finwë, each the leaders of the 3 kindreds of elves to go with him and check out Valinor. I don’t recally any other two Vala going to visit the elves at Cuivienen.

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Pretty much

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No new elves except by begetting.

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Yep, except the option to go West was revoked during the War of the Jewels.

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3 Houses of men allied themselves with the Elves in the beginning: Bëor, Hador, and Haleth. These people became the Dunedain. Men of these houses (Beren, Tuor) married Elves (Luthien, Idril) and produced (eventually) Earendil and his sons Elrond and Elros (from Elros came the Kings of Numenor and Aragorn).

Remember the rebellion of the Noldor against the Valar, which led to their exile from Valinor, and the hopeless war against Melkor, whom they named “Morgoth” or “Dark Foe”.

Remember that the exile was ended and the Powers roused to battle Morgoth only via the actions of Earendil on the behalf of elves and men.

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Yup.

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The Numenorian reign took place over thousands of years. And a branch of the people remained faithful to the Valar, and had as their leader Elendil, father of Isildur.

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Yup. Arda was made round.

The ship didn’t matter. Elves could leave and go on the straight road. Special permission was needed for mortals such as Bilbo and Frodo.

I hope the coding worked out ok. There’s lots more stuff in the story, and other vital stuff I probably should have added, but this should serve to correct your relatively few misconceptions.

You have my admiration. If you put this together from posts and summaries, you’ve done quite a good job. But give yourself a treat and read The Silmarillion!

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This is a nice link that gives an ethical (and rather Catholic) spin to JRRT’s creation mythos: http://www.crisismagazine.com/february2003/feature5.htm

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Qadgop set the story straight, but I just want to encourage you to read about the underlying causes of the War of the Jewels (which is the central reason that the Noldor returned to Middle-Earth from Valinor in the first place) and specific events of those years. There’s a lot of history in the era that affects the events of the Trilogy. You kind of glossed over most of the First Age there… :wink:

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The Elves subdivided themselves according to how they responded (or not) to the call to go to the Blessed Lands. Tolkien changed the vocabulary several times, but taking what Christopher established as the probable final canonical usage:

The Quendi are the entire First Kindred, i.e., “Elf” as a “species.”

Those Elves who responded to the call are the Eldar, as opposed to the Avari, “the Unwilling,” who did not.

There were three kindreds of Elves: the Vanyar (“Light Elves”),led by Ingwë; the Noldor (“High Elves”), led by Finwë; and the Teleri (“Followers” or “Sea Elves”), led by Elwë and his brother Olwë. All the Avari were Teleri.

All of the first two kindreds went Oversea to the Undying Lands, but for reasons detailed at length in the Silmarillion a large portion of the Noldor returned to Beleriand, a large subcontinent in the northwest of Middle Earth.

Some of the Teleri dropped out in the vales of Anduin; these are the Nandor, or “Green Elves.” Some of the Nandor later migrated into Beleriand and settled Ossiriand, the easternmost part of the subcontinent. Tolkien does not explicitly say this, but it appears that the Nandor who did not make that later migration gave rise to the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood and Lorien.

The Teleri who remained in Beleriand to search for Elwë became the Sindar, or “Grey Elves,” most of whom occupied Doriath, the kingdom of Elwë and Melian.

Few of the leading Noldor remained in Middle Earth after the First Age ended. Ereinion Gil-Galad, High King of the Noldor during the Second Age, was one; Celebrimbor who built the West Gate of Moria, and, along with a disguised Sauron, created the Rings of Power was a second; Galadriel was a third. Both Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor were killed in the Second Age. Only Galadriel (and the very special case of Elrond) remained of the ruling houses of the Noldor after the Second Age. There are casual mentions of other Noldorin elves in LOTR, but not of the leading players in the Silmarillion or their descendents.

Celeborn was of the Teleri, though whether part of the Nandor, of the Sindar, or of those who went Oversea was never resolved in Tolkien’s mind. One variant of the story makes him the grandson of Elwë and Olwë’s brother Elmo, otherwise unmentioned. (It’s not clear if Elmo was ticklish! ;)) Legolas, his father Thranduil, and his grandfather Oropher, the leaders of the Elves of Mirkwood, were Sindarin.

At the end of the First Age, the Great Battle of the Valar against Morgoth ended up submerging all of Beleriand except a few small remnants. Two islands off the coast were formerly hilltops, and the piedmont of Ossiriand became Lindon, the land west of the Blue Mountains where some Elves remained under Cirdan the Shipwright. (The last scene of the ROTK movie takes place at Mithlond, the Grey Havens in Lindon.)

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Nice summary, Polycarp, but a minor nitpick. (I love this stuff! :smiley: )

Actually some Noldor were Avari also. Check out page 52 in The Silmarillion. Only the Vanyar all ended up in Valinor.

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Buncha brown-nosers…

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Buncha freakin’ Varda’s pets!

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You know all the juvenile-delinquent Noldor used to sneak into Vinyamar and slap “Smite me!” signs on the backs of the nerdy Vanyar kids…

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O my, I’m really impressed by you!

Thanks for the corrections/comments on my post and setting the story right.

I’m confused about the comment on plurality of Valar . It’s one Vala, many Valars; or is it the other way around? I guess when I read Silmarillion I will have to pay attention to the usage context of Vala/Valar.

I sure will, Qadgop the Mercotan.

In scrutinising Elrond’s ancestry line, I realise that Galadriel was Elrond’s great-grand-auntie. Elrond–>Earendil–>Idril–>Turgon, and Turgon was the same generation as Galadriel.

You know, come to think of it, Aragorn is marrying his great-great-…-great-grand-auntie Arwen, since Elrond and Elros were brothers, and Arwen came from Elrond while Aragorn came from Elros’s line. Wierd!

So Elrond’s father (Earendil) came from the Hador line, while Elrond’s mother (Elwing) came from the Beor side, via Beren. Did I lose myself somewhere along the way?

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For some reason when I see the word “round” I tend to read “sphere”. In my mind, making Arda (merely) round like a flat pancake would not necessarily remove Valinor from Arda. Whereas making Arda spherical while still keeping Valinor flat would geomatrically exclude Valinor from Arda.

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It’s one Vala, many Valar, one Ainu, many Ainur, one Maia, many Maiar.

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Round is meant for “spherical” (or at least “oblate spheroid”). When Valinor was removed from the circles of the world Arda was made into a regular planet, whereas before it was pretty much a pancake shaped entity.

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Galadriel is also Elrond’s mother-in-law. But Galadriel and Turgon were first cousins, both grandkids of Finwë. So it’s really more that Galadriel is Elrond’s first cousin 3 times removed, not his auntie.

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Ditto here. Not Auntie. Aragorn and Arwen are cousins, something like first cousins 60 times removed or so.

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Earendil was son of Tuor, son of Huor and Rian. Rian was of the people of Beor. Huor was the son of Galdor and Hareth. Hareth was of the house of Haleth. So it was in Ëarendil alone that the lineage of all 3 houses of Edain was preserved.

These are nice genealogies here: http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/rdowning/gloss/sdescend.htm

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Not to hijack, but after the LOTR tales, is The Silmarillion the place to start with the rest of his books, or does it not matter?

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You have to understand that, except for some stories, songs, and essays, Tolkien’s complete set of fully-ready-for-publication work consists entirely of the Trilogy and the Hobbit. Everything else, Letters and The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-Earth (Volumes I-XII) is reconstructed from his notes and letters and story outlines by his son Christopher (who shows much more respect for his father’s mental children than some literary offspring (glares parenthetically at Brian Herbert)).

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Middle Earth is a no spin zone.