#no wonder the noldor and other elves thought they were so superior to the sindar and mortals

[chiliadicorum]

I'm way too hyper about this. it really can't be overstated how frickin powerful the Valar are and while their mistakes are few, every time they made a mistake there were catastrophic consequences.

I've said it before and I'll say it again that Melkor was a genius in his campaign against the Valar. Yes the Valar could've gone themselves to Beleriand, could've taken direct epic action, could've fought and defeated Melkor but they would've had to destroy Arda to do it. which was a big no no

And Melkor knew it. He imbued himself in Arda, intentionally poured so much of himself into the very planet for two reasons, and one of them was bc he KNEW that if the Valar wanted to fully defeat him, they would have to destroy Arda and every living thing in it. By both containing his action to the world and infusing it with his spirit if you will, he was using Arda and all Elves, Men, and every living creature as a shield against them. I can just see him from Angband goading them, waiting for them to respond to him (this is an old dance of theirs), making things worse and worse, come at me Manwe I dare you to. Their war before was on a galactic level, can you imagine it contained to a single continent on one puny planet?? (Melkor could, that was the point, making the home of the Third Theme his focal point bc it was the best way to screw with the Valar, that and other reasons. He could've left the planet when free from Angainor but didn't which is significant imo. Arda was the location for his goals, but in his state it was also the safest place for him to be). I mean it was really a win-win for Melkor when you think about it. Either the Valar attack him and destroy everything dear to them, destroy Life, or they don't attack for fear of that and he gets to execute his own looooong-conceived plans of domination

Where do you think Sauron got his idea for the One Ring from? Directly inspired by Melkor (and one of the bigger proofs of Sauron's admiration for him). Why did he do the same thing as Melkor? Because it worked. He witnessed personally how it worked.

He did the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale, a simple ring. Doing it with such a tiny object was also genius precisely bc it was simple, boring-looking, was easy to hide and overlook. Hidden in plain sight. But it was also the bad part of the plan because he chose to pour his Self into an object that would have no consequence being destroyed (it was just a metal after all. a precious metal hehe) It made the difference between Elrond saying "the ring must be destroyed" vs "the ring can't be destroyed". Sauron's plan was genius too except for that one hiccup, that the Ring itself in its original form had no value. Unlike Arda.

"the Valar's inactivity is largely due to their being just too powerful for contained, precise action" That's such an apt way to put it. I've long thought of the Valar's inaction in Arda as a transformed, reduced action, not a lack thereof. They had to find another way, a new way to combat evil now that there were millions of innocent living things caught in the middle of it. And sometimes, that did mean doing nothing for what seemed like forever bc they had to figure out what to do. I love that bc it's one of the things that proves to me that their war with Melkor since the dawn of time was so frickin difficult, that trying to outsmart Melkor wasn't easy and never happened immediately. And you're right, when they did respond in the First Age, when the host of Maiar finally arrived to fight, even though they fought at the Elves' level if you will, reducing the effect of their powers to what was probably the absolute minimum, Beleriand was still destroyed.

The Valar were set as Guardians over Arda and were tasked with protecting all the Children living in it and their wellbeing (not to mention all the precious life and animals that they created). And Melkor knew how to shove that right back in their faces.

I AGREE WITH YOU SO MUCH ON THE VALAR'S INACTIVENESS, like even their well-intentioned decisions had consequences but unlike the elves and to an extent, the other beings in arda, the valars can't just go and do stupid shit (that'll potentially end in a disaster) and then cry about it by making a shit song when like it'll have such dire consequences on arda itself. I always thought that's why the valars were so inactive or took too long to move.

Indeed, I think the Valar's inactivity is largely due to their being just too powerful for contained, precise action. There's a reason why the Valar did not participate in the War of Wrath themselves (I'd bet a lot of money that Tulkas in particular sulked a lot about this); even without them present, Beleriand ended up destroyed. I shudder to think what would have happened, had the Valar fought in the war too.

This is also one of the most interesting aspects of the Valar's collective character growth throughout the Ages imo. They go from extreme action (fighting Morgoth directly pre-the awakening of the Elves) to extreme inaction (withdrawing behind the Pelóri until they send their armies to Middle Earth to defeat Morgoth once and for all) to a kind of middle ground (sending the Istari to organise the fight against Sauron).

[simaethae]

quendi and eldar

so i finally got around to reading the Quendi and Eldar section of HoME XI and it was interesting enough that I felt like it was worthwhile writing up notes! no particular coherency or structure here, I’m just pulling out bits I like (but sparing you guys the sections on the evolution of various dialects from Primitive Quendian/Common Eldarin since it doesn’t extract well) ^_^

Hence Hekelmar and Hekeldamar [“Home of the Forsaken”], the name in the languages of the loremasters of Aman for Beleriand. It was thought of as a long shoreland beside the sea (cf. Eglamar under Sindarin below).

This is weird. Surely the Noldor…. remember crossing Beleriand? I can only think that maybe “thought of” means like, “in the popular imagination, the Elves left behind in Beleriand are always staring sadly out from the western shore, singing sad songs” or something like that?

As a prefix the form usually used was ava-, the force of which can be observed in avaquétima ‘not to be said, that must not be said’, avanyárima ‘not to be told or related’ as contrasted with úquétima ‘unspeakable’, that is, ‘impossible to say, put into words, or unpronounceable’, únyárima ‘impossible to recount’, sc. because all the facts are not known, or the tale is too long. Compare also Avamanyar ‘those who did not go to Aman, because they would not’ (an equivalent of Avari) with Úamanyar ‘those who did not in the event reach Aman’ (an equivalent of Hekeldi).

Mostly I just think this is neat. I’m enjoying all these careful distinctions between Amanyar and Umanyar and Avari, though.

In the use of the Exiles Quenya naturally came to mean the language of the Ñoldor, developed in Aman, as distinct from other tongues, whether Elvish or not. But the Ñoldor did not forget its connexion with the old word Quendi, and still regarded the name as implying ‘Elvish’, that is the chief Elvish tongue, the noblest, and the one most nearly preserving the ancient character of Elvish speech.

Of course not.

The Teleri had little interest in linguistic lore, which they left to the Ñoldor. They did not regard their language as a ‘dialect’ of Quenya, but called it Lindarin or Lindalambe.

I’m really enjoying how much the Teleri just keep Doing Their Own Thing.

The Elves of Beleriand were isolated, without contact with any other people, Elvish or of other kind; and they were all of one clan and language: Telerin (or Lindarin). Their own language was the only one they ever heard, and they needed no word to distinguish it, nor to distinguish themselves.

[…] By the Sindar anyone dwelling outside Beleriand, or entering their realm from outside, was called a Morben [“Dark-elf”, “Dark-person”]….The Avari thus remained the chief examples of Moerbin. Any individual Avar who joined with or was admitted among the Sindar (it rarely happened) became a Calben [“Light-elf”]; but the Avari in general remained secretive, hostile to the Eldar, and untrustworthy; and they dwelt in hidden places in the deeper woods, or in caves.

Sindarin isolationist paranoia is so charmingly fucked-up. <3 “We’re not going to let you into Doriath, stay away from us,” “the Avari are so secretive and hostile wow”. Wowwww.

But the form Golodh seems to have been phonetically unpleasant to the Ñoldor. The name was, moreover, chiefly used by those who wished to mark the difference between the Ñoldor and the Sindar, and to ignore the dwelling of the Ñoldor in Aman which might give them a claim to superiority.

I’m not copying out the purely linguistic bits but this whole section is basically a 50:50 ratio of linguistics to terse notes about Elves sneering at each other. This is turning out to be a really worthwhile read.

The Ñoldor indeed asserted that most of the ‘Teleri’ were at heart Avari, and that only the Eglain [Círdan’s people] really regretted being left in Beleriand.

Love you Noldor never stop <3

The first Avari that the Eldar met again in Beleriand seem to have claimed to be Tatyar, who acknowledged their kinship with the Exiles, though there is no record of their actually using the name Ñoldo in any recognizable Avarin form. They were actually unfriendly to the Ñoldor, and jealous of their more exalted kin, whom they accused of arrogance.

1.      That’s super interesting that the Avari in Beleriand were more closely related to the Noldor than the Sindar! I love an excuse for some nice complicated cultural tensions.

2.      Wait, this implies Eöl’s one of the Tatyarin Avari. Eöl is obviously Tatyar. Godddd.

This ill-feeling descended in part from the bitterness of the Debate before the March of the Eldar began, and was no doubt later increased by the machinations of Morgoth; but it also throws some light upon the temperament of the Ñoldor in general, and Fëanor in particular. Indeed the Teleri on their side asserted that most of the Ñoldor in Aman itself were in heart Avari, and returned to Middle-earth when they discovered their mistake; they needed room to quarrel in.

a;fn;gngn <333333

For in contrast the Lindarin elements in the western Avari were friendly to the Eldar, and willing to learn from them; and so close was the feeling of kinship between the remnants of the Sindar, the Nandor, and the Lindarin Avari, that later in Eriador and the Vale of Anduin they often became merged together.

Lothlórien!! Okay, not just Lothlorien, but it’s so interesting and logical for Galadriel to end up there – someone both Lindarin and Noldorin (and I wonder if that would have been read at all as Tatyarin? but then she’s a little Vanyarin too) married to a Sindarin husband. But I always love seeing reiterated that – okay, they mingle, but the Umanyar are not homogenous any more than the Amanyar <3

In [Sindarin] the word gûl (equivalent of Q ñóle) had less laudatory associations, being used mostly of secret knowledge, especially such as possessed by artificers who made wonderful things; and the word became further darkened by its frequent use in the compound morgul ‘black arts’, applied to the delusory or perilous arts and knowledge derived from Morgoth. Those indeed among the Sindar who were unfriendly to the Ñoldor attributed their supremacy in the arts and lore to their learning from Melkor-Morgoth.

I love this kind of free-associatory etymological slander. Also as always the double-edged and dangerous nature of technology and lore.

This name they first applied to the Nandor that came into Eastern Beleriand; but this people still called themselves by the old clan-name *Lindai, which had at that time taken the form Lindi in their tongue….These names were however later replaced among the Sindar by the name ‘Green-elves’, at least as far as the inhabitants of Ossiriand were concerned; for they withdrew themselves and took as little part in the strife with Morgoth as they could.

Just noting this to help me keep track of the whole Teleri-Lindai / Nandor-Lindi-Laegrim…. thing.

The Valar, therefore, learned Quenya by their own choice, for pleasure as well as for communication; and it seems clear that they preferred that the Eldar should make new words of their own style, or should translate the meanings of names into fair Eldarin forms, rather than [that] they should retain the Valarin words or adapt them to Quenya (a process that in most cases did justice to neither tongue).

I’d actually like to know more about Valarin but this is still really cute.

No Elf of any kind ever sided with Morgoth of free will, though under torture or the stress of great fear, or deluded by lies, they might obey his commands…The ‘Dark-elves’, however, often were hostile, and even treacherous, in their dealings with the Sindar and Ñoldor; and if they fought, as they did when themselves assailed by the Orcs, they never took any open part in the war on the side of the Celbin. They were, it seems, filled with an inherited bitterness against the Eldar, whom they regarded as deserters of their kin, and in Beleriand this feeling was increased by envy (especially of the Amanyar) and by resentment of their lordliness.

I normally try not to take the “unreliable narrator” thing too far but I have to wonder from whose perspective this is being written. The “deserters of their kin” thing is an interesting snippet of the Avari’s own perspective, though.

Eöl was a Mornedhel, and is said to have belonged to the Second Clan

CALLED IT.

It is said also that the folk of the North were clad much in grey, especially after the return of Morgoth when secrecy became needed; and the Mithrim had an art of weaving a grey cloth that made its wearers almost invisible in shadowy places or in a stony land.

The Elven-cloaks Galadriel weaves for the Fellowship! I wonder if she learned it directly from the Mithrim or if it was a more indirect transmission?