Fennas Edhellen - History of Speech

Quenya: The ancient tongue, common to all Elves, in the form that it took in Valinor; brought to Middle-earth by the Noldorin exiles, but abandoned by them as a daily speech, expecially after the edict of King Thingol against its use. [After he discovered the treason of the Noldorin descendants of F�anor that came down from Valinor the receive the Silmarils that Morgoth had stolen.] Also called the High Speech of the West, High-Elven, High Eldarin or the tongue of Valinor.

Sindarin: The Elvish speech of Beleriand, derived from the common Elvish speech but greatly changed through long ages from Quenya of Valinor; acquired by the Noldorin Exiles in Beleriand. Also called the Grey-elven tongue or the tongue of the Elves of Beleriand. [Sindarin means litteraly "Of the Sindar".]

The Elven Tongues

The Noldor arrive in Beleriand and learn Sindarin

"At Mereth Aderthad many counsels were taken in good will, and oaths sworn of league and friendship; and it is told that at this feast the tongue of the Grey-elves was most spoken even by the Noldor, for they learned swiftly the speech of Beleriand, whereas the Sindar were slow to master the tongue of Valinor."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Of the return of the Noldor, page 113

Thingol of Doriath forbids the speaking of Quenya

"But hear my words! Never again in my ears shall be heard the tongue of those that slew my kin in Alqualond�! Nor in all my realms shall it be openly spoken, while my power endures. All the Sindar shall hear my command that they shall neither speak the tongue of the Noldor nor answer to it. And all such as use it shall be held slayers and betrayers of kin unrependant."
[�]And it came to pass even as Thingol had spoken; for the Sindar heard his word, and thereafter throughout beleriand they refused the tongue of the Noldor, and shunned those that spoke it aloud; but the Exiles [the Noldor that came from Valinor to Beleriand to receive the Silmarils] took the Sindarin tongue in all their daily uses, and the High Speech of the West was spoken only be the lord of the Noldor among themselves. Yet that speech lived ever as a language of lore, wherever any of that people dwelt.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Of the Noldor in Beleriand, page 129

The D�nedain of N�menor learn the Elven tongues

[�]the D�nedain dwelt under the protection of the Valar and in the friendship of the Eldar, and they increased in stature both of mind and body. For though this people used still their own speech, their kings and lords knew and spoke also the Elven tongue [Sindarin], whuch they learned in the days of their alliance, and thus they held converse still with the Eldar, wheter of Eress�a or of the westlands of Middle-earth. And the loremasters among them learned also the High Eldarin tongue of the Blessed Realm [Quenya], in which much story and song was preserved from the beginning of the world; and they made letters and scrolls and books, and wrote in them many things of wisdom and wonder in the high tide of their realm, of which all is now forgot. So it came to pass that, beside their own names, all the names of the lords of the N�men�reans had also Eldarin names; and the like with the cities and fair places that they founded in N�menor and on thr shore of the hither Lands.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Akallab�th, page 261-262

A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried...

And drove the ship from Elven-strands
Across the streaming tide.

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The Children of Eru

According to Elvish legend, the name Eldar (People of the Stars) was given to the Elves by the Vala Orom�. It came however to be used to refer only to the Elves of the Three Kindreds (Vanyar, Noldor and Teleri) who set out on the great westward march from Cuivi�nen (whether or not they remained in Middle-Earth), and to exclude the Avari. The Elves of Aman, and all the Elves who ever dwelt in Aman, were called the High Elves (Tareldar) and Elves of Light (Calaquendi). The Elves that never saw the Light of Aman and were bound to Beleriand and Middle-Earth, were called the �manyar (Dark Elves), and they include the Sindar Grey-Elves.

In the model below the sundering and relations of the different peoples of the Elves are shown, as they were drawn by Tolkien himself in The Silmarillion.

Maps of Beleriand

Beleriand, such was the name of the first Elven lands of Middle-Earth. This name was saidto have signified the country of Balar, and to have been given at first to the lands about the mouths of Sirion that faced the Isle of Balar. Later the name spread to include all the ancient coast of the Northwest of Middle-Earth south of the Firth of Drengistm and all the inner lands south of Hithlum and eastwards to the feet of the Blue Mountains, divided by the river Sirion into East and West Beleriand. Beleriand was broken in the turmoils at the end of the First Age, and invaded by the sea, so that only Ossiriand (Lindon) remained.

The first map shows the whole of Beleriand in full geographical detail, while the second also shows the names of the Noldor and Sindar Elves who ruled the various kingdoms and realms of Beleriand. Click the pictures to see them enlarged.

Beleriand and the lands of the North

Beleriand and the dwellings of the Sindar and Noldor

Source: The Silmarillion

There were many names that were given to the peoples of the Elves, in both Quenya, Sindarin and Speech of Man. The Calaquendi were also called Tareldar and Amanyar (Those of Aman), in contrast with the �manyar (Those not of Aman). The Teleri (which means Last-comers) called themselves Lindar (Singers), while the Sindar chose to call themselves Edhel (which became common in Middle-Earth for the word Elves). The Nandor in Middle-Earth soon became known as Woodland-Elves.

In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elves of several peoples are encountered. Lady Galadriel is of the Noldor and her husband Celeborn is one of the Sindar, while Legolas and Elrond both have a heritage from more than one Elven people. Legolas descends from his fathers side from the Sindar (Thranduil was a kinsman of Thingol of Doriath and also of Celeborn of Doriath) and from his mothers side from the Nandor, the Woodland-Elves. Lord Elrond descends from his father E�rendil from the Noldor and from his mother Elwing from the Sindar of Doriath (Elwing was the daughter of Dior, son of Beren and Luthien). Being wed to Celebrian, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, Elrond gives his daughter Arwen and twin sons Elladan and Elrohir an even more direct heritage from the Noldor, from the blood of Galadriel herself, who is the daughter of Finarfin who ruled theland of Tirion in Aman.

Click this banner to visit the wonderful and very informative site created by Mithrandir, providing a very thorough and richly illustrated chronology of all events that are described in The Silmarillion and thus covering the entire history of the Elves of Valinor and Beleriand.

Check back soon for the Sindarin and Quenya pronunciation guide!

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a great number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) and The Silmarillion, which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of the world, which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-Earth. This was peopled by Elves, Men (and women), Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs, Goblins and of course Hobbits. Creating not only a world in every detail of history, complexity, geography and demography, he also invented all new languages, complete with grammar and vocabulary that the peoples of Middle-Earth could speak. Therefore, Tolkiens contributions to the English literature are not only of great storytelling and poetic quality, but also of enormous creativity of a true scholars mind.

The Maker of Middle-Earth

To read a very detailed and thorough biography sketch of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien,
click here to visit the website of the offical Tolkien Society.