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It's All in the Family: The Elweans and Ingweans - Page 2

© Michael Martinez

Ingwe, Finwe, and Elwe also present problems. Their histories as characters under Tolkien's hand evolved both together and separately. There can be no doubt that at one time Ingwe was the eldest of the Elves, the first to awaken. Finwe, too, seems to have been a first generation Elf for a while, as Feanor was originally supposed to have been born during the Great Journey. And yet, these "facts" were discarded and the Elven families were pushed back. Tolkien constructed an elaborate social history for the Elves which explained their numerous divisions and apparently called for even more ancient Elves. Ingwe, Finwe, and Elwe subsequently become merely very ancient Elves, but not the most ancient of Elves. In the children's tale of the First Elves ("Quendi and Eldar", in "The War of the Jewels"), there is no mention of Ingwe, Finwe, Elwe, or Olwe. These Elves are not named. The first three to awaken are Imin ("one"), Tata ("two"), and Enel ("three"). Their appointed spouses lie sleeping beside them: Iminye, Tatie, Enelye. Clearly, since Finwe's first wife was Miriel and since Elwe only married Melian the Maia, Tata and Enel cannot be Finwe and Elwe. Also, because Elwe's brother Olwe is firmly established in the mythological canon, they must have had parents. Yet some people insist that Imin must be Ingwe. After all, they argue, Tolkien doesn't say that Imin is not Ingwe. Which is the silliest possible argument of all, since it is completely lacking in logic. Tolkien's absence of denial for any given assertion does not make that assertion true, possibly true, or even possible. The distinction between Tolkien's imagination and our own is the boundary between what Tolkien wrote and what we write. It may seem convincing to believe that Imin is Ingwe, but Imin cannot possibly be Ingwe. In the children's tale, Imin is the undisputed leader of the Elves. He is the eldest. No one questions his place in their primitive society. And yet, Ingwe holds no station among the Elves until Orome selects him to be an ambassador. From that point forward, Ingwe acquires an authority which Imin cannot claim: Ingwe is Orome's chosen representative for the Minyar (the Firsts, the Elves descended from Imin's companions). In "Quendi and Eldar", Tolkien wrote: "According to the legend, preserved in almost identical form among both the Elves of Aman and the Sindar, the Three Clans were in the beginning derived from the three Elf-fathers: Imin, Tata, and Enel (sc. One, Two, Three), and those whom each chose to join his following....It is said that of the small clan of the Minyar non became Avari."

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