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It's All in the Family: The Elweans and Ingweans - Page 6

© Michael Martinez

Cirdan is another of Thingol's kinsmen, as is Celeborn. If they are Thingol's cousins, then Thingol cannot even be part of the second generaton of Elves. His parents would have to have siblings in order for him to have cousins. Hence, at the very least, Thingol would have to be a third-generation Elf. And that leads people to wonder what happened to his parents and grand-parents. In fact, we have no way of knowing how many generations lie between Enel and Thingol, nor even if Thingol is a descendant of Enel (he does not have to be). But Thingol is a contemporary of Finwe. They are friends. It seems that they must have grown up fairly close together, chronologically. So they may have been "young" but not immature Elves when Orome selected them. Would Ingwe have been a similarly "young" Elf? He must have been a bit adventurous. He was, after all, willing to make the trip to Aman with Orome. The Elves were afraid of Orome when he first appeared, for Melkor had apparently been abducting or slaying Elves since he had first discovered them. Furthermore, in "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar" ("Morgoth's Ring"), Tolkien writes: "Indeed, in their earlier days death came more readily; for their bodies were then less different from the bodies of Men, and the command of their spirits over their bodies less complete." It is entirely conceivable that Imin, Tata, and Enel had all perished by the time Orome showed up. Conceivable, but not necessary. For, one assumption people make is that the eldest Elves must be the leaders. Why should that be? Tolkien never says the eldest Elves are the leaders. What he says is that the ambassadors whom Orome selected were afterwards kings. Imin could have been alive and he simply deferred to Ingwe's courage and wisdom. Ingwe was indeed very persuasive, for all of the Minyar agreed to follow him to Aman. The Silmarillion says, "The first host was led by Ingwe, the most high lord of all the Elvish race. He entered into Valinor and sits at the feet of the Powers, and all the Elves revere his name; but he came never back, nor looked again upon Middle-earth. The Vanyar were his people; they are the Fair Elves, the beloved of Manwe and Varda, and few among Men have spoken with them." Now, some people point to that phrase, "the most high lord of all the Elvish race", and argue that it refers to Ingwe's status among the Elves at the time the Great Journey began. But it is a descriptive phrase which reflects the indeterminate tense of the paragraph. The next sentence, for example, reads "He entered into Valinor and sits at the feet of the Powers". The mixture of past and present tense in a single sentence would surely merit a red mark for most people, but Tolkien is using the two tenses to imply a boundless life for Ingwe. Of the three ambassadors, he was the only one who was not slain. And we know (from late writings) that Finwe eventually elected not to return to life, so that Miriel could live again. Thingol may or may not have emerged from the Halls of Mandos. But Ingwe lives and sits at the feet of the Powers. So, although he is now "the most high of all the Elvish race", when did he become so? We don't know.

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