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It's All in the Family: The Elweans and Ingweans - Page 7

© Michael Martinez

But we do know that Finwe married Ingwe's niece, Indis. In an earlier conception she was Ingwe's sister. Even if some doubt lingers about Ingwe's age, it is impossible to identify him with Imin because Ingwe has at least one sibling, a sister who is Indis' mother. Indis was originally described as "of the kin of Ingwe", and this passage was altered to "sister of Ingwe" ("Morgoth's Ring", p. 207). Eventually, in "The Shibboleth of Feanor", Tolkien notes that "she is said to have been the daughter of King Ingwe's sister" ("The Peoples of Middle-earth", p. 343). In the final conception, therefore, Ingwe has a sister and he cannot possibly be identified with the sisterless Imin. At the very least, Ingwe and his sister must be second-generation Elves, and they could be further removed from Imin and Iminye (and that assumes they were descended from Imin and Iminye). Of Ingwe himself, little more may be said. We are told he never returned to Middle-earth. The original Ingwe, from The Book of Lost Tales, led all the Elves back to Europe in a failed attempt to rescue the Elves who had been defeated by Morgoth. In early versions of "Quenta Silmarillion", it was Ingwiel, finally Ingwion, Ingwe's son, who led the host of the Vanyar back to Middle-earth in the War of Wrath ("The War of the Jewels", p. 246). We thus know of at least six members of Ingwe's family: his (unnamed) father and mother, the unnamed sister, Ingwe's spouse, their son Ingwion, and Indis, the daughter of the unnamed sister. Ingwe's family could indeed have been much larger. He could have come with assorted aunts, uncles, cousins, daughters, younger sons, etc. But because the Vanyar were less prone to rebellion than the Noldor, and therefore less bound up with tragedy, their stories are not preserved in the histories of Middle-earth. One Vanya did travel into exile: Elenwe, Turgon's wife. People sometimes ask if she might have been related to Ingwe. If the naming convention requires that "in-" or "ing-" be utilized, then I would say that Elenwe came of a different Vanyarin family. But that is only conjecture, as Tolkien seems never to have considered the issue (and in any event she could have been related to Ingwe by marriage if not by blood). Glorfindel is another puzzling figure, and people are tempted (because of his golden hair) to ask if he might not have been a Vanya or half-Noldo/half-Vanya who followed Turgon. My feeling is that Tolkien's statement in the LoTR appendix about only the children of Finarfin having golden hair among the Noldor must be taken with a grain of salt. That statement was added to the Second Edition in 1965 and by that time Tolkien appears to have forgotten that the Elvenking of The Hobbit (Legolas' father Thranduil) and an unnamed Elf of Lorien both are said to have golden hair. The association of the Vanyar with golden hair appears to be a late idea, or one which Tolkien abandoned and returned to more than once. Idril Celebrindal had golden hair, too, and she was not of the House of Finarfin, but rather was Turgon's daughter by Elenwe.

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