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123-490: In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien , the Noldor (also spelled Ñoldor , meaning those with knowledge in his constructed language Quenya ) are a kindred of Elves who migrate west to the blessed realm of Valinor from the continent of Middle-earth , splitting from other groups of Elves as they went. They then settle in the coastal region of Eldamar. The Dark Lord Morgoth murders their first leader, Finwë . The majority of

246-454: A vernacular language for every-day use, Tarquesta , and a more educated language for use in ceremonies and lore, Parmaquesta . The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger observed that the "degree of proximity" to the light of the Valar affected the development of both languages in terms of phonology, morphology and semantics. The division between Light Elves and Dark Elves that took place during

369-581: A 1998 studio album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian , contained multiple references to the Noldor and the events they experience within the narrative of The Silmarillion . For example, "Face the Truth" has Fingolfin tell how he crossed the icy Helcaraxë, while in "Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)" he regrets having left Valinor; "Battle of Sudden Flame" recalls the battle of Dagor Bragollach, which marked

492-729: A bay on the eastern side of the Sea of Helcar, on the continent of Middle-earth , where they were divided into three tribes: Minyar (the Firsts), Tatyar (the Seconds) and Nelyar (the Thirds). After some time, they were summoned by the Vala Oromë , the huntsman, to live with him and the other Valar in Valinor, on Aman . The Eldar are those who accepted the summons. Their name, literally Star People ,

615-761: A dialect of Quenya called Vanyarin. Since they stayed in Valinor, they played no part in the wars in Beleriand, except for the War of Wrath that brought an end to the region. The Vanyar, the Noldor, and those of the Teleri who reached Valinor are called the Calaquendi ( Elves of Light ) because they saw the light of the Two Trees of Valinor . In Quenya , the language of the Noldor in Valinor, all other Elves were called

738-456: A hand. The Tolkien scholar Leslie A. Donovan notes that Tolkien's concept of exile, as principally exemplified by the Noldor, derives in part from Anglo-Saxon culture, in which he was an expert. The medievalist Elizabeth Solopova makes a connection between Middle English and Tolkien's description of Finwë's first wife Míriel as the most skilful of the Noldor at weaving and needlework; Solopova notes that Tolkien had proposed an etymology for

861-588: A high status, and leaving diminished, just as the Noldor do in Middle-earth . They are semi-divine as Sons of Danu, just as the Noldor are counted among the first of the sentient races, the Children of Ilúvatar . Their immortality keeps them from disease and the frailty of age, but not from death in battle, an exact parallel with the Noldor. Nuada Airgetlám , the Tuatha Dé Danaan's first high king,

984-631: A new kingdom at Lindon and rules throughout the Second Age , longer than any of the High Kings before him. After Sauron re-emerges and manipulates Celebrimbor and the smiths of Eregion into forging the Rings of Power , he fortifies Mordor and begins the long war with the remaining Elves in Middle-earth. His forces attack Eregion, destroying it, but are repelled at Rivendell and Lindon. With

1107-469: A number of unpublished writings on Quenya, and later Tolkien scholars have prepared his notes and unpublished manuscripts for publication in the journals Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar , also publishing scholarly and linguistic analyses of the language. Tolkien never created enough vocabulary to make it possible to converse in Quenya, although fans have been writing poetry and prose in Quenya since

1230-644: A particular kind of artificial language that helps to create a fictional world. Other such languages would include Robert Jordan 's Old Tongue in his novel The Wheel of Time , and the Klingon language of the Star Trek series invented by Marc Okrand . It was observed that they form "a sociolinguistic context within which group and individual identities can be created." Two journals, Vinyar Tengwar from issue No. 39 (July 1998), and Parma Eldalamberon from issue No. 11 (1995), have been exclusively devoted to

1353-482: A result of their renown as the most skilled of all peoples in lore, warfare and crafts, the Noldor are sometimes called the "Deep Elves". Following their return to Middle-earth at the end of the First Age , the Noldor build great cities within their realms in the land of Beleriand , such as Nargothrond and Gondolin . When the Noldor are in Valinor they speak Quenya ; in Middle-earth they also speak Sindarin . Among

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1476-584: A ritual or poetic language, whereas the Vanyar who stayed behind in Eldamar retained the use of Quenya. In this way, the Quenya language was symbolic of the high status of the Elves, the firstborn of the races of Middle-earth, because of their close connection to Valinor, and its decreasing use also became symbolic of the slowly declining Elvish culture in Middle-earth. In the Second Age of Middle-earth's chronology

1599-420: A self-consistent character not precisely like any language that I know. Finnish, which I came across when I had first begun to construct a 'mythology' was a dominant influence, but that has been much reduced [now in late Quenya]. It survives in some features: such as the absence of any consonant combinations initially, the absence of the voiced stops b, d, g (except in mb, nd, ng, ld, rd , which are favoured) and

1722-805: A single people) returned into the West to dwell in Tol Eressëa . The rest remained in Middle-earth throughout the Second and Third Ages , entering the realm of Mirkwood of the Wood Elves or establishing the kingdoms of Lindon , Eregion , Lothlórien and Rivendell . After the Separation the Avari became divided even more than the Eldar, though little of their history became known to the Elves and Men of

1845-462: Is betrayed to Morgoth by his nephew Maeglin in 510. Turgon dies during the Fall of Gondolin , though his daughter Idril leads many of his people to escape and find their way south. Gil-galad , son of Fingon, succeeds Turgon and becomes the fourth and last High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth. Between 545 and 583, the War of Wrath is fought between Morgoth and the host of the Valar. As the result of

1968-620: Is killed by Balor of the Evil Eye; Fëanor is killed by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs. Celebrimbor 's name means "Silver Hand" in Sindarin , the same meaning as Nuada's epithet Airgetlám in Irish Gaelic. Celebrimbor's making of powerful but dangerous rings, too, has been linked with the finding of a curse on a ring at the temple of Nodens , a Roman god whom Tolkien in his work as a philologist identified with Nuada. Like Nuada, Maedhros loses

2091-416: Is not always on the first syllable of a word. Typical Finnish elements like the front vowels ö , ä and y are lacking in Quenya, but phonological similarities include the absence of aspirated unvoiced stops or the development of the syllables ti > si in both languages. The combination of a Latin basis with Finnish phonological rules resulted in a product that resembles Italian in many respects, which

2214-579: Is not easily recognised. Tolkien almost never borrowed words directly from real languages into Quenya. The major exception is the name Earendel/Eärendil , which he found in an Old English poem by Cynewulf . Yet the Finnish influence extended sometimes also to the vocabulary. A few Quenya words, such as tul- "come" and anta- "give", clearly have a Finnish origin. Other forms that appear to have been borrowed are actually coincidental, such as Finnish kirja "book", and Quenya cirya "ship". Tolkien invented

2337-484: Is not recorded; it is Finwë who leads the Noldor to Valinor , where he becomes their King, and their chief dwelling-place is the city of Tirion upon Túna. In Valinor "great became their knowledge and their skill; yet even greater was their thirst for more knowledge, and in many things they soon surpassed their teachers. They were changeful in speech, for they had great love of words, and sought ever to find names more fit for all things they knew or imagined." The Noldor draw

2460-433: Is realised as [ʍ] , a " spirantal voiceless w . It has more tense with closer lip-aperture and more friction than the voiceless wh of English". According to Tolkien, the graph ⟨q⟩ or ⟨qu⟩ is pronounced as "a lip-rounded 'k' followed by a partly unvoiced w-offglide", that is /kʷ/ . Sindar Tolkien stated that the stories were made to create a world for his elvish languages , not

2583-673: Is the King of Nargothrond and his brothers Angrod and Aegnor hold Dorthonion. Fingolfin's reign is marked by warfare against Morgoth; in the year 60 of the First Age, after their victory in the battle of Dagor Aglareb , the Noldor start the Siege of Angband , the great fortress of Morgoth. In 455 the siege is broken by Morgoth in the Dagor Bragollach , or Battle of Sudden Flame, in which the north-eastern Elvish realms are conquered, with

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2706-455: Is used in addition to singular and plural. It has been suggested that Tolkien used the dual to give Quenya an "archaic feel" in its role as an ancient language of the Elves. About ten years later, Tolkien changed his mind about the origin of the Elvish proto-language. Instead of learning from the Valar, the Elves had created an original language Quenderin which had become the proto-language of

2829-429: The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , notes the "very complicated changes, with shifting meanings assigned to the same names" as Tolkien worked on his conception of the Elves and their divisions and migrations. All the same, he notes, Tolkien kept to a consistent scheme. He states that the sundering of the Elves allowed Tolkien, a professional philologist , to develop two Elvish languages , distinct but related, Quenya for

2952-591: The Lhammas and " The Etymologies " Tolkien used the Indo-European type of proto-languages with branches and sub-branches of language families while inventing his various languages of Middle-earth . This picture of increasing separation is analogous to the progressive decline and fall in Middle-earth from its initial perfection, of which the Sundering of the Elves is a major element. In Tolkien's scheme,

3075-457: The Elves in his Middle-earth fiction. Tolkien began devising the language around 1910, and restructured its grammar several times until it reached its final state. The vocabulary remained relatively stable throughout the creation process. He successively changed the language's name from Elfin and Qenya to the eventual Quenya . Finnish had been a major source of inspiration , but Tolkien

3198-569: The Elves divided , Quenya originated as the speech of two clans of "High Elves" or Eldar, the Noldor and the Vanyar, who left Middle-earth to live in Eldamar ("Elvenhome"), in Valinor , the land of the immortal and God-like Valar . Of these two groups of Elves, most of the Noldor returned to Middle-earth where they met the Sindarin-speaking Grey-elves. The Noldor eventually adopted Sindarin and used Quenya primarily as

3321-687: The Men of Númenor learnt the Quenya tongue. In the Third Age , the time of the setting of The Lord of the Rings , Quenya was learnt as a second language by all Elves of Noldorin origin, and it continued to be used in spoken and written form, but their mother-tongue was the Sindarin of the Grey-elves. As the Noldor remained in Middle-earth, their Noldorin dialect of Quenya also gradually diverged from

3444-632: The Noldor or Deep Elves , with deep knowledge of crafts and skills. The Nelyar who went west were known as the Teleri ( Those who come last ) or, as they called themselves, the Lindar or Singers . They stayed on the east of Aman, in Tol Eressëa. Those of the Teleri who reached Beleriand by the Great Sea but chose not to cross to Valinor were later called the Sindar ( Grey Elves ); their language

3567-729: The Nírnaeth Arnoediad , the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The Noldor and their allies are utterly defeated when they are betrayed by the Easterlings and surrounded by Morgoth's forces. Fingon is killed by Gothmog the Lord of Balrogs , and is succeeded by his brother Turgon. Morgoth scatters the remaining forces led by the sons of Fëanor, and in 495 Nargothrond too is conquered. Turgon had already withdrawn to Gondolin, which had been kept hidden from both Morgoth and other Elves; his realm

3690-722: The Sundering of the Elves is reflected in their respective languages. The Elves at first shared a common language, Primitive Quendian, called Quenderin in Quenya. Among the Eldar , i.e. those Elves who undertook the Great March to Valinor and Eldamar , Primitive Quendian developed into Common Eldarin. Some of the Eldar remained in Beleriand and became the Grey Elves ; their language developed into Sindarin . Most of

3813-461: The Two Trees of Valinor composed by Elemmírë of the Vanyar.) Prenasalised consonants are prominent in Quenya, and include their own tengwar . The following table presents the inventory of classic Noldorin consonants. Grouping of consonants occurs only in the central parts of a word, except for combinations with the semivowels /w/ and /j/ . Quenya orthography (using the Latin script) follows

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3936-618: The Years of the Sun , when the Valar create the Moon and the Sun out of Telperion's last flower and Laurelin's last fruit. Fëanor's company is soon attacked by Morgoth in the Battle under Stars or Dagor-nuin-Giliath . Fëanor himself is mortally wounded by Balrogs , who had issued forth from Morgoth's fortress of Angband and captured his eldest son Maedhros. Fingon, the eldest son of Fingolfin, saves Maedhros (his half-cousin) from captivity, which settles

4059-641: The decline and fading of the Elves and the rise of Men as the dominant race in the modern Earth. The Tolkien scholar Matthew Dickerson writes that the theft of the Silmarils by Morgoth leads Fëanor and his sons into swearing their dreadful oath and leading the Noldor out of Valinor back to Middle-earth. This is, he comments, at once a free choice and a self-imposed exile. The Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist writes that Tolkien's account of Finrod Felagund includes "a transparently colonial passage" where

4182-472: The "Qenyaqetsa". Examples include a different accusative or the abolition of final consonant clusters in later Quenya. Fimi suggests that Qenya as it appears in the "Qenyaqetsa" was supposed to be a mystic language, as the Lexicon contains a number of words with clear Christian religious connotations, such as anatarwesta "crucifixion" and evandilyon "gospel" – these words were not part of late Quenya. In

4305-526: The "dimininution and spiritual impoverishment" of the Noldorin culture. The Noldor at this time had fully mastered Sindarin, while the Sindar were slow to learn Quenya. Quenya in Middle-earth became known as Exilic Quenya when the Noldor eventually adopted the Sindarin language as their native speech after Thingol's ruling. It differed from Amanian Quenya mostly in vocabulary, having some loanwords from Sindarin. It differed also in pronunciation, representing

4428-465: The "driving energy" of the power metal sound is appropriate for the stories: "The music conveys rage and despair, which fits lyrics such as 'The doom of the Noldor drew near/ The words of a banished king, “I swear revenge!”'" Eden adds that this facilitates discussion of Tolkien's Christian view of the fall of man . Quenya Quenya ( pronounced [ˈkʷwɛɲja] ) is a constructed language , one of those devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for

4551-608: The "restless desire to make things". This is not quite, he notes, the same as the Christian sin of avarice or possessiveness. This made sense in the case of the Noldor, as for consistency their besetting sin ought not to be the same as Adam and Eve 's, which was pride . In Valinor, Shippey writes, the equivalent of the Fall "came when conscious creatures became 'more interested in their own creations than in God's'", with Fëanor's forging of

4674-406: The 1970s, when the total corpus of published Elvish comprised only a few hundred words. Since then, the use of Elvish has flourished in poems and texts, phrases and names, and even tattoos. But Tolkien himself never made his languages complete enough for conversation. As a result, newly invented Elvish texts require conjecture and sometimes the coinage of new words. The use of Quenya has expanded over

4797-669: The 1970s. This has required conjecture and the need to devise new words, in effect developing a kind of neo-Quenya language. J. R. R. Tolkien began to construct his first Elvish tongue c. 1910–1911 while he was at the King Edward's School, Birmingham . He later called it Qenya (c. 1915), and later changed the spelling to Quenya . He was then already familiar with Latin , Greek , Spanish , and several ancient Germanic languages, such as Gothic , Old Norse , and Old English . He had invented several cryptographic codes , and two or three constructed languages. Tolkien took an interest in

4920-579: The Calaquendi ("Elves of the Light") or High Elves, as they had seen the light of the Two Trees of Valinor . The most distinctive aspect of Noldorin culture is their fondness for craftwork and skill of their workmanship, which ranges from lapidary to embroidery to the craft of language . Among the Elven kindreds, the Noldor are the most beloved by the Vala Aulë, who originally taught them craftsmanship. As

5043-551: The Eldar and Sindarin for the Sindar, citing Tolkien's own statement that the stories were made to create a world for the languages, not the reverse. Shippey suggests that the "real root" of The Silmarillion lay in the linguistic relationship, complete with sound-changes and differences of semantics, between the two languages of the divided elves. He adds that the elves are separated not by colour, despite names like light and dark, but by their history, including their migrations. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger states that in

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5166-627: The Elf, having arrived in a new country, "immediately takes up the White Man's Burden and spends a year educating the humans about his religious beliefs ('true knowledge'). They think this is great and become his feudal subjects. Then to avoid conflict with the Green-elves he re-settles the new arrivals in a thinly populated area ruled by some of his relatives." Nightfall in Middle-Earth ,

5289-586: The Elvish language family. For this new language, Tolkien kept the many roots he had invented for Valarin in the 1930s, which then became "Quenderin roots". The Eldarin family of languages comprises Quenya, Telerin , Sindarin and Nandorin . The evolution in Quenya and Telerin of the nasalised initial groups of Quenderin is described thus in Tolkien's Outline of Phonology : These groups in Quenya normally became simplified to nasals initially. (In Telerin they became b, d, g .) Thus: In contrast to early Qenya,

5412-621: The Elvish languages by Elves, Men and Hobbits in a variety of sources. The documentation about late Quenya phonology is contained in the Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings and the "Outline of Phonology", one of Tolkien's texts, published in Parma Eldalamberon No. 19. Tolkien based Quenya pronunciation more on Latin than on Finnish . Thus, Quenya lacks the vowel harmony and consonant gradation present in Finnish, and accent

5535-721: The Ered Luin into Ossiriand. Although in some instances the Green-elves of Ossiriand did participate in the battles and strife concerning Morgoth (the First Battle of Beleriand for example), they were for the most part a simple, peaceful, and reclusive people. The Nandor who stayed around Anduin became known as the Tawarwaith, living in Lothlórien and Mirkwood ; they were also called Silvan or Wood Elves. They were joined there by those Avari who eventually decided to move to

5658-532: The Finnish mythology of the Kalevala , then became acquainted with Finnish , which he found to provide an aesthetically pleasing inspiration for his High-elvish language. Many years later, he wrote: "It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me." Regarding the inspiration for Quenya, Tolkien wrote that: The ingredients in Quenya are various, but worked out into

5781-404: The House of Finrod who are returning from a pilgrimage at the White Towers. [REDACTED] Kings of the Noldor in Valinor [REDACTED] High Kings of the Noldor in exile in Middle-earth The Sons of Fëanor are (in the order of their birth) Maedhros , Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amras, and Amrod. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey comments that the family tree of

5904-411: The House of Finwë is "essential", as Tolkien allocates character by ancestry ; thus, Fëanor is pure Noldor, and so excellent as a craftsman, but his half-brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin have Vanyar blood from their mother, Indis. They are accordingly less skilful as craftsmen, but superior "in restraint and generosity". Scholars including Dimitra Fimi , Anne Kinniburgh, and John Garth have connected

6027-532: The IPA, but uses ⟨c⟩ as an alternative to ⟨k⟩ , writes [ŋ] not followed by another velar as ⟨ñ⟩ (in early Quenya when this still can occur, as in Ñoldor ; otherwise it is written ⟨n⟩ ), and represents the consonants [ç ʍ] using the digraphs ⟨hy hw⟩ . Similarly, the digraphs ⟨ty ndy⟩ may represent palatal stop allophones of [t ⁿd] , namely [c ⁿɟ] , although they are not independent phonemes. In addition, ⟨h⟩ in

6150-434: The Laiquendi ( Green Elves or Green People , so named because their attire was often green.) "Laiquendi" was the term in Quenya, while the Sindarin version was "Laegrim". They settled in Ossiriand, an eastern region of Beleriand, and were famous for their singing. Hearing of the peaceful territories of King Thingol, Denethor, son of Lenwë, collected as many of his scattered people as he could and finally ventured westward over

6273-446: The Middle English term burde , meaning lady or damsel, linking it to Old English borde , embroidery, and that he had given examples from both Old English and Old Norse where women were called weavers or embroiderers. Shippey writes that Tolkien was himself fascinated with artefacts and their " sub-creation ". He comments that in The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings , and The Silmarillion , Tolkien consistently chooses to write about

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6396-681: The Moriquendi ( Elves of Darkness ) in recognition of the fact that they did not see (and did not desire) the Light of Valinor, but later the Sindar were counted among neither of these groups. Instead, Moriquendi was used for all other Elves except Noldor, Vanyar, Falmari, and Sindar. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that the Sundering allowed Tolkien to explain the existence of Norse mythology 's Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar , Dark and Light Elves. The Dark Elves, who lived underground in Svartalfheim ("Black Elfhome"), are rehabilitated by Tolkien as his Moriquendi. The Light Elves lived in Alfheim ("Elfhome") and correspond to his Calaquendi. Most of

6519-413: The Noldor Elves followed their leader Fëanor into exile from Eldamar and back to Middle-earth, where the immortal Elves first awoke. Quenya was used by the godlike Valar. The Elves derived some loanwords from the Valar's language, which was called Valarin in Quenya, although these were more numerous in the Vanyarin dialect than in Noldorin. This was probably because of the enduringly close relationship

6642-406: The Noldor returned with Fëanor to Beleriand in Middle-earth before the raising of the Sun. Fëanor however sailed in haste in ships stolen from the (Telerin) Falmari. The Falmari resisted, and Fëanor's Noldor fought and killed them in the First Kinslaying, a battle of Elves upon Elves. In addition, Fëanor left behind his half-brother Fingolfin 's Noldor, who also wanted to return. Fingolfin, furious,

6765-426: The Noldor still hold Fingolfin as the rightful leader, they follow Fëanor out of kinship and to avenge Finwë. Fëanor and his sons swear an oath of vengeance against Melkor (whom Fëanor renames Morgoth) or anyone who comes into possession of a Silmaril. In the port city of Alqualondë, the Noldor hosts led by Fëanor demand that the Falmari , those of the Teleri who had come to Valinor, let them use their ships. When

6888-439: The Noldor who returned to Middle-earth, especially those of Gondolin . Those who reached Aman were called Amanyar Teleri ; they were also called the Falmari, the People of the Waves , expert with ships and the sea. Those of the Teleri who refused to cross the Misty Mountains and stayed in the valley of Anduin were called the Nandor ( Those [Elves] who turn back ). Those of the Nandor who later entered Beleriand were called

7011-403: The Noldor with the Irish Tuatha Dé Danaan as a possible influence. The parallels are both thematic and direct. In Irish mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danaan invade Ireland as a tall pale fair-haired race of immortal warriors and sorcerers. They have godlike attributes but human social organisation. They enter Ireland with what Kinniburgh calls a "historical trajectory", entering in triumph, living with

7134-471: The Noldor's skill with letters and poetry. The Tolkien scholar Bradford Lee Eden states that in The Silmarillion , Tolkien focused on the Noldor as their history is "filled with the doom and fate so typical of medieval literature that determines the entire history of Middle-earth from the First Age to the time of The Lord of the Rings ." He notes that in many "parallel stories and tales" the fates of Elves and Men are tightly interwoven, leading inexorably to

7257-403: The Noldor, led by Finwë's eldest son Fëanor , then return to Beleriand in the northwest of Middle-earth. This makes them the only group to return and then play a major role in Middle-earth's history; much of The Silmarillion is about their actions. They are the second clan of the Elves in both order and size, the other clans being the Vanyar and the Teleri . Among Elves, the Noldor show

7380-411: The Quenya name for "region", just happened to resemble Germanic Erde "earth", while it actually comes from the Valarin and Quenderin root gar- . According to Tom DuBois and Scott Mellor, the name of Quenya itself may have been influenced by the name Kven , a language closely related to Finnish, but Tolkien never mentioned this. Some linguists have argued that Quenya can be understood as an example of

7503-407: The Rings , according to Tolkien, "was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues". This process of first inventing a language and then creating a background setting for its fictional speakers has been described as unique. Dimitra Fimi , a Tolkien scholar, argues that Tolkien's invention of Qenya started as a quest for

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7626-458: The Rings , of which it was/is in fact independent." In his lifetime, Tolkien experimented ceaselessly with his constructed languages, and they were subjected to many revisions. Quenya had many grammars with substantial differences between the different stages of its development. During the first conceptual stage of early Quenya c. 1910 to c. 1920, the language was called Elfin in English and Eldarissa in Qenya proper. While its development

7749-426: The Siege of Barad-dûr, though Gil-galad himself perishes with no successors as High King of the Noldor. Among the lineal descendants of Finwë in Middle-earth, only Galadriel and some Half-elven remain. In the Third Age , the Noldor in Middle-earth dwindle, and at the end of the Third Age the remaining Noldor depart to Valinor. In The Fellowship of the Ring Frodo meets a band of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion from

7872-401: The Silmarils. He adds that the smith-Vala Aulë is not only the patron of all craftsmen but the Vala most like Melkor, the first Dark Lord. The kinds of craftsmanship he encouraged among the Noldor was not only of physical things, but "'those that make not, but seek only for the understanding of what is' — the philologists , one might say", writes Shippey, including Tolkien's profession along with

7995-448: The Teleri refuse, Fëanor's forces take the ships by force, committing the first Kinslaying. A messenger from the Valar comes later and delivers the Prophecy of the North , pronouncing the Doom of Mandos on the Noldor for the Kinslaying, and warning that a grim fate awaits them should they proceed with their rebellion. Some of the Noldor who had had no hand in the Kinslaying, including Finarfin, son of Finwë and Indis, return to Valinor, and

8118-412: The Valar forgive them. The majority of the Noldor, some blameless for the Kinslaying, remain determined to leave Valinor for Middle-earth. Among them are Finarfin's children, Finrod and Galadriel , who choose to follow Fingolfin instead of Fëanor and his sons. The Noldor cross the sea to Middle-earth in the stolen ships, leaving Fingolfin and his people behind. Upon his arrival in Middle-earth, Fëanor has

8241-425: The Valarin and Quenderin root kir- from which sprang his Quenya word cirya . The Latin aurōra "dawn" and Quenya aure "moment of special meaning, special day, festival day" are unrelated. Quenya aurë comes from the Valarin and Quenderin root ur- . Germanic influence can more be seen in grammar (the -r nominative plural ending is reminiscent of the Scandinavian languages ) or phonology, than in words: Arda ,

8364-473: The Vanyar left the city of Túna, Telerin and Noldorin Quenya grew closer. The rebellious Noldor , who followed their leader Fëanor to Middle-earth, spoke only Quenya. But Elu Thingol , King of the Sindar of Beleriand, forbade the use of Quenya in his realm when he learned of the slaying of Telerin Elves by the Noldor. By doing so, he both restricted the possibility of the Sindar to enhance and brighten their language with influences from Quenya and accelerated

8487-416: The Vanyarin Elves had with the Valar. The Quenya as used by the Vanyar also incorporated several words from Valarin that were not found in the Noldorin dialect, such as tulka ("yellow", from Valarin tulukha(n) ), ulban ("blue", presumably from the same root as Valarin ul(l)u meaning "water"), and nasar ("red", original Valarin not given). According to "Quendi and Eldar: Essekenta Eldarinwa", Quendya

8610-447: The Vanyarin dialect spoken in Valinor, undergoing both sound changes and grammatical changes. The Quenya language featured prominently in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , as well as in his posthumously published history of Middle-earth The Silmarillion . The longest text in Quenya published by Tolkien during his lifetime is the poem " Namárië "; other published texts are no longer than a few sentences. At his death, Tolkien left behind

8733-428: The Vanyarin dialect, ⟨ty⟩ , ⟨dy⟩ , and ⟨hy⟩ were realised as [tʃ] , [dʒ] , and [ʃ] respectively. Tolkien wrote about ⟨py⟩ : "In Vanyarin Quenya and among some Ñoldor the cluster ⟨py⟩ was sounded with voiceless y , sc. as [pç] , which later in Vanyarin became [pʃ] "; cf. Hungarian lopj [lopç] 'steal'. The cluster ⟨hw⟩

8856-593: The Vanyarin varieties, but were gradually replaced with /s/ and /r/ respectively in Noldorin Quenya. Notably, voiced plosives only occur after nasals and liquids , i.e. there is no simple /b, d, ɡ/ but only the clusters /mb, (lb,) nd, ld, rd, ŋɡ/ , and these occur only between vowels. (This may not be true in Vanyarin Quenya, given the word Aldudénië , the name of a lament for the death of

8979-543: The West of Middle-earth, and they barely feature in the legendarium. At least six kindreds existed, and they continued to call themselves 'Quendi', considering those who went away, the Eldar, as deserters. Some of these tribes later journeyed westward, intermingling with the Nandor in Rhovanion , and a few even reached Beleriand , though usually remaining on unfriendly terms with the Sindar. Matthew Dickerson , writing in

9102-678: The West. The Vanyar were the fairest and most noble of the High Elves; their name means "the Fair", as they have golden hair. Their small clan was founded by Imin, the first Elf to awaken at Cuiviénen, with his wife Iminyë and their twelve companions: they broadly correspond to the Minyar. Ingwë was the Vanya Elf to travel with the Vala Oromë to Valinor, and became their king. The Vanyar spoke

9225-700: The aid of the Númenóreans , the Noldor manage to defeat him for a time. In the year 3319 of the Second Age, Sauron manipulates the Númenóreans and their King, Ar-Pharazôn, to rebel against the Valar. Númenor is destroyed. Elendil escapes to the mainland with his sons Anárion and Isildur , who establish the realms of Arnor and Gondor . Gil-galad sets out for Mordor in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Elendil's forces and defeats Sauron in

9348-470: The ancestor of Sanskrit , Greek, Latin, and others; namely, one labial, one coronal, and three velar plosives (palatal, plain, and labial). The first table below provides some of the "Primary Initial Combinations" from the Comparative Tables . Another characteristic of Quenya reminiscent of ancient natural languages like Old Greek, Old English or Sanskrit is the dual grammatical number which

9471-524: The case. The word is Quenya in Vanyarin, and always so in Parmaquesta." The Elves of the Third Clan, or Teleri , who reached Eldamar later than the Noldor and the Vanyar, spoke a different but closely related tongue, usually called Telerin . It was seen by some Elves to be just another dialect of Quenya. This was not the case with the Teleri for whom their tongue was distinct from Quenya. After

9594-418: The cataclysmic destruction from the war, Beleriand sinks into the sea, except for a part of Ossiriand later known as Lindon, and a few islands. The defeat of Morgoth marks the end of the First Age and the start of the Second , when most of the Noldor return to Aman, though some like Galadriel or Celebrimbor , grandson of Fëanor, refuse the pardon of the Valar and remain in Middle-earth. Gil-galad founds

9717-458: The cluster ⟨ht⟩ represents [ç] after ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ and [x] after other vowels. In some instances ⟨x⟩ was used for the combination /ks/ as in Helcaraxë . Some consonants are realised differently when they occur in clusters with certain other consonants. This particularly concerns clusters that involve the approximants /w, j/ or

9840-959: The computational linguist Paul Strack created the Elvish Data Model (abbreviated to "Eldamo") to provide a lexicon – both a dictionary and an analysis of language development – of all Tolkien's languages (despite the name, not limited to Elvish). Eldamo groups Tolkien's creative work into three real-world periods: up to 1930 ("Early"); from then to 1950 ("Middle"); and from then to 1973 ("Late"). Forms of Quenya occur in each of these periods, as follows: Early Primitive Elvish Early Quenya Middle Primitive Elvish Middle Ancient Quenya Middle Quenya Lindarin Primitive Elvish Ancient Quenya Quenya Vanyarin The linguist Alexander Stainton published an analysis of Quenya's prosodic structure in 2022. Attempts by fans to write in Quenya began in

9963-415: The differences between them to reflect their distance from their imaginary common origin. He stated that his languages led him to create the invented mythology of The Silmarillion , to provide a world in which his languages could have existed. In that world, the splintering of the Elvish peoples mirrored the fragmentation of their languages. In Tolkien's legendarium , the Elves awoke at Cuiviénen ,

10086-425: The early 1930s, Tolkien decided that the proto-language of the Elves was Valarin , the tongue of the gods or Valar as he called them: "The language of the Elves derived in the beginning from the Valar, but they changed it even in the learning, and moreover modified and enriched it constantly at all times by their own invention." In the Comparative Tables the mechanisms of sound change were described by Tolkien for

10209-457: The editing and publishing of Tolkien's mass of unpublished linguistic papers. Important grammatical texts, alluded to in the History of Middle-earth series and described as almost unreadable or quite incomprehensible, have been published in these two journals. The "Early Qenya Grammar", written by Tolkien c. 1925, was edited and published in Parma Eldalamberon No. 14. In 1992, according to

10332-574: The exception of Maedhros' fortress at Himring. A man, Barahir, saves Finrod's life; Finrod gives him a ring which had been made in Valinor. Fingolfin in despair rides to Angband and challenges Morgoth to single combat , dealing the Dark Lord seven wounds before perishing. Fingolfin is succeeded by his eldest son Fingon the Valiant, who becomes the second High King of the Noldor in Beleriand. In 472, Maedhros organises an attack on Morgoth, which leads to

10455-408: The following daughter languages: Qenya, Lindarin (a dialect of Qenya), Telerin, Old Noldorin (or Fëanorian ), Noldorin (or Gondolinian ), Ilkorin (especially of Doriath ), Danian of Ossiriand, East Danian, Taliska , West Lemberin, North Lemberin, and East Lemberin . For this proto-language of the Elves, Tolkien appears to have borrowed the five-part plosive system of Proto-Indo-European ,

10578-427: The fondness for the ending -inen, -ainen, -oinen , also in some points of grammar, such as the inflexional endings -sse (rest at or in), -nna (movement to, towards), and -llo (movement from); the personal possessives are also expressed by suffixes; there is no gender. Tolkien never intended Quenya or any of his constructed languages to be used in everyday life as an international auxiliary language , although he

10701-456: The glottal fricative /h/ . Clusters where the second consonant was /j/ are realised as palatalised consonants, and clusters where the second consonant was /w/ are realised as labialised. Consonant clusters where the initial consonant is /h/ are realised as preaspirated and devoiced. The pronunciation of the consonant cluster ⟨hy⟩ is [ç] in Noldorin Quenya, which is a "strong voiceless y, similar to, but more frictional than

10824-415: The grammar of Quenya was influenced by Finnish, an agglutinative language , but much more by Latin , a synthetic and fusional language , and also Greek , from which he probably took the idea of the diglossia of Quenya with its highly codified variety: the Parmaquesta, used only in certain situations such as literature. The phonology of Quenya was also inspired by certain aspects of Finnish, but this

10947-464: The greatest talents for intellectual pursuits, technical skills and physical strength, yet are prone to unchecked ambition and pride in their ability to create. Scholars such as Tom Shippey have commented that these attributes lead to their decline and fall , especially through Fëanor who creates and covets the magical jewels, the Silmarils . Others including Dimitra Fimi have linked the Noldor to

11070-436: The highest Elves are those who deviated least from that state, meaning that in Tolkien's scheme, ancestry is a guide to character . J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) is best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . He was a professional philologist , an expert in the changes in words between languages. He created a family of invented languages for Elves , carefully designing

11193-473: The highest Elves are those who deviated least from their initial state (complying with the will of the Valar , travelling to Valinor, and continuing to speak the highest language, Quenya). Conversely, the lowest Elves, the Avari, fragmented into many kindreds with different languages as they eventually spread out across Middle-earth. Tolkien thus intended ancestry to be a guide to character ; the differences between

11316-446: The historical languages which he studied professionally—not in a vacuum, but as a result of the migrations and interactions of the peoples who spoke them. Within Tolkien's legendarium, Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi ('speakers') in Quenya. Quenya translates as simply "language" or, in contrast to other tongues that the Elves met later in their long history, "elf-language". After

11439-485: The ideal language, to match the moral and aesthetic objectives that were part of his project of creating "a mythology for England". Fimi argues that Tolkien deliberately used sound symbolism to unify sound and meaning and make the language appear as an ideal language, fit to be spoken in the utopian realm of the Elves and fairies of Valinor. Tolkien considered Quenya to be "the one language which has been designed to give play to my own most normal phonetic taste". From

11562-457: The initial sound in English huge ". In Vanyarin Quenya, ⟨hy⟩ is pronounced [ʃ] . According to Tolkien, the cluster /cj/ ⟨ty⟩ is pronounced as "a 'front explosive' [c], as e.g. Hungarian ty , but it is followed by an appreciable partly unvoiced y-offglide". Tolkien stated that the cluster ⟨ny⟩ is pronounced as in English "new" [njuː] . In

11685-465: The inner light of Valinor reflected in their eyes; the Sindarin term Lachend means "flame-eyed". The Silmarillion tells the history of the Noldor. The Elves are placed, asleep, in Cuiviénen on Middle-earth by the creator, Ilúvatar . According to Elven-lore, the Noldor as a clan is founded by Tata, the second Elf to awaken, his spouse Tatië and their 54 companions. The fate of Tata and Tatië

11808-521: The ire of the rogue Vala Melkor , who envies their prosperity and, most of all, the Silmarils crafted by Fëanor. So he often goes among them, offering advice, and the Noldor listen, being eager for knowledge. But Melkor sows lies, and in the end the peace in Tirion is poisoned. Fëanor, having assaulted his half-brother Fingolfin and thus broken the laws of the Valar, is banished to his fortress Formenos, and with him goes Finwë his father. Fingolfin remains as

11931-533: The linguist Helge Fauskanger , the Tolkien scholar Anthony Appleyard made "the first comprehensive attempt ... to systematize Quenya grammar in light of the new information published in The History of Middle-earth , particularly The Etymologies , in his article 'Quenya Grammar Reexamined'." Hostetter commented that Appleyard's work was by 2007 useful mainly for summarising the attitudes to Tolkien's languages at that time. He characterised it as: In 2008,

12054-642: The mythical Irish warriors and sorcerers, the Tuatha Dé Danann . "Noldor" or "Ñoldor" means those who have great knowledge and understanding. The Noldor are called Golodhrim or Gódhellim in Sindarin, and Goldui by another kindred of Elves, the Teleri of Tol Eressëa . The singular form of the Quenya noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin , which is also the name of their dialect of Quenya . In early drafts of his legendarium , Tolkien used

12177-478: The name " Gnomes " for the group later called the Noldor, and their language, the Noldorin dialect of Sindarin, was called "Gnomish" or "Noldorin". Tolkien had chosen "gnome" thinking that it derived from the Greek γνῶσις , gnōsis (knowledge), and hence was a good name for the wisest of the elves. However, because of its common association with garden gnomes , Tolkien abandoned the term. The Noldor are counted among

12300-634: The number of points touching the rim. The Noldor are the proudest of the Elves, as they vaunt in particular their ability to create: in the words of the Sindar , "they needed room to quarrel in". Equally, this causes in them an arrogance that plagues their history and causes them great suffering. The Noldor are tall and physically strong. Their hair colour is usually a very dark shade of brown; Tolkien hesitated over whether their hair might be black. Red and even white ("silver") hair occasionally exists among some individuals. Their eyes are usually grey or dark, with

12423-602: The oath they swore to recover the Silmarils on behalf of their father. In Beleriand , in the north-west of Middle-earth, the Noldor make alliances with the Sindar and later with Men of the Three Houses of the Edain . Fingolfin reigns long in the land of Hithlum , and his younger son Turgon builds the hidden city of Gondolin . The Sons of Fëanor rule the lands in Eastern Beleriand, while Finrod Finarfin's son

12546-420: The onset, Tolkien used comparative philology and the tree model as his major tools in his constructed languages. He usually started with the phonological system of the proto-language and then proceeded by inventing for each daughter language the necessary sequence of sound changes . "I find the construction and the interrelation of the languages an aesthetic pleasure in itself, quite apart from The Lord of

12669-573: The other Eldar continued to Eldamar ('Elvenhome') in Aman and founded the great city of Tirion, where they developed Quenya. Quenya's older form, first recorded in the sarati of Rúmil, is called Old or Ancient Quenya ( Yára-Quenya in Quenya). In Eldamar, the Noldor and Vanyar spoke two slightly different though mutually intelligible dialects of Tarquesta: Noldorin Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya . Later Noldorin Quenya became Exilic Quenya , when most of

12792-410: The recognition of sound-changes which had begun among the Noldor before the exile and had caused Noldorin Quenya to diverge from Vanyarin Quenya. The change of z (< old intervocalic s ) to r was the latest in Noldorin, belonging to early Exilic Quenya. The grammatical changes were only small though since the features of their "old language" were carefully taught. From the Second Age on, Quenya

12915-444: The reverse. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that The Silmarillion derived from the linguistic relationship between the two languages, Quenya and Sindarin , of the divided Elves. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger states that Tolkien used the Indo-European type of proto-language as his model. In her view, the sundering of the Elves reflects the progressive decline and fall in Middle-earth from its initial perfection;

13038-564: The rift between their houses for a time. Maedhros is due to succeed Fëanor, but he regrets his part in the Kinslaying as well as the abandonment of Fingolfin, and leaves the leadership of the Noldor in Middle-earth to his uncle Fingolfin, who becomes High King of the Noldor. Maedhros's brothers dissent and begin to call themselves the Dispossessed , paying little deference to Fingolfin or his successors, and are still determined to fulfil

13161-400: The ruler of the Noldor of Tirion. With the aid of the spider spirit Ungoliant , Melkor destroys the Two Trees of Valinor , slays Finwë, steals the Silmarils and departs from Aman . Driven by vengeance, Fëanor rebels against the Valar and rouses the Noldor to leave Valinor, follows Melkor to Middle-earth and wages war against him for the recovery of the Silmarils. Though the greater part of

13284-641: The ships burned. When the Noldor led by Fingolfin discover their betrayal, they go far to the north and cross the sea at the Grinding Ice or Helcaraxë. Suffering substantial losses along the way, this greatly adds to their animosity for Fëanor and his sons. The deaths of the Two Trees and the departure of the Noldor out of the Undying Lands mark the end of the Years of the Trees , and the beginning of

13407-704: The shores of the Great Sea of Belegaer but decided to stay there, or who arrived too late to be ferried, were called the Falathrim ( People of the Shore ). They were ruled by Cirdan the Shipwright. Those who chose to remain behind and populated the lands to the north-west of Beleriand were called the Mithrim or Grey People , giving their name to the region and the great lake there. Most of them later merged with

13530-402: The tongue and the back of the teeth), alveolar (involving the tongue and the alveolar ridge of the jaw), palatal (involving the tongue and the middle part of the roof of the mouth), velar (involving the back of the tongue and the back part of the roof of the mouth), and glottal (involving the vocal folds ). The dental fricative ( /θ/ ) and the voiced alveolar fricative ( /z/ ) occur in

13653-475: The turning point of the Noldor's war against Morgoth in the Dark Lord's favour; "The Dark Elf" recounts the birth of Maeglin, the son of Fingolfin's daughter Aredhel and Eöl the titular Dark Elf; "Nom the Wise" is an elegy by Beren to his friend Finrod Felagund. The Tolkien scholar Bradford Lee Eden writes that "although one can assume that Tolkien was not a headbanger", he finds that in the opinion of his students,

13776-492: The wisest of the Noldor is Rúmil, creator of the first writing system, Sarati , and author of many books of lore. Fëanor , son of Finwë and Míriel , is the greatest of their craftsmen, "mightiest in skill of word and of hand", and creator of the Silmarils . Fëanor also devised the Tengwar script. Tolkien gave some Noldorin leaders like Finwë and Fingolfin their own heraldic devices , carefully distinguishing their ranks by

13899-485: The years as new words have been created, forming a Neo-Quenya language that is based on Tolkien's original Quenya but incorporates many new elements. Quenya and its writing system Tengwar have limited application in hobbyist and public domain works. The Elvish languages are a family of several related languages and dialects. The following is a brief overview of the fictional internal history of late Quenya as conceived by Tolkien. Tolkien imagined an Elvish society with

14022-507: Was Sindarin . They stayed in the west of Middle-earth and were ruled by Thingol. Many of the Sindar chose to remain behind to look for their lord Thingol (Elwë), who disappeared near the end of the journey. These later inhabited Doriath , and were named the Iathrim or People of the Girdle , for the magical 'Girdle of Melian ' that surrounded and protected the kingdom. Those who came to

14145-565: Was Tolkien's favourite modern Romance language. The tables below list the consonants (Q. ólamar ) and vowels of late colloquial Noldorin Quenya, i.e. Quenya as spoken among the Exiled Noldor in Middle-earth. They are written using the International Phonetic Alphabet , unless otherwise noted. The Quenya consonant system has 6 major places of articulation: labial (involving the lips), dental (involving

14268-407: Was a continuous process, Quenya underwent a number of major revisions in its grammar, mostly in conjugation and the pronominal system . The vocabulary, however, was not subject to sudden or extreme change. Tolkien sometimes changed the meaning of a word, but he almost never discarded it once invented, and he kept on refining its meaning, and countlessly forged new synonyms. Moreover, Elvish etymology

14391-504: Was also fluent in Latin and Old English , and was familiar with Greek , Welsh (the primary inspiration for Sindarin , Tolkien's other major Elvish language), and other ancient Germanic languages , particularly Gothic , during his development of Quenya. Tolkien developed a complex internal history of characters to speak his Elvish languages in their own fictional universe. He felt that his languages changed and developed over time, as did

14514-576: Was given to them by Oromë, in their own language, Primitive Quendian . The Avari are those who refused the summons. Half of the Avari (the "refusers") came from the largest tribe, the Nelyar, but most of the Nelyar went on the journey. The Eldar migrated westwards across the north of Middle-earth in their three groups. The Minyar became known as the Vanyar, meaning the Fair Elves , with golden-blond hair. The Tatyar who migrated west became known as

14637-527: Was in constant flux. Tolkien delighted in inventing new etymons for his Quenya vocabulary. But after the publication of The Lord of the Rings (finished c. 1949–1950, published in 1954–1955), the grammar rules of Quenya went through very few changes and this version was then defined as late Quenya (c. 1950–1973). The spelling Qenya is sometimes used to distinguish early Quenya from later versions. Qenya differs from late Quenya by having different internal history, vocabulary, and grammar rules as described in

14760-481: Was in favour of the idea of Esperanto as an auxiliary language within Europe. With his Quenya, Tolkien pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected". This urge was a major motivation for his creation of a 'mythology' . While the language developed, Tolkien felt that it needed speakers, including their own history and mythology, which he thought would give a language its 'individual flavour'. The Lord of

14883-697: Was obliged to make the perilous journey on foot via the Helcaraxë, the Grinding Ice of the far north. These groups of Noldor became known as the Exiles. In Beleriand they became divided by their place of dwelling, namely Hithlum , Gondolin , Dorthonion , Nargothrond and the March of Maedhros . After the War of Wrath that ended the First Age, the greater part of the surviving Noldor and Sindar (mostly mingled into

15006-432: Was the usual Vanyarin name given to the Quenya language, since in Vanyarin, the consonant groups ndy and ny remained quite distinct. In Noldorin, ndy eventually became ny . Tolkien explained that "the word Quenya itself has been cited as an exempla (e.g. by Ælfwine), but this is a mistake due to supposition that kwenya was properly kwendya and directly derived from the name Quendi 'Elves'. This appears not to be

15129-510: Was used ceremonially by the Men of Númenor and their descendants in Gondor and Arnor for the official names of kings and queens; this practice was resumed by Aragorn when he took the crown as Elessar Telcontar. Quenya in the Third Age had almost the same status as the Latin language had in medieval Europe, and was called Elven-latin by Tolkien. Tolkien described the pronunciation of

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