Moriquendi

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Moriquendi
Also known asDark Elves, 'Elves of the Darkness'
Úmanyar
Information
Created date Years of the Trees
Home world Middle-earth
Base of operationsMortal lands

In the fictional universe of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moriquendi is a Quenya word meaning "Dark-folk", [1] but often translated "Elves of Darkness" or "Dark-elves". [2] This name has a long internal history.

Fictional universe Self-consistent fictional setting with elements that may differ from the real world

A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm. Fictional universes may appear in novels, comics, films, television shows, video games, and other creative works.

J. R. R. Tolkien British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

Quenya fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien

Quenya is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien and used by the Elves in his legendarium.

Contents

Internal history

There existed two old elvish compounds in the Quenderin language, or Primitive Quendian with *kwendī "Elves": *kala-kwendī and *mori-kwendī, meaning the "Light-folk" and the "Dark-folk". These two words go back to the time before the Sundering of the Elves, or rather to the time of the debate among them over the invitation by the Valar to migrate to Valinor. Both words were made by the party favourable to the Vala Oromë, and referred originally to Elves who desired the Light of Valinor versus Elves who did not wish to leave Middle-earth. *Mori-kwendī had from the beginning a negative sense, implying that these Elves willingly tolerated the shadows Melkor had put upon Middle-earth.

Primitive Quendian is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is one of the many fictional languages set in his fictional universe, often called Middle-earth. It was the proto-language of the Elves, which they invented after the Awakening at Cuiviénen.

The most ancient structure of the tongue common to all the Qendelie [Elvish race] is ... not known to the Elves, through some things may be guessed or discovered by those who will compare one with another the written forms of Eldarin languages of Valinor, together with such records of the Avari as we here in Eressëa have set down in these later days.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Elves are a sundered (divided) people. They awoke at Cuiviénen on the continent of Middle-earth, where they were divided into three tribes: Minyar, Tatyar and Nelyar. After some time, they were summoned by Oromë to live with the Valar in Aman. That summoning and the Great Journey that followed split the Elves into two main groups, which were never fully reunited.

The Valar[ˈvalar] are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods" subordinate to the one God ; they are the greatest of the Ainur who chose to go into the World (Arda) and complete its material development after its form was determined by the Music of the Ainur (Ainulindalë). For this reason they are also referred to as "the Powers of the World." They are mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, but were developed earlier in material published posthumously in The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth.

The Quenya forms became Calaquendi and Moriquendi (a rare singular is once recorded Moriquen). In Quenya the term Calaquendi applied only to the Elves who actually lived (or had lived) in Eldamar; and the Moriquendi included all other Elves, whether or not they had participated in the March to Valinor. The Moriquendi were regarded as greatly inferior by the Calaquendi, who lived in the Light of the Two Trees, and had also received great knowledge and powers by living with the Valar and Maiar.

In the fictional universe of J. R. R. Tolkien, Calaquendi refers to the Elves who journeyed to Aman before the First Age of the Sun. This group includes all of the Vanyar and Noldor clans, as well as some of the Teleri.

The Maiar are among a class of beings from J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy legendarium. Supernatural and angelic, they are "lesser Ainur" who entered "Eä" in the beginning of time. The name Maiar is in the Quenya tongue that comes from the Elvish root maya- "excellent, admirable". Maiar sometimes refers to all the Ainur who entered Eä, the "Creation", but more often to the lesser powers among them: "Maia is the name of the Kin of the Valar, but especially of those of lesser power than the 9 great rulers" wrote Tolkien.

In Exilic Quenya the Noldor did not make much use of the terms Calaquendi or Moriquendi, which were rather offensive to the Sindar of Beleriand. A new politically correct name was coined to replace the obsolescent term Moriquendi: Úmanyar, "those not of Aman".

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor are High Elves of the Second Clan who migrated to Valinor and lived in Eldamar. The Noldor are called Golodhrim or Gódhellim in Sindarin, and Goldui by Teleri of Tol Eressëa. The singular form of the Quenya noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin. 'Noldor' meant 'the Wise', that is those who have great knowledge and understanding. The Noldor indeed early showed the greatest talents of all the Elves both for intellectual pursuits and technical skills. They were the Second Clan of the Elves in both order and size, the other clans being the Vanyar and the Teleri. Like the Teleri, they typically had grey eyes and dark hair. The Noldor Elves were the most intellectually gifted of all the Elves, as well as the strongest and the most proud. The Noldor were the bravest and most powerful people among the Sons of Iluvatar, with a light in their eyes similar to that of the stars. They fought the greatest wars that dwarves or men have heard.

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the fictional Sindar are Elves of Telerin descent. They are also known as the Grey Elves. Their language is Sindarin. The King of Doriath, Elu Thingol (Elwë) was the King of the Sindar.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic literature. Beleriand also appears in the works The Book of Lost Tales, The Children of Húrin, and in the epic poems of The Lays of Beleriand.

Those Elves the Calaquendi call the Úmanyar, since they came never to the land of Aman and the Blessed Realm; but the Úmanyar and the Avari alike they call the Moriquendi, Elves of the Darkness, for they never beheld the Light that was before the Sun and Moon." — The Silmarillion , Chapter 3, "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor

In the fictional works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Avari are an ethnic group of the Elves.

<i>The Silmarillion</i> Collection of J. R. R. Tolkiens mythopoeic works

The Silmarillion is a collection of mythopoeic works by English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, edited and published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R. Tolkien's other works, forms an extensive, though incomplete, narrative that describes the universe of Eä in which are found the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth, within which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place.

Concept and creation

Tom Shippey has identified the concept of Tolkien's "Light elves" and "Dark elves" as being inspired by the medieval Icelandic Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson which distinguishes between ljósálfar (light-elves) and dökkálfar (dark-elves). Snorri writes that the dark-elves are "black", svart, but simultaneously he writes of all "black-elves" being dwarves. This contradiction was first investigated in the 19th century by German linguist Jacob Grimm and Danish philosopher N. F. S. Grundtvig. Grimm noted a dualism between good and evil in the Edda's light-elves and dark-elves, like Grundtvig, but he raised the question whether three kinds of Norse elves should be assumed. Shippey suggests that these discussions must have been known to Tolkien and that "one of the starting points of his whole developed mythology was this problem in nomenclature, this apparent contradiction in ancient texts...". [3]

Tom Shippey British linguist, critic, fiction writer

Thomas Alan Shippey is a British scholar and retired professor of Middle and Old English literature, as well as medievalism and modern fantasy and science fiction. In particular he is widely considered one of the world's leading academic scholars on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers.

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson c. 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology.

Snorri Sturluson Icelandic historian, poet and politician (1179–1241)

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker to the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning, a narrative of Norse mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egil's saga.

A first concept of Eöl the Dark Elf was written by Tolkien in 1917 in the tale The Fall of Gondolin and was eventually published in The Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien. "Dark Elf" is, however, a personal appellation resulting from Eöl dwelling in a shaded forest. It was in the "Quenta Silmarillion" which was written in the 1930s that Tolkien first used the term Dark-elves for those elves who were lost on their wanderings towards Valinor and did not see the light of the Two Trees. [3]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Quendi and Eldar", The War of the Jewels , p. 373.
  2. ↑ "Moriquendi". The Encyclopedia of Arda. Mark Fisher. 15 March 2010.
  3. 1 2 Shippey, Tom (2004). "Light-elves, Dark-elves, and Others: Tolkien's Elvish Problem". Tolkien Studies . 1 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1353/tks.2004.0015.
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