Silmarillion Summaries - History of the Elves - Part 1

Under the newly created stars in the sky near the clear waters of the lake of Cuiviénen (far in the east part of Middle-Earth), the first-born creations of Eru Ilúvatar were awakened. These were the Elves. The first sounds they heard was the moving water of the lake, and they loved both it and the stars.

By chance, Oromë, the Huntsman of the Valar, came upon the Elves who had already created their own language and were naming everything they came in contact with. Oromë named them the Eldar, which means the people of the stars (because at that point the Moon and the Sun weren't created yet, so Middle-Earth was only lit by the light of the stars of Yavannah).

But the Elves were frightened of him, and he discovered that their fear was caused by the fact that Melkor (AKA Morgoth, Sauron's master), had already sent evil into their midst disguised as riders of shadow who would come in swiftly, capture a few, and take them to the dungeons of Utumno to be corrupted. Through this corruption and dark craft, Melkor created the race of Orcs.

Oromë dwelt for a time with the Elves before returning to Valinor (the Undying Lands to the West of Middle-Earth) and took council with the other Valar about what should be done. They took pity on the Elves who were under the shadow of Melkor, and ultimately decided they were through with Melkor's evil.

The Valar came to the dungeons of Utumno and captured Melkor. No account is written detailing this battle, but the Elves write in their histories that there were great lights in the North and the Earth shook so much that the landscape was changed. But after the Valar dragged Melkor out of his stronghold -- bound and blindfolded -- they took him to the prison of Mandos, sentenced to three ages of imprisonment.

With Melkor dealt with, the Valar were eager to interact with these knew creations of Ilúvatar. Oromë tried to convince the Elves to come with him to Valinor and live with the Valar. The Elves were extremely reluctant, so Oromë chose a few Elves as ambassadors to come with him to Valinor to see what they were missing. The awe that these ambassadors experienced at the beauty of Valinor was enough to sway the reluctant Elves to leave Middle-Earth.

All left with Oromë, save for one group who said they preferred the open sky of Middle-Earth and loved the stars above all else. They became known as the Avari (the Refusers). Those familiar with the story of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings would know they were the primary descendents as the Silvan, or Wood Elves (so basically Tauriel is the descendent of these guys, so even though the Hobbit movies could easily be called blasphemous for the changes made, it was admittedly a nice touch for her to talk about how much the stars meant to her people in the second movie).

The Elves who followed Oromë were split into three main groups. One group was led by Ingwë and were known as the Vanyar. They reached Valinor and never left. They were High Elves and few men ever spoke to them. Then we have the Noldor led by Finwë. They were the Deep Elves known for their wisdom and song, and are behind much of the events surrounding the Elves we'll learn about in future posts.

The third group and the largest of the three were the Teleri, led by Elwë and his brother Olwë. Within this group, many smaller groups broke away, wandering into the Mountains and Forests they passed, captured by their beauty. The rest didn't cross the sea to Valinor (at this point), because they were so enamored at the beauty of the shores of Middle-Earth. These Elves became known as the Elves of Darkness, because before the creation of the Moon and Sun, they never saw the light from the two lamps of Valinor (which we'll talk about later).

Welp, that's all for now. Next time we'll talk about the Elves in Valinor, how much the Valar can be dummies (much to Fëanor's chagrin), and the Noldor. Everything in this post was pulled from the Silmarillion, so before you try and correct me on anything, I purposely avoided any other works from Tolkien that speak of the history of the Elves. I did this to stay concise, and to avoid any inconsistencies (but if I did make any mistakes, message me, if you leave a comment I might not see it and I would like to edit anything I didn't catch while revising).

Thanks for reading, sorry it's been such a long time between posts, this semester was a doozy. Here are some links to my other posts which you might know as the Relatively Unknown LoTR Facts:

Gandalf: http://imgur.com/gallery/HIf1F
Galadriel - http://imgur.com/gallery/xXLwY
Frodo - http://imgur.com/gallery/5W7e0
Samwise - http://imgur.com/gallery/aITsZ
Boromir - http://imgur.com/gallery/BzvrU
Faramir - http://imgur.com/gallery/jTozD
Aragorn and Arwen: http://imgur.com/gallery/M8TOZ
Beren & Luthien - http://imgur.com/gallery/ZYIZ3
Morgoth: http://imgur.com/gallery/nPA6i
The Eagles - http://imgur.com/gallery/nMCHl