The Lhammas II

On the march to the West the Lindar went first, and the chief house among them was the house of Ingwe, high-king of the Eldalie, and the oldest of all Elves, for he first awoke. His house and people are called the Ingwelindar or Ingwi. The march began when the Elves had dwelt for about thirty Valian years in the Hither Lands, and ten more Valian years passed, ere the first companies of the Lindar reached the Falasse, that is the western shores of the Hither Lands, where Beleriand lay of old. Now each Valian year in the days of the Trees was as ten years now are, but before the making of the Sun and Moon the change and growth of all living things was slow, even in the Hither Lands. Little difference, therefore, was found yet in the speeches of the three kindreds of the Eldalie. In the year 1950 of the Valar the Qendi awoke, and in the year 1980 they began their march, and in the year 1990 the Lindar came over the mountains into Beleriand; and in the year 2000 of the Gods the Lindar and the Noldor came over the seas unto Valinor in the west of the world and dwelt in the light of the Trees. But the Teleri tarried on the march, and came later, and they were left behind in Beleriand for ten Valian years, and lived upon the Falasse and grew to love the sea above all else. And thereafter, as is told in the Quenta, they dwelt, because of the deeds of Osse, an age, which is 100 years of the Valar, on Tol-eressea, the Lonely Isle, in the Bay of Faerie, before at last they sailed in their swan-ships to the shores of Valinor. The tongue of the Teleri became therefore sundered somewhat from that of the Noldor and Lindar, and it has ever remained apart though akin.

For nine ages, which is nine hundred Valian years, the Lindar and Noldor dwelt in Valinor, ere its darkening; and for eight of those ages the Teleri dwelt nigh them, yet separate, upon the shores and about the havens of the land of the Gods, while Morgoth was in captivity and vassalage. Their tongues therefore changed in the slow rolling of the years, even in Valinor, for the Elves are not as the Gods, but are children of Earth. Yet they changed less than might be thought in so great a space of time; for the Elves in Valinor did not die, and in those days the Trees still flowered, and the changeful Moon was not yet made, and there was peace and bliss.

Nonetheless the Elves much altered the tongue of the Valar, and each of their kindreds after their own fashion. The most beautiful and the least changeful of these speeches was that of the Lindar, and especially the tongue of the house and folk of Ingwe.

(Footnote, added after the writing of the main text:) But the Lindar were soft-spoken, and at first altered the Elvish speech more than the other peoples by the softening and smoothing of its sounds, especially the consonants; yet in words [struck out: and forms] they were, as is said, less changeful, and their grammar and vocabulary remained more ancient than those of any other Elvish folk.

It grew therefore to be a custom in Valinor, early in the days of the abiding there of the Elves, for the Gods to use this speech in converse with the Elves, and Elves of different kindred one with another; and for long this language was chiefly used in inscriptions or in writings of wisdom or poetry. Thus an ancient form of Lindarin speech became early fixed, save for some later adoptions of words and names from other dialects, as a language of high speech and of writing, and as a common speech among all Elves; and all the folk of Valinor learned and knew this language. It was called by the Gods and Elves 'the Elvish tongue', that is Qenya, and such it is usually now named, though the Elves call it also Ingwiqenya, especially in its purest and highest form, and also tarquesta high-speech, and parmalambe the book-tongue. This is the Elf-latin, and it remains still, and all Elves know it, even such as linger still in the Hither Lands. But the speech of daily converse among the Lindar has not remained as Qenya, but has changed therefrom, though far less than have Noldorin or even Telerin from their own tongues in the ancient days of the Trees.

The Noldor in the days of their exile brought the knowledge of the Elf-latin into Beleriand, and, though they did not teach it to Men, it became used among all the Ilkorindi. The names of the Gods were by all the Eldar preserved and chiefly used only in Qenya form; although most of the Valar had titles and by-names, different in different tongues, by which in daily use their high names were usually supplanted, and they were seldom heard save in solemn oath and hymn. It was the Noldor who in the early days of their sojourn in Valinor devised letters, and the arts of cutting them upon stone or wood, and of writing them with brush or pen; for rich as are the minds of the Elves in memory, they are not as the Valar, who wrote not and do not forget. But it was long ere the Noldor themselves wrote in books with their own tongue, and though they carved and wrote in those days many things in monument and document, the language they used was Qenya, until the days of Feanor's pride.

Now in this way did the daily speeches of the Lindar and Noldor draw apart. At first, though they saw and marvelled at the light and bliss of Valinor, the Elves forgot not Middle-earth and the starlight whence they came, and they longed at times to look upon the stars and walk a while in shadow. Wherefore the Gods made that cleft in the mountain-wall which is called the Kalakilya the Pass of Light. Therein the Elves piled the green hill of Kor, and built thereon the city of Tun [> Tuna],* and highest amid the city of Tun [> Tuna] was the white tower of Ingwe. And the thought of the lands of earth was deepest in the hearts of the Noldor, who afterward returned thither, and they abode in that place whence the outer shadows could be seen, and among the vales and mountains about Kalakilya was their home. But the Lindar grew soon to love more the tree-lit gardens of the Gods, and the wide and fertile plains, and they forsook Tun [> Tuna], and dwelt far away and returned seldom; and though Ingwe was ever held the high-king of all the Eldar, and none used his white tower, save such as kept aflame the everlasting lamp that burned there, the Noldor were ruled by Finwe, and became a people apart, busy with the making of many things, and meeting with their kin only at such times as they journeyed into Valinor for feast or council. Their converse was rather with the Teleri of the neighbouring shores than with the Lindar, and the tongues of Teleri and Noldor drew somewhat together again in those days.

(Marginal note added at the same time as the change of Tun to Tuna:) Which the Gods called Eldamar.

Now as the ages passed and the Noldor became more numerous and skilled and proud, they took also to the writing and using in books of their own speech beside the Qenya; and the form in which it was earliest written and preserved is the ancient Noldorin or Kornoldorin, which goes back to the days of the gem-making of Feanor son of Finwe. But this Noldorin never became fixed, as was Qenya, and was used only by the Noldor, and its writing changed in the course of years with the change of speech and with the varying devices of writing among the Gnomes. For this old Noldorin, the Korolambe (tongue of Kor) or Kornoldorin, besides its change by reason of passing time, was altered much by new words and devices of language not of Valian origin, nor common to all the Eldar, but invented anew by the Noldor. The same may be said of all the tongues of the Qendi, but in the invention of language the Noldor were the chief, and they were restless in spirit, even before Morgoth walked among them, though far more so afterwards, and changeful in invention. And the fruit of their spirit were many works of exceeding beauty, and also much sorrow and great grief.

Thus in Valinor, ere the end of the days of Bliss, there was the Elf-latin, the written and spoken Qenya, which the Lindar first made, though it is not the same as their own daily speech; and there was Lindarin the language of the Lindar; and Noldorin the language, both written and spoken, of the Noldor (which is in its ancient form named Korolambe or Kornoldorin); and the tongue of the Teleri. And over all was the Valya or Valarin, the ancient speech of the Gods, that changed not from age to age. But that tongue they used little save among themselves in their high councils, and they wrote it not nor carved it, and it is not known to mortal Men.