Last year I wondered in an online musing if Tolkien intended the word “silvan” to be an Elvish word. He speaks of the Silvan Elves and Wood-elves interchangeably, and a number of people chuckled warmly and pointed out that “sylvan” means “woodland”. Well, yes, I knew that, but that wasn’t the point. Tolkien loved playing word games. Take “orthanc”. Supposedly this is a Sindarin word which means “forked height”. In Anglo-Saxon it means “cunning mind”. The Sindarin name for Sauron’s realm, Mordor, means “black land”, but it’s also an Anglo-Saxon word for murder. What a coincidence.
“Silvan” occurs many times throughout The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes it’s capitalized, sometimes it’s not. “Silva” comes from a Latin word for “forest”, and maybe that comes from an older IndoEuropean word for “wood”. My musings pondered the possibility that “silvan” might be a combination of “sil,thil” and “wan”. “Sil” can mean “light” and “wan” has several derivatives, including “vanwa”, “gone, departed, vanished, lost, past”. So, the name could mean, “lost to the light”; i.e., these Elves never saw the Light of the Two Trees, and stopped seeking it (or never sought it). They were Dark Elves.
No one liked that idea. “Silvan” must be the English word. Of course, neither Mordor nor Orthanc must be the English words. Linguists. They just don’t speak the same language as the rest of us. The joke is possibly one Tolkien would have enjoyed. (Of course, “silvan” could also mean “shining goose”, so it’s not really likely this is intended to be an Elven word, unless Thranduil’s standard contained a glowing goose.)
Of course, the Wood-elves spoke their own language. We don’t actually see much of this language in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien suggests a few names were probably of Silvan origin were “adapted to Sindarin”. One word that seems like it might be from the woodland language is “daro”, the command that Haldir the March-warden of Lorien speaks to Legolas as the elf prince is about to climb into a tree. But this was just a Sindarin word, according to Tolkien. Perhaps only I appreciate the fact it also happened to be the surname of my fourth-grade homeroom teacher, Mrs. Daro. Mrs. Stop? Hm.
The Wood-elves had a name for themselves. It was most likely penni, a variant of “quendi”, the Quenya word for Elves (actually, the word meant “speakers, those who speak” — the Elves named themselves before they met other speaking creatures). In an essay discussing Elvish names for various peoples, Tolkien lists the names of six Avari tribes: kindi, cuind, hwend, windan, kinn-lai, and penni. It has been suggested that because of phonetic shifts, earthquakes, and the proper alignment of the stars, the last name is probably of Lindarin origin. The Lindar were the third group of Elves before the Separation which resulted in the Eldar and the Avari.
The three groups, or clans, originally called themselves “Minyar” (firsts), “Tatyar” (seconds), and “Nelyar” (thirds). But the Nelyar were great singers, so they also called themselves Lindar (singers). The Minyar all decided to follow their chieftain Ingwe to Valinor, and they became the Vanyar (so named by the Noldor, who referred to the color and beauty of the Minyar/Vanyar’s hair). The Tatyar who followed Finwe became known as the Noldor (the Wise, or perhaps better, the Learned Ones). And the Nelyar who undertook the Great Journey became the Teleri, because they were the hindmost group (and the name means “those at the end of the line”).
Half the Tatyar became Eldar and half remained as Avari, but most of the Nelyar chose to become Eldar. Barely more than a third of the Nelyar remained in Cuivienen, and they were approximately equal in number to the Tatyar. What happened to the Eldar is well-documented history. Most of them made it to Aman, but a few of the Teleri abandoned the Great Journey when they reached the Anduin river and became the Nandor, “those who turn aside”. Some more of the Teleri were left behind in Beleriand, and they became the Sindar. Fewer than half the Teleri actually made it to Aman to become the Falmari.
Confused? It gets worse. The Sindar were divided into two groups. Call them Thingol’s people and Cirdan’s people. Cirdan’s people lived along the coasts, and they spread northward into Nevrast. Thingol’s people lived in the woods — yup, they were Wood-elves, but not the Wood-elves. Some of these Elves wandered into the north and spread west toward the coastlands where Cirdan’s people lived.
The Nandor spread southward along the Anduin, and many of them appear to have crossed the river at the Undeeps (that place where Anduin twists and winds on the northeast corner of Rohan). From there some of them turned north and settled in the forest that later became Lothlorien. Other Nandor spread through the pass of Calenardhon (later known as Rohan) and entered Eriador. And some of the Nandor spread south along the western shore of Anduin (and possibly on the eastern shore). Some of them eventually made it to the sea, apparently.
How many of the Teleri became Nandor? We don’t know. Tolkien actually wrote down some numbers for the various Elven groups, to show their proportions. Based on the original 144 Elves, 14 became Minyar (Vanyar), 56 became Tatyar, and 74 became Nelyar. Now, some generations passed between the awakening of the Elves and the Separation. We don’t know how many generations there were, nor how many Elves vanished in the intervening years. But the proportions remained approximately the same. So Tolkien shows that 28 of 56 Tatyar became Noldor, 46 of 74 Nelyar became Teleri, and of those 20 made it to Aman and 26 became Sindar and Nandor.
The Nandor came from Olwe’s host, which was larger than Elwe’s. Just for the sake of argument, let’s say Olwe led 26 and Elwe led 20. Then half of Olwe’s host could have followed Lenwe south to become the Nandor. That would leave Elwe with the larger group of Teleri until they reached Beleriand and he got lost. Then Olwe took over and most of the Teleri in Beleriand made it over Sea. But of those who remained, Cirdan’s people came from Olwe’s following, so of Olwe’s original mob, relatively few of the Elves made it Aman.
What’s this got to do with Wood-elves? Everything. Tolkien tells us that most of the Nelyar actually wanted to stay in Middle-earth, but they were also closer to each other than the other groups were. Hence, when it became clear a significant portion of the Nelyar were going to leave Cuivienen, a massive change of heart occurred among the others, and many of them decided to join the Eldar. But these probably constituted the greater part of Olwe’s original people.
In the following ages, the Sindar built up a great civilization in Beleriand and the Avari began drifting west. Why did they leave Cuivienen? There were probably two chief reasons: divisions among the Tatyar and increases in population. Cuivienen could probably only support so many Elves. As their numbers grew they most likely began to spread out, and the Tatyar being less fond of the waters would have led the way, while the Nelyar remained as close to Cuivienen as they possibly could.
If one examines the history of the Noldor, it becomes evident that they were a rather divisive group. Even in Aman they didn’t all stay together. The Vanyar, too, seemed to get wanderlust. They helped found the city of Tirion but soon they migrated into Valinor, where some of them settled in Valimar (the city of the Valar), some settled on the slopes of Taniquetil, the mountain where Manwe and Varda lived, and some wandered off into the woods and distant regions of Valinor. The Noldor weren’t long in following them. Most of the Noldor seem to have stayed in Tirion, or lived in the hills close by the city. But Feanor and his crowd took off, and Mahtan, Feanor’s father-in-law, seems to have lived close to Aule (along with other Noldor of like mind). And then in Middle-earth the Noldor couldn’t seem to wait to split up and go their various ways.
Hence, it seems reasonable that the Tatyar who remained in Middle-earth were equally divisive, and Tolkien notes that they were more contentious with the Eldar than were the Nelyarin Avari. The Tatyarin Avari felt their Amanic cousins were too haughty. The Tatyarin Avari are thus good candidates for comprising the various “tribes” the Eldar documented in Beleriand and Eriador: the kindi, cuind, hwenti, windan, and kinn-lai. The penni settled in the Vales of Anduin, and they in fact spoke the “Wood-elven” language. They also were friendlier to the Eldar, especially the Sindar who eventually settled in the Vales of Anduin.
What became of the Tatyar? Some actually reached Beleriand and lived in the hills and great forests of the south where few if any of the Eldar ever ventured. Some also happened to merge with Nandor. In fact, Tolkien suggests at one point that some of the Green-Elves of Ossiriand (those Nandor who were led by Denethor, son of Lenwe, to Beleriand) were in fact Avari, Tatyarin Avari. After Denethor’s death some of his people left Ossiriand and settled in Arthorien, the southeastern march of Doriath. These were called the Guest-elves, and some of them appear to have been Tatyarin Elves in origin.
Unfortunately Tolkien doesn’t associate any of the names of Avarin clans with geographical regions. Perhaps a linguistic analysis might reveal some hints of who settled where, but that is all beyond me. It does appear, however, that the Tatyar who didn’t settle in Beleriand ended up in Eriador. These clans may have merged with the few Nandor who remained in Eriador after Denethor’s great migration to Beleriand. If that was the case, the Tatyarin Avari and Nandor must have become virtually indistinguishable, and they would have perhaps remained the largest population in Eriador until late in the First Age. Most of them were probably destroyed or driven to seek refuge in Lindon during the War of the Elves and Sauron.
But that leaves the Penni. They somehow got up the gumption to wander westward, too, and probably the entire nation of Nelyarin Avari became the Penni. That is not to say they couldn’t have had a few drop off and put down roots here and there. For example, people have often wondered who the Dorwinions were. The name “Dorwinion” occurs in two sources: “Lay of the Children of Hurin”, where a potent wine is brought from Dorwinion by the Dwarves of Nogrod to Doriath; and The Hobbit, where the Wood-elves of Mirkwood import wine from their kin in the south, in the land of Dorwinion (actually, it’s not clear what the southern Elves exported to Mirkwood, since Tolkien writes “the wine, and other goods, were brought from far away, from their kinsfolk in the South, or from the vineyards of Men in distannt lands”).
Tolkien told Pauline Baynes to place Dorwinion on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Rhun, and every cartographer to follow her has accordingly done the same, though the name doesn’t appear in any of the canonical LOTR maps. Christopher Tolkien was puzzled by this placement, since “Lay of the Children of Hurin” speaks of the “heats of the South”, but it does seem logical that — if Dorwinion is an Elven land — it be placed somewhere near the path followed by the Elves on their westward journeys. They all seem to have wandered along the northern shores of whatever sea lay in the region (the old sea, Helcar, vanished in the turmoils at the end of the First Age, and all that remained of it was the sea of Rhun).
So, if we assume that Dorwinion was an Elven land, it was probably populated by Penni, Nelyarin Avari. Most of the Penni, however, seem to have made it as far west as Anduin, and there they mingled or supplanted the Nandor who were still living in Greenwood and Lothlorien. From these groups came the Silvan Elves, or the Wood-elves of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And as everyone who has read the appendices to LOTR knows, early in the Second Age some of the Sindar migrated east and settled in the forests and established kingdoms among the Silvan Elves.
How many kingdoms were there? We don’t know. Only two survived to the end of the Second Age: Oropher’s realm in Greewood the Great, and Amdir’s realm in Lothlorien. Oropher originally settled on the hill of Amon Lanc, and so was close to Amdir, but he eventually moved his people north to the Emyn Duir, the mountains in the middle of the forest, and they stayed there until Sauron built a fortress on Amon Lanc around the year 1050 of the Third Age, when Thranduil (Oropher’s son) led them northward to establish his halls in a hill overlooking the forest river of The Hobbit.
It doesn’t seem likely there were many other places for Elven realms to exist, but one possibility would be along the Anduin near Rauros. The region was wooded in the late Third Age, at least, because the Fellowship of the Ring had to carry their boats through the woods. The Entwash provided sufficient water in the region for forests to arise, and farther south in the lands which became Anorien Elves would have been fairly happy in the woods as well. It may be that if any Sindarin “adventurers” (as Tolkien referred to them) settled among the Nandor and Penni south of Greenwood and Lorien, these would be the lands most likely to harbor their little kingdoms. They also would have been exposed and vulnerable to Sauron’s forces when the War of the Elves and Sauron began.
Of course, there is no reason to assume that all the Elves of southern Greenwood fled north with Oropher. Some of them may have remained in the south of the forest until the war came. What little we know of that period reveals that Sauron crushed the Longbeard Dwarves and Edainic men living east of the Misty Mountains. He couldn’t take Khazad-dum, so the Dwarven civilization survived, but the Edainic peoples were driven into the forests and hills, and they wouldn’t return to the open lands for many centuries.
The Wood-elves thus accumulated their own list of tragedies, though they produced no great histories to be incorporated into the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. And Tolkien was unclear about how the history of Lorien progressed. The character and background of Celeborn, for example, evolved through the years, and Tolkien composed history after history for Galadriel and Celeborn.
What seems clear is that Lothlorien was able to survive Sauron’s onslaught largely because of Eldarin influence. Sindar and Noldor from Eregion helped to fortify the land, and it may be that the great tree-cities with their moats and hedgewalls appeared around the middle of the Second Age. The Eldar also seem to have taught Lothlorien’s Elves a thing or two about the higher crafts developed in Aman and Beleriand, and in any event Lothlorien was probably a trading partner with Khazad-dum.
On the other hand, the Eldarin influence doesn’t seem to have been long-lasting. After the War of the Elves and Sauron many of the Eldar fled Middle-earth, and by the end of the Second Age Lothlorien’s warriors were so poorly equipped and armored compared to the Eldar of Lindon and Eriador that many of them were slaughtered in battle with the Orcs.
In time of peace the Wood-elves were a prosperous people, wherever they lived. They increased their populations and built towns and cities. People seem to have the impression they sleep under the trees, but Thranduil’s underground fortress was quite extensive, and Bilbo raided a village along the shore of the Forest River for food and drink as he herded the barrels with his Dwarven companions toward Laketown.
In Lothlorien the city of Caras Galadhon lasted until the beginning of the Fourth Age, and some people have suggested that Cerin Amroth was the heart of another city, abandoned when the Elvenking led many of his people south to Edhellond.
Being not only housebuilders, the Elves made boats, wove their own clothing, grew their own food, made their own tools, and generally engaged in all manner of crafts. But they were so withdrawn and mysterious in the late Third Age they hardly present much of their culture or civilization to the reader. In their own ways they worked their “elven magic” on the lands they loved, keeping their woods free of evil creatures, healthy, and strong. Although they could not have outnumbered the original Eldarin civilizations, after the First Age the Wood-elves must have had the largest populations among Middle-earth’s Elves. They had not suffered the great depredations that the Beleriandic and Eriadorian Elves had in the First Age.
Although Tolkien wrote that Oropher and his fellow Sindarin colonists in Greenwood wished to abandon Eldarin culture and become more like primitive Elves among the Silvan Elves, it seems evident they could not really hold back the progress. They could only delay it. In the end Thranduil built a fortress highly reminiscent of Menegroth, Thingol’s underground city of the thousand caves. And Lothlorien became powerful enough that Amroth would send armies abroad to help in the wars in Eriador during the Third Age. Avari, Nandor, Sindar, and even some Noldor all merged together to produce the interesting cultures we only glimpse in Lothlorien and Mirkwood. Thranduil’s people were probably more homogenous than the Galadhrim of Lothlorien, but they were all Wood-elves. Not so much less sophisticated than the Eldar as less intent upon changing the world around them.
The Noldor and Sindar tried to build great cities, and Beleriand was dotted with metropolises of stone and mighty works. In the Second Age they rebuilt their civilization in Lindon and Eregion, and their towers and fortresses stood for thousands of years as reminders of their greatness even long after they had vanished from the land, slain or fled over Sea. The stones crumbled in Eregion but in the Shire hobbits who were so willing could venture past the hills and look upon the three towers built by Gil-galad for his friend Elendil, or gaze upon the even more ancient havens of Mithlond.
And yet in the Fourth Age little remained of the Eldarin civilization. Lothlorien was largely abandoned but those of its people who remained through the Third Age had merely migrated east to the newly cleansed forest. And who knows? Maybe one day, long after Celeborn’s departure, a few clans of Silvan Elves passed back across Anduin and settled once more in the golden woods of Lorien, recalling one last time the ancient beauty and grace of the gentle woodland folk who sang by the waters of Cuivienen.
This article was originally published on May 12, 2000.
[…] “The Wild, Wild Wood-elf West” in our Tolkien and Middle-earth category was published on October 17. […]