Q: What Did Wandering Companies Do?
ANSWER: There are several references in the stories to “Wandering Companies”, bands of Elves who appear to either have no permanent home or who were making special pilgrimages. Many readers want to know what their lifestyle was intended to be like.
It would seem that a Wandering Company’s function and lifestyle varied from age to age, and possibly from kindred to kindred. The earliest wandering members of the Elves were the Eldar themselves, who undertook the Great Journey from Cuiviénen — the land of their origin — to Valinor.
According to various notes and accounts scattered across the books, the Eldar travelled only short distances on their journey. They would stop and “camp” frequently while the Vala Oromë went off and tended to other duties. During these times of respite the Elves would grow new food. especially the white corn that they used for making lembas.
So one need not imagine much of a change in lifestyle for those of the Teleri (the third kindred of the Eldar) who turned aside from the Great Journey in the Vales of Anduin to become the Nandor. They simply passed south along the course of the Anduin. Some of the Nandor settled in the region later known as Ithilien; others eventually crossed the river into what later became Anorien and Calenardhon and from there spread north toward Eriador, where the rest of the Eldar had long since moved on.
These Nandorin companies appear to have made no permanent homes, but simply wandered around Middle-earth as they pleased. They would not (in fact, could not) have developed a very sophisticated culture compared to the civilizations of Valinor and Beleriand. Nonetheless, the Nandor seem to have maintained communication with each other, and many of them continued to acknowledge the leadership of Lenwë and his family (at the very least, his son Denethor).
Denethor gathered many of the Nandor and led them to Beleriand, where they settled permanently in the southeastern woods of that land in Ossiriand. There they became known as the Laegrim (Lai-Quendi in Quenya), the Green-elves. The Green-elves refrained from hunting and they spent much of their time devising songs and living quietly in the woods. But they occasionally went to war against Morgoth’s forces.
As the Eldarin civilization in Beleriand crumbled, and each kingdom fell one-by-one to Morgoth’s forces, many Elves fled into the wild. They found little or no welcome in other Elven communities because Morgoth would sometimes send thralls (mind-enslaved Elves) among the Eldar to disrupt their plans and sow dissension among them. It seems unlikely these outlaw Elves would have been able to sustain themselves on lembad and they probably did not band together in great numbers.
Tuor and Idril Celebrindal gathered many Elves and Men in the land of Arvernien, which lay near the Mouths of Sirion in southern Beleriand. By this time the First Age was nearly over and most of the Elves and Edain had perished. But it may be that Arvernien became strong because many of the outlaws found their ways there. Tolkien does not say much about the outlaws of the late First Age but there are a couple of notes that suggest at least some of the outlaws settled in Arvernien.
After the War of Wrath many of the surviving Eldar sailed over Sea to Tol Eressëa. Those who remained in Middle-earth settled in Lindon (the eastern remnants of Beleriand) and western Eriador, where they were joined by Nandor and Avari. From these survivors came the Wandering Companies of the Second Age. These Wandering Companies may have lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle simplar to that of the Nandor in the First Age, such that they simply “grazed” the land, stopping only long enough to replenish their supplies.
These Wandering Companies were destroyed or driven into hiding by Sauron during the War of the Elves and Sauron, which lasted from Second Age 1697 to 1701. Tolkien does not mention these Wandering Companies again so we cannot be sure of what he intended their fate to be. There would have been few opportunities for them to wander much beyond the boundaries of Eriador.
In the Third Age it appears that many Elves continued to pass back and forth across Eriador. Some groups, especially late in the Third Age, made special pilgrimages to Elostirion, the high tower overlooking Mithlond, to gaze into the Palantir of Elendil which had been left there. These Elves, including Gildor Inglorion, seem to have made the journey more than once, perhaps increasing the frequency of their pilgrimages as the times of their departures over Sea approached.
Gildor’s people passed through the Shire, walking along the roads at night. They also had at least one “camping” spot, a sheltered cove in the hills above Woodhall by Woody End in the Eastfarthing. Some readers speculate that Gildor’s folk and other Third Age Wandering Companies may have maintained a chain of such stopping places, protected by trees, across Eriador.
The most detailed example Tolkien provides of a “wandering company” is Arwen’s marriage procession. Elrond accompanied her to Lothlorien, and from there Celeborn and Galadriel accompanied them to Gondor. Of course they were accompanied by many Elves from Rivendell and Lothlorien. The marriage procession returned north along the Greenway, and they remained in Dunland for about a week before Celeborn and Galadriel took their people back over the mountains.
The only other explicit reference to a “wandering company” is the large group of Elves who accompany Elrond, Galadriel, and Gildor from Rivendell to Mithlond. However, Legolas brought some of his people south to Ithilien, so they must have formed one or more Wandering Companies to make that journey as well.
It seems plain, therefore, that Wandering Companies at least helped ensure that Elvish travelers were safe and protected on the roads (or in the woods and mountains, as when many of Amroth’s people fled Lothlorien for Edhellond in the south). But they may have been moving from point A to point B with clear purpose rather than just wandering about the countryside. They may also have helped perform specific tasks, such as dealing with perilous creatures; or in Legolas’ case helping to cleanse, restore, and beautify lands like Ithilien. But certainly in the Third Age many Wandering Companies were associated with pilgrimages or the final departure of Elves from Middle-earth.
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