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appendix f 1481
OF THE ELVES
The Elves far back in the Elder Days became divided into two
main branches: the West-elves (the Eldar) and the East-elves.
Of the latter kind were most of the Elven-folk of Mirkwood and
Lórien; but their languages do not appear in this history, in
which all the Elvish names and words are of Eldarin form. 1
Of the Eldarin tongues two are found in this book: the Highelven
or Quenya, and the Grey-elven or Sindarin. The Highelven
was an ancient tongue of Eldamar beyond the Sea, the first
to be recorded in writing. It was no longer a birth-tongue, but
had become, as it were, an ‘Elven-latin’, still used for ceremony,
and for high matters of lore and song, by the High Elves, who
had returned in exile to Middle-earth at the end of the First
Age.
The Grey-elven was in origin akin to Quenya; for it was the
language of those Eldar who, coming to the shores of Middleearth,
had not passed over the Sea but had lingered on the coasts
in the country of Beleriand. There Thingol Greycloak of Doriath
was their king, and in the long twilight their tongue had changed
with the changefulness of mortal lands and had become far
estranged from the speech of the Eldar from beyond the Sea.
The Exiles, dwelling among the more numerous Grey-elves,
had adopted the Sindarin for daily use; and hence it was the
tongue of all those Elves and Elf-lords that appear in this history.
For these were all of Eldarin race, even where the folk that they
ruled were of the lesser kindreds. Noblest of all was the Lady
Galadriel of the royal house of Finarfin and sister of Finrod
Felagund, King of Nargothrond. In the hearts of the Exiles the
yearning for the Sea was an unquiet never to be stilled; in the
hearts of the Grey-elves it slumbered, but once awakened it
could not be appeased.
1 In Lórien at this period Sindarin was spoken, though with an
‘accent’, since most of its folk were of Silvan origin. This ‘accent’ and
his own limited acquaintance with Sindarin misled Frodo (as is pointed
out in The Thain’s Book by a commentator of Gondor). All the Elvish
words cited in Book Two chs 6, 7, 8 are in fact Sindarin, and so are
most of the names of places and persons. But Lórien, Caras Galadhon,
Amroth, Nimrodel are probably of Silvan origin, adapted to Sindarin.