Volume 4 Number 3 Article 1 3-15-1977 The Tale of the Noldor Paul Kocher Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kocher, Paul (1977) "The Tale of the Noldor," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 4 : No. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol4/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Reviews the history of the Noldor, elves of the First Age, and their continuing influence in the affairs of the Third Age. A retelling rather than a scholarly analysis, based on sources published before the availability of The Silmarillion. Additional Keywords Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Elves, Noldorian—History; Bonnie GoodKnight This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol4/iss3/1 THE TALE OF THE NOLDOR by Paul Kocher The Valar were pure, immaterial sp irits without making, and healing to preserve all things un­ bodies but capable of incarnating themselves in s t a i n e d " (LOTR I I , 2 8 2 ) . any forms they pleased. In the beginning, at the command of the One (Eru), they turned their "angel­ The coming of Morgoth, however, sets in motion ic," "demiurgic" powers to the making of a world a chain of events which ruins all such hopes and later called Middle-Earth. Nevertheless, they were begins the history of M iddle-Earth. The fact that not given the task of creating elves, men, dwarves he enters "from the Outside," to use Tom Bombadil's and its other intelligent denizens. This was the words, probably means that he is not a Vala but a work of Eru himself. Instead, after forming the m alignant Enemy of Eru wielding unprecedented power planet, they dwelled in Valinor, an island in its (LOTR I, 142). What drew him to this particular farthest western seas, there to await the coming of planet? Since Tolkien does not specify, we can elves and men, "the children of God (Erusen)," and only conjecture. Perhaps a general lust to destroy to prepare Valinor for their reception. In this its beauty and its promise. If not before his ar­ way they became the guardians of the new world un­ rival, then soon after, a more specific greed for der Eru. As part of their guardianship they were the light of the Two Trees which illum ine Valinor, charged with the duty of civilizing its peoples, coupled with a perception that in the arrogant bringing them to a state of thought and conduct genius of Feanor he had found an instrum ent. pleasing to him (LOTR III, 415; R o a d , p. 66; Foster, Some scene of tem ptation and fa ll seems to have p . 2 6 5 ) . occurred. How Morgoth may have flattered Feanor, The elves, who d rift westward from their birth­ or may perhaps have convinced him that the stealing place somewhere in the east long before the F irst of the light was merely a technical problem which Age begins, have been given qualities of mind and challenged his scientific genius, can easily be body especially suitable to help this process. imagined. Anyway, Feanor devised a substance called They are born teachers, an inquiring, eager, and s ilm a capable of attracting and imprisoning the helpful race. Finding that the trees, which then light of the Two Trees. With it he fashioned three wholly cover the land, have a capacity for speech splendid jewels, or s i l m a r i l l i . S e i z i n g th e m , but no language, the elves linger long enough to Morgoth fled to his vast fortress of Thangorodrim teach them the elvish tongues. Better yet, they on M iddle-Earth, where he set them in his iron inspire the tree-herds to develop their own inher­ crown. Behind him he left Valinor darkened, and ent entish way of speaking. In so doing they win Feanor hum iliated and enraged. the everlasting gratitude of Treebeard, the oldest As a prince of the Noldor Feanor rallied his of them. Since he is himself one of the first elves to pursue the thief. "In his pride," writes living dwellers on M iddle-Earth, he sees them affec­ Tolkien, he foolishly expected "to recover the tionately as children still, "the elf-children," Jewels from Morgoth by force,” and to that end led though among the non-arboreal peoples they are the with him from Valinor "a great part of his people" "eldest of all," the first to be created. He appre­ (LOTR III, 314). Foreseeing the wastage of their ciates the quick sympathies which make them "less lives, King Manwe of the Valar forbad them to go. interested in themselves than men are," and he ad­ When the Noldor disobeyed his command, the Valar mires their invention of language: "Elves made all passed on them a sentence of exile. In order to the old words: they began it" (LOTR II, 67-71). make return to Valinor physically impossible Among these migrant tribes the Noldor far out­ Elbereth, Manwe's Queen, "lifted up her hands in shine the rest. Endowed with every good g ift of obedience to the decree of Manwe, and summoned up mind and body (including im m ortality), they also the dark shadows which engulfed the shores and the have extraordinary leaders in Feanor, the most mountains" and, last of all, her own figure, "with brilliant and imaginative scientist the elf race her hands turned eastward in rejection, standing has ever produced, and in G aladriel "the greatest white nn O ilosse," highest peak of Valinor (R oad. of elfin women,” as Tolkien does not hesitate to p . 6 0 ) . describe her. Because Treebeard does not mention Against a power like M orgoth's, bolstered by any of his teachers by name we cannot be sure that the ores and trolls which his cross-breeding exper­ Feanor took any part in giving speech to the ents. iments produce, the Noldor and their allies, the Considering his deep interest in language, however, Edain, the barbaric tribes of men who reach the it is a fair inference that he did so, and that his western sea, cannot prevail. They suffer defeat later invention of the Feanorian script was one after defeat. Like many of his kinsmen Feanor is fruit of this experience. slain in battle (Foster, p. 95). Only when the The Noldor, like several other elf-tribes, do Valar themselves intervene on behalf of the Noldor not stop after reaching the west coast of the land does the tide turn against Morgoth. They are in­ surface of M iddle-Earth. Drawn by a homing instinct duced to do so at last only when Earendil, a mar­ already deeply implanted by their Creator, they iner elf, sails his ship to Valinor to beg their sail on across the sea to Valinor and the neigh­ help. He is enabled to cross Elbereth's barrier boring island of Eressea, where they are to be shadows lay the light of one of the s i l m a r i l l i trained by the Valar as tutors of the barbaric given him by his wife Elwing. She in turn has re­ peoples of the mainland. What the Valar hoped to ceived it from her grandparents, the man Beren and make of them can be seen in Elrond's summary of the the elf maiden Luthien, who "wrested" it from motives of the smiths of Eregion (themselves Noldor Morgoth's crown after their escape from his dun­ elves) in forging the three Elf Rings in the Second g e o n s (LOTR I, 206; III, 314). Age: "Those who made them did not desire strength The Valar do not allow Earendil to go home but or domination or hoarded wealth, but understanding. set him in his ship bearing the s i l m a r i l a t i t s 3 masthead to sail the skies forever as a star, a manding every other unit, one at a time (LOTR I I , sign of hope to the peoples of M iddle-Earth op­ 203). Their advantages for planning and executing pressed by Morgoth and his slaves (LOTR I, 246-49). a coordinated maneuver are obvious. But one p a la n ­ So Feanor's offense in stealing the light of the t i r , the one placed by Elendil under the Dome of Two Trees does not go altogether unredeemed. The Stars at O sgiliath, was "the chief and master" of Vala most likely to have created this new star is them all.