Ingwë
High King of the Vanyar; the greatest of the Elven-kings
Name and Office
Ingwë — the prince of the Vanyar at the awakening, and their leader on the Great Journey — is “the High King of all the Elves”, the only king whose authority all the kindreds acknowledged: the Quenta calls him. For he was first among the three ambassadors who journeyed with Oromë to Aman and saw the light before the rest, and at his word the Vanyar — the fairest kindred — were the first to come.
The King of the West
He led the Vanyar to
Aman and — his seat: — he “dwells… at the… of the… mountain, near to the halls of Manwë”. In the whole mythology he stands as the “paragon king” — untouched by the fall of the Noldor, faithful to the Valar, first in the proudly peaceful company of the Light-bearers; at the War of Wrath it was “the host of the Vanyar under Ingwë” that came with the vengeance of Aman.
Significance
Ingwë is the “first of the Elves” (in the tradition, the eldest) — the leader who chose the Light and never wavered, the standard of Elvish royalty against which the pride of the Noldor kings is measured; his name recurs in the genealogies as the ancestor of the Vanyarin blood in the later lines.