Nandor
The Green-elves; the Laiquendi; the rivers-blind
The Nandor
Names
- Nandor — “the Green-elves” or Laiquendi in Sindarin; the Elves of the rivers and woods who never left Middle-earth. -
They are of the Teleri, the greatest and least-wandering kindred, whose hosts on the Great Journey split under the leadership of Lenwë — their prince, in the deep west of the world by the rivers (the Anduin), refused the further march and “led his people back and they dwelt in the woodland… by the water”. They are the river-elves, kin to the later Silvan Elves.
History
- The sundering: When the Teleri came at last to the great river of the far lands (in the tradition of the Quenta), Lenwë — the account: the Sindar remember: “Nandor whom Lenwë led… turned aside… and the Elves of the Dark” — the Nandor thus never crossed to Aman.
- Into Beleriand: in ages after, a company under Denethor, son of Lenwë, crossed the Blue Mountains at last — “they came at length over the mountains… into Ossiriand and the land beyond Gelion”, where they took the name Green-elves (for their garb in the green of the woods) and served no king (Thingol’s authority not theirs). Their songs and the yearly singing of the woods of Ossiriand are their fame.
- The first battle: When Morgoth’s armies first broke through the mountains, Denethor led the Green-elves against the Orcs of the North — in the — they were caught in the first clash of the wars and cruelly slain, and Denethor fell; the remnant of the Green-elves of Ossiriand retired into the fastnesses of the woods. Under the shelter of Doriath’s power their land passed into the guard of the realm, and (as the Quenta says) they “for the most part faded and were absorbed”, joining the forest peoples and taking no more part in the wars. Their share in the Quenta is small but lovely — the songs of the trees of Ossiriand that Beren heard, and the twilight blending of the Green-elves into the folk of Doriath’s edge.
Nature
The Nandor are the least “high” of the Eldar: no Light of the Trees, no cities, no kings; they loved the rivers, the winding streams, and the growing green; their language (Nandorin) is the rustic dialect of Sindarin. They suffer the fate of the Moriquendi — “Elves of the Darkness” — but their loss is gentle: they kept the world’s natural music and the memory of the Journey’s turning aside.