Noldor
The Deep Elves; the Wise; the Elves of the Fire
The Noldor
Names
- Noldor — “the Wise”, “the Deep Elves”, the second kindred of the Eldar; in their own pride “the Loremasters” — the Elves of knowledge, craft, and the “fire” that burns within them. -
Their epithet “Elves of the Fire” looks both to their fierce spirit and to the teaching of Aulë, the smith-god, at whose forge the Noldor learned the arts of making that made them the smiths of the world.
History in Valinor
Arising at Cuiviénen under their prince
Finwë, the Noldor took the Great Journey and were the second to enter Aman. There they flourished under the mountain, in Tirion upon Túna. They became the greatest of the Eldar in lore and craft — smiths, gem-cutters, linguists, students of the light of the Two Trees — and Aulë loved them and taught them his secrets. But in Aman the seed was sown of their catastrophe:
- The distrust and pride fanned by the whispering of the imprisoned Melkor — who sowed division between Fëanor and Fingolfin and taught “that knowledge is power”.
- The Silmarils and the Oath: Fëanor’s three jewels held the light of the Trees; when Melkor slew Finwë and stole them, Fëanor’s terrible oath and his the rebellion — the Exile of the Noldor — shattered the kindred. The Doom of Mandos proclaimed: “Tears unnumbered ye shall shed”.
The Exile and Beleriand
Led almost entirely by the sons of Fëanor and the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin, the Noldor came over the Sea (with the Kinslaying at Alqualondë on their heads by the sword of their own oath) and established realms in Beleriand: -
The high kingship passed through Fëanor’s children — from Finwë’s line; the houses of the Noldor are treated under their own pages (House of Fëanor, House of Fingolfin, House of Finarfin). Their deeds — Gondolin, Nargothrond, the leagues against Morgoth, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad — fill the Quenta. Their pride both redeems and damns: they made the strongest and most beautiful realms, and their internal enmities (the Oath of Fëanor above all) undid them.
Nature
The Noldor are “the Deep-elves, the wise”; their genius is making — and Tolkien treats their fall as the fall of a proud intellectual people: wisdom turned to mastery, freedom to oath. Their power endures (the light in their eyes is a reflection of the Light of Valinor), and at the end of the First Age the remnant was offered return to the West.