Teleri
The Last-comers; the Sea-elves; the third kindred
The Teleri
Names
- Teleri — “the Last”, the “Tardy-ones”, the third and greatest of the Three Kindreds of the Eldar.
In Aman they are called the Falmari (“Sea-elves”); those who stayed in Middle-earth became the Sindar (Grey Elves) and, further east, the Nandor (Green-elves). Their wide scrawling families: the Teleri are the most numerous of the Eldar, “the last and the greatest host”.
The Great Journey Led by the twin brothers
Thingol (Elu Thingol) and Olwë, the Teleri set forth last on the Great Journey and moved slowly, loving the dark woods and the water. Their history is of loiterings and partings:
- On the marches of Beleriand, Elwë wandered into Nan Elmoth and was lost to the spell of Melian; a third part of the host — the Grey Elves, Sindar — remained behind in the darkness of Beleriand under Thingol (in one telling the Vala Ossë had persuaded the rest to linger by the sea).
- At last the Teleri were the first Elves to build ships, under the teaching of Ossë, and were ferried across the sea by Ossë and Uinen — in the Quenta, Ossë, loving them, “taught them the making of ships and the island” — the elves dwelt long on the island of Tol Eressëa in the bay, torn between the sea and the shore.
- Eventually Olwë’s kindred at last crossed to Alqualondë, the Swan-haven, on the coast of Aman — where their white ships were built as swans and their love of the sea made them swear never to forgive the slaying of their kin.
In
Aman
The Teleri of Aman are “the Elves of the Sea”; they build no cities on the heights but dwell at Alqualondë by the tides; their music in the quayside is of the water and the waves. Ossë remains their friend; Uinen their patron of the calm water. Their greatest line: the line of Olwë, whose daughter — Eärwen weds Finarfin; their children include Finrod, Galadriel — and through Elwing (of the Sindar) the blood of Thingol returns.
The Kinslaying
Because the Teleri would not lend their ships to the rebel Noldor — “ruin to the Teleri” they foresaw — Fëanor’s host fell upon them at Alqualondë, the first Kinslaying: “three times as many of the Teleri were slain as of the Noldor”. Their dread oath haunts the Noldor; the Doom of Mandos names the Kinslaying as the debt; and “the hatred between Noldor and Teleri was deep… ever after”. In the War of Wrath, the Teleri at last joined the host of the West, their swan-ships sailing against Morgoth — “the greatest fleet that ever was”.
The Falmari
The sea-kindred of the Falmari (‘the foam-riders’) are the Teleri who at last reached Aman under their lord Olwë, dwelling at Alqualondë in the shadow of the mountains and keeping the Swan-ships of the western shore; they are the third kindred of the Eldar in Valinor, and their sorrow in the Kinslaying at Alqualondë lies at the root of the Noldor’s exile.