Vanyar - History

History

According to the Elven legend Cuiviényarna ("Awakening of the Elves"), the Vanyar are descendants of Imin, the first Elf to awake at Cuiviénen; his wife Iminyë; and six other pairs of Elves who were awoken by them. Imin's companions, Tata and Enel, later awoke groups of nine and twelve pairs respectively, and Imin decided that since his group was now the smallest and each group that he and his companions discovered was larger than the last, he would now choose third rather than first in order to make up the numbers. However, only a further two groups were discovered, leaving none for Imin; his group of fourteen thus became by far the smallest of the three Elven clans.

When the Elves were discovered by the Vala Oromë, each clan chose an ambassador to return with him to Valinor to verify his claims of its greatness. The Minyar (Imin's companions) sent Ingwë. Upon his return, his people were swayed by his testimony and adopted him as their king (appropriate, as the name Ingwë means chieftain in Quenya), and he led them with Oromë to Aman. Ingwë has since been reckoned the High King of all Elves, and became known as Ingwë Ingweron, the "Chief of Chieftains", and his people were known by the rest of the Eldar as the Vanyar. He dwells with them on the slopes of Taniquetil, beneath the halls of Manwë.

After arriving in Aman, the Vanyar were rarely seen even by other Elves. Very few individual Vanyar are named besides Imin, Ingwë, and his sister (or possibly niece) Indis, the second wife of Finwë (the king of the Noldor) and the mother of Fingolfin and Finarfin, the latter of whom founded the only house of Noldorin Elves to sport golden Vanyarin hair, perhaps most famously in Finarfin's daughter Galadriel.

The pure Vanyar were only seen in Middle-earth once after their departure, when Ingwë's son Ingwion led an armed host of his people from Valinor to fight in the War of Wrath (this was probably also the only time Vanyar and Men ever encountered each other). They returned to Aman, along with most of the Eldar living in the now largely destroyed Beleriand, at the end of the First Age.

Though no pure Vanyar ever set foot in Middle-earth after the Great Journey, save for those who fought in the War of Wrath, some of their Noldorin descendents did. A number of individual Vanyar loved Noldorin princes but none joined the journey into exile: of greatest prestige was Indis of the Vanyar, widow of Finwë, who after her husband was murdered at Formenos by Melkor chose to return to her people with her elder daughter Findis. Elenwë, the Vanyarin wife of Turgon, perished in the crossing of Fingolfin's following over the Helcaraxë from Aman into Beleriand. In Aman Finrod of the Noldor had loved a Vanya named Amarië; she is cited as one reason why Finrod never took a wife in Beleriand.