Indis

A Vanya in Tirion

Indis was a lady of the Vanyar, a close kinswoman of their king Ingwë; the Silmarillion calls her his near kin, and other accounts his sister or niece. She was golden-haired and tall and was called the Fair. She had loved Finwë from afar for a long time while he was married to Míriel, and after Míriel's spirit had gone to Mandos and the Valar had judged that she would never return, Finwë asked for Indis and took her to wife. She left the mountain of Taniquetil and lived in Tirion as queen of the Noldor.

Her children

Indis bore Finwë two sons, Fingolfin and Finarfin, and two daughters, Findis and Írimë, who are named only in passing. Her sons were great princes, and from them descended nearly all the heroes of the Noldor in exile: Fingon, Turgon, Aredhel, Finrod, Galadriel and the rest. Her golden hair passed most clearly to Finarfin's house. The Vanyarin blood she brought was also held to have given her sons a steadiness of temper that Fëanor lacked.

The rift

Fëanor never accepted Indis. He was already grown when she married his father, and he held that Míriel would have returned had Finwë waited. He would not live in the same house and gave his stepmother no love, and he resented her sons as rivals. The Silmarillion is careful to say that Indis's marriage brought Finwë great joy and that much good came of it, but also that the Elves of Aman later held that the sorrows of the Noldor might have been fewer had Finwë been content with one son. Indis was not to blame for any of it; she was the innocent occasion of a quarrel that Melkor afterwards exploited.

Later years

When Finwë went into exile with Fëanor at Formenos, Indis remained in Tirion. After Finwë's death and the flight of the Noldor, in which both her sons took part, she is not mentioned again in the published texts. Finarfin turned back and ruled the remnant of the Noldor in Tirion, and it may be assumed that his mother stayed with him or returned to her own people on Taniquetil.

Remained in Aman after the flight of the Noldor; no further account is given.