Vanyar

Origins and the Journey

The Vanyar were the first of the three clans of the Elves to be counted at Cuiviénen and the smallest. Their leader Ingwë was one of the three ambassadors whom Oromë took to Aman, and of the three he was the most eager to return to the light of the Trees. The whole of his people followed him, so that no Vanyar are known to have remained among the Avari. On the Great Journey they marched first, closest behind Oromë, and they were the least troubled by the fear of the mountains and the Sea. With the Noldor they were ferried across the ocean on the island that afterwards became Tol Eressëa.

In Valinor

At first the Vanyar and Noldor dwelt together in Tirion on the hill of Túna, in the pass of the Calacirya, from where the light of the Trees could be seen. But the Vanyar loved the light and the company of the Valar more than the Noldor did, and over the years they withdrew from the city and settled about Valmar and on the slopes of Taniquetil, the mountain of Manwë. Their king Ingwë made his seat beneath Manwë's halls and was reckoned High King of all the Elves, though he ruled no realm in Middle-earth and none of the Elves there ever saw him.

The Vanyar were the kindred least touched by the troubles of Aman. When Melkor walked among the Eldar after his release, he found little hearing among them; his lies took root among the Noldor. When Fëanor raised the rebellion, the Vanyar took no part, and when Valinor was darkened they remained on the mountain with the Valar. Indis, a Vanya close in kin to Ingwë, married Finwë after the death of Míriel, and through her the blood of the Vanyar passed into the house of Finwë: Fingolfin, Finarfin and their descendants, most visibly in the golden hair of Finrod and Galadriel.

The War of Wrath

Only once did the Vanyar leave Valinor. When Eärendil came to Aman and the Valar resolved to overthrow Morgoth, Ingwë's people marched with the host of the Valar under the banners of Eönwë. They fought in the War of Wrath that ended the First Age, and the Noldor who had never left Aman fought beside them, while the Falmari only supplied ships. Few of the Vanyar are named individually in the histories, and none of them stayed in Middle-earth afterwards; they returned to the West and their part in the tales ended.

What sets them apart

The Vanyar were the fairest of the Eldar in the eyes of the Elves themselves. Their hair was golden, which was rare among the other kindreds; their skill was above all in song and verse, and Quenya as the Vanyar spoke it kept certain old forms that the Noldor let go. They were the most devoted to the Valar, and their reverence for Manwë and Varda shaped their whole life. They had little of the restlessness of the Noldor and none of their pride of craft, and for that reason they had no great sorrows to tell.

Relations with other peoples

The Vanyar knew Men only as distant allies in the War of Wrath and had no dealings with Dwarves. Their nearest kin were the Noldor, with whom they shared a city for a time and intermarried through Indis. They are a people almost without history, and that is the whole point of them: they are what the Eldar might have been had the Noldor never sought to leave the Blessed Realm.

Fate

The Vanyar dwell in Valinor to the end of the tales. Nothing is recorded of them after the First Age except that they remain at the feet of Taniquetil, and that the golden strain in the house of Finarfin was their gift to Middle-earth.

The Vanyar were distinguished by golden hair and by the light of the Trees that shone in their faces. They were tall and fair, and the Elves considered them the most beautiful of the kindreds, which is the meaning of their name.

The Vanyar were poets and singers above all, and their form of Quenya was held to be the purest. They lived in the greatest intimacy with the Valar of any Elves, dwelling on the very slopes of Taniquetil beneath Manwë's halls, and they took part in the festivals of Valmar. Ingwë was their only recorded king.

The Vanyar were the first clan of the Quendi, called in the oldest tongue the Minyar, the First. Ingwë led them west in the van of the Great Journey, and every one of them came to Aman.

They remain in Valinor beyond the end of the histories, having left it only to fight in the War of Wrath.