Ingwë
Ingwë | |
---|---|
Vanya | |
File:Ingwe.jpg | |
Biographical Information | |
Titles | High King of all the Elves; King of the Vanyar |
Birth | Y.T. 1050 Cuiviénen[source?] |
Family | |
Parentage | Firstborn[source?] |
Physical Description | |
Gender | Male |
Gallery | Images of Ingwë |
Ingwë (Q, pron. [ˈiŋʷɡʷe]) is the leader of the first Kindred of Elves called the Vanyar and the uncle of Indis, wife of Finwë.
Ingwe.mp3 | |
By Ardamir. (Help; more articles) | |
His name was loaned to the Vanyar, who also called themselves Ingwer.
He was reckoned as High King of all the Elves and his proper title was Ingwë Ingweron, "Chief of the chieftains". His tower in Tirion was called Mindon Eldaliéva.
Etymology
Ingwe (pl. ingwi[1] or ingwer) means "First One" or "chief" in Quenya. It contains the ending -we meaning "man". See also inga.
His actual name during the Great March should be *Iñwego (cf. -wego) from Root ING[2]
Other Versions of the Legendarium
In early versions of Tolkien's legendarium (see The History of Middle-earth) Ingwë's name was Inwë.
In that early writing Inwë (or Ing) was instead the name of a mortal man, the "King of Lúthien" (also spelled "Leithian" or "Luthany"), who was driven east over the sea by Ossë and became ruler of the ancestors of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians. Eventually the Angles, Saxon, and Jutes returned to Lúthien, now long renamed as Britain.
Inspiration
Tolkien was here adapting traditions about a Germanic ancestral figure named Yngvi (also spelled "Ing", "Ingio", and "Ingui"). He is seen as an eponymous ancestor of the Ingaevones, a people mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania as one of the three divisions of the Germanic tribes. In Scandinavian mythology, Yngvi was the mythological ancestor of the Swedish House of Ynglings and a name for the god Freyr. Like Ingwë, Freyr was the lord of the Elves in Álfheim.
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth p.332
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Three: "The Etymologies"