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Much of this article relates to the final versions of Middle-earth's history, and as such may contain discrepancies with The Silmarillion. See LOTR:Canon for a discussion. This subject's portrayal in earlier or alternative versions is discussed in the Earlier versions of the legendarium section.

The Vanyar (Q.: "Fair Ones"), singular Vanya, also known as the Fair-elves or Light-elves, were the first and smallest of Three Kindreds of the Eldar. Under the leadership of Ingwë, the Vanyar were the first to set forth on the Great Journey and reach the shores of Belegaer; they sailed to Aman on the first voyage of Tol Eressëa and remained there permanently. Very few, if any, Vanyar remained in or returned to Middle-earth after the Great Journey.

History[]

Vanyar were 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 the smallest and each group that he and his companions discovered was larger than the last, he then chose third rather than first in order to make up the numbers. However, only a further two groups were discovered, leaving Imin's group of fourteen by far the smallest of the three Elven clans.

When the Elves were discovered by 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, and he led them with Oromë to Aman. Ingwë was since 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. In Aman the Vanyar first dwelt in Tirion. Later, they came to love the full light of the Trees and wandered into Valinor or settled on Taniquetil. Ingwë dwelt with them on the slopes of Taniquetil, beneath the halls of Manwë.[1]

Ingwion, Maureval

Ingwion, son of Ingwë, by Maureval

After arriving in Aman, the Vanyar were rarely seen even by other Elves. Very few individual Vanyar are named besides Imin, Ingwë, his sister (or possibly niece) Indis, and Amarië, who was in love with Finrod Felagund. Thondir, grandchild of Ingwë, was the younger brother of Amarië, and was beloved to Galadriel, even if they never married. He had a mix of silver and gold hair, as his mother, Rania, drank the dew of the Two Trees of Valinor before he was born, and his hair captured the radiance of their light. He is also the founder of the Seventh Battalion, the elite fighting force of the Vanyar. Indis became the second wife of Finwë, the High King of the Ñoldor and the mother of both Fingolfin and Finarfin, the latter of which founded the only house of Ñoldorin Elves to sport golden Vanyarin hair.[2] After her husband was killed by Melkor in his attack on Formenos to attain the Silmarils [3], she returned to her people with her daughter Findis.

Unlike the Ñoldor, the Vanyar loved the light of Valinor so much that they never choose to return to Middle-earth, save when many of the Vanyar marched in the War of Wrath with the Host of Valinor[4]. Though they preferred the peaceful light of Valinor, the Vanyar were skilled in the arts of war and were known for their fashioning of spears, thus they no doubt fielded a formidable army in the war. Ingwë's son Ingwion led an armed host of his people from Valinor to fight in the War of Wrath. They returned to Aman, along with most of the Eldar living in the largely destroyed Beleriand, at the end of the First Age.[5]

Description[]

The Vanyar were the fairest of all the Elves, hence their name "Fair Elves". Unlike other kindreds attracted to the sea or the building and forging of things, the Vanyar culture seemed to revolve about the Valar and Valinor. This is probably the reason why they chose to stay in Valinor proper, centered around Taniquetil, the seat of the rulers of Arda, and loved the light of Valinor best of all the other places in Aman. They greatly valued the wisdom of the Valar and were thus favored by Manwë and Varda, and always distrusted by Melkor. They were known to have had the greatest skill in poetry of all Elves, likened to Manwë, who loved them for it. Their hair was golden, and their banners were white.

Etymology[]

The name Vanyar means 'Fair-ones' in Quenya, referring to their golden hair. The Vanyar often called themselves by their ancient name Minyar (meaning "Firsts"; singular Minya; adjectival Minyarin). This name did not refer to the Avari who remained in Middle-earth, since all of the Vanyar heeded the call of the Valar to come to Valinor.[citation needed]

Relations[]

Galadriel was the granddaughter of Indis. It was to her Vanyarin blood that Galadriel owed her famous silver-golden hair.

Other versions of the legendarium[]

In the earliest versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology, two names used for the first tribe of the Elves were Teleri and subsequently Lindar. Both terms were later reused for the third tribe, initially called Solosimpi. Another term initially used for the Vanyar was Ingwi, as they were the people of Ingwë, High King of the Elves.[6]

Gallery[]

Translations[]

Foreign Language Translated name
Amharic ቫኛር
Arabic فنيار
Armenian Վանյար
Assamese ভানয়াৰ
Belarusian Cyrillic Ваньяр
Bengali বন্যার
Bulgarian Cyrillic Ваняр
Catalan Vànyar
Chinese 凡雅族
Georgian ვანიარები
Greek Βάνιαρ
Gujarati વાન્યાર
Hebrew ואניאר
Hindi वाञार
Japanese ヴァンヤール
Kannada ವೈನ್ಯಾರ್
Kazakh Ваняр (Cyrillic) Vanyar (Latin)
Konkani वान्यार
Korean 바냐르
Kyrgyz Cyrillic Ваняр
Macedonian Cyrillic Ванyар
Malayalam വന്യാർ
Marathi वन्यार
Mongolian Cyrillic Ваныар
Nepalese वन्यर
Pashto وانیار
Persian وانیار
Polish Vanyarowie
Punjabi ਵਨਯਾਰ
Russian Ваниар
Sanskrit वन्यर्
Serbian Вањари (Cyrillic) Vanjari (Latin)
Sinhalese වන්යාර්
Tajik Cyrillic Ванyар
Tamil வன்னியர்
Telugu వన్యార్
Thai วันยาร์
Urdu وانیر
Uzbek Ваняр (Cyrillic) Vanjari (Latin)
Yiddish וואַניאַר


References[]

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