Teleri

Teleri Elves, by Filat

The Teleri (Quenya: IPA: [ˈteleri]; meaning Those who come last; singular Teler; IPA: [ˈteler]; adjectival Telerin; [ˈtelerin]) were the third of the Elf clans who came to Aman. Those who came to Aman became known as the Falmari. They were the ancestors of the Valinorean Teleri, and the Sindar, Laiquendi, and Nandor of Middle-earth.

Elven clans

The third clan was the largest of the three houses of the Elves, and most of the Avari originally belonged to this clan. In ancient times they named themselves Lindar (Q. IPA: [ˈlindar]; singular Linda; adjectival Lindarin; [ˈlindarin]), or "Singers", because they were known for their fair voices. They were also called Nelyar (Q. IPA: [ˈneʎar]; "The Third"; singular Nelya; adjectival Nelyarin; [ˈneʎarin]). The Sindar of Beleriand called themselves simply Edhil, which means Elves, and is related to the Quenya word Eldar of the same meaning. According to legend, the Teleri were descended from Enel, the third Elf to awake in Cuivienen, his spouse Enelyë and their 72 companions, but it was Olwë , the first of the Teleri to come to Valinor, who became their king.

History

The Teleri were sundered from the first two clans, the Vanyar and the Ñoldor, because they tarried behind searching for their lost king Elwë (later known as Thingol), and the first two clans were ferried across to Valinor on a huge island before. The Maia Ossë kept them company while they waited, and became their friend. Later when Ulmo returned with the island ferry, the Teleri had grown to love the sea. Ossë convinced Ulmo to anchor the island in the bay of Eldamar, off the shores of Aman, and persuaded many of the Teleri to remain in Middle-Earth. The Teleri long remained on Tol Eressëa, and their language changed in different ways from that of the Vanyar and Ñoldor. Much later the Teleri learned to build ships, and finally made it to Aman.

The Teleri refused to join the Ñoldor in leaving Valinor, and many of them were cruelly slain in the Kinslaying at their chief city of Alqualondë, or Swan Harbour. For this reason few or none of the Teleri joined the host of the Valar which set out to capture Morgoth for good. It is recounted that the Teleri eventually forgave the Ñoldor for the Kinslaying, and the two kindreds were at peace again.

Their tongue, known as Telerin or Lindalambë (tongue of the Lindar), was considered by some to be a dialect of Quenya, but the Teleri themselves considered it to be an independent language. It was much more conservative than Quenya, and was the closest to Common Telerin (from which Sindarin and Nandorin were also derived), and even to Common Eldarin of the later Elvish languages.^{[citation needed]}

Other versions of the legendarium

In the early versions of Tolkien's mythology (see: The History of Middle-earth), they were known as Solosimpi ("Pipers of the Shores"), while the name Teleri was given to the clan of Elves known in the published version of The Silmarillion as Vanyar. Nelyar and Lindar, the earlier versions of the term "Teleri", were used in the writings that are compiled in The War of the Jewels.^{[citation needed]}

Translations around the World

Foreign Language	Translated name
Amharic	ጠለሪ
Arabic	تيليري
Armenian	Տելերի
Belarusian Cyrillic	Тэлэри
Bengali	টেলেরই
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Телери
Chinese	帖勒瑞族
Georgian	ტელერნი
Greek	Τελερι
Gujarati	ટેલેરી
Hebrew	טלרי
Hindi	टेलेरी
Japanese	テレリ
Kannada	ತೆಲೆರಿ
Kazakh	Телері (Cyrillic) Teleri (Latin)
Korean	텔레리
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Тэлэри
Macedonian Cyrillic	Телери
Malayalam	ടെലിറി
Marathi	टेलिरी
Mongolian Cyrillic	Тэлэри
Nepalese	टेलेरि
Persian	تلری
Punjabi	ਟੈਲੀਰੀ
Sanskrit	टेलेरि
Serbian	Телери (Cyrillic) Teleri (Latin)
Sinhalese	ටෙලරි
Tajik Cyrillic	Телери
Tamil	டெலெரி
Telugu	తేలేరి
Thai	เทเลริ
Russian	Тэлери
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Телері
Urdu	ٹیلیری
Uzbek	Телери (Cyrillic) Teleri (Latin)
Yiddish	תּעלערי