New Tolkien book coming!

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Except that in this very quote he wrote "the High Elves, the Eldar." Which if anything is a new use of "High Elves," which in all other cases I can think of is restricted to the Calaquendi, the "High Elves of the West" (and, in Middle-earth, meaning the exiled Noldor).

What the heck am I thinking of, then?? I know there's SOME term that means Caliquendi+Sindar, but I can't for the life of me remember what if it's not either High Elves or Eldar.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

A puzzle.

In another late text, Of Dwarves and Men, Tolkien contrasts the "High Eldar" of Valinor with the Eldar of Middle-earth; I'm not sure that that distinction appears elsewhere. It also doesn't tell us whether "ordinary lunchpail proletarian Eldar" included the Nandor or not.

Going back to the very beginning, in the Lost Tales, it was easy: Eldar = Elves of Valinor. The rest were all Ilkorindi, "not of Kor." Even the Noldoli/Gnomes dropped out of the Eldar when they came back, to become a third "tribe."