Ever Wonder...

[Galin]

Interestingly, for the first edition Tolkien wrote that there were three unions of the High Elves and Men, and only much later in the 1960s revised this to Eldar and Edain. By the time of this revision, Tolkien had come to think of the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood and Lorien as Eldar, but...

Nerwen wrote: In "Of the Elves" (Appendix F), it's stated that "The Elves far back in the Elder Days became divided into two main branches: The West-elves (the Eldar) and the Eastelves. Of the latter kind were most of the elven folk of Mirkwood and Lórien..."

Music to my ears Nerwen! Plus Appendix F (on translation) notes that the term Eldar referred to the Elves who had passed Oversea save the Sindar only: which I take as meaning only the Sindar -- of those elves who did not pass Oversea -- were considered Eldar.

It makes sense compared to the other citation from Appendix F, as the Sindar went just about as West as one could go without passing Oversea -- thus the West-Elves are the Eldar, and the East-elves are not (though not necessarily Avari). Tolkien never revised these author-published descriptions.


And so the legend of Mithrellas ('Grey-leaf'?), if true, did not include a High Elf in 1955, nor an Elda in the revised editions.