Hello! I'm sorry,, I know I keep asking random questions lol, but I'm really curious about your thoughts on the Quenya ban; both within the narrative and [most of] the fandom's reaction (deeming it cultural violence, etc.). Thank you!
Ooooh the Quenya ban lol, that can of worms.
I honestly don't think this is a particularly complicated thing to explain & the fact that it has become complicated in fandom is a result of the highly individualist lenses deployed - which I will tackle in another post bc this is long as it is lol.
Re. the ban itself - there's a few bits of important political context to why Thingol makes the decision he does, chiefly the Kinslaying & its cover-up, the military might & political tendencies of the Noldor and the rumours that circulate before the discovery of the Kinslaying, which are only reported to Thingol by Cirdan. I'm putting the whole of this under the cut but the TL;DR of my thesis is that:
a) a careful reading of the text indicates that the Quenya ban's primary target is fellow Sindar, not the Noldor
b) a contextualised reading will recognise that it occurs in the context of the Noldor asserting their rights to the lands of Beleriand because of the might of conquest by sword
c) that this might of conquest by sword is not innocent, but is drenched in the blood of the First Kinslaying, and therefore might generate some pause amongst the Sindar, because if the Noldor are willing to seize what they're entitled to by force and by bloodshed - an attitude they haven't departed from viz. their assertion of entitlement over the lands of Beleriand which were previously occupied by the Sindar - what might become of them if they refuse the Noldor what they feel entitled to in the future?
d) a close reading indicates that Thingol's wording is very diplomatically and politically considered, despite his emotional response, that still seeks to maintain diplomatic ties with the Noldor while demonstrating a show of strength & power that soothes Sindar anxieties aroused by the news of the Kinslaying & its implications for them
e) the Quenya ban is pretty much bog standard political grandstanding and sabre-rattling that every single state & territory does as part of its repertoire of diplomatic tools and elevating it to "cultural" violence is ridiculous, because Thingol does not actually have material and structural power over the Noldor & therefore the capacity to enforce it in any serious way, outside of the power he holds over the Sindar as their still sworn liege lord. Tbqh I think it really muddies the water re. understanding what cultural violence, oppression & genocide (as I've sometimes seen it put in this fandom) is & how it works, but that's going into part II of this.
1 - The Kinslaying: at the point where Thingol insitutes the ban, he has just received information that the Noldor committed a Kinslaying where, and I quote canon, "a great part of their [Teleri] mariners that dwelt in Alqualonde were wickedly slain." Lots of ways that can be read but "great part" suggests the death toll is not insignificant, and based on my calculations re how large the Teleri fleet would have had to have been to carry Feanor's people + all the Noldor cargo across, that's an estimated 1000 - 2000 deaths at least. This puts this on par with some of the most notable pogroms of the contemporary Indian history, for context.
I realise this sounds incendiary to say (and to be clear I don't think they're 1:1 in terms of intent), but I think it's worth saying because I do think that we gloss over what these deaths mean & how they would have been received by the Elvish mind. Bear in mind that till that moment, the most violent act and Elf had ever committed against another Elf was to threaten the other with death. Thingol doesn't have this context, where the possibility of such violence occurring is a spectre haunting them all. Thingol and his people live in a land where Elf on Elf violence is unimaginable because the very possibility of it has never haunted them until this moment, when they are confronted by the existence of a mass slaughter that's been kept secret from them for fully 67 years since the rising of the sun and the ~30 years before that. Moreover, it's not a mass slaughter of unrelated Elves. It's specifically a subsection of Elves who were his people, who left under his brother, but who nevertheless as a result would have had kinship ties with the Sindar of Middle Earth (and I use kinship here in the sense that we would, of families with blood or marital ties viz. uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, parents, children etc). It is not merely shared ethnicity, though that is part of it, but familial ties.
If we were to imagine the Sindarin reaction to such news, I think we could agree that their response would have been shock, horror, grief, anger (latter two straight up named in Thingol's response to the news) and also, I think, fear and paranoia: Elves who have killed kin once, have been willing to lie about it and appear otherwise unrepentant, may very well choose to kill again if denied what they see as their entitlements. There is no reason for the Sindar to believe themselves safe from the Noldor if they refuse them desired aid - unless they can demonstrate their willingness to retaliate if need be, and demonstrate a show of strength. There is no reason for the Sindar to identify with the Noldor as kin and therefore safe, because the Noldor have already disidentified from considering them kin, in having killed the Teleri for their ships.
2 - The military might & general political approach of the Noldor so far: crucial to this aspect of showing strength is the fact that the Noldor very much do look on themselves as the military saviours of the Sindar, for having pushed back Morgoth's forces at a time when they were besieged and having delivered Cirdan's people, especially, from total annexation by the Orcs. They look down on Thingol as a two-bit king with little control (Maedhros' infamous a king is he who holds his own continues: "Thingol does but grant us lands where his power does not run.") Tolkien himself explicitly points out what Thingol's worry is:
Now King Thingol welcomed not with a full heart the coming of so many princes in might out of the West, eager for new realms
i.e. Thingol knows perfectly well that the Noldor are hungry for new territory, that they've already claimed territory where the Sindar used to occupy - which they fled only because of Morgoth's assault - and that they do look down on him as a ruler, rather than see him as equals. This is reflected very much in his response to the first diplomatic sally by the Noldor:
elsewhere there are many of my people, and I would not have them restrained of their freedom, still less ousted from their homes. Beware therefore how you princes of the West bear yourselves; for I am the Lord of Beleriand, and all who seek to dwell there shall hear my word.
This is a basic diplomatic response of reassertion of both power and territoriality, but also specifically in aid of ensuring the continued freedom of the Sindar outside of Doriath rather than their annexation under the Noldor & their military might. As inward political symbolism, it is a demonstration to Thingol's people that he will continue to look after their interests and will continue to lobby for them and represent them politically, even if they don't live within his borders - and crucially, that he isn't bending the knee to the Noldor and taking them as overlords just because of their military might, and therefore, that neither are they obligated to do so; the Sindar can and will remain a separate and independent peoples in the face of what seems to be a superior occupying force, barring a couple of hold-out territories.
3 - The rumours already floating around amongst the Sindar, that Cirdan brings to Thingol's attention, that finally prompts the confession:
It was not long before whispered tales began to pass among the Sindar concerning the deeds of the Noldor ere they came to Beleriand. Certain it is whence they came, and the evil truth was enhanced and poisoned by lies; but the Sindar were yet unwary and trustful of words, and (as may well be thought) Morgoth chose them for this first assault of his malice, for they knew him not. And Círdan, hearing these dark tales, was troubled; for he was wise, and perceived swiftly that true or false they were put about at this time through malice, though the malice he deemed was that of the princes of the Noldor, because of the jealousy of their houses. Therefore he sent messengers to Thingol to tell all that he had heard.
Lots of implications packed into this single paragraph. Its important to keep in mind that these tales and rumours exist within the context of the Sindar speculating why the Noldor have come to Middle Earth when they did - especially since they first believe that they come as emissaries of the Valar to deliver them in the time of need (Ch. 13, The Return of the Noldor), only for a) another group of Noldor to turn up after having crossed the Ice, b) to be seemingly at odds with the first group and c) both groups largely tight-lipped about the Valar in a way that would be surprising for "emissaries". It becomes very easy for Morgoth et al to get a foothold in there by asking whether this is "deliverance" or "occupation". If it isn't deliverance, if the Noldor clearly aren't there at the behest of the Valar, and if this is occupation - why and how? Why are these princes at odds with each other? What happened to drive such a wedge between them?
Its in this context that the implied existence of the Kinslaying begins to circulate amongst the Sindar specifically outside of Doriath i.e. the Sindar existing in closest proximity to the Noldor. If the princes of the Noldor are not from the Valar, are an occupying force, are at odds with each other and have killed fellow Elves in the past, what does this mean for the Sindar? Are they about to become "collateral damage" in a Noldor civil war? Are the Noldor about to annex them in competitive pursuit of individual power? Have they got rid of one threat, only to be visited with an even more dangerous threat? What happens if they refuse the Noldor? What happens if they choose the "wrong" side in what seems (to them!) to be a simmering Noldor conflict that could break out at any moment? Does their king know about this and not care? Is Thingol kneecapped and unable to respond to this because he's surrounded by the Noldor on each side? Is Thingol hiding this from them? I imagine these might have been some of the questions and rumours that might have been floating around at the time.
Its a politically tense and fraught situation that requires an immediate and decisive response that both reassures the Sindar that Thingol is not impotent, but also which demonstrates to the Noldor that Thingol is not impotent as well - that he still commands power in these territories even if its not obvious to them - and therefore, that if they so much as think about repeating such an act here, it will invite retribution. I wrote a little about this previously and what it symbolises in more modern political terms: i.e. that the expulsion of Finrod et al is very clearly an expulsion of Noldor diplomats much as modern states will engage in sabre-rattling by expelling each others' diplomats before coming to the negotiating table and hashing out a middle ground.
In that context, the Quenya ban, has symbolic value as an act of embargo to denote escalations & a breakdown of diplomatic relations between their people. It is first and foremost, an outward means of displaying displeasure. But no less important is the fact that it demonstrates to the Noldor that Thingol commands the loyalty of the many Sindar who range through their lands, and on whom, presumably, the Noldor are still somewhat dependent on for a) agricultural supplies and supply chain logistics for their huge armies and b) navigation through the unfamiliar terrain of Beleriand.
Its the first step in escalation against what can easily be read as an act of hostility/deception on the part of the Noldor, demonstrating to them that Thingol wields not insignificant soft power that has the potential to kneecap the Noldor. It is executed in the face of a) the scope of Noldor military power, b) the seeming intent of the Noldor to occupy and rule lands without much interest in the sovereignty of local populations and c) the cover-up of what is clearly considered one of the most awful crimes in Elvish law - but not just one murder, but mass murder.
However, the Noldor are not the primary target of the Quenya ban.
In fact, given that the Kinslaying targeted Sindar kin in Valinor, it is a very measured response and its primary target is internal i.e. the Sindar. It is a reassertion of Thingol's authority, a reminder of his strength & that he means to resist Noldor dominance, but it is primarily a reminder of kinship and ethnic grouping, loyalties & of the violence that has been committed against kin - not just in the sense of Elvish kinship, but specifically in the sense of blood & marriage. It is therefore, also a caution about what it will mean to swear full fealty to the Noldor:
But Thingol was long silent ere he spoke. ‘Go now!’ he said. ‘For my heart is hot within me. Later you may return, if you will; for I will not shut my doors for ever against you, my kindred, that were ensnared in an evil that you did not aid. With Fingolfin and his people also I will keep friendship, for they have bitterly atoned for such ill as they did. And in our hatred of the Power that wrought all this woe our griefs shall be lost. But hear my words! Never again in my ears shall be heard the tongue of those who slew my kin in Alqualondë! Nor in all my realm shall it be openly spoken, while my power endures. All the Sindar shall hear my command that they shall neither speak with the tongue of the Noldor nor answer to it. And all such as use it shall be held slayers of kin and betrayers of kin unrepentant.’
Now, we can take a very high-minded approach to this and suggest that Thingol should have seen the Noldor as allies in a fight against Morgoth. I want to stress, Thingol does just that BUT ONLY re. Fingolfin & Finrod's people: in our hatred of the Power that wrought all this woe our griefs shall be lost. He explicitly takes time to recognise that Morgoth is the originator of all these griefs. What he does not do is absolve the sons of Feanor of the Kinslaying - and frankly, neither does he have reason to.
Every instance of their recorded actions so far shows a disdain for the Sindar, a clear sense in their minds of "us" and "them" which they then attempt to enforce on Finrod et al in "choosing" the "right" side of their heritage. Between their high-handedness, clear drive for domination of territory and their willingness to conceal the Kinslayings, their actions only kind of hammer home a kind of entitledness driven by the might of the sword. The ethnic divide between the Noldor and the Sindar is born first and foremost out of the Kinslaying & its continued at least 67 year cover up. The us and them existed at the point at which the Noldor seized the ships at the end of a sword, came to Beleriand and then suggested they had the right to the various lands because of the might of their sword - something that containts the implicit threat of slaughter if not obeyed with.
The Quenya ban reinforces this divide, but it exists only in the context of the Kinslaying. It is not unprompted retaliation, but a considered reassertion of both authority and a reminder of kinship. At the end of the day, its primary actionable target is not the Noldor but fellow Sindar. It calls for, primarily, disidentification from the Noldor and Sindar unity, for the development of a Sindar national identity that stands oppositional to the Noldor identity. It does pre-emptively threaten those who are too close to the Noldor with the accusation of disloyalty - and there's a lot to be said about the classic "pick a side" rhetoric on display here & Thingol strategically using it in this moment against the Northern Sindar whom he distrusts, which is rarely if ever said :) - but at the same time, to do a reparative reading for a hot second, since we're VERY fond of reparative readings elsewhere: it equally serves as a warning that to get too close to the Noldor will eventually force them to choose between their kin & their sworn affiliation, and that when the time comes to make such a choice, they may no longer be in a position to refuse the Noldor and be free from being implicated in another devastating crime against people even more nearly related. And you know, in that regard, Thingol pretty much was right!
As for whether or not this is cultural violence or suppression or "genocide" (as I've seen it put sometimes): no it is not. To be very blunt, the fact that we are debating this is frankly ridiculous & I highly recommend everyone read the text more closely before running their mouths. Thingol himself recognises the limits of his power and only targets his fellow Sindar in this ban. The Noldor are only targeted insofar as he bans them from entering his realm, which he is perfectly entitled to do as absolute monarch of his realm, especially considering, you know, the murders. If we were to take any kind of political analogue, it would be the relationship between Edo Japan and its ban on foreigners, except through very specific channels & only with specific states e.g. the Dutch traders, during the European age of sail - i.e. a regional power putting in protectionist measures against clearly conquering powers with significant military might. Thingol does not hold structural power over the Noldor, except insofar as he can command the soft power of Sindar unity & kinship. The Noldor recognise it; Thingol recognises it. His ban is even phrased in a way which recognises it (and therefore pre-empts humiliation if the Noldor fail to comply). There is nothing Thingol can do to make the Noldor toe the proverbial line and the fact that the Noldor do end up giving up Quenya is solely because they have to communicate with the Sindar they depend on - and they were doing this anyway because this is what the Silm says about language use in the context of the Mereth Aderthad (F.A. 20):
it is told that at this feast the tongue of the Grey-elves was most spoken even by the Noldor, for they learned swiftly the speech of Beleriand, whereas the Sindar were slow to master the tongue of Valinor
(h/t to folks at the House of Mirdain discord for finding the exact reference)
So the Quenya ban really must be understood in terms of diplomatic and political symbolic value, than anything that has material enforcement. Because again. Both the Noldor and Thingol know that in a game of force alone, the Noldor would win.
Hi! I love your Silm meta, and I was wondering about your thoughts on the origins of Feanor's proto-ethnonationalism? Do you think it started with Melkor's release/Formenos, or did he have some sort of "Noldorin supremacy" thing going on even before that? I'm inclined towards the latter, esp because I think the Noldor in general had that problem, what with their tendency to "give" condescending or outright disrespectful names to the other tribes.
Ah, thanks! I've been thinking a lot about this recently as well, and I broadly agree with you that there was a streak of Noldorin supremacy going on before that. There are two pieces of information in the Shibboleth of Feanor and the chapter on Key Dates in Nature of Middle Earth that point to this being likely.
From The Shibboleth of Feanor:
The chief of the linguistic loremasters at that time was Fëanor. He insisted that þ was the true pronunciation for all who cared for or fully understood their language. But in addition to linguistic taste and wisdom he had other motives....
So it came about that to Fëanor the rejection of þ became a symbol of the rejection of Míriel, and of himself, her son, as the chief of the Ñoldor next to Finwë. This, as his pride grew and his mood darkened, he thought was a ‘plot’ of the Valar, inspired by fear of his powers, to oust him and give the leadership of the Ñoldor to those more servile. So Fëanor would call himself ‘Son of the Þerindë, and when his sons in their childhood asked why their kin in the house of Finwë used s for þ he answered: ‘Take no heed! We speak as is right, and as King Finwë himself did before he was led astray. We are his heirs by right and the elder house. Let them sá-sí, if they can speak no better.’
There's a further note on the linguistic aspects of this in Vinyar Tengwar, issue 41, as supplement to the Shibboleth of Feanor:
The Noldor, before they made the change, accused the Vanyar of confusing the two sounds. In fact if left to unheeded change they would probably have merged in Quenya hw. Their near approach (by slackening the spirantal friction of f) before the separation of Vanyar and Noldor is seen in the development of phu- > *hwu- > hu-, as in Quenya huine 'gloom', unrelieved darkness (as a night without stars or moon), Telerin fuine of same sense, Sindarin fuin 'night'. Later when the merging had been checked in Noldorin it was one of Feanor's jests to declare that the Vanyar called his father Hwinwe and himself Hweanaro.
Both suggest to me that there is an emergence of Noldor "national" identity that emerges in this divergence of Quenya dialects. The latter is concerning a split from Vanyar pronunciation; the former an intra-Noldor split. I think we focus on the personal question of Feanor's relationship with Miriel, but as the full Shibboleth quote above suggests, there is also a highly charged political valence to the question of Miriel's position in Noldor memory + polity and therefore, by extension, Feanor's position.
We've discussed this before, I think, but essentially Feanor has to be aware of Indis' relation to Ingwe and Ingwe's position as both a) High King of the Elves and b) a known favourite of Manwe and Varda. The Silm more or less references it multiple times and there are multiple references to the Vanyar being favourites of Manwe at the time. Given the fact that the Valar break with previously established precedent to allow Finwe to marry Indis, I think we can infer that there was some question about whether Miriel's line or Indis' line would eventually inherit the crown. The first Shibboleth quote more or less presents this as such. The linguistic divide thus becomes a critical question of political identification, affiliation and loyalty testing(how Noldor are you? can you prove your Noldor-ness by speaking in this fashion or not?); as well as one of identity border policing, i.e. of identifying true Noldor, v. Noldor who have been led astray implicitly by Vanyar influence (Indis), even though its the Noldor themselves who adopt the s sound over the thorn; and "national" supremacy (our pronunciation is the superior, more scientific pronunciation*, because it is rooted and grounded in a science of linguistics).
(It's also relevant to examine the meaning and origins of the word Shibboleth here - since shibboleth as a word in English, relating to a belief/custom that identifies a group of people as one & therefore the most likely sense in which Tolkien is using it here, comes from a Biblical passage in the OT in Judges chapter 12, in which the Gileadites use the pronunciation of the word "shibboleth" to identify Ephraimites (who pronounce it sibboleth) escaping the battlefield and kill them. The association of pronunciation and an emerging racial/national identity here in this context is not accidental, I believe, especially given Feanor's later actions.)
There is another strain that is relevant, I think, especially regarding Feanor's assumption that the Valar are looking to replace him with someone more docile and more accepting of their interests. This is referenced as the "heresy" in Nature of Middle Earth:
Younger elves (who never personally heard the Voice of Eru) doubt the existence of the Valar (of whom they heard from Melian?). The do not waver in allegiance, but in pride believe that their mission is to fight the Dark, and ultimately to possess the world of Arda. This “heresy”, though driven under at the Finding, is the seed of the later Fëanorian trouble.
and
The “heresy” awakes in new form: the Valar clearly do exist; but they have abandoned Endor: rightly as the appointed realm of the Quendi. Now they are becoming jealous, and wish to control the Quendi as vassals, and so re-possess themselves of Endor. Finwë, a gallant and adventurous young quende, direct descendant of Tata (therefore 25th gen.), is much taken by these ideas; less so his friend Elwë, descendant of Enel.)
Does Feanor hear of these ideas from Finwe himself? From other Elves who were on the Great Journey? Whatever the "source" of this transmission, the quote in the Shibboleth re. a "plot" of the Valar to oust him, would align with this particular "heresy" and its long entrenchment amongst the Elves. Its relevant, because a big element of his later speech to the Noldor is that they will be the masters of Arda & lords of the Unsullied Light - which harks back directly to "their mission is to fight the Dark, and ultimately to possess the world of Arda". This is the point, I believe, at which the belief in their own divine appointment & therefore divinely appointed racial supremacy derives its roots - the Vanyar may be the favourites of the Valar, but Feanor is drawing a line back to Eru Iluvatar directly, whose authority supercedes that of Manwe. Therefore, while the Vanyarin line may have the favour of the Valar, the real Noldor - who know and understand language - have the favour of Eru Iluvatar himself.
Therefore, if he has the favour of Eru Iluvatar, anything and everything is possible and ergo, the much later ugliness that will follow.
*I also believe that the specific focus on sa-si and Hwinwe and Hweanaro has a specific connotation of effeminacy - a refined lisping that in Tolkien's milieu would have been identified with a certain sort of effeminate & dandyish if not outright queer mode of speaking - and that there is implicit in that mockery, a construction of the proper, real Noldor as more masculine to the effeminate, cozened Vanyar or Vanyarised Noldor (a sentiment later echoed in his speech to the Noldor re. "let the cowards keep the city")
Your meta prompted me to start thinking more critically about them (and the Silm in general) so ☕️ about Imin, Ingwe, and the Vanyar please?
ooooooh GOOD QUESTION and rly my response is going to be a bit of an extension of this particular post + some of a draft of a very long essay I have been tinkering with off and on, explaining the genealogy of kingship, the divine right of kings & monarchism amongst the Elves across the Ages. I'm drawing heavily on the Nature of Middle Earth version of the telling because that's the one with the most detail filled in.
One of the most fascinating things to me in Nature of Middle Earth is the role that Imin plays in establishing some of the politics of the Elves in general, wielding the figure of Eru Iluvatar & therefore the language of the divine right, as authority in doing so. He also, right at the very outset, establishes a hierarchy amongst the Elves by positioning himself as more divinely chosen for having been woken first -
Then Imin claimed to be the eldest and to have the right of first choice; and he said, “I choose these twelve to be my companions”.
(versions of this quote appear both in the NoME and HoME versions of the Tale of Awakening)
Already the language of right and entitlement, linked to primogeniture! Imin's right and entitlement here is framed in terms of being able to choose Elves who will be part of his people - i.e. nation formation. Its interesting that in this process of nation formation, Imin is also the one who is simultaneously the most picky and the most interested in having the largest following & influence -
But Imin noticed that each time they had found more Quendi than before, and he thought to himself: “I have only twelve companions (although I am the eldest); I will take a later choice”. ... But again Imin withheld his choice, thinking “next time it will be a great company”. ... At length Imin said: “It is time now that we should go on and seek more companions”. But most of the others were content. So Imin and Iminyë and their twelve companions set out, and they walked long by day and by twilight in all the country about the Lake, near which all the Quendi had awakened – for which reason it is called Cuiviénen. But they never found any more companions: for the tale of the First Elves was complete.
Reading it against that other meta, I do think while the Valar legitimate the hierarchy that the Elves develop in Valinor, the origins of that hierarchy are clearly established long before the Valar appear. In each case, Imin is the one who is offered the first choice and turns it down. Imin is the one who seeks power/influence for himself by looking to build a nation that is both highly bordered (his refusal to choose any group) and yet one that is very peopled (an ambition which fails). He is the one who attempts to set an agenda for their people ("we should go on and seek more companions"). Already amongst the Elves there is a tiering of peoples, with Imin's people being positioned amongst the "first", because of Imin's own firstness - something which is also reinforced in the naming and which Tolkien explicitly draws our attention to in a footnote:
The Three had no names until they had developed language, and were given (or took) names after they had devised numerals (or at least the first 12).
Later on, during the decision that will split the Elves, Imin reinforces this hierarchy even further and specifically ties his primogeniture to fatherhood and the authority of a leader, derived from Eru -
Imin makes a speech, claiming that the “Three Fathers” have authority (from Eru, since He woke them first), and should decide. Tata says that each of the Fathers should have authority but only over his own Company. Enel agrees to this, but makes it clear that he is against the move. Imin claims to be “Father of All Quendi”, but urges that they should at least in the end all do the same, and not break up the Kindred. ....
Imin claims to be the ‘Father of All Quendi’ (Ilquendatar) and to have right of decision. ... Imin says that will inevitably divide the Folk. Tata says that is inevitable anyway without force. - XIII Key Dates, Part I, NoME
In staking a claim to being the "Father of All Quendi", Imin is staking a claim to defining all of Elvish nationhood, not just of the Vanyar, and therefore, who they are and what they might or might not do. As the first, as the oldest, he has special authority from Eru, and therefore he has special power to make decisions, including on behalf of the Elvish body as a whole, as a father might for his whole family. Its also interesting that he uses the language of fatherhood here, and not kingship. Authority is still defined in terms of fathers and leaderships - Elves as family, as kinship group forming a nation, rather than the language of a state. This lineage of authority over family -> authority over kinship group -> authority over nation is reinforced by Imin, Tata & Enel also insisting that Eru appointed men over women because men woke first and therefore "began" the families.
The other interesting to me here is that while Imin would like his authority to be absolute, his authority is in fact deeply contested, both by the Elves at large but also by Tata & Enel. Both Tata & Enel's comments at least imply that Elves are aware of and perhaps have used other modes of governance and they aren't only governed in absolutist fashion - or else that there has been enough debate amongst the Elves that absolutist rule isn't a given or settled matter.
Also evident is that unlike IRL monarchies (and states), authority amongst the Elves atp doesn't seem to be maintained through the imminent threat of violence. Seemingly, the insistence of divine appointment is enough to hold the Elves in line, or else presumably the threat of exile, which would be as good as a death sentence until Morgoth was defeated by the Valar (which tbh is a kind of threat of violence in itself, if couched in palatable terms). Imin's focus on unity and cohesion until Tata makes explicit the cost also kind of implies that Imin might have been willing to go that far until its made clear to him that it would be squarely seen as a bad thing. You do kind of wonder if he really would have Gone There.
The “Ambassadors” return. Great Debate of the Quendi. A few refuse even to attend. Imin, Tata, and Enel are ill-pleased, and regard the affair as a revolt on the part of the youngest Quendi, to escape their authority. — Key Dates, NoME
Ingwë speaks with great deference of the Three Fathers, and especially of Imin. He says it was a mistake that Imin, Tata, and Enel did not go themselves, for they could have exerted authority with judgement. But since they sent him and his companions as their representatives, they should now (in spite of their youth) pay great heed to their reports and opinions. He thinks they have no conception of the riches of beauty in Valinor. He asks Oromë if it is still possible for Imin, Tata, and Enel to go to Valinor? Oromë says “yes, if they will go at once”. The Three Fathers are not willing. - Key Dates, NoME
These two passages are also really the Imin & Ingwe relationship to me in a nutshell. While Ingwe in Valinor is High King over the Elves, its a tendency he comes by honestly from his forefather. However, there is a time at which Ingwe is seen to be rebelling against the authority of Imin, Tata and Enel. Read in the light of familial rebellion, Imin's response tending towards control makes sense - if the Elves depart, Imin's authority is diminished. His hold over his "family" is reduced and his fellow Elves now understand his authority can not only be contested, but that this contestation might be successful. His authority is revealed to not be divine; the Valar have the potential to supersede him. In fact, the Valar might choose to bestow their blessing on someone else who contests Imin's authority, if they're following in the Valar's paths. Eru Iluvatar and his divine revelation as rhetoric and disciplinary strategy is undermined in one go.
Yet also, Ingwe is a rebel! Ingwe's rebellion ofc is couched in religious terms - a desire to be proximate to the Unsullied Light, for the beauty of Valinor (both beauty and light frequently (and problematically) standing in symbolically for holiness in Tolkien's legendarium). This betrayal is not even from outside the family, but from within, from Imin's own descendant and heir. Yet Ingwe frames his rebellion in the gentlest terms from all the three - Tolkien explicitly describes Finwe's comments as taking an insulting turn in one version of the telling. Ingwe draws on and depends heavily on the authority of the Valar to push back against Imin. He knows he needs a source of divine authority in order to back any claims to leaving Cuivienen - yet still tries to couch it all in conciliatory terms, if Imin et al are willing to defer to the Valar.
What I wonder about, leaving aside the narrow reading of canon, is what conditions exist in Cuivienen that makes the younger Elves want to leave - that frames this entire act as "rebellion", outside of the undermining of authority and its sources? I don't have any good answers, but my hypothesis is that Cuivienen was actually an extremely stifling society; that based on the implications, Imin was quite a stifling leader; that the younger Elves had very little hope of ruling or living without Imin et al interfering and constantly undermining their authority; that the Valar appeared in the light of saviours who had actual wisdom, power and authority to refute declarative statements being made by Imin, Tata and Enel re. the ordering of society; that the Valar's appearance made rebellion possible without the threat of deadly exile or excommunication from the following of Eru (since the Valar personally know Eru).
Is this a mistake by the Valar? I don't think there's any good answers & that maybe the real answer is that the Elves would have been discontented no matter what, because conditions of inequality and hierarchy had been imposed on them from the beginning of the world by the Three Fathers, but especially under the guidance of Imin, using the framework of divine right and appointed authority to do so. Under those conditions, I think rebellion of some sort would always have been inevitable. The difference is that the Valar seem to have provided, funnily enough, a safe off-ramp: a counterbalance to the authority that was being exerted by the Elvish forefathers and clearly not being surrendered.
Anyway, re. the Vanyar specifically - other people have talked about the racial dimensions and their selective nature having also reified some kind of ethnic supremacy, so I won't touch on that. What I will say is that I think all of this put together means that the Vanyar especially cling to the Valar as having legitimated that initial departure from Cuivienen. Its interesting that they're the only group that cleave completely to the Valar - the Teleri trust the Valar but hold them at arm's length; the Noldor ofc outright rebel. The Vanyar, on the other hand, seem to be completely faithful. Lots of questions and possibilities! Ofc, they are more "favoured" by the Valar. But on the other hand, there's equally the possibility that those Vanyar who are in Valinor now remember what Cuivienen was like and don't want to return back there.
I observed this flippantly elsewhere, but in a world where Eru is the only authority and Eru is distant and only has interlocutors who claim to speak on his behalf, anyone who stands on a rung lower in the hierarchy has basically no recourse if the main figure of authority declares that Eru told them to do xyz. The worst thing that can be said about Manwe is that he's too credulous and kind. The worst thing that can be said about Imin in this is that he comes across as a bit of a tyrant and asshole. Its possible that the Vanyar, at least, (along, ironically, with many of the Feanorian wives) seem to think the Valar are the much better deal in terms of authority as far as authorities go.
TL;DR: Tolkien created an irresolvable contradiction in his text when he decided monarchy is good, then created imperfect beings. Imin is basically a case in point.
