Avari in the Third Age

[Vorondil]

Were the Avari Elves still around in the Third Age? Were there wild Elves living far in the East, perhaps?

From The Silmarillion: Of The Rings of Power and the Third Age:

''Yet the lands were for the most part savage and desolate, save only where the peoples of Beleriand came. Many Elves dwelt there indeed as they had dwelt through the countless years, wandering free in the wide lands far from the sea; but they were Avari, to whom the deeds of Beleriand were but a rumour and Valinor only a distant name.''

This seems to indicate that the Avari were still around, at least in the Second Age.

 

[Elthir]

Yes!

 

[Klaatu]

The Avari are one of Tolkien’s most fascinating absences—spoken of in whispers and footnotes more than song. They refused the Great Journey, yes, but that refusal set them apart not merely in geography but in spirit. While the Eldar sought light and lore, the Avari became shadows in the trees of Middle-earth, their languages splintering, their legends fading into the wild.

By the Second Age, Tolkien still places them wandering “in the wide lands far from the sea,” which suggests they never wholly vanished—just withdrew beyond the eyes of the Wise. It’s not impossible that scattered groups survived even into the Third Age, east of Rhûn or south near the Sea of Helcar’s vanished shorelines. The East was vast and untold, after all; if Mordor was only a fraction of it, who can say what music lingered unseen there?

And if some poor mortal ever stumbled upon an Avar village in those dark woods, they might’ve been taken for spirits, or worse—folk who’d never seen the Sun rise over Valinor and didn’t much care to.

Then again, knowing Elves, they probably would’ve rolled their eyes at Lembas prices and vanished before the bill came due.

—
Klaatu the Wayward
Keeper of Lost Footnotes
Importer of Half-Remembered Lore
Assistant (to the Assistant) of the Great Halls of Speculation

 

[Ent]

There are interesting things noted about the Avari in The Complete Tolkien Companion. They may have become a little more widespread and some incorporated into other groups along the way. One wonders if the elves of Mirkwood were among the Avari.

But for the most part, as @Klaatu mentions, they went east - potentially leading to speculation about the speculative "Blue Wizards" and even Saruman's trip East, and whether it may have been to see if the Avari could be encouraged to participate in the fate of Middle-earth.

Thwack:

 

[Elthir]

to expand upon my first post in this thread

According to the echoes in my skull-chamber, Tolkien imagined Primary World tales of Elves and Fairies to be garbled tales of his Elves - or perhaps some stories were not so garbled, considering certain accounts of encounters with "dangerous" Elves, or Elven spirits.

Accounts of encounters? Ahem. Moving on.

And this is where, again for me at least, the Houseless come in < dead Elves who refused the Summons to Mandos - and the Lingerers < faded Elves who. . . erm. . . lingered in Middle-earth.

In Morgoth's Ring, Tolkien has the character Ælfwine (an Anglo-Saxon commentor) write about the refusal of the Summons to Mandos, and he explains that among those who refused the invitation of the Valar to Aman in the first years of the Elves, the refusal of the Summons of Mandos, the Eldar say, is frequent.

Ælfwine goes on to report that this refusal was less frequent in ancient days: "while Morgoth was in Arda, or his servant Sauron after him;. . ."

And (notably in my opinion): "But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalie in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos. . ."

I also note that Ælfwine uses "kinds" plural, although in any case Eldalie means "Elven-folk" - often used vaguely to mean all the race of Elves though it properly did not include the Avari - source: The War of the Jewels

And at times I like to read Tolkien's poem The Trees of Kortirion in such a way that it can refer to faded Elves abiding in Warwick England ("where even now the peacocks pace in drill"), or at least sometime well after the Third Age - admittedly I can't really make it work (to read that way) with respect to every detail, and in any event, not reading it that way in no way diminishes the poem.

____________________

We have text from Quendi and Eldar stating this much: "so close was the feeling of kinship between the remnants of the Sindar, the Nandor, and the Lindarin Avari, that later in Eriador and the Vale of Anduin they often became merged together." And later (same text) JRRT notes that the Avarin clan name Penni is cited as coming from the Wood-elven speech of the Vale of Anduin (the name Penni shows the initial change kw > p (noting *kwendī).

From this it would seem that the East-elves of Mirkwood and Lórien were, at least at this point, a mix of Eldar and Avari. But whattabout the term East-elves!

In a draft version concerning the Languages, JRRT one mused: "According to Elvish historians the Elven-folk, by themselves called the Quendi, and Elven-speech were originally one. The primary division was into Eldar and Avari."

Avari!

And in a draft version for the Tale of Years, JRRT noted (year 750 S. A.) "Remnants of the Telerin Elves of Doriath established realms in the woodlands far eastward "but most of these people are Avari or East-elves."

Avari!

But of course, that's not in the published version of the Tale of Years, and in Appendix F, here's what the Master ultimately published: "The Elves far back in the Eldar Days became divided into two main branches: the West-elves (the Eldar) and the East-elves. Of the latter kind were most of the Elven-folk of Mirkwood and Lorien; but their languages do not appear in this history, in which all the Elvish names and words are of Eldarin form."

The term "Avari" is not used.

Tolkien also footnotes that in Lórien, at this period, Sindarin [an Eldarin language of course] was spoken, though with an "accent", since most of its folk were of Silvan origin.

Admittedly, I only bring these draft texts up to make this post longer. But in my opinion, Appendix F yet implies that the "East-elves" of Lórien and Mirkwood are something other than "Eldar", and that their languages are something other than "Eldarin".

And I'd say this actually agrees well enough with another description in Appendix F, where it's said that the term Eldar refers to the Three Kindreds who arrived in the Undying Lands at the beginning of days, plus the Sindar only (Tolkien writes "save" the Sindar only).

I'm aware that if we say that the Silvan Elves were "in origin Teleri" or "in origin Eldar" (both descriptions from Unfinished Tales, The Silvan Elves And Their Speech) a "Not-Eldar" distinction doesn't seem to fit well, including the famous "The Sundering of the Elves" page published in the constructed Silmarillion, for example. . .

. . . but going with Appendix F. . .

. . . anyway, that much mumbled, I won't hold JRRT to - "not-Eldar(in) must equal Avari(n)"- and I'm guessing that at least part of his reason to keep this open is based on linguistic concerns.

In Words, Phrases and Passages, Tolkien even notes to himself: "Actually the mater of the elvish tongue of the "Silvan Folk" is rather confused in the L. R." and then he goes into some detail concerning the spread of Sindarin, Nandorin, and even references the Avari a bit. Tolkien would one day write (War of the Jewels) that the Avarin dialects "were numerous, and often as widely sundered from one another as they were from the Eldarin forms of Elvish speech"

But these quotations are simply, once again, to make this post far longer than it needs to be. So, that aside too. . .

. . . Appendix F also notes that among the Quendi, the Eldar "now are gone". . . okay, but not necessarily gone are the East-elves.

Or something shorter and more accurate

 

[Ent]