The 3-in-1 Ring

It has bothered me for quite some time that J. R. R. Tolkien did not develop a complete system of kinship terminology in either Quenya or Sindarin, and some of the words we do have are outdated Qenya and Gnomish which are linguistically incongruous with the later lexicon, so I have taken it upon myself to invent one. 

This is primarily for my own usage, but please feel free to use them as well.

NOTE 1: The terms for mother, father, son, daughter, brother and sister as well as the Quenya terms for grandchildren are all from Tolkien’s preexisting lexicon; except for ‘nessa’, which, while an existing Quenya word, normally means ‘young’, but I have extrapolated this colloquial form from ‘hanno’. The rest are all constructed from preexisting words and elements in Quenya and Sindarin. I have not introduced any new elements to either language.

NOTE 2: Due to the Sundering occurring rather early in the elves’ history and, presumably, before they have had enough generations to necessitate such words, I have made it so that it appears that Quenya (Valinórëan) and Sindarin (Endórëan) kinship terminology had developed independently of each other. 

Quenya

Mother 

Amillë or Amil

Ammë [diminutive]

Father

Atar

Atto [diminutive]

Son

Yondo

Daughter

Seldë or Yeldë

Brother

Háno

Hanno [diminutive]

Onóro

Otorno

Sister

Nésa

Nessa [diminutive]

Onórë

Osellë

Grandson

Inyo [Noldorin]

Indyo [Vanyarin]

Granddaughter

Inyë [Noldorin]

Indyë [Vanyarin]

METHOD: For Quenya, I primarily made use of prefixes to indicate extended familial relationships. For grandparents, I used the reversible root ‘on’ or ‘ono’ (to beget) to indicate grandparents as ascendants. For aunts, uncles and cousins, I used the prefix ‘ara’ (beside) to indicate them as collateral relatives.

Grandmother

Nóamillë

Nammë [diminutive]

Grandfather

Nóatar

Natto [diminutive]

Aunt

Aramillë

Arammë [diminutive]

Uncle

Aratar

Aratto [diminutive]

Female Cousin

Arasellë

Male Cousin

Aratorno

Niece

Araseldë or Arayeldë

Nephew

Arayondo

Sindarin

Note on Sindarin: Due to certain linguistic features of Sindarin, I have made it so that they distinguish between older and younger collateral relatives of the same generation. As for descendants, grandchildren are distinguished as grandchildren from sons or daughters.

Mother 

Emel

Emë or Emig [diminutive]

Naneth

Nana or Nanethig [diminutive]

Father

Adar

Ada or Atheg [diminutive]

Son

Ion

Daughter

Sel or Iel

Sister

Muinthel

Neth or Nîth older sister

Nethig younger sister

Brother

Muindor

Hanar older brother

Hawn or Haun [archaic] older brother

Honeg younger brother

METHOD: For Sindarin, I used reduplication to derive the terms for grandparents. This has already been suggested in Gnomish with the word for grandmother ‘mâm’, a reduplication of the word for mother ‘mamil’. Aunt and uncle are derived from attaching the diminutive suffix to grandmother and grandfather respectively, as in Latin ‘avus’ (maternal grandfather) and ‘avunculus’ (maternal uncle, 'little grandfather’). Cousins use the prefix 'ar’ (beside) to indicate collateral relationship. Nieces are distinguished between brother-daughters and sister-daughters while nephews are distinguished between brother-sons and sister-sons.

Grandmother

Ememel

Mêm [diminutive]

Nananeth

Nân [diminutive]

Grandfather 

Adadar

Dâd [diminutive]

Grandson

Iondion grandson through a son

Sellion grandson through a daughter

Granddaughter

Iondiel granddaughter through a son

Selliel granddaughter through a daughter

Aunt

Ememig

Mémig [diminutive] 

Nananethig

Nánig [diminutive]

Uncle

Adatheg

Dátheg [diminutive]

Female Cousin

Arneth or Arnîth older or same-aged female cousin

Arnethig younger female cousin

Male Cousin

Arhanar older or same-aged male cousin

Arhawn or Arhaun [archaic] older or same-aged male cousin

Arhoneg younger male cousin

Niece

Hanariel brother’s daughter

Nethiel sister’s daughter

Nephew

Hanarion brother’s son

Haru and Haruni are from Tolkien's older conlang Qenya/Eldarissa, which we could consider the prototype of Quenya. It has certain words that break the phonological rules of Quenya, so I would personally borrow from it cautiously.

When Thingol was king of Doriath, he used to wear green makeup, as a way to symbolize that he reigned over the forest and the green lands of Beleriand. Melian, on her part, never wore make up, but her body always had a strange blue color.

So the most common names that we use for the various Elven peoples are actually Ñoldorin Quenya exonyms. Which is understandable. The Silmarillion is, in large part, the story of the Ñoldor.

The Ñoldor call themselves the Wise or the Learned. Everyone else is either reduced to a neutral but superficial quality or defined by a historical event in implicitly unflattering terms.

So I have compiled a list of words the various Elven peoples call themselves, for all your transformative work purposes.

1. Vanyar sing. Vanya the Fair-haired Ones

Minyar sing. Minya the First

Ingar sing. Inga Chieftains

2. Sindar sing. Sinda the Grey Ones

Edhil sing. Edhel Elves

Edhellim Elves

Eglain sing. Eglan the Forsaken

Eglath the Forsaken

Egladhrim the Forsaken

3. Teleri sing. Teler the Last-Comers

Falmari sing. Falmar the People of the Waves

Fallinelli sing. Fallinello/Fallinellë the Wave-Singers

4. Nandor sing. Nando Those Who Turn Back

Laegil sing. Laegel the Green-Folk

Laegrim the Green-Folk

Laegeldrim the Green-Folk

Tawarwaith Forest-People

5. Avari the Refusers

Kindi Elves

Cuind Elves

Hwenti Elves

Windan Elves

Kinn-lai Elves

Penni Elves

Note 1: Endonyms tend to be egocentric, equating the name of the people with the generic word for humankind, or, in this case, elvenkind.

Note 2: The endonyms of the Avari listed here refer to six different peoples and refers also to their language. Not enough is known of the Avarin languages to determine what the singular form of any of these words wukl be.

They are the Lindar. But the word applies to the Nelyar in general, so I was not sure where to put it.

luthien is pretty, and beautiful, and her father’s lovely little star, and from the moment she is born, she is pretty. it’s a mantra they repeat to her, as they dress her in deep blues and royal purples and shimmering golds, as they braid back her hair and teach her to dance and teach her to sing. 

what nobody really remembers is that luthien came out of the womb angry. 

melian hadn’t had a child before. melian wasn’t an elf. melian carried her child for due time, and when she got bored of the pain and the frustration, she gave birth. so luthien came into the world kicking and screaming. she came into the world just like her mother. ready to fight.

and halfway across the world, there’s an elf named feanor, named spirit of fire, and he too is born angry, and in this world of lovely things (the girdle around doriath, the calacirya past tirion) they are similar. not the same, but similar.

the difference is this - one of them is told yes my son, may you live long and love fiercely, and may you fight for that which you must defend. one of them is told no my daughter, may you dance often and shine brightly, but these ways of ours are alien to your father and his people. 

but both are told your ways are not for us.

and perhaps luthien is lonely. perhaps it is a horrible existence, this strange state of being that is singular only to her. (and not in the history of arda is there another like her, is there? her descendants, so odd and so strange simply due to her blood, and perhaps it is good there is no others like her, perhaps then the world would have broken into pieces - )

perhaps luthien is lonely, in her beauty and her dresses and her songs. but more than anything, she is angry. 

because this blood that she carries. it is not that of the second children (though her descendants, with their thrice-cursed lineage, they are another tale) and it is barely that of the first. it is that of stars, of dreams, of sparkling skins that shift like the heat that ripples off the fire, and luthien is a small child and she has to hold it all in like a raging inferno - 

luthien does not tell her mother of her dreams: of gull feathers, of a hidden city burning to the ground, of jewels so bright they defy possibility, of twins drifting through the wood and twins drifting through blood and twins drifting through the wood and two girls with her face, and a voice cold and dark and ancient -

melian says you must hide it. they are not like you. you are one of a kind. you must hide it. melian knew dreams. melian knew enchantment. melian knew how to hold it all in. luthien doesn’t. too many teeth, too many eyes, proportions put together all wrong because she doesn’t know how to be this kind of existence. all this anger. all these teeth. what does that make her.

what does that make her.

feanor dies on these shores. luthien doesn’t. everyone dies, on these shores, and luthien doesn’t. they fight battles, and luthien does not leave the girdle, but something starts flickering under her skin, all incandescent and familiar. luthien laughs. 

luthien meets a mortal man.

theirs will be a story for the ages, she knows. beren looks her in the eyes and says i am not afraid of what you are. luthien tells him you should be. beren shakes his head. you are far too beautiful to limit yourself, my lady.

and what can luthien say to that?

they send beren to find the silmaril, and send him away, and melian says to luthien he is no match for you, my love. did he not faint away from your might? did i not tell you? 

you must hide it.

luthien leaves. theirs is a story for the ages.

luthien remembers the beautiful fragility of her mortal love - how unafraid he was to spit in the face of terror, how unafraid he was to die. luthien remembers the beautiful fragility of his face when he did not falter before her. luthien laughs at celegorm and curufin and hopes they hear how her voice breaks in seven; hopes they see how her nails are also claws. luthien and huan rescue beren, and then they set off for angband, and when they come across the enemy, the great darkness of the north -

luthien sings him to sleep. he sees a mortal man and a shining girl-child, and he steps down from his throne, and that is his first mistake.

they cut a silmaril from his crown. theirs will never be a twice-done feat. it is only this once. the jewels are so bright they blind, and for a moment luthien in her exhaustion sees the carnage, sees the blood, and had she more strength, perhaps she would have destroyed them then and there.

but that is not how stories go.

it is said that theirs is a romance and a tragedy, an epic and a song. beren dies, and luthien faces mandos himself, and in all her fury and fire, beren is returned to her, and she is made mortal. they carry the silmaril, and they live happily, and the stories will not remember the most about luthien. will not remember the wings, will not remember the sorrow in melian’s eyes, will not remember how luthien bled light and cried blood, will not remember the screams she woke beren with, every night.

luthien is pretty. 

celebrimbor never met luthien. perhaps if he had, he would have held more wariness towards beautiful annatar. they were too similar, and when annatar finally shed his form and celebrimbor knew him to be sauron, he understood this truth that was at the very heart of luthien’s being -