Ingwë

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Ingwë
Vanya
File:Unknown Artist - Ingwe.jpg
Biographical Information
TitlesHigh King of the Elves; King of the Vanyar
Birth1050 YOTT, Cuiviénen
DeathDid not die
Family
ParentageFirstborn
SpouseUnknown
Physical Description
GenderMale
GalleryImages of Ingwë

Ingwë is the leader of the first Kindred of Elves called the Vanyar and the uncle of Indis, wife of Finwë. He was reckoned as High King of all the Elves. His name means "First One" in Quenya. His tower in Tirion was called Mindon Eldaliéva.

Other Versions of the Legendarium

In early versions of Tolkien's legendarium (see The History of Middle-earth) Ingwë's name was Inwë.

In that early writing Inwë (or Ing) was instead the name of a mortal man, the "King of Lúthien" (also spelled "Leithian" or "Luthany"), who was driven east over the sea by Ossë and became ruler of the ancestors of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians. Eventually the Angles, Saxon, and Jutes returned to Lúthien, now long renamed as Britain.

Tolkien was here adapting traditions about a Germanic ancestral figure named Yngvi (also spelled "Ing", "Ingio", and "Ingui"). He is seen as an eponymous ancestor of the Ingaevones, a people mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania as one of the three divisions of the Germanic tribes. In Scandinavian mythology, Yngvi was the mythological ancestor of the Swedish House of Ynglings and a name for the god Freyr. Like Ingwë, Freyr was the lord of the Elves in Álfheim.