Elvish lines of succession

[CAB]

Something I have wondered about for a while: Why did the Valinorean Noldor (and, most likely, the other two houses of Valinorean Elves) have customs or laws regarding lines of succession?

I am aware that quite some time passed between the awakening of the Elves beside the waters of Cuivienen and their arrival at Valinor. During this time there were unquestionably Elvish deaths and quite possibly some Elvish births. However, the Elves at this time must have had very few material possessions and (seemingly) no powerful rulers. The leaders of the three houses of Elves became “Kings� only some time after their meeting with Orome.

Once the Elves reached Valinor, there was still little need for rules regarding lines of succession, in spite of the growth of material wealth and the power then held by the new Kings. The Elves were immortal. They were (supposedly) safe from harm. The Kings of that time should have remained the Kings until the end of time.

It also seems somewhat strange to me that the immortal Elves would have customs of succession that were the same as those of mortal Men, but I suppose there are reasonable explanations for this.

Did Tolkien ever explain this? If not, perhaps someone has their own explanation. Does the likelihood that the Moriquendi had similar/same customs suggest that, despite the argument I gave above, these rules were developed before the Elves met Orome?

[Lefty Scaevola]

The question of succession of course did not come up until the possibility of death did, and did not appear to be formalized, certainly not primogeniture, but based on the extinginces of war and politics. Rather than going Finwe to Feanor to Maedhors it went Finwe to a split between Fingolfin and Feanor and then to Fingolfin, then Fingon, then Turgon. While having some similarity to Anglo Saxon succession going through all brother in a generation before going to the next generation, I do not believe it was in any way a policy of that, as opposed to "Who clearly has the best chance of leading us in this terrible war" policy. Notice agin that after the second age when the remains of the Eldarian communities descended from the Noldor and Sindar of Beleriand were no longer a significant military power, they did not even bother the name a High King, even though high and powerful Noldorin, Sindarin, and mixed race princes like Galadriel, Celeborn, Thranduil, and Elrond (descended from Finwe/Fingolfin/Turgon, Thingol/Melian/Luthian/Dior, Beor/Barahir/Beren, Hador/Galdor/Huor/Tuor, Halmar and other Halladin, and more) were available. No big united armies to lead, no high king.

[Alcuin]

I think that there must have been several generations of Elves before the Great Journey. In essay “Quendi and Eldar” in War of the Jewels, Tolkien says the three clans of Elves were the Minyar, “Firsts”, later called the Vanyar or “Light-elves”; the Tatyar, “Seconds”, who divided into the Noldor of Eldamar and their Avari cousins who refused to go or complete the Journey but were all known as “Deep Elves” or *ñgolodō originally; and the Nelyar, “Thirds”, or Lindar, “Singers”, who became the Teleri, Sindar, and assorted Avari tribes known as Nandor. He gives numbers for them: the Avari or Umanyar, those unwilling to undertake the Great Journey, were from the Second and Third clans, about half-and-half. (In other words, a much larger proportion of the Second clan refused the journey – about half – than of did the Third clan, of whom only about three-eighths refused to go. The Third clan then divided more or less evenly in Beleriand between those Teleri who followed Olwë to Eldamar, and those who remained behind to search for Elwë and became the Sindar.

All that to say this: the Elven ambassadors who went with Oromë to Valinor – Ingwë, Finwë, Elwë and Olwë – were apparently not first-generation Elves: they were not among the 144 who awoke at Cuiviénen, but among their descendents. Moreover the Elves of Cuiviénen were aware that they could be taken or killed by monsters in the darkness, and so some were initially afraid of Oromë. There is a side story that the brothers Elwë and Olwë had a younger brother, Elmo (“tickle me!”), grandfather of Celeborn husband of Galadriel and great-grandfather of Nimloth wife of Dior EluchÃ*l son of Lúthien and Beren; but the point is, if there were two or even three brothers, they had parents, and those parents may also have had siblings, and so forth. If Elves were being taken or killed in the dark around Cuiviénen, then the Elves must have already developed an idea about “succession” of leadership or of property or both.

Moreover, Ingwë, Finwë, Elwë and Olwë were regarded as rulers because of their pre-eminence because of the embassy to Valinor and then in the Great Journey. They must have been (and were said to be) outstanding before their embassy, but were enriched in nobility of spirit by their journey to meet the Valar. In any event, they became rulers in place of the previous clan rulers, assuming they were themselves not already rulers (as would seem unlikely: rulers normally send emissaries on such journeys, they do not go themselves).

But there is certainly also a strong echo of Anglo-Saxon kingship or cyning, “family” or “kin” (“kin” is from the same word as “king” – cynn). Anglo-Saxons passed rule from brother to brother or uncle to nephew, and so forth, just as the Noldor did in Eldamar and Middle-earth, as Lefty suggests. And of course, in the Second House of the Edain, this was carried to such an extreme that they finally ruined themselves in civil war.