The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, #1)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

In this link-passage Rúmil asserts: (1) that the Teleri, Solosimpi, and Inwir had linguistic differences in the past; (2) but that these dialects are now merged in the ‘tongue of the island Elves’ (3) that the tongue of the Noldoli (Gnomes) was deeply sundered through their departure into the Great Lands and their captivity under Melko; (4) that those Noldoli who now dwell in Tol Eressëa have learnt the tongue of the island Elves; but others remain in the Great Lands. (When Rúmil spoke of ‘the lost bands that dwell wandering sadly in the Great Lands’ who ‘maybe speak very strangely now’ he seems to have been referring to remnants of the Noldorin exiles from Kôr who had not come to Tol Eressëa (as he himself had done), rather than to Elves who never went to Valinor.)* In the Lost Tales the name given to the Sea-elves afterwards called the Teleri—the third of the three ‘tribes’—is Solosimpi (‘Shoreland Pipers’). It must now be explained that, confusingly enough, the first of the tribes, that led by King Inwë, were called the Teleri (the Vanyar of The Silmarillion). Who then were the Inwir? Eriol was told later by Meril-i-Turinqi (p. 115) that the Teleri were those that followed Inwë, ‘but his kindred and descendants are that royal folk the Inwir of whose blood I am.’