Council of the Wise · Seat 2

The Seat of Quenya

The High-elven tongue

Quenya was the High-elven tongue, first spoken by the Elves who went West and dwelt in Valinor, in the light of the Two Trees. By the Third Age it was no longer spoken in daily life in Middle-earth. Tolkien called it "an 'Elven-latin'": a language of ceremony, lore and song, still treasured by the Elves and by the wise among Men. It is never far away in The Lord of the Rings. When Frodo meets Gildor in the Shire, he greets him in Quenya: "Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo", "a star shines on the hour of our meeting". Galadriel's farewell song in Lórien, Namárië, is Quenya. And when Aragorn is crowned, he speaks the words of Elendil in Quenya: "Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien" - "Out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come." This seat guards Quenya as Lammath begins to teach it: its sounds, its grammar and the line between what Tolkien wrote and what has been built since.

Sources: The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F; Three is Company (Gildor); Farewell to Lórien (Namárië); The Steward and the King (coronation).