Ingwë

The first ambassador

Ingwë was the lord of the first and smallest clan of the Elves at Cuiviénen, the people who became the Vanyar. When Oromë brought the Valar's summons, he chose three chieftains to come to Aman and see for themselves, and Ingwë was the first of them, with Finwë and Elwë (later Thingol). Of the three he was the most deeply moved by the light of the Two Trees and the glory of the Valar. When he came back to Cuiviénen he urged all his people to follow him, and all of them did; there were no Vanyar among the Avari.

The Great Journey

Ingwë led the first host on the long march west, closest behind Oromë. The Vanyar crossed the mountains and rivers without the doubts that divided the Teleri, and together with the Noldor they were ferried across the Sea by Ulmo on the island that became Tol Eressëa. For a time Ingwë and his folk lived with Finwë's people in Tirion on the hill of Túna. But the Vanyar loved the Valar too much to remain at a distance from them, and Ingwë led them from Tirion to the plain of Valmar and up the slopes of Taniquetil, where he made his dwelling beneath the halls of Manwë.

High King

From that seat Ingwë was reckoned High King of all the Eldar, a rank he held by honour rather than by rule; the Noldor had their own king in Finwë and the Sindar theirs in Thingol, and no Elf of Middle-earth ever saw Ingwë or took his commands. He appears in the histories as the still centre of the Elvish world: the king who was where the Elves were meant to be, at peace beside the Valar, while the Noldor rebelled and went into exile. His kinswoman Indis married Finwë, so that the blood of Ingwë's house ran in Fingolfin, Finarfin and their descendants, most visibly in the golden hair of Finrod and Galadriel. Ingwë himself took no part in the troubles of the Noldor and remained on the mountain through the Darkening of Valinor.

Legacy

When the Valar marched against Morgoth at the end of the First Age the Vanyar went to war under their own banners, but Ingwë is not said to have led them. He is not recorded as leaving Valinor again. He remains there, the eldest king of the Elves, and his name is remembered in the Quenya word for the Vanyar themselves, the Ingwer, the people of Ingwë.

Ingwë dwells in Valinor at the feet of Taniquetil, High King of the Elves, beyond the end of the histories.