Alqualondë

The Haven of the Swans

Alqualondë stood on the shore of Eldamar a little north of the Calacirya, where the Teleri of Aman, the Falmari, at last came ashore after their long sojourn on Tol Eressëa. Its harbour was entered through a great arch of living rock carved by the sea, and its halls and quays were built of pearl and of stones the Noldor gave them, so that the whole city shone in the light that came through the pass and the lamps that lit its walls. The Teleri had learned shipbuilding from Ossë, and their vessels were made in the likeness of swans, with white hulls, carved necks and eyes of jet, and it was said that the swans of Ulmo had first drawn their ships to the coast. The Sea-elves were the mariners and singers of Aman; they loved the sound of waves on the shore more than the Trees, and Ulmo and Ossë and Uinen were their friends above the other Valar.

Their king was Olwë, brother of Thingol who had stayed behind in Beleriand. He was bound in close friendship to Finwë of the Noldor, and his daughter Eärwen was the wife of Finarfin, so that Finrod, Galadriel and their brothers were half Telerin and often in the haven. The city lay far enough from Valmar that the Teleri were less touched by Melkor's lies than the Noldor, and they took no part in the Unrest.

The Kinslaying

When Fëanor led the Noldor out of Tirion after the Darkening, he needed ships to cross the sea, and the Teleri alone possessed them. He came to Alqualondë and demanded their fleet. Olwë refused: the ships were to the Teleri what the gems were to the Noldor, made with their own hands and hearts, and he would not help the Noldor defy the Valar. Fëanor then tried to seize the ships and man them with his own people. The Teleri resisted, throwing the Noldor into the sea and shooting from the quays, but they had few weapons, and the host of the Noldor, though outnumbered on the ships, was armed. Then the van of Fingolfin's following under Fingon came up behind, and seeing their kin fighting, joined the battle without knowing how it had begun. The Teleri were overcome, many were slain, and the ships were taken. This was the first killing of Elves by Elves, and it was for this deed as much as for the Oath that the Valar shut Aman against the exiles.

Uinen wept for the Telerin mariners, and the sea rose against the stolen fleet so that many of the Noldor were drowned on the way north. The ships that survived carried Fëanor's own people from Araman to Middle-earth, where he burned them at Losgar rather than send them back for Fingolfin. The blood shed at Alqualondë stained the whole history of the Noldor in Beleriand: it was the reason Thingol banned their tongue in Doriath when he learned of it, and the reason the Teleri of Aman would not lend their ships again until the Host of the West sailed against Morgoth, and even then they would not set foot on the shore.

After the exile

Alqualondë endured under Olwë through the ages that followed. At the end of the First Age Elwing came there while Eärendil went up to Tirion, and the Teleri received her gladly for her descent from Thingol, and learned from her the fate of Beleriand. When the Valar sent their host east, the Teleri, moved by her account, manned the ships that carried the Vanyar and Noldor across the sea. The haven remained the home of the Sea-elves after Aman was taken from the world.

Alqualondë lay on the coast of Eldamar just north of Túna and the mouth of the Calacirya, facing the Bay of Eldamar and Tol Eressëa. North of it the shore ran into the cold wastes of Araman along which the Noldor marched after the Kinslaying.