Laiquendi

The coming of Denethor

In the Years of the Trees, long after the Nandor had turned aside from the Great Journey, their chieftain Denethor, son of Lenwë, heard rumours of the might and peace of Thingol in Beleriand. Evil things were beginning to trouble the wide lands east of the mountains, and Denethor gathered as many of his people as would follow him and led them over the Ered Luin into Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers, between the mountains and the river Gelion. Thingol welcomed them as kin who had been lost, and they became his allies and, in name, his subjects. They took the colour of their new country for their name: the Laiquendi, the Green-elves.

Ossiriand

Ossiriand was a green land of woods and clear rivers running down from the mountains, and the Green-elves lived in it so quietly that a traveller might cross the whole country without seeing one. They dressed in green in spring and summer and were nearly invisible among the leaves. They built nothing that lasted, they had no king's halls, and their weapons were bows. Their singing could be heard across the Gelion, and the Noldor named the country Lindon, the land of song, for that reason. The Green-elves were friends of Ulmo's waters and of all growing things, and they would let no Dwarf or Man cut the trees of their land.

The First Battle and its aftermath

When Morgoth returned to Middle-earth and sent his Orcs south into Beleriand, Thingol called on Denethor, and the Green-elves marched to war for the first and last time. Their light arms could not withstand the iron of Angband. Denethor was surrounded on the hill of Amon Ereb and slain with all his nearest kin before Thingol's host could reach him. After that the Laiquendi took no king and fought no open battle. They lived in secret, ambushed what enemies came into Ossiriand, and left the great war of the Jewels to the Noldor and the Sindar. Some of them withdrew into Doriath and were absorbed among Thingol's folk.

Beren and Lúthien

The Green-elves have one great part in the tales. When Beren and Lúthien returned from death, they went to live on Tol Galen, the green island in the river Adurant in the south of Ossiriand, and the Laiquendi guarded their solitude. It was in Ossiriand that Beren, with the help of the Green-elves, ambushed the Dwarves of Nogrod returning from the sack of Menegroth and recovered the Nauglamír with its Silmaril at the ford of Sarn Athrad. The Green-elves also had a hand in the first meeting of Elves and Men, though not a friendly one: when the people of Bëor came over the mountains, the Laiquendi disliked the newcomers' axes and asked Finrod to lead them away, which he did.

What sets them apart

The Laiquendi are the only Nandor who came into Beleriand, and so the only Nandor who appear in the history of the Elder Days. They were Eldar of the twilight, Úmanyar without the light of Aman, and they were the least warlike and least ambitious of the Elves of Beleriand. What they had was the secrecy of the forest and an unmatched knowledge of the land, and those kept them alive when the walled kingdoms fell.

Fate

Ossiriand alone of the lands of Beleriand survived the War of Wrath, as the coast of Lindon beyond the Blue Mountains. The Green-elves who remained there mingled with the Sindar and Noldor of Gil-galad's realm and were no longer a distinct people. Some may have gone east to join the Silvan Elves of the Anduin, but the Laiquendi as a nation ended with their land.

The Green-elves were of the Nandorin stock, generally dark-haired and slighter than the Elves of the West. They wore green and brown and moved silently, and their voices in song were their most famous trait.

A hidden woodland people, the Laiquendi built no halls and kept no court after Denethor. They were archers, singers, and guardians of trees; they refused to let their forests be felled and had no love for Dwarves or the axes of Men. They spoke Nandorin and later Sindarin.

The Green-elves were Nandor who, hearing of Thingol's peace, followed Denethor west over the Blue Mountains into Ossiriand and were received by the Sindar as kin.

Their king died in the First Battle of Beleriand and their land was the last remnant of Beleriand above the waves. They merged with the Elves of Lindon in the Second Age.