# Could High-elvenness be inherited?



## Burzum (Oct 18, 2008)

High Elves, aka Calaquendi, are the ones who have seen the light of the Two Trees. But, if a High Elf had a child after coming to Middle-earth, would that child also be counted among the High Elves? If so, would the child also have the power/wisdom/ability/etc. that was gained by looking at the Two Trees? And what if one of their parents was a High Elf but not the other?

As an aside, did looking at the Two Trees directly increase the beholder's power and wisdom? Or were the High Elves called so because they earned power and wisdom by dwelling with the Ainur, and were the reference to the Two Trees just a symbolic one?


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## Aisteru (Oct 20, 2008)

I think that they power does get passed on with generations. Granted, it grows weaker with each successive generation, but it still is there.


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## Gordis (Oct 20, 2008)

I think an Elf becomes Calaquende when he sees the light of the Trees with _his own eyes_. Thus a son of two Calaquendi born in ME is not a Calaquende. All the Elves born in Valinor after the destruction of the Trees are not Calaquendi either.

But I am not sure that Calaquendi is an exact synonim of "High-Elves"


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## Elthir (Oct 20, 2008)

On the High Elves, or Tareldar, Tolkien noted: 'The Elves who were in or who had ever dwelt in Aman were called the High Elves (Tareldar).' (this description is noted in a text in Morgoth's Ring, and Christopher Tolkien used it for the 1977 Silmarillion). However in usage 'High Elves' appears to have a broader and narrower application (like the term Eldar), so that Gil-galad, for example, could certainly be called a High-elf, as could a Sinda of Beleriand.

But that concerns a term and how it might be used, and is more an addition to Gordis' comment on terms.


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## Burzum (Oct 20, 2008)

You reminded me that the literal translation would be Tareldar, not Calaquendi (which literally means Light-elves). But I think the terms were used interchangeably.

I realize that the term would have been applied more loosely in the social context - Gil-galad is the High King, and not calling him a High Elf would be a little absurd. But I'm more interested in whether the power could be passed on to the children (most visibly, the glow that the High Elves have around their bodies).


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