# 'Faerie in the West' [Merged]



## Beorn (Nov 22, 2002)

*'Faerie in the West'*



> The feasting people were Wood-elves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the halls and mountains) were descended from *the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West.* There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft in the making of beautiful and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World.



Do you suppose Faerie means Valinor? Tolkien started working on The Silmarillion way before The Hobbit...and Valinor is mentioned in the very beginning of The Silmarillion, as well throughout it....


----------



## Anamatar IV (Nov 22, 2002)

maybe thats the faerie that the elves would take to Valinor. I dunno really.


----------



## Maeglin (Nov 22, 2002)

I think it definitely refers to Valinor. I mean it just makes logical sense, it talks about the 3 Elvish Tribes that left for Valinor in the First Age(I can't remeber all of the names right now, Teleri, something, and something, its been a while since I've read the Sil) but we know that a bunch of them stayed behind and dwelt in the forests and became known as the Sindarin Elves or something like that, and the Mirkwood Elves are their descendants from what I can infer.


----------



## Anamatar IV (Nov 27, 2002)

I found it. Its an island for the elves I guess. If youll look at this map of Arda in the first age it shows in the west Isand ferry for the elves

http://members.tripod.com/john.ohara/Arda_1stAge.htm


----------



## Ithrynluin (Nov 28, 2002)

Anamatar,I think you are confusing the words "faerie" and "ferry".
The former probably alludes to Valinor while the latter pertains to the island that transported the Elves to Valinor.


----------



## Anamatar IV (Nov 28, 2002)

*sigh* Youre ALWAYS there to prove me wrogn arent you?

Well I was close.


----------



## Ithrynluin (Nov 28, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Anamatar IV _
> **sigh* Youre ALWAYS there to prove me wrogn arent you?
> 
> Well I was close. *



Yes sorry about that.Hopefully some day you'll prove me wrong in return.


----------



## Walter (Nov 28, 2002)

*Re: 'Faerie in the West'*



> _Originally posted by Beorn _
> *Do you suppose Faerie means Valinor? Tolkien started working on The Silmarillion way before The Hobbit...and Valinor is mentioned in the very beginning of The Silmarillion, as well throughout it.... *


 Probably so, in the Lost Tales Tolkien often uses _Fairies_ synonymous for Elves and _Fairie_, _Faëry_ (also _Bay of Faëry_ for the _Bay of Eldamar_), _Fairyland_ for the _Undying Lands_. Here's the beginning of a nice poem _"The Shores of Faëry"_:

_East of the Moon, west of the Sun
There stands a lonely hill;
Its feet are in the pale green sea,
Its towers are white and still,
Beyond Taniquetil
In Valinor.
Comes never there but one lone star
That fled before the moon;
And there the Two Trees naked are
That bore Night's silver bloom,
That bore the globéd fruit of Noon
In Valinor.
There are the shores of Faëry
..._

From: The Book of Lost Tales II

----
PS: Anamatar you were really close, that "Island Ferry" later became _Tol Eressëa_, the island where Fairies dwelled and which is part of the _Fairyland_


----------



## Athelas (Dec 6, 2002)

*I like*

I have not heard Tolkien refer to the Elves as or Valinor as Faerie before. This says a lot to me about the nature of those in Tolkien's mind.


----------



## Dáin Ironfoot I (Dec 9, 2002)

arent faeries those little happy female creatures that fly around?  I figured that there were actually fairies when I read that. And maybe Tolkien did mean that, after all he had giants and wereworms and shapeshifting humans, so why not Faeries? Tolkien didnt use a lot of his original ideas from the Hobbit into LotR.


----------



## reem (Jan 30, 2003)

*Faerie in the West*

on page 156 there is a mention of 'Fairie in the West'. is that Valinor?
reem


----------



## Heathertoes (Jan 30, 2003)

More or less. Faerie is another name for Eldamar - the Elvish lands across the sea.


----------

