List of Middle-earth Elves - I

I

• Idril

Idril is the daughter of Turgon and Elenwë, wife of Tuor, and the mother of Eärendil the Mariner.

The name Idril was a Sindarized form of her Quenya name Itarillë (or Itarildë), which means "sparkling brilliance". She was a lovely blonde; she inherited her hair colour from her Vanyarin mother.

• Imin

Imin is one of the first six Elves.

• Iminyë

Iminyë is one of the first six Elves.

• Indis

Indis is the second wife of Finwë, High King of the Noldor Elves. The birth of his son Fëanor drained so much of the spirit of Finwë's first wife Míriel that she was forced to depart for the gardens of Lórien. Finwë and Indis had two sons, Fingolfin and Finarfin, and two daughters, Findis and Irimë. She further became stepmother to Fëanor. After her husband was murdered by Melkor, who then stole the Silmarils, she and her eldest daughter Findis returned to live among her people, the Vanyar Elves. Either she herself or her mother was a sister of Ingwë, High King of the Vanyar. She was the grandmother of Galadriel, who plays an important role in The Lord of the Rings.

• Inglor

See Gildor Inglorion.

• Ingwë

Ingwë is the leader of the first Kindred of Elves called the Vanyar. His name means "first one, Chief" in Quenya. He is one of the three Elves, with Elwë and Finwë of the first embassy to Aman and he persuades all of the clan of Vanyar to follow him there where he becomes their king and High-king of all Eldalië. He was reckoned as High King of all the Eldar and because of this is called Ingwë Ingweron "Chief of the Chieftains". He lives in Taniquetil, ruling from beneath Manwë High King of Arda. He has a son named Ingwion as well as unnamed children.

He is stated in "The Lhammas" to be the first awakened Elf: "Ingwë, high-king of the Eldalië, and the oldest of all Elves, for he first awoke."

According to the Book of Lost Tales, his name is Inwë in Elfin.

In even earlier writings Ingwë (or Ing) was instead the name of a mortal man, King of Lúthien or Leithian or Luthany, who was driven east over the sea by Ossë and became ruler among the ancestors of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. Eventually the Angles, Saxon and Jutes return to Lúthien or Leithian or Luthany, now long renamed as Britain.

Tolkien was here adapting traditions about a Germanic ancestral figure named Ing/Ingio/Ingui/Yngvi. He is seen as an eponymous ancestor of the Ingvaeones/Ingaevones, a people mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania as one of the three divisions of the Germanic tribes. In Scandinavian mythology, Ing was the mythological ancestor of the Swedish House of Ynglings and a name for the god Freyr. Like Ingwë, Freyr was the lord of the Elves in Álfheim.

• Ingwion

Ingwion is the son of Ingwë, the leader of the first Kindred of Elves called the Vanyar. He is also the cousin of Indis, wife of Finwë. His name means "Son of Ingwë (first one, Chief)" in Quenya. He lives in Taniquetil with his father. He led the armed Host of the Vanyar in the Faring Forth and the War of Wrath that overthrew Morgoth at the end of the First Age. Ingwion was captain of the force that landed and captured the haven of Eglarest in the first battle of that war.

• Irimë

Irimë was one of the daughters of Finwë.