PART 1: The Quenya Ban

 Introduction:

Quenya is the language of the High Elves in Valinor, making it the native tongue of the Noldor who came to Middle Earth. However, when King Thingol of the Sindar heard of the kinslaying in Aqualondë against his brother’s people, he banned the language in Beleriand as retaliation. Whether or not this was a legitimate ban, many of the Noldor stopped speaking Quenya and the language was replaced by Sindarin Elvish (which had already existed in Middle Earth before the exiles arrived).  By the Third Age, Quenya had become a dead language used for ceremonies and spoken almost exclusively by scholars. Let’s discuss!

Part 1: legitimacy, reasoning, and impact

Part 2: perspective and world-building, concluding remarks, fun facts (coming soon)

1.) Was it legitimate?

Thingol is king of the Sindar, not the Noldor, but he justifies the ban through his claim of lordship over all Beleriand (Western Middle Earth). When he first claims this lordship, the Noldor basically laugh at him—after all, he has only one small kingdom, does close to nothing to defend the rest of Beleriand or fight Morgoth, and maintains an isolationist foreign policy. Therefore, for Thingol to say he has rule over even the Noldor, who have numerous powerful realms, alliances, and armies that form the main defense against Morgoth, doesn’t make sense. Even so, the Noldor humor Thingol (except for a few sarcastic comments) presumably because they are not from Middle Earth and want to respect peace between lands. As for the Quenya ban, they most likely listened because of the deep regret they felt for the kinslaying, and the already widespread use of Sindarin. 

2.) Was it deserved?

That brings us to the question of whether or not it was deserved: absolutely not. The kinslaying was obviously terrible, and it was initiated by Fëanor and his followers after the Teleri refused to lend their ships and he decided to take them by force. HOWEVER, Fingolfin and Finarfin’s forces had no idea the Noldor attacked first, and assumed the Teleri (who were also killing people) were the ones who attacked first. This meant that a large portion of the soon-to-be exiles had no idea their side initiated the aggression. Some, like Galadriel and Finrod, even refused to participate at all. Therefore, banning all Noldor in Middle Earth from speaking Quenya as a punishment for the kinslaying is completely unfair. Even if it was deserved because of the kinslaying, Thingol (whose kingdom is completely estranged from his brother’s) has no right to impose a punishment with such obvious malintent when the Noldor hadn’t actually committed an aggression against him (at the time). Language was just as important to the scholarly Noldor as the ships were to the seafaring Teleri, and since stealing the Teleri’s boats was wrong, so was banning the Noldor’s language. (And let’s be real, if the Noldor never came to Middle Earth, Doriath would be toast.)

3.) Impact

The Quenya ban not only stripped the exiled Noldor of their native language, but also their identities. Changing the language of the exiles further removed them from their kin in Valinor who still spoke Quenya. As an implicit result, the culture of the Noldor started to shift, similar to how the culture of the Sindar in Middle Earth shifted from that of the Teleri in Valinor. Findarato became Finrod, Nolofinwë became Fingolfin, and Telperinquar became Celebrimbor. The difference is that the Noldor were forced to change suddenly, whereas the Sindar and Teleri were naturally “sundered” by distance and time. The fact that they also changed their names—and are referred to by those new names through almost the entire Silmarillion—is especially indicative of its devastating impact. It implies not only that the Noldor were complacent to the change, but accepted it because they felt ashamed to have names in their own language because of the kinslaying (even though one doesn’t have to do with the other). Thingol’s “punishment” seems like more of an excuse to assert Sindarin dominance in Middle Earth—potentially to back his claim of kingship over all Beleriand. Ironically, Quenya is essentially the “Latin” of Lord of the Rings. It’s still considered to be more proper, more official, and even more beautiful than other languages, even though almost nobody in Middle Earth (or Numenor later on) speaks it as a native tongue.