That Extra Race

[Losthuniel]

There is one more race in Arda (barley mentonied, but yes, it is there): Slyphs. No, wait, don't go! I have a quote to back it up:

More silken-soft,more strange and fair
than sylphine maidens of the Air
Whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement beat and fall
-Lays of Beleriand, Lay of Leithian, Canto XIII, lines 4076-4079

Could be considered irrelevant, except for a passage in the Silm:

many of those lesser Vali who loved them and played nigh them and attuned their music to theirs, and these are the Mánir and the Sùruli, the slyphs of the air and the winds - the Silmarillion, The coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor

Those who have read The Lay will realize I am stating the obvious, so don't shoot me, please.

[ August 28, 2002: Message edited by: Losthuniel ]

[Arwen Imladris]

Hmm, that is very interesting. I never noticed that before. Cool! Did you have a question or did you just want to share that?

[Losthuniel]

I was just sharing. I thought some people might find it interesting.

[Aramacil]

Cool, I didn't know this, thanks for sharing this with us.

[Eol]

I think that above mentioned is part of what Tolkien never followed up on. It is never metioned again in Silmarillion as far as I know of.

ask the people who religiously read the HoMe series, as I do not know anything of them and care not to.

[Lhunbelethiel]

Nope, sorry. Sylph is an adjective. Here is the definition, see entry 2!

Main Entry: sylph
Pronunciation: 'silf
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin sylphus
Date: 1657
1 : an elemental being in the theory of Paracelsus that inhabits air
2 : a slender graceful woman or girl

[piosenniel]

Sylph is an adjective.

No, it's a noun - just as was noted in the entry on definition:

Function: noun
2 : a slender graceful woman or girl

Were it to be used as an adjective, you would use the word 'sylphine' as was noted in the initial quote from The Lays of Beleriand

. . . sylphine maidens . . .

[ August 28, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]

[Lhunbelethiel]

*smirk*

It wasn't my original quote...btw.

Lots of mistakes in this thread on several people's parts! ooooooooooops!

[ August 28, 2002: Message edited by: Lhunbelethiel ]

[Davin]

lol.....I am getting confused by reading this. So is this a new race or not???

[Rumil]

Surely the 'sylphs' were just a subset of the Maiar, those who were air-related spirits, perhaps associates of Manwe? The forerunners of the Balrogs and the Sun were fire related spirits. To round out the four elements, I expect Ulmo's friends were the water spirits and Aule's (and perhaps Yavanna's) followers were earth spirits.

Of course as Maiar they would be unlikely to be constricted by these roles (witness the Istari), perhaps an affinity or 'alignment' with the different elements is more likely?

What about Ogres and Pygmies, two races referred to briefly in early writings in HoME? I guess JRRT didn't want to take these any further but these could be interesting possibilities for RPGs or FanFic

[Orome]

i don't know much about this but from the 2 Quotes posted it sounds more like a discription than a race

[Lhunbelethiel]

And what category do the trolls fall into?!

[Orome]

what do you mean? Trolls were bred in an imitation of the ents if thats what you want to know

[Lhunbelethiel]

Yes, that was what I wanted to know.
smilies/rolleyes.gif

[ August 30, 2002: Message edited by: Lhunbelethiel ]

[Losthuniel]

I'm rather confused myself, but this is how I see it: Slyphs: another name for the "subdivision" of Maiar, belonging to the air.
Forgive my misleading wording on the original post.

[Aiwendil]

I think it should be noted that the quote:

many of those lesser Vali who loved them and played nigh them and attuned their music to theirs, and these are the Mánir and the Sùruli, the slyphs of the air and the winds

appears to be from an early version of the Silmarillion (note 'Vali' rather than 'Valar'). I'm pretty sure that in later versions, the Manir and Suruli are not mentioned.

[ork _huntr]

in more than tolkien's work are there sylphs. in a lot of greek mythology they mention sylphs. kinda a fairy / angel thingy. i don't think they're technicly a race. kinda like wights. (no offense) they're to mystery surronded to be considered a real race or not. smilies/biggrin.gif

[Galorme]

"the slyphs of the air and the winds" were Ainur who were not Valar and did not wish to enter into their service (i had a dream i was one of those once). They didn't really have bodies or forms, they just rode the air and water currents enjoying existance. They could even have been what cause air and water currents.

This could be totally wrong tell me if it is cause it is mainly my interpritation.

[Rosseiliantiel]

That would make sense to me smilies/biggrin.gif

[Tirned Tinnu]

Yes, I often wondered about the other spirits spoken of in The SIl. I took this to mean that they were of the Air, and therefore, you might think of them as "The Winds". Note that in LOTR, Aragorn's tribute to Boromir invoked the Wind Directions, as if he spoke to their spirit. Hmmmmmm!