[lindil]

"The title of 'Eldar' was applied to the Elves of Aman and to those who undertook the great journey" [ i.e. the Sindar and also the Laiquendi of Ossiriand it says undertook not completed].

So you are recognizing a distinction in starting and completing the great journey?

I did not see this distinction in your quote above, indeed, I saw the opposite, and thus my elaboration.

However, I looked up High-Elves in HoME X and found this on p.349 of the Athrabeth, which seems to decide the matter firmly according to your interpretation.

THe Elves who were in or who had ever dwelt in Aman were called the HiGH-Elves (Tareldar}.

However knowing in my heart that that was too simple a resolution and that JRRT was bound to contradict himself [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

We find in PoME, page 31 the following

For when the Fathers of Men came over the mountains for the first time they met the Eldar, or High Elves; and the Eldar were at that time engaged in ceaseless war with the Dark Lord.

on page 73 of PoM-E he calls the Teleri who never crossed the sea [i.e. sindar] "kin of the High-Elves.

However the point of view which I espoused earlier [ and by the way I do not subscribe to the eldar= HighElves, even though there is at least a single reference to it] is clearly stated in PoME p.175 [ from the Tale of years]

750 second age: Foundation of Imladris [or rivendell] and of Eregion [or hollin] as dwellings of the Noldor or High-Elves.

here the entirety of the Nodor are given the title High Elves - including the children of the Noldor [ who may have begun to predominate the original Exiles].

on PoM-E p.221, we have the unusual usage of " but though Mithrellas was of the lesser silvan race [ and not fo the High-Elves or Grey] ..." as if Noldor and hig-Elf were synonomus.

In the PoME [ page 256] begining of what came ot be The Numenorean Kings section of Appendix A in the LotR , we read there were 3 Unions of High-Elves and Men.

In the RotK this reads, "Eldar and Men".

This follows what we would consider the more normative usage [at least for luthien - although one could reasonably argue for her being a High-Elf on the virtue of her half-maian anscestery.

On the next page in both PoM-E and RotK, we see

to him therefore was granted the same grace as to those of the High-Elves [ed. note Sindar/silvan too?] that still lingered...

In the Shibboleth [ a very late work .68] we read

...Quenya was a language of lore known and used only by the dwindling remnant of the High-Elves [of noldorin descent],...

that unusual usage seems again to inply there were other non Noldorin Eldar in M-E.

It does also confirm however the use of High-Elves for those of 'Noldorin descent'.

one final note; in the PoM-E index under High-Elves it says after the main entries see Eldar!

I recently gave away my copy of the letters, but I have access to one perhaps more easily searched - i would however be suprised to see anything other than the same sort of story we see in PoME, a varrying set of contradictory usages.

I rather imagine that JRRT used them with some distinction in his mind, but often in the course of writing chose more according to euphony than exactness.

The muse is a right brained creature it would seem.