|
Such broad superlatives seem to me a bit boorish.
Come now, the Vanyar are the Wisest and the Fairest, and Ingwe the most loved. Does that make them the Greatest? You decide.
Each of the three kindreds have their gifts, much of what makes the Vanyar so successful is the closeness to the Valar. So, it is at any rate acquired.
Their great gift is poetry, which for Tolkien would have been cardinal.
The Noldor were the bravest, most skilled and so forth. Although these pursuits led to problems, that was not because those pursuits were bad, but because they led to avarice and pridefulness.
The Teleri may seem like a bunch of lesser elves, but they are great singers, sea wrights and so forth. But the likes of Thingol, Cirdan, Beleg, Luthien and others could make them the greatest. Finrod and Galadriel are all half Teleri.
Greatness in the eye of the beholder.
__________________
The hoes unrecked in the fields were flung, __ and fallen ladders in the long grass lay __ of the lush orchards; every tree there turned __ its tangled head and eyed them secretly, __ and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; __ though noontide glowed on land and leaf, __ their limbs were chilled.
|