Deep-elves

“Elf” is an uncommon word.  The hyphenated combination is unattested in OED, therefore a JRRT original.  Tolkien spun out a marvelously complex tapestry of interrelations between types of Elves in his legendarium.

[08.131]  The feasting people were Wood-elves, of course.  These are not wicked folk.  If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers.  Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft in the making of beautiful xx and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World. In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon…

  • 08.131 and the Deep-elves

The Tolkien Gateway article on them may be found here.  A beautifully detailed genealogy of individuals may be found here.  Finally, a very accessible chart of the relationships between different groups of Elves may be found here.

Carc

Say it aloud!  This name is a sound-play word – hinting that the Raven language is still spoken all around us and we have lost the wit to understand.

Tolkien writes in his Essay on Phonetic Symbolism about the origin of this name – and of his father’s

rook is no longer krāg or krāk or χrk from which it took its use.

  • 15.010 old Carc
  • 15.014 I am Roäc son of Carc.
  • 15.014 Carc is dead,
  • 15.021 Roäc Carc’s son.

Tolkien, J. R. R.. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Kindle Locations 1954-1955). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.