<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Originally, in Tolkien's writings from the 1910s and 1920s, Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë (their final names) were the eldest of the Elves . By 1959 or 1960, Tolkien wrote a detailed account of the awakening of the Elves, called Cuivienyarna, part of Quendi and Eldar . Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë now became the first ambassadors and the Kings of the Elves . This text only saw print in The War of the Jewels, part of the analytical The History of Middle - earth series, in 1994, but a similar version was included in The Silmarillion in 1977 . </P> <P> According to the earliest account, the first Elves are awakened by Eru Ilúvatar near the bay of Cuiviénen during the Years of the Trees in the First Age . They awake under the starlit sky, as the Sun and Moon have yet to be created . The first Elves to awake are three pairs: Imin ("First") and his wife Iminyë, Tata ("Second") and Tatië, and Enel ("Third") and Enelyë . </P> <P> Imin, Tata, and Enel and their wives join up and walk through the forests . They come across six, nine, and twelve pairs of Elves, and each "patriarch" claims the pairs as his folk in order . The now sixty Elves dwell by the rivers, and they invent poetry and music in Middle - earth (the continent). Journeying further, they come across eighteen pairs of Elves watching the stars, whom Tata claims as his . These are tall and dark - haired, the fathers of most of the Noldor . The ninety - six Elves now invented many new words . Continuing their journey, they find twenty - four pairs of Elves, singing without language, and Enel adds them to his people . These are the ancestors of most of the Lindar or "singers", later called Teleri . They find no more Elves; Imin's people, the smallest group, are the ancestors of the Vanyar . All in all the Elves number 144 . Because all Elves had been found in groups of twelve, twelve becomes their base number and 144 their highest number (for a long time), and none of the later Elvish languages have a common name for a greater number . </P>

Race of elves in lord of the rings