People of the stars. Firstborn. Elder children of Aluvatar. Elves. Tall, beautiful, and ageless,

elves generally draw a common picture in most people's minds when they imagine the fair race.

While many people think of elves as being simply haughty,

the race has the longest history of the peoples of Middle Earth in Tolkien's works,

and have endured much in their long lives.

This video will serve as an overview of their history in their lives,

and will be shortened in many aspects.

Of note, I will avoid using many names of elvish persons and locations

to prevent confusion. Elves were created by Eru alone during the Song of Creation, as only

Erru was capable of creating true life. They were laid to rest on Arda as the Ainur set about

preparing the world for the awakening of the children of Lovitar.

The elves finally awoke on the shores of a sea in eastern Middle Earth, after the destruction of the two lamps.

At first there were only six elves.

The first thing the elves saw were the recently created stars, and the first sound they heard was that of running

water. Henceforth, the elves shared a love of both. As the six elves began wandering the nearby

forests under the cover of twilight, they encountered more elves. During this time, they created

poetry, music, and language, and in the end gathered a total of 144 elves.

Since all elves had been found in pairs of twelve, twelve became their common counting number,

and later elves still had no common name for a number larger than 144.

Since the Valar were not made aware of the Elves' awakening, Melkor was actually the first

to come across them, and began capturing and corrupting them immediately.

It is believed by some that elves captured by Melkor during this time were corrupted into

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