After Elwë of the Teleri became lost in Beleriand, his people did all they could to search the lands for him, even when the summons came for them to travel across the Great Sea into the West. So Elwë's followers were forced to make a choice: to follow their lord's brother Olwë to Aman, or to remain and continue the search for Elwë. They chose to remain faithful, and so gave up their chance to travel to the Blessed Realm.
After long years Elwë returned to them; he had become enmeshed in Nan Elmoth by the enchanting beauty of Melian the Maia. Together those two founded a great kingdom, later called Doriath, and their people became the Sindar, highest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth. For Elwë's sake, though, these people had been left behind when the other Teleri passed into the West, and for that reason they were also known by another name: Eglath, the Forsaken People.
Notes
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According to The Grey Annals in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth, the Teleri departed from Middle-earth, leaving their kinsmen behind in Beleriand, in the Valian Year 1150. This would convert to a period of some 3,354 solar years before the first rising of the Sun.
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2 |
Based on the text of the Silmarillion, there is no doubt that the Forsaken People included the Sindar of Doriath as well as those of the Falas. There are indications, however, that Tolkien may have later come to take a different view. In the essay Quendi and Eldar (also in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth), he seems to suggest that the name 'Forsaken People' was used specifically and exclusively for the Falathrim, the followers of Círdan who dwelt on the western coasts of Beleriand. If Tolkien did indeed intend this change to the meaning of the name, however, it did not find its way into the published Silmarillion.
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