: : I'm not sure their elevation would have been indiscriminate.
: : Cirdan and Lenwe (Denweg) were also chieftains among the
: : Teleri. They just weren't ranked as highly as Elwe and Olwe.
: : Elwe was their first lord, and when he vanished Olwe was made
: : the king, but then his kingship was restricted only to those
: : Teleri who actually passed over Sea to Valinor.

: Well, there's no reason to believe Cirdan (& Lenwe for that
: matter, although I'll address that below) was a 'chieftan', or
: 'Lord', *before* he led his (their) sundered people. Is there?

I guess that depends on one's perspective.

: I still think it rather remarkable that Elwe & Olwe were called
: chieftans before the Separation (ie. no one to lead but the
: Nelyar!).

There could have been a council of chieftains. Tolkien may not have been using the word "chieftain" in the sense of a tribal leader so much as in the sense of someone who was recognized by others as a community leader. By that, I mean the selection of "chieftains" may have been less derived from heritage and more derived from popularity and ability to organize people and resolve issues.

: : Should we not wonder of Lenwe wasn't also related to Elwe?
: : I'm not sure Tolkien ever got that far, since the Nandor
: : evolved from the Danians, who were originally Noldor who
: : turned aside, not Teleri.

: Ah! This was actually going to be my next hypothesis. I was
: aware of Lenwe's original Noldo status, & in pursuing this I
: found that it need not be untrue. I know Tolkien supplanted
: the original passage where the Nandor were originally the
: "hindmost of the Noldor", to a later page where they came from
: the 3rd host (ie Lindar - I hate the word Teleri). BUT,
: Lenwe's heritage is never again brought up, only that he led
: people away from the "host of Olwe".
:
: There was a great pause along the March at Anduin, most
: definitely for the Lindar, and many wished to remain there.
: And it was here that the Nandor went southward. So, the
: 'hindmost' of the Noldor may have remained on the east bank
: until the Lindar arrived. In fact, if they procrastinated long
: enough, Elwe's group would have eventually left, leaving only
: Olwe's host. Thus if a hindmost part of the Noldor, DID become
: the Nandor, it would have been from the 'host of Olwe' that
: they were ultimately sundered!

I think that's a little contrived.

: Furthermore, follow this logic if you will. At the Awakening,
: there were 5 groups of Elves (Minyar, 1st Tatyar, 2nd Tatyar,
: 1st Nelyar, 2nd Nelyar). Then at the Separation 2 more groups
: emerged (Tatyar Avari & Nelyar Avari). Okay, 7 groups.
:
: We know the leader of the Minyar (or Vanyar at the Separation)
: was Ingwe, and that Elwe & Olwe were leaders of 2 Nelyar hosts,
: even at the Separation. Also we know, with a fair degree of
: certainty, that the 2 Avari leaders were Morwe & Nurwe. And
: finally, there's Finwe and his Noldor. So, 6 leaders; 7
: groups.

Morwe and Nurwe were dropped from the history. There were no leaders left among the Avari (of a stature similar to that of Ingwe, Finwe, Elwe, and Olwe) after the Separation. It's the lack of real leaders among the easern Elves which provides opportunities for the Sindar to later colonize them and establish new kingdoms. Lenwe probably did die at some point, and Denethor's departure removed the last vestige of real leadership among the Nandor any Avari with whom they became mingled (either in the Vales of Anduin or in Eriador).

: What do these leaders all have in common? They end in 'WE'.
: And as far as I know, the only other Elf that does is Len-WE.
: Also, chronologically speaking, he becomes the next leader of
: Elves. Now I don't know the meaning of 'WE' (maybe I've missed
: something - quite possible), but there's Man-WE, Lord of the
: Valar; Eon-WE, chief of the Maiar; (& maybe Fion-WE, son &
: heir? of Manwe). Could there be some significance - possibly
: meaning 'highest one' or 'leader'?

Well, "wë" just means something like "man" or "person". (Cirdan's original name, btw, was "Nowë".) Voronwe and Aranwe's names also included the suffix. And some of Finwe's descendants were given names which ended with the suffix (in Quenya).

: Finally (this may be stretching the point), if we look at the
: 3rd last letter of each Elf leader, the 2 Avari leaders end in
: 'RWE', the 2 Lindar leaders end in 'LWE', and the Vanyar leader
: (with no sibling group) ends in 'NGWE'. That leaves Fi-NWE &
: Le-NWE.
:
: So, I put forth the theory (if you hadn't guessed by now), that
: Lenwe was proclaimed the leader of the 2nd Tatyar, *at* the
: Separation, along with the other 6 leaders.

Sorry. I can't buy that.

I would agree, however, that the Elves were probably very loyal to their leaders, and they would not easily break off from them (although Celegorm and Curufin's people repudiated them in Nargothrond after the death of Finrod Felagund).

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