Cuiviénen

Ilúvatar awoke the first Elves, the Quendi as they came to call themselves, by Cuiviénen in 1050th Year of the Trees, and thus the First Age at last began. From the first they were divided into three groups: the Minyar, Tatyar, and Nelyar. They dwelt in Cuiviénen for more than fifty Valian Years before the first sundering. Many of the Elves, particularly of the Minyar and Tatyar, journeyed west to Valinor and, if they did not tarry in Middle-earth, saw its light and became known as the Eldar. Those who remained were called the Avari, the unwilling, for they did not desire to see the beauty of that land, but preferred the starlight of Cuiviénen. After the War of Wrath and the Changing of the World, Cuiviénen was destroyed and could no longer be sought out by the Eldar.

Cuiviénen lay on the shores of a bay on the inland Sea of Helcar's eastern end, at the foot of Orocarni near the Wild Wood. Located in the central regions of Middle-earth, Cuiviénen was far to the west of where the first Men later awoke in Hildórien. It was approximately 2,000 miles east of Beleriand's shoreline with Belegaer at Eglarest, as the crow flies, and it was about a 450 mile march east or southeast of the inland Sea of Rhûn. On the east side of the lake near which the Elves woke was a great cliff from which a waterfall came down. Near the lake was a green valley, a second larger valley, a third deeper and wider valley, a grove of birches by a stream and a firwood on a hill-side.

The Quenya name Cuiviénen means "Water of Awakening", from cuivië ("awakening") + nen ("water").

The Noldorin/Sindarin cognate was Nen Echui.

In the early version of the legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales, the "Waters of Awakening" were named Koivië-Néni in Qenya, and Nenin a Gwivros in Gnomish.

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