The Valar at first knew nothing of their coming, but they were soon discovered by the spies of Melkor, who sent his creatures to watch them and harass them. In the far eastern land of Cuiviénen, on the shores of the Inland Sea of Helcar and beneath the mountains of the Orocarni, the Elves awoke under the starlight of the Years of the Trees. Unlike Men, the Elves were not subject to illness or death, and at the time of the Lord of the Rings, there were still at least two Elves in Aman who had awoken by Cuiviénen in the first days: Ingwë, Lord of the Vanyar, and Olwë, brother of King Elu Thingol. The first Elves awoke by Cuiviénen, the Water of Awakening in the far east of Middle-earth, long Ages before the first rising of the Sun or Moon.
