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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7260848" data-attributes="member: 4937">It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.In Tolkien, to possess knowledge of light is to be literally 'Enlightened'.  All light is in some sense flowing out from Illuvatar, the source of all knowledge, truth, and goodness.   The Valar were gifted with light from being in the presence of Illuvatar.   The most beloved Valar, Elbereth Glithoniel the star-kindler, shared light with Middle Earth, and became the first light than the elves beheld.   The Dark Elves are the family or families of elves that never left the original elven home far in the East.   As a result, they had little or no contact with the Valar, and as such less knowledge of the ways of Illuvatar.  They weren't necessarily more evil than other elves, but since they were literally 'unenlightened', they would have been more prone to error and evil than other elves (and in this way, would have been more like Men).  Those elves that journeyed all the way to Valinor, which is another word for the land of Aman, and who saw the light of the two trees clearly before Morgoth destroyed them, became the High Elves.  Those that tarried on the journey or turned aside became the Grey Elves, which included the Green Elves or Wood Elves who had turned aside the soonest.  We don't know what Dark Elves looked like, but presumably they looked just like other elves typically looked - fair skinned, tall, with very dark brown hair.</blockquote>

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