» Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:48 pm 1. Specifically, this concerns the destruction of the Falmer civilization:
"After the Night of Tears in the late Merethic Era, Ysgramor and his Five Hundred Companions launched a campaign to drive the elves from Skyrim. Ysgramor and his heirs succeeded, and by the second century of the First Era, during the reign of the Nordic king Harald [13th in the line of Ysgramor], the last of the Falmer were driven from Skyrim to the island of Solstheim. The Falmer's civilization was obliterated at the Battle of the Moesring with the death of their leader, the Snow Prince." (from UESP Wiki, the page Lore:Falmer; I cross-checked this with other sources, such as the Imperial Library website).
Unfortunately, the book The Fall of the Snow Prince (one of many online copies can be found http://www.imperial-library.info/content/fall-snow-prince) states that Ysgramor led the Nords at the Battle of Moesring, which was fought on Solstheim. Either Ysgramor lived for centuries, or the Snow Elf civilization ended up being headquartered in Solstheim before it had even been driven from Skyrim, neither of which makes sense.
I feel I'm missing or misunderstanding something here and was hoping someone might be able to lend some insight.
2. All through the Elder Scrolls titles I have played (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and all expansions thereof), races of elves seem to appear to prefer to refer to themselves by their proper *prefix*mer name, for example, Altmer refer to themselves as Altmer whereas non-elves sometimes refer to them as High Elves or, even more the case, the Dunmer seem to sometimes resent the non-elf-colloquialism "Dark Elf." Scholars who study the Dwemer refer to them as Dwemer, not Dwarves. So why in Dawnguard does Gelebor say he prefers the name Snow Elf to Falmer? If anything, the creatures who are the result of the subjugation by the Dwemer ought to be referred to as Snow Elves, or "Cave Elves" even, but it would make sense that any surviving true "Snow Elves" would prefer the proper name, Falmer. It would have made sense if Gelebor had said "Yes, I am the last Falmer, but I prefer it if the twisted shadows of who we once were not be called such, and instead called 'Snow Elves,' the moniker given us by the very men who's wars led to our dependence on the Dwemer and our ultimate demise." Or just not mention anything about the name "Falmer" at all. Again, I feel like I'm missing or misunderstanding something here, or connecting evidence in a non-enlightening manner.
Edit: Perhaps there was once a "correct" name for Snow Elf that was lost due to disuse? I haven't been able to find anything about this online, but anyone think it might make sense for the Snow Elves (when they're civilization still existed) to refer to themselves as "Faldmer"? Here is my reasoning: the Altmer are ostensibly the closest to the Aldmer, but all the sources I've read said that the Aldmer in Skyrim, which included a clan called the Snow Elves, drove the Atmorans/Proto-Nords out during the Night of Tears, and it can therefore be concluded that they were perhaps rather similar to proto-Elves/Aldmer? Perhaps just as we have ALDMER-->ALTMER we also have ALDMER-->FALDMER. After all, this is how languages are grouped together as language families, by (among many other things) tracing back a common origin words in the languages concerned... for example, for Indo European, YOGA and YOKE have the same etymological origin (a yolk joins two oxen or other animals together, and yoga was/is the practice of joining ones being to Brahman, which sometimes involved stretching hence the lessons we sometimes go to in our neighborhood gyms) certainly these two languages - those of the High Elves and the Snow Elves - ought to be closely related... after all, at the time the Snow Elves were fighting the Atmorans, they were just one of many Aldmeri clans doing so. Does that seem plausible and/or lore friendly? Or am I overstepping there?
Thank you in advance to anyone who has the time to help me out with this!
