Cuiviénen

And in the Silmarillion, we read this about when the elves first awoke.

By the starlit mirror of Cuivienen, Water of Awakening, they rose from the sleep of Iluvatar, and while they dwelt yet silent by Cuivienen, their eyes beheld first of all things the stars of heaven.

Therefore they have ever loved the starlight, and have revered Varda Elintari, above all the Valar.

The elves loved the stars so much that it became part of their identity.

Not only does he graciously grant dwarves a certain free will by the flame imperishable, but through the creation of the dwarves, other magnificent creatures come into being as a way of counterbalancing their existence.

The Teleri In chapter 3 of The Silmarillion, we learn that the first elves awoke in Cuiviénen, and that the first sound that was heard by them was the sound of water flowing and the sound of water falling over stone.

Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, is the first of the Ainur to speak to the elves.

After a great battle in which the forces of Melkor are defeated and the path westward from Cuiviénen made safer, the Valar summon the elves to Valinor in the interest of protecting them from the dangers of the wider world.

Many elves decide not to make the journey.

These are thereafter known as the Avari, the unwilling.

Why? Simply put, they have lost their leader because he has come under the musical spell of Melian, one of the Ainur.

Melian is a Maia, and she is particularly skilled in songs of enchantment.

Eventually, the reckoning came.

When the elves awoke at last by the waters of Cuivienen and the Valar learned that the children of Eru had entered a world Melkor had already poisoned, they resolved on war.

They crossed the sea, marched east, and laid siege to the north.

This is the war of the powers, and it is its own enormous story.