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Lord of the Rings Question

I've seen the movies as well as read the books (a long time ago though) and i was wondering about the mystical land the elves sail off to. what is this place? were they born here or something cuz Elrond says they are going home in the movie.

also, why can't they ever come back again?
 scrubby21 posted over a year ago
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Lord of the Rings Answers

harold said:
All of the undying races - the Valar (gods), the Maiar, and many of the Eldar (elves) - live in Valinor, also called the Undying Lands. This was Tolkein's version of Avalon and Hy Brasil, with a little bit of Heaven mixed in as well.

Long, long ago, the Valar created Valinor after one of their number, Melkor, went bad and destroyed their original home. The Valar living in Valinor discovered elves (Quendi) in Middle-earth and invited them to the Undying Lands. Most came, but some (the wood elves, the grey elves) stayed in Middle-earth and/or arrived too late for the journey. Those Quendi that went were the Vanyar (the fair), the Noldor (the wise), and the Lindar (the singers). Much later, one of the Noldor, Fëanor, created the Silmarils and the palantiri. Melkor stole the silmarils and fled to Middle-earth, taking one of the Maiar, Sauron, with him as his assistant. Fëanor gathered the Noldor into a vast army to chase Melkor to the ends of the earth to retrieve them. The War of Wrath was the result, which ended the first Age. After the first Age, many of the Noldor remained in Middle-earth, but they would head to the west when they felt their time in Middle-earth was done, sailing off to Valinor where only the undying could go, never to return.

They never come back for a variety of reasons: they only go when they've decided to never come back, the journey for them is only one way (like Heaven), it is so wonderful that everything in Middle-earth pales in comparison (so there'd be no reason to return), and I suspect that the Valar would not allow them to shuttle back and forth any more. There's been so much strife as a result of the traffic back and forth to Middle-earth that they probably only allow them to "come when you're sure you're going to stay." Finally, over the millennia, many elves have made the journey, so when they go, they are reunited with family and friends not seen for thousands of years.

Some of the elves were born in Valinor, no doubt, but most of the ones we read about in the trilogy were not, having been born of the Noldor after Fëanor formed his army and returned to Middle-earth. But they are always welcome to return (as long as they stay).
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posted over a year ago 
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hey, thanks for another great answer. was this explained in the Silmarillion? it seems very familiar and i read part of that book as well.
scrubby21 posted over a year ago
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Mostly "The Silmarillion", yeah. It honestly blends together in my mind - there may be some from "Unfinished Tales" as well.
harold posted over a year ago
Thee_Pervy_Sage said:
Why the North Pole of course.Sorry couldn't help it since no one else had a real answer.Why not a funny one in the meantime.
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posted over a year ago 
abblover46 said:
it is the land of the valar called valanor iut is the original home of the elfs but they had an rebellion aand some left and some stayed the ones that left went to middle earth then after a while they were called back but some went right away but some were reluctant to leave such as the elves if mirkwood the were some of the last to leave but legolas was the last to leave middle earth along with gimli who was the only dwarf ever aloud into valanor along with the only hobbits allowed were sam frodo and bilbo because they were all bearers of the ring
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posted over a year ago 
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