Grey Havens

One year later, in 3019, as Bilbo and Frodo celebrate their birthdays together in Rivendell following the War of the Ring, Soramon enters the Shire and begins his takeover.

In 3021 of the Third Age, on September 22nd, the four hobbits meet Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf, and Bilbo, who had just turned 131, making him the oldest hobbit to ever live, and join them on the final voyage to the Grey Havens.

And in the year 61 of the Fourth Age, Samwise Gamgee departs Bag End for the last time, making his way towards the Havens.

The 22nd was also celebrated in Gondor as Cormare, literally Ring Day, in honor of Frodo.

The One Ring was destroyed, Sauron was cast down, and the dominion of man had begun, marking the beginning of a new age, the Fourth Age of Middle-earth.

Elrond, who had dwelt in Imladris for more than four thousand years, departed at last for Middle-earth, passing westward with the Ringbearers to the Grey Havens and beyond the sea.

Many of the Eldar followed in the years that came after, and the great houses and gardens of Rivendell grew quieter than they had been in the days before.

But it must be said that Imladris was not altogether abandoned.

In the west, you have a tower holding a palantir that everybody just kind of forgot about.

But you also have, like, the Grey Havens to the west.

You also have Tom Bombadil just quietly hanging out immediately to the east.

You have...

That's really cool.

The Grey Havens were established in Second Age one.

You know, it seems to me like that might work, actually.

It seems to me that that might work.

He thinks that Glorfindel probably was sent over during the crisis of the Second Age, during the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, aka where we are right now.

This is where he puts forward the idea that Glorfindel couldn't have been sent over in the Third Age because after the fall of Numenor, how would he have been able to make it from Valinor to Middle-earth? And so these two, Glorfindel and Gandalf, are connected in a lot of the writings and eventually in wherever Tolkien says that Glorfindel probably met Gandalf at the Grey Havens when they arrived in the Third Age.

Anyway, these two are connected in all of these, like, different places.

But this is part of Peoples of Middle-earth contained within the last writings of Tolkien.

I'll give you an example.

The White Towers, the three towers of the Elves of Lindon, has got an elf who's been in the tower for several years, looking at the Palantir, meant to be looking towards the Grey Havens, but he's turned it eastwards towards Mordo and he can't look away.

There's another character who's there, who's waiting to get in, who's really impatient.

And the custodian of the towers won't let anyone in because she swore an oath to not disturb this elf who's in there.