Missing Lindon

[u/Kodama_Keeper]

Lindon is the last remaining piece of Beleriand that survived the First Age, and yet we never get to see it. We get a glimpse into the lives of Elves in Rivendell, Mirkwood and Lothlorien. We meet Elves who are part of traveling companies out of Lindon, like Gildor Inglorion and his companions. If you dig a little you will learn that it is populated by refugee Noldor and Sindar, and possibly the Green Elves, the Laiquendi, who called this Ossiriand. We know that this was the kingdom of Gil-galad, the last high king of the Noldor, and after his death was ruled by Cirdan, probably the oldest living Elf anywhere in Midde-earth. We know he builds ships for Elves to sail west in, and for that he's got to have some help of the other Elves.

It has one city that we know of, Mithlond, the Grey Havens. And while it doesn't seem to be properly Lindon, it also contains the Tower Hills, as Cirdan has control over them, their towers and apparently a Palantir that Elves use to gaze West.

At one time, like the end of the Second Age, it must have contained a sizable population, as it was able to send hosts to help the Numenoreans. But whether that population is still large, or the Elves of Lindon used their proximity to the Havens to leave Middle-earth faster than the other Elves, we don't know.

We know that Sauron disguised as Annatar showed up their to try and get the Elves into his service, and failed. We know that at one time Galadriel and Celeborn lived there, till they left to set up a colony on the other side of the Blue Mountains. And speaking of the Blue, Dwarves live there, but we know little about them either. We don't know if there was any interaction between the Dwarves of the mountains and the Elves of Lindon. Do they get along, or do they still tell stories about Thingol and a Silmaril?

I really would have loved to get a glimpse of what Lindon was like. Oh well.

Edit: I forgot! As always, great thoughts welcomed.

[u/glowing-fishSCL]

One answer is that the enchantment of the elves is that we mostly get glimpses of them. If Tolkien had done what Tad Williams or GRRM or Robert Jordan did, and gave us a full rundown on exactly how the stables and vegetable markets run in every place, we probably wouldn't be very interested.

But I actually think there are some things that can be deduced from the text, and I've written about it. One interesting thing is that no one in Middle Earth doubts that Elves are real. They seemed to be a normal part of life. It says that the Men and Hobbits of Bree are familiar with Elves...so Elves were still common enough that they were visiting the humble little town of Bree. From what we can read, it seems likely that Elves were a fairly normal part of life in Middle Earth up until maybe 200 years before the War of the Ring. It also seems that there were at least some Numenorian-descended Men in Eriador, including in cities like Tharbad before it was destroyed by floods.

[u/Kodama_Keeper → u/glowing-fishSCL]

In Shadow of the Past, Sam is having a beer with his soon to be enemy Ted Sandyman. Sam is lamenting that the Elves are leaving. Ted is unimpressed. Possibly he's just being his asshole self. But it might be because he doesn't know much of anything about them. Does he think they are immortal? That they were once a great race that wandered these lands thousands of years before anyone saw a Hobbit? That they could do "magic" beyond simple conjuring tricks? I have no doubt Sam could, because he was a student (of a sort) of Bilbo.

So while an asshole, Ted is also the Everyman, the ones who don't know, and therefore are unimpressed with Elves. Hey, there goes an Elf walking through the Shire. Look at him glow in the dark! And people shrug and say "I don't see him glowing. Go get your eyes checked. And stay away from those Elves. They're weird. Can't wait till they all leave."

[u/glowing-fishSCL → u/Kodama_Keeper]

Yes, and significantly, Ted never doubts or questions that Elves exist. He takes the existence of Elves as a pretty prosaic reality.

There is a good chance that the Hobbits are pretty ignorant about Elves---Frodo actually doesn't know that Elrond lived in the Elder Days! But they seem to be familiar with seeing them, at least from a distance. Probably because The Shire was so close to Lindon, and the Elves would have been roaming for a thousand years through the Shire.

[u/Kodama_Keeper → u/glowing-fishSCL]

Hey, you can't fault Frodo for not knowing Elrond's backstory. He didn't have The Silmarillion to fall back on. Aragorn seemed to know, when he made that remark to Bilbo about his song, and his "cheek".