September 13, TA 3019
13 September 2006 16:56:03Categories: Tolkien Calendar
Celeborn and Galadriel depart, the others set out for Rivendell.
- Galadriel, Celeborn, Elrond, and Gandalf have spent some seven days in quiet conference about many things--from ages gone to the recent events of the War of the Ring and the possibilities of the time yet to come. The Lords of Lorien need to return to their realm, where Galadriel will stay but a short time before she departs from the Grey Havens, leaving Celeborn and Middle Earth behind. Indeed, it seems as though the departure is already underway for the three who will go, for their conversation takes place as a meeting of mind only, and they seem to be only partly present in Middle Earth. "If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in un peopled lands." It is a foreshadowing of the future of Elven folk.
Elrond, Gandalf, and the hobbits go on from Eregion to Rivendell after the Lords of Lorien leave. Frodo and his friends seek Bilbo out before they do anything else, and in his simple greeting "So you've come back." the Quest of the Ring has come almost full circle. For two weeks they rest in the Last Homely House, and then it is time for the hobbits and Gandalf to leave on the last stage of the journey home. Frodo and Bilbo leave Elrond, but like Galadriel, the parting is temporary. The Grey Havens wait.
Images © "Fellowship Journey" by Alan Lee.