When did the last of the High Elves leave Middle Earth ?

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Anyone got any idea when the last High Elven ship - presumably with Cirdan on board - left the Havens ?

Or did Cirdan wait even longer until all the other Elves from Mirkwood and Ithilien decided to leave ?

[Inziladun]

There was Gildor and many fair Elven folk; and there to Sam's wonder rode Elrond and Galadriel.

ROTK The Grey Havens

And there are Círdan's words to Gandalf to consider:

But as for me, my heart is with the Sea, and I will dwell by the grey shores, guarding the Havens until the last ship sails. Then I shall await thee.
White was that ship and long was it a-building, and long it awaited the end of which Círdan had spoken. But when all these things were done, ....the power of the Three Rings also was ended, and to the Firstborn the world grew old and grey. In that time the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever.

Silm Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age (emphasis added)

For me, the implication clearly seems to be that Círdan was on board the ship which took the Keepers of the Three, and that the remaining High Elves also went at that time.
Círdan's absence also would explain why Legolas built a ship for himself and Gimli in Ithilien.

[Lindale]

Inziladun, my reading of that Silm passage is this: What is the "then" Cirdan talks about? The last ship that will sail, or the return of Gandalf? I think it's the latter. Didn't Sam follow Frodo to Tol Eressea? So the "last ship" isn't the one Gandalf was in.

Anyway I think JRRT made a minor inconsistency here. In the Silm passage Inziladun quotes, "the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever." But then in the passage Pitchwife quotes, there are some High Elves left in Middle-Earth, apparently together with Elladan and Elrohir.

The "long remained" portion however bugs me. Can it mean that eventually, after a long time, they left, or is it an indication that after a very long time, they "faded," whatever that means?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Lindale

Inziladun, my reading of that Silm passage is this: What is the "then" Cirdan talks about? The last ship that will sail, or the return of Gandalf? I think it's the latter. Didn't Sam follow Frodo to Tol Eressea? So the "last ship" isn't the one Gandalf was in.

The 'last ship' could be taken to mean the one carrying Gandalf et al, the last voyage of the Noldor. Certainly he didn't mean to infer it was to be the final ship ever to leave the shores of Middle-earth.
'Then I will await thee' appears to say Círdan is waiting for the return of Gandalf to the Havens after the completion of his mission, which is when that ship was to set forth.

[Eönwë]

Well, what we do know is that it was definitely no later than when Sam left (in SR 1482, which I think is FA 60), because in The Tale of Years it says

Originally Posted by Tale of Years, SR 1482

Among them the tradition is handed down from Elanor that Samwise passed the Towers, and went to the Grey havens, and passed over Sea, last of the Ring-bearers

Which means that at the very latest Cirdan left with him then, but definitely no later.

[Inziladun]

To further muddy the waters, there is this from Letter #144.

The High Elves met in this book (LOTR) are exiles, returned back over Sea to Middle-earth, after events which are the main matter of the Silmarillion, part of one of the main kindreds of the Eldar: the Noldor (Masters of Lore). Or rather a last remnant of these....those who lingered were those who were enamoured of Middle-earth and yet desired the unchanging beauty of the Land of the Valar. Hence the making of the Rings....when the One goes, the last defenders of High-elven lore and beauty are shorn of their power to hold back time, and depart.

I read that as saying all the Noldor left with the Keepers of the Three. The Prologue notwithstanding, what possible reason would any of them have had for staying in ME when Elrond and Galadriel had gone? I always saw the departure of those two as a vastly symbolic moment: the 'official' acknowledgement of the High Elves that their time was up, and they must make way for the Age of Men.
The Silvan Elves were a different matter. They had spent their entire lives far away from the Sea, and knew nothing of the Sea-longing. I doubt Legolas himself would ever have passed Over Sea had he not chanced to hear the cry of the gulls along the coasts of Gondor. I'm fairly certain many of the Silvan Elves never left, and indeed suffered the 'fading' they were doomed to undergo, holding fast to ME to the end.

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

ROTK The Grey Havens

And there are Círdan's words to Gandalf to consider:


Silm Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age (emphasis added)

For me, the implication clearly seems to be that Círdan was on board the ship which took the Keepers of the Three, and that the remaining High Elves also went at that time.
Círdan's absence also would explain why Legolas built a ship for himself and Gimli in Ithilien.

I don't agree that Cirdan left with the Keepers of the Three. In the Appendices of ROTK there's a statement somewhere about the Havens, where it's said in relation to Cirdan that "some say he dwells there still, until the last ship sails".

[Pitchwife]

All I could find doing a quick search is this from the end of the Prologue to LotR:

There [=in Rivendell, P.], though Elrond had departed, his sons long remained, together with some of the High-Elven folk. It is said that Celeborn went to dwell there after the departure of Galadriel; but there is no record of the day when at last he sought the Grey Havens, and with him went the last living memory of the Elder Days in Middle-earth[emphasis mine, P.]

As Círdan was presumably older than Celeborn (possibly a first generation Elf from Cuiviénen?), this seems to imply that he sailed either with Celeborn or before him.
As for the remaining Elves from Mirkwood and Ithilien (or Lórien, for that matter), I don't think all of them ever left Middle-earth - many (most?) probably remained, slowly fading over the millennia. For all we know, they're still around.

(x-ed with Inzil: Thanks for the Silmarillion quote, I vaguely remembered there was something like this.)

[Inziladun]

I had forgotten that quote from the Prologue. I recalled Celeborn going to Rivendell, but I don't believe Celeborn was of the High Elves. Wasn't he one of the Sindar from Doriath?

The quote from the Silm has another line, which I omitted.

In that time the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever. And latest of all the Keepers of the Three Rings rode to the Sea, and Master Elrond took there the ship that Círdan had made ready.

The only explanation for the apparent variance between the statements in the Silm and FOTR would seem to be that some of the remaining High Elves were not of the Noldor, though I don't know how that could be.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I don't believe Celeborn was of the High Elves. Wasn't he one of the Sindar from Doriath?

That depends on which of the variant backstories in UT you choose to believe. According to one of them, he was a Teler from Alqualonde; if so, he certainly qualifies as a High-Elf, having lived in Aman - probably the only non-Noldorin High-Elf left in Middle-earth. (Myself, I prefer the Doriath backstory - if only because it gets rid of his Telerin name, one of the most embarrassing unintentional puns in recorded history;!)
Good point about Sam, Lindale. I think we can safely assume that Sam didn't build and/or sail his ship by himself, so some of Círdan's people must have stayed there at least that long. They needn't have been High-Elves, however - more likely they were Sindar from the Falas who came there with their lord Círdan after the ruin of Beleriand. The Noldor never were great shipwrights or mariners, apart from a few illustrious exceptions like Voronwe and his shipmates.
As for the question whether Elladan and Elrohir ever sailed west, see here.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

But Legolas and Gimli came to Valinor much later. Did Legolas
have to return to Middle-earth when Gimli died?

And if Legolas could build a ship capable of making the voyage,
why not other elves?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

Did Legolas
have to return to Middle-earth when Gimli died?

No, why would he? The Valar originally invited/summoned all Elves to Aman, and I haven't read anywhere that those who didn't make it the first time were excluded later.

And if Legolas could build a ship capable of making the voyage,
why not other elves?

Maybe they could, but would they want to? Legolas himself had no yearning for the sea before he came to Pelargir with Aragorn & co.