Elves beyond the Sea

In the far distant past of the world, the Vala Oromë had led the Eldar out of the East on a Great Journey. Many of these Eldar reached Middle-earth's western coasts and were carried across the Great Sea to dwell in the bliss of Aman and the Light of the Two Trees. These Elves lived beside the Valar and Maiar for millennia, but eventually the blissful time came to an end. Secretly fomented by Melkor, conflict and distrust arose among the people known as the Noldor. Melkor stole the three Silmarils from their maker Fëanor, which caused the enraged Fëanor to lead his people back across the Sea into Middle-earth in a desperate quest to recover the Jewels.

Galadriel was the daughter of Fëanor's half-brother Finarfin, and she joined the Noldor on their perilous march into Middle-earth, though she played little direct part in the Wars fought before the end of the First Age. That Age ended in the War of Wrath and the defeat of Melkor. After this time Galadriel remained in Middle-earth, exiled from the West beyond the Sea, but she remained great among the Eldar of Middle-earth.

At the time of the War of the Ring in the closing years of the Third Age, more than six thousand years had passed since the War of Wrath. Still Galadriel lamented her exile from the Elves beyond the Sea. At that time she thought the West lost to her forever, as she sang at the departure of the Company of the Ring from her land of Lórien. After the War of the Ring was over, however, matters were changed. Because of the part she had played in that War, her exile was lifted, and she sailed aboard the White Ship back across the Sea to the blissful lands she had known in her youth.