"...and the
Valar will fence
Valinor against you, and shut you out, so that not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the
mountains."
From the
Doom of MandosQuenta Silmarillion 9
Of the Flight of the Noldor
Those of the Noldor who chose to follow Fëanor in his pursuit of Melkor into Middle-earth. Against the will of the Valar, and doing terrible deeds of desperation along the way, Fëanor led his people out of Valinor and into the far north, seeking the narrow ways into the Great Lands.
Those that reached the far north were given a last warning in the Doom of Mandos. The Valar foretold the misery and suffering they would find in Middle-earth, and declared Fëanor and his followers exiled from Aman.
Not all of the Noldor became exiles. Some had rejected Fëanor's call to leave Valinor, and remained there when the main host set out. After the dreadful foretellings of Mandos, others also abandoned the pursuit, and followed Fëanor's half-brother Finarfin back to Valinor, where they were pardoned by the Valar.
For those that did pass across the Sea, the exile lasted for millennia, but was not permanent. For example, Galadriel was among the Noldor who followed Fëanor, and so fell under the ban, but she was ultimately forgiven by the Valar and allowed to return into the West.
Notes
1 |
The Annals of Aman (in volume X of The History of Middle-earth) provides more precise dating for the Exile of the Noldor. According to that account, the Noldor made their Return to Middle-earth in Valian Year 1497. Converting Valian to solar years, the Exiles therefore first set foot in Middle-earth at a point about twenty years before the Moon and the Sun first rose.
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- Updated 29 July 2018
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