Exiles from Valinor

After millennia of bliss in the Light of the Two Trees, the Valar chose to release Melkor from his long imprisonment, and the former Dark Lord soon turned back to his evil ways. At first he worked subtly to sow divisions among the Elves, but after his schemes were revealed he fled for a time, before returning to destroy the Trees and escape into Middle-earth. Before he departed, Melkor attacked the stronghold of Formenos, slaying Fëanor's father Finwë and taking the Silmarils from their deep vault. Driven to fury, Fëanor and his Sons took a dreadful, irrevocable Oath to pursue and recover the lost Jewels. Many of the Noldor chose to follow Fëanor away from Valinor on the long road to Middle-earth. In need of ships, some of the Noldor attacked the Teleri and took their vessels, leaving many slain Elves in their wake.

The Valar were grieved by these desperate actions, but took no direct action until the Noldor had travelled far into the North, and were approaching the way that led out of Aman and into Middle-earth. An emissary - said to have been Mandos himself - then approached the Elves, bidding them to turn back. A part of the following heeded these words and returned the way they had come, but for the most part the Noldor defied the Valar and continued on their journey. By the words of the Doom of Mandos, these Elves thus exiled themselves from Valinor, which was closed against any return for Fëanor and his followers.

Over the centuries that followed, the exiled Noldor fought against the Dark Lord, but after one of the Silmarils was recovered from Morgoth's Iron Crown, the Oath of Fëanor cursed the Elves to fight among themselves for possession of the Jewel. Morgoth eventually came close to complete victory over his enemies, but by the power of the recovered Silmaril, Eärendil was able to cross the Sea to Valinor and call on the Valar for aid. This led to the War of Wrath and the final overthrow of Morgoth.

After the defeat of the Dark Lord, the Valar showed mercy to most of those Exiles who had survived. The ban remained, however, for those of the Noldor who had played a chief part in the rebellion, though for the most part these had been slain in the Wars of Beleriand. Maedhros and Maglor, the elder Sons of Fëanor, finally recovered the last two Silmarils only to find that the hallowed Jewels rejected them. Maedhros then took his own life in despair, while Maglor wandered the world in grief and was lost to history. By the end of the Third Age, Galadriel was the only Exile from Valinor to remain in Middle-earth. Her actions during the War of the Ring led to her exile coming to an end, and she was permitted to return across the Great Sea to the lands in the West that had once been her home.