After his return to Lothl�rien, it seemed to Aldamir that he had never loved the Golden Wood so intensely. He had always loved it deeply before, but somehow the months spent away from it, in the battle and darkness of war and despair, had heightened his love for it, and little would tear him away from it again. Yet, during the years after the War of the Ring, he did leave L�rien a few times to pay visits to Mirkwood, Rivendell and once, Gondor . But those visits are another tale, for another time.
Aldamir spent much of his time walking under the mallorns, sometimes alone, sometimes with Lindir or with Uruviel. Among the mallorns he was at peace and at home; he needed nothing. Sometimes he would sit and watch a silver stream babbling in and out between the mallorns� mossy roots, other times, he would spend nights in the Golden Wood�s observatories, high in the mallorn-tops, watching the stars.
Two years after the War had ended and the Fourth Age of Middle-earth had began, Galadriel called the Galadhrim to her. Her expression was sad as she spoke to them, telling them that the time was in. �Long have we known that our time is ending,� she said, �and now that end is here. Whether we desire it or no, we must leave this land that we love and dwell in. A ship is waiting at the Havens to carry us over the Sea, by the Straight Path, into the East where Valinor lies. We have fought alongside men and renewed the alliance of old, but for the last time. The time of the Elves is over, the power of the Three is ended, and now the dominion of Men has come.
�I am leaving for the Grey Havens soon, and I bid you who will, follow me across the Sea, for no longer do the Elves have a place in Middle-earth...�
The words struck sadness into the hearts of all the Elves. They knew the truth of her words, but that did not ease the pain. Some would not go, and determined to stay in Middle-earth, among the greying trees. Among those remaining was Celeborn, who wished for no life in Valinor but to live out his days in Middle-earth.
Aldamir determined to cross the Sea. Much as he loved Lothl�rien and all of Middle-earth, the Sea�s call tugged at his heart. While in Gondor, he had visited the Sea and heard the gulls. Now, though he was happy in L�rien, he desired also to give in to the call and sail the Straight Path. Lindir, too, decided as he did. For Uruviel, it was no choice.
One morning, not long before the Elves going with Galadriel were to depart, Uruviel went looking for Aldamir and found him kneeling in a clearing. His hands were buried in the dirt as he carefully and gently worked to uproot a very small mallorn-sapling from the mossy soil.
�What are you doing?� she asked curiously.
He sat back on his heels. �Haldir loved the mallorns,� he said softly. �He once said that life in a land without mallorn-trees would be a poor life indeed. He did not know if mallorns grew in Valinor; I don�t know if he would have gone. But I am going to take this sapling with me across the Sea, and plant it in Valinor, so that it can grow and blossom forever for Haldir, lover of mallorns....�
The day came at last, and in the light of a quiet morning Galadriel and her company rode forth from L�rien. Aldamir had spent the previous night walking one last time through the Wood, breathing in the beauty and storing it away in his heart. As they rode away slowly, silent and filled with a sadness that was not bitter, he paused once on the top of a hill and looked back. Lothl�rien lay golden and beautiful in the dawn, and yet it almost seemed to be disappearing in a mist. A golden mist of memories, of years that had passed and ended. For a long moment he merely gazed at it, and none ever knew what went through his mind during that last moment. Finally, unable to speak, he turned away and rode down the hill.
Never again would he see the Golden Wood, yet forever was it imprinted in his heart.
The company continued north, the last journey of the Elves. Riding at the feet of the Misty Mountains, they passed the West-gate of Moria, came to the Gladden Fields and passed through them, crossing the Mountains into the valley of Rivendell. Here Elrond joined them with those of his house who wished to journey with them, as well as the aged Hobbit Bilbo, and so they left Imladris for the last time and forded the Bruinen. Then they followed the Great East Road past the windy, dark, ruin-crowned hill of Weathertop, and came to Bree.
They did not ride through Bree, but instead rode around it, passing through the wooded parts. Few saw them, and those who did thought afterwards that the beautiful, sad sight must have been a dream. So they came to the Old Forest, and Buckland, and on the 22nd of September they rode through what the Shire-dwellers called the Woody End. As they rode, they sang in many soft voices;
A! Elbereth, Gilthoniel
silivren penna m�riel
o menel aglar elenath
Gilthoniel, A! Elbereth
We still remember, we who dwell
In this far land beneath the trees
The starlight on the Western Seas.*
As if in answer, two small figures on ponies became visible in the trees and rode toward them. They were Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, mounted on the Ponies they had journeyed home from Minas Tirith on.
Galadriel greeted them with welcoming words and a smile, and Sam blushed, having forgotten how beautiful the Lady was. Frodo, however, seemed to Aldamir to be weary and wounded; he still carried pain from the wounds of the Ring-quest. Then he understood: Frodo too was to cross the Sea into the Blessed Realm, to be healed of his hurts and find the peace he so richly deserved.
And so it was that the last company of Elves rode down to the Gulf of Lune and the Grey Havens lying in the sunset. Aldamir�s heart stirred at the sight of the sunlit sea and the sound of gulls crying out; the sea-air swirled about him. A golden light filled the firth as wine would a glass, and a grey stone quay reached out into the waters.
By the quay a white ship lay resting, with white sails furled at the masts, and in the East the sunlight laid a path on the water. Near the ship stood C�rdan, the shipwright of the Elves, with a light reminiscent of stars in his eyes. He greeted Galadriel as she walked down to the ship. When he spoke, his voice sounded like an echo of the waves, gentle and ageless. �All is now ready.....�
Then Aldamir went aboard the ship with his kin, and Mithrandir too went aboard, with Frodo and Bilbo. The sails were unfurled to catch an Eastern wind. Aldamir did not go below, but stayed at the ship�s railing as it drew away from the quay, and watched the grey buildings of Mithlond fall away behind him, along with the rest of Middle-earth.
Nam�ri�...... murmured his heart, but he could not speak aloud, not even to whisper.
Aldamir did not stir from the railing until the Havens had faded into the mists and he could no longer see the Eastern edge of Middle-earth. Then he turned his face east into the sunrise, where the mists swept away and Elvenhome lay under the stars......
-FrodoBaggins
*J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
The Grey Havens, page 1005