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This is why, I think, the Prologue comes at the beginning. It literally puts us into the right 'frame of mind' by getting us to think about not just the world he's created, but how that world is related to, reflects upon, comments upon our own world.
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Interesting thought,
Fordim. However, I found when I first read the Prologue I was wondering who 'Merry' and 'Aragorn' were and why they had weird names. In a way, it gives away the plot a bit but it certainly does draw us into the story before we actually start reading it.
On a side note, in the notes it says-
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It is not known the day Celeborn finally sought for the Grey Havens, and with him went the last living memory of the Elder Days in Middle-Earth.
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(Forgive me if the quote isn't entirely correct; I don't have the book on me now)
What about Treebeard and Tom Bombadil? Or did Tolkien mean that when he went there were no
Elves who lived in the First Age? Or could it be that the answer is that Treebeard and Tom Bombadil passed away (died or left Middle-Earth), since 'a time had come for the decline of all other speaking-peoples in Middle-Earth'? If the first possible is answer is correct, that would mean Glorfindel would have had to have left Middle-Earth, assuming he is the same Glorfindel of Gondolin, which I won't touch on as it isn't relevant. Your thoughts?