[Lily Bracegirdle]

Thanks for the answers, everyone!

Meela, I don't quite understand it, but it seems that for elves, the Sea stirs in them an unquenchable desire to sail into the West. It's like they have this involuntary, inborn desire that they don't know they possess until something triggers it, at which point it becomes *really strong*. Legolas was perfectly happy in Middle Earth until he heard the cry of the gulls on the Anduin, which conjured up the "sea-longing" in him. Galadriel told him that if he heard them, his "heart would dwell in the forests no more", and so it came to be. Even though he stayed in ME until after Aragorn's death, he always longed to sail into the West.

Arwen could live in Minas Tirith without seeing the Sea, but I bet she still heard gulls. (I'm 40 miles or more inland, but there are gulls here, albeit standing quietly in the McDonalds' parking lot waiting for fries and not crying...)

Elvisse, do you know why it is that the sea-longing is "perilous" to elves? Do they actually become physically ill from it, or does it make them have a tendency to just drop everything and go?

Cheers!

-Lily