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I think that it should be remembered that the elvish communities were fairly small at the end of the third age. I think Tolkien said that there were more sindarin speakers in Gondor - though I think that excluded Mirkwood. After the Last Alliance most of the Noldor removed to Rivendell which was a household not a realm - Elrond is Master of the household not a King (though technically he would be one, I imagine the population was small enough to make using the title ridiculous). Obviously a household is a larger entity in this sense than modern usage (cf Eomer's eored being men of his own household) but I think we are talking hundreds and possible not many of them. Nevertheless the small and steep landscape of Rivendell would be hard pressed to support even this amount completely. It is possible that the small surviving Dunedain community farmed in the Angle and were able to supply some of Rivendell's wants.
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