What Happens to the Wood Elves?

[Fingolfin II]

Originally Posted by Lolidir

but the wood elves didnt have one and therefore were not bound to the fate of the One Ring. so if they werent bound to it then would they still leave? they didnt really have a reason to other than the fact that everyone else was.

Well, the Third Age was the decline of Elves and the set-up to the Fourth Age, which was the time of the Dominion of Men and the decline of other speaking-folk (i.e. Elves, dwarves, etc.). So that's why the Elves were leaving for Valinor. Besides, the Elves were leaving for Valinor throughout the Second and Third Ages- before the Ring was destroyed.

For an answer to your question, try looking in the Appendices of LotR. Briefly, the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood remained untroubled by the departure of their kin and as far as I know lived with Thranduil and either passed over Sea or stayed in Middle-Earth to an unknown fate (with the exception of Legolas, who's longing of the Sea was brought out by the gulls he saw). As for the Elves of Lothlorien, only a few remnants of their people 'lingered sadly' in Lorien (see 'The Tale of Arwen and Aragorn' in the Appendices).

EDIT- Here are the quotes:

'Then she said farwell to Eldarion, and to her daughters, and too all whom she had loved; and she went out from the city of Minas Tirith and passed away to the land of Lorien, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came. Galadriel had passed away and Celeborn also was gone, and the land was silent.' -Appendix A, The Tale of Arwen and Aragorn

Also, a more substantial quote from Appendix B-

In the Greenwood the Silvan Elves remained untroubled, but in Lorien there lingered sadly only a few of its former people, and there was no longer light or song in Caras Galadhon -Appendix B, The Tale of Years