When did the last of the High Elves leave Middle Earth ?

[Inziladun]

There was Gildor and many fair Elven folk; and there to Sam's wonder rode Elrond and Galadriel.

ROTK The Grey Havens

And there are Círdan's words to Gandalf to consider:

But as for me, my heart is with the Sea, and I will dwell by the grey shores, guarding the Havens until the last ship sails. Then I shall await thee.
White was that ship and long was it a-building, and long it awaited the end of which Círdan had spoken. But when all these things were done, ....the power of the Three Rings also was ended, and to the Firstborn the world grew old and grey. In that time the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever.

Silm Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age (emphasis added)

For me, the implication clearly seems to be that Círdan was on board the ship which took the Keepers of the Three, and that the remaining High Elves also went at that time.
Círdan's absence also would explain why Legolas built a ship for himself and Gimli in Ithilien.

[Lindale]

Inziladun, my reading of that Silm passage is this: What is the "then" Cirdan talks about? The last ship that will sail, or the return of Gandalf? I think it's the latter. Didn't Sam follow Frodo to Tol Eressea? So the "last ship" isn't the one Gandalf was in.

Anyway I think JRRT made a minor inconsistency here. In the Silm passage Inziladun quotes, "the last of the Noldor set sail from the Havens and left Middle-earth for ever." But then in the passage Pitchwife quotes, there are some High Elves left in Middle-Earth, apparently together with Elladan and Elrohir.

The "long remained" portion however bugs me. Can it mean that eventually, after a long time, they left, or is it an indication that after a very long time, they "faded," whatever that means?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Lindale

Inziladun, my reading of that Silm passage is this: What is the "then" Cirdan talks about? The last ship that will sail, or the return of Gandalf? I think it's the latter. Didn't Sam follow Frodo to Tol Eressea? So the "last ship" isn't the one Gandalf was in.

The 'last ship' could be taken to mean the one carrying Gandalf et al, the last voyage of the Noldor. Certainly he didn't mean to infer it was to be the final ship ever to leave the shores of Middle-earth.
'Then I will await thee' appears to say Círdan is waiting for the return of Gandalf to the Havens after the completion of his mission, which is when that ship was to set forth.

[Eönwë]

Well, what we do know is that it was definitely no later than when Sam left (in SR 1482, which I think is FA 60), because in The Tale of Years it says

Originally Posted by Tale of Years, SR 1482

Among them the tradition is handed down from Elanor that Samwise passed the Towers, and went to the Grey havens, and passed over Sea, last of the Ring-bearers

Which means that at the very latest Cirdan left with him then, but definitely no later.

[Inziladun]

To further muddy the waters, there is this from Letter #144.

The High Elves met in this book (LOTR) are exiles, returned back over Sea to Middle-earth, after events which are the main matter of the Silmarillion, part of one of the main kindreds of the Eldar: the Noldor (Masters of Lore). Or rather a last remnant of these....those who lingered were those who were enamoured of Middle-earth and yet desired the unchanging beauty of the Land of the Valar. Hence the making of the Rings....when the One goes, the last defenders of High-elven lore and beauty are shorn of their power to hold back time, and depart.

I read that as saying all the Noldor left with the Keepers of the Three. The Prologue notwithstanding, what possible reason would any of them have had for staying in ME when Elrond and Galadriel had gone? I always saw the departure of those two as a vastly symbolic moment: the 'official' acknowledgement of the High Elves that their time was up, and they must make way for the Age of Men.
The Silvan Elves were a different matter. They had spent their entire lives far away from the Sea, and knew nothing of the Sea-longing. I doubt Legolas himself would ever have passed Over Sea had he not chanced to hear the cry of the gulls along the coasts of Gondor. I'm fairly certain many of the Silvan Elves never left, and indeed suffered the 'fading' they were doomed to undergo, holding fast to ME to the end.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I had forgotten that quote from the Prologue. I recalled Celeborn going to Rivendell, but I don't believe Celeborn was of the High Elves. Wasn't he one of the Sindar from Doriath?

Yes Celeborn was Sindarin -- the Teler of Aman idea being essentially a draft idea.

The only explanation for the apparent variance between the statements in the Silm and FOTR would seem to be that some of the remaining High Elves were not of the Noldor, though I don't know how that could be.

It could be because the term High-Elves appears sometimes equated with Eldar (despite the definition of Tareldar published in Morgoth's Ring). For the latest bolstering of this usage (gleaned from Tolkien's own examples), see Christopher Tolkien's description of the Quendi in his Introduction to The Children of Húrin.

I don't know if Tolkien meant the two texts to be taken this way: in other words, maybe the text published in The Lord of the Rings was meant to supersede the description in Of the Rings of Power; but in any case it appears that 'High Elves' can have more than one application.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galin

I don't know if Tolkien meant the two texts to be taken this way: in other words, maybe the text published in The Lord of the Rings was meant to supersede the description in Of the Rings of Power; but in any case it appears that 'High Elves' can have more than one application.

Upon further examination, it seems 'High Elves' in LOTR does refer exclusively to the Noldor.

'These are High Elves! They spoke the name of Elbereth!' said Frodo in amazement!

'Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are Exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea. But some of our kinsfolk dwell still in peace in Rivendell.

Exiles=Noldor

I found another quote in ROTK that supports the statement in the Prologue.

Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on.....with them went many Elves of the High Kindred who would no longer stay in Middle-earth.

So, the answer to the question of when the last of the High Elves left for the West seems to depend upon which text Tolkien intended to be the 'final word'; the Silmarillion or the LOTR.
I would prefer to think they all went with Elrond, as that simply seems the most fitting to me.

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

ROTK The Grey Havens

And there are Círdan's words to Gandalf to consider:


Silm Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age (emphasis added)

For me, the implication clearly seems to be that Círdan was on board the ship which took the Keepers of the Three, and that the remaining High Elves also went at that time.
Círdan's absence also would explain why Legolas built a ship for himself and Gimli in Ithilien.

I don't agree that Cirdan left with the Keepers of the Three. In the Appendices of ROTK there's a statement somewhere about the Havens, where it's said in relation to Cirdan that "some say he dwells there still, until the last ship sails".