Did Legolas Sail from the Grey Havens?

Q: Did Legolas Sail from the Grey Havens?

ANSWER: In The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien writes that after Aragorn died Legolas built a ship and sailed over Sea, purportedly taking Gimli with him. Where did he build his ship and from whence did he sail?

UPDATE: Andrew pointed out in the comments that Tolkien wrote in the Appendices that Legolas built his ship in Ithilien.

Because Tolkien himself did not answer this question it’s impossible to provide a “correct” or definitive answer. But we can probably agree on three possibilities.

First, he might simply have built the ship in Ithilien and sailed down the Anduin. Legolas would have been able to confer with any experienced ship-builders in Gondor. There may also have been some of his own people who knew something about ship-craft.

Second, he could have visited the ancient Elf-haven (Edhellond) in Gondor. Although long abandoned it may have held a special place in Silvan Elf culture. Perhaps the occasional Elves who left northern Mirkwood and Lorien would still venture there to build ships.

Third, he could have traveled far to the north to the Grey Havens (Mithlond). We know that Sam took ship from there and so at least some Elves either visited or remained in Lindon after the Keepers of the Three Rings left with Cirdan.

Tolkien mentioned that the Elvish ships were “specially hallowed” for the purpose of sailing over Sea, probably so that they could take what he called “the Straight Road”, the sea-borne passage that left this round and otherwise inescapable world and arrived in the waters of Aman, which now appears to be its own world somewhere else.

If these ships were hallowed, does that mean their construction required some special ceremony or ritual? The only such ritual that Tolkien describes is found in “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife”, where the wives of captains of Númenorean ships placed special Green Boughs of Return, cut from a tree called oiolairë, as a sign of the protection of the Valar. The Eldar gave these trees to the Númenoreans because they themselves used such boughs as tokens of their “friendship with Ossë and Uinen”.

But did such trees grow in Middle-earth or were they only found in Aman (Tol Eressëa) and Númenor? Unfinished Tales mentions the tree in a short list of trees that were found especially in western Númenor, and “few ever flowered east of the Land of Gift”. So that leaves a little wiggle room for guessing these trees might have been found in Middle-earth, but perhaps only in very special places. If you assume that then we have two candidates for where such trees could be found: Mithlond and Edhellond.

If it were left up to me I would say Legolas probably built his ship at Edhellond. He may have needed a bough of oiolairë but I think there must have been some ritual that the Elves used to stipulate the special purpose of these ships. I doubt Tolkien would have imagined anything elaborate. Maybe the lead Elf need only speak a few words declaring that the ship and its passengers would henceforth be sailing over Sea, never to return to Middle-earth.

Requiring a bough made of oiolairë would not be necessary but I think it’s a nice touch. And if you’re into role-playing then accompanying an Elf-lord and his people to a place where they can find the tree for their journey over Sea would make an interesting backstory for a campaign.

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