Now began the times of the great wars of the powers of
the North, when the Gnomes of Valinor and Ilkorins and
Men strove against the hosts of Morgoth Bauglir, and went
down in ruin. To this end the cunning lies of Morgoth that
he sowed amongst his foes, and the curse that came of the
slaying at the Haven of the Swans, and the oath of the sons
of Feanor, were ever at work; the greatest injury they did to
Men and Elves.
Only a part do these tales tell of the deeds of those days,
and most they tell concerning the Gnomes and the Silmarils
and the mortals that became entangled in their fate. In the
early days Eldar and Men were of little different stature and
bodily might; but the Eldar were blessed with greater skill,
beauty, and wit, and those who had come from Valinor as
much surpassed the Ilkorins in these things as they in turn
surpassed the people of mortal race. Only in the realm of
Doriath, whose queen Melian was of the kindred of the
Valar, did the Ilkorins come near to match the Elves of Kôr. Immortal were the Elves, and their wisdom waxed
and grew from age to age, and no sickness or pestilence
brought them death. But they could be slain with weapons
in those days, even by mortal Men, and some waned and
wasted with sorrow till they faded from the earth. Slain or
fading their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos to wait
a thousand years, or the pleasure of Nefantur according to
their deserts, before they were recalled to free life in
Valinor, or sometimes were reborn, it is said, into their own children.
And of like fate were those fair offspring of Elf and mortal,
Earendel, and Elwing, and Dior her father, and Elrond her child.
More frail were Men, more easily slain by weapon or mischance,
subject to ills, or grew old and died. What befell
their spirits the Eldalie knew not. The Eldar said that they
went to the halls of Mandos, but that their place of waiting
was not that of the Elves, and Mandos under Iluvatar knew
alone whither they went after the time in his wide halls beyond
the western sea. They were never reborn on earth, and
none ever came back from the mansions of the dead, save
only Beren son of Barahir, who after spoke never to mortal
Men. Maybe their fate after death was not in the hands of
the Valar.
In after days, when because of the triumphs of Morgoth
Elves and Men became estranged, as he most wished, those
of the Eldalie that lived still in the world faded, and Men
usurped the sunlight. Then the Eldar wandered in the lonelier
places of the Outer Lands, and took to the moonlight
and to the starlight, and to the woods and caves, and became as shadows, wraiths and memories, such as set not sail
unto the West and vanished from the world, as is told ere the tale's
ending.