Author’s Afterword

This story was written after I had read a number of pieces of fan fiction using the premise that Círdan left Middle-earth much later in the Fourth Age, literally on the last boat to Eldamar.  There was always a seeming contradiction in this notion to me based on Círdan’s own words: “But for me, my heart is with the Sea, and I will dwell by the grey shores until the last ship sails.  I will await you.”  That’s the version that appears in LotR in the appendices; those same words in The Silmarillion are: “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.”  A small but significant difference, that word then.  To me, it was evidence of what I had suspected from the first time I read LotR, that Círdan left during the Fourth Age at its beginning, taking ship with the other Ringbearers — which was only fitting, since he was as much a Ringbearer as either Frodo or Bilbo, and had a right to take passage into the West, being an Elf.  It also seemed to fit with the mention of Legolas building his own ship to sail West (if Círdan literally waited for the last ship before going, why did Legolas need to build his own?), and that by the time Arwen went to Cerin Amroth to die, Lothlórien was deserted, Celeborn having apparently decided to pack up and leave sometime earlier.  Tolkien himself didn’t appear to be entirely decided on the matter of this timing (hence, I believe, the contradictory versions of the same statement), and this is simply the way I prefer to interpret the situation.  It’s rather like the “Last Alliance” — why was it called “last,” when there was at least one more major alliance between Elves and Men, of considerably greater length, against the Witch King of Angmar during the Third Age?  “Last” can mean many things, and Elves seem to delight in being cryptic. :)