#but I'd probably have to go through the entire Sil for that

[nenyabusiness]

TOLKIEN TLDR: Why did Galadriel REALLY leave Valinor? (The Exile of the Noldor)

In The Rings of Power, they changed this part of Galadriel’s backstory quite a bit. Yes, I guess you could say that “a legion of Elves went to war,” but the full story is a lot darker and less flattering than that. Want to know what really happened the day Galadriel and her kin left Valinor? Here we go.

(Side note: In canon, Valinor is just a part of Aman, but since the show exclusively uses the name Valinor for the entire continent, I’ll do the same.)

In Valinor, there were once three clans of Elves. The Vanyar (Fair-elves) were the most unproblematic of them all, worshipping the Valar (for more info on the Valar, here’s another TLDR) like they were supposed to, doing very little of interest in general. The Teleri (Sea-elves) lived by themselves near the sea, generally minding their own business. Then we have the Noldor (Deep-elves), our main characters in this clusterfuck. Unlike the other clans who were very content with their lives as they were, the Noldor suffered from this little problem called ambition.

Galadriel was half Noldo, half Teleri, but I think we all know which clan she mostly took after.

This story isn’t really about her, though. The main character is actually a Noldo named Fëanor, who took the whole ambition thing to a new level. He was a craftsman, a smith, and a linguist, and he knew how to hold a good speech. In later ages, he would be known as the greatest Elven smith who ever lived.

In a stroke of genius or madness, Fëanor one day decides that he wants to capture some of the light of the Two Trees (remember: no sun and moon yet, just two trees lighting up an entire island) in a more permanent form, which is how he ends up creating the Silmarils. To describe these three gems properly would take all day so I’m just going to say that they were really, really pretty.

This is where Melkor, who would later be known as Morgoth, enters the story as a strong second lead. After three ages of imprisonment (about 3000 solar years, don’t ask me how that works), he tells Manwë, the King of the Valar, that he’s totally sorry for all the havoc he wreaked in Middle-earth and that he won’t do it again. Manwë, who genuinely doesn’t understand how grudges work, lets Melkor go. After a taking a quick look at the Elves, Melkor comes to the conclusion that the Vanyar and the Teleri are too content with their lives to be of use in his revenge scheme. The ambitious Noldor, though? Perfect. 

It doesn’t take much for Melkor to win the Noldor over. He earns their trust and affection by teaching them new things and helping them improve their craftmanship—and he, of course, uses that trust to slowly turn them against the Valar. He slowly convinces them that they are in fact trapped in Valinor, forced into servitude by the envious Valar. He tells them that if they had stayed in Middle-earth, they would have been rulers of their own domains, free do to whatever they wished, servants to no one. He’s obviously lying, but it’s a strong pitch.  

Though not for the lack of trying, Melkor never manages to sway Fëanor, because Fëanor only listens to Fëanor. He doesn’t want Melkor’s advice, and honestly, he doesn’t need it. He was dreaming about power and freedom long before Melkor was released. On top of this, he now has this growing urge to protect the Silmarils from anything and anyone going on. Even if Melkor had remained imprisoned, Fëanor would probably have gone off the rails at some point anyway.

Melkor and Fëanor don’t get along, but they have one thing in common: they love the Silmarils way too much for their own good. Is this going to turn into a problem? Yes. Yes it is.

The Valar eventually figure out that Melkor is the culprit behind the Noldor’s strange behavior. Melkor makes a run for it and joins forces with a spider-like creature called Ungoliath, the ancestor of Shelob from Lord of the Rings. Together, they sneak into Valinor and attack the Two Trees. Ungoliath sucks the light out of them, and darkness falls over Valinor. During their escape, they drop by Fëanor’s place and steal the Silmarils, killing his father Finwë, King of the Noldor, in the process. The Silmarils have officially claimed their first life.

Fëanor does not take this well. He calls Melkor the Black Foe of the World, Morgoth for short, which is the name that Melkor would always be referred to as after that. 

As I mentioned earlier, Fëanor knows how to hold a speech. He gathers the Noldor, cranks Morgoth’s lies about the Valar up to 11, and starts a full-on rebellion. The Noldor are getting the hell out of Valinor.

If he had just stopped there, The Silmarillion would have been a much shorter novel, but no. He had to go on and swear an oath. Along with his seven sons, he swears the notorious Oath of Fëanor. With the Valar as their witnesses, they all swear to Eru Ilúvatar (God) that they will with vengeance and hatred pursue anyone who would keep a Silmaril from their possession.

No one could have predicted just how horrendous the consequences of that oath would be at the time, but in hindsight, I think everyone can agree that it was a bad idea of epic proportions. Morgoth may be the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, but the Oath of Fëanor is a close second.

Neither of his half-brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin (Galadriel’s dad) swear the oath, but their houses join Fëanor’s rebellion out of solidarity. Some of the Noldor are a little reluctant, while others, like Galadriel, are eager to leave Valinor. Galadriel always disliked Fëanor, but she’s really into the idea of having a domain of her own to rule.  

(Fun fact: Fëanor once asked her for a strand of her hair but she turned him down, which is why everyone goes ??? when Gimli gets three.)

The Valar settle on a not-mad-but-disappointed approach to all of this, because hey, if the Elves think they’re powerful enough to take on a being like Morgoth, then sure, have at it, good luck have fun. Fëanor and his sons are banned though. Those maniacs are not allowed to return.

The rebellion rages on. The Noldor are officially leaving Valinor. There’s this one issue though: Valinor is an island (ish), and the Noldor don’t have ships.  

Remember the Teleri I briefly mentioned? The clan of Elves who lived near the sea? This is where they become relevant to the story, because unlike the Noldor, they have ships.  

Fëanor and his people rush ahead to ask the Teleri to lend them those ships. The Teleri kindly and politely explain that no, their ships are precious to them, and no, they don’t want to play any part whatsoever in this insane rebellion, so the Noldor are going to have to find another way to leave Valinor. Fëanor, who’s gone from overambitious to absolutely unhinged, decides to steal the ships instead. When the Teleri resist, things get really, really ugly.

The Noldor, who had been lowkey preparing for this rebellion for quite some time, came with swords and shields. The peaceful Teleri had basic bows. The slaughter that followed would later be known as the Kinslaying of Alqualondë.

(Most sources say that Galadriel didn’t take part in this. Most sources.)

The Valar are now officially done with the Noldor. In a curse/prophecy that would later be referred to as the Doom of Mandos, the Noldor are told that they are all banned from Valinor now. This is not just a rebellion anymore—it’s an exile. The Exile of the Noldor, even, if you want to use the established name of the event.

The Noldor are now facing a second problem: they have ships, but not enough ships. Not for the whole host, anyway, so… not that much of a problem, according to Fëanor. In a major Dick Move, he fills the ships with as many of his people as he can and then leaves the rest of the Noldor behind. To prevent people from going back (and because of a highly unjustified grudge against Fingolfin), he burns the ships once he reaches Middle-earth. Double Dick Move.  

There’s only one route left that the remaining Noldor can take to get to Middle-earth, and that’s the icy passageway/hellscape called Helcaraxë high up in the north. (Like I said, Valinor was an island, ish.) Though the Noldor suffer major losses on this nightmare of a journey, some of them, including Galadriel, make it through to the other side. Under the rule of Fingolfin, she enters Middle-earth.

And there we have it. This is why Galadriel left Valinor.

The Doom of Mandos is lifted after Morgoth’s defeat, but a lot of Noldor, including Galadriel, willingly stay in Middle-earth anyway. This is why I can’t in good conscience call the “Gil-Galad giving Galadriel a golden ticket back to Valinor as a gift” thing a tweak or a canon divergence. The show made that up. Period. In the Second Age, Galadriel could have returned to Valinor whenever she felt like it. She stayed, because she simply didn’t want to go back.  

And let’s not forget that our girl did eventually get that domain of hers. Good for her.

Sources: Chapter 3-9 of Quenta Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn.