#theaceofwands

[craigmaherart]

Where does the vampire's eternal vigor originate? Where does the first spark come from? The Ace of Wands - Tarot of the Vampires - Llewellyn Worldwide Writer - Charles Harrington Artist - Craig Maher

[thepatchworkcrow]

More art form my #tarot project: #TheAceofWands , #TheKnightofWands , and #TheHierophant. #tarotart #tarotreadersofinstagram #witchesofinstagram #artistsofinstagram #druidsofinstagram 
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTlZq_DL_xN/?utm_medium=tumblr

[adventuretimealexander]

For Thursday April 9th 2020 Today’s Tarot cards of the day comes from the Celestial Tarot by Kay Steventon and Brian Clark For Thursday April 9th The Tarot Card Of the day is The Ace Of Wands ! Bringing us into the energy of Self and Exploration. With the completion of an energetic cycle and the start of a new one, This Ace Springs us forward into Action on long awaited plans and newly made ones priming us for the vernal equinox and mayday celebrations. Use this energy to your advantage and act on all those things you have already been thinking through. You are supported in your choice. Without a clarifying card it is hard to know if that chosen action will end favorably or otherwise, however the energy to Take action will assist us in driving forward with whatever plans we choose. My personal advice is to think before you act but to experience the harvest You Must first plant the seeds, Take beneficial Action 💕 ⭐️ This is the daily read for the energies of Thursday April 9th 2020 Be Well 💕💕🔮 -Xoxo Surfing Lightwaves #TheCelestialTarot #CelestialTarot #KaySteventon #BrianClark #TheAceOfWands #AceOfWands #Cassiopeia #TarotReadersOfInstagram #TarotEverydamnDay #mediumship #Psychic #SurfingLightwaves #SurfingLightwavesTarot ⭐️☀️🏄🏄🏾‍♂️🏄🏾‍♂️🏄‍♂️🏄🏻‍♂️ (at Woodstock, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-vG6BRnCDq/?igshid=4od0sebwqijx

[classichorrorblog]

Hi! I've seen you post a couple gifs from a movie with a lady walking in the street in a nightgown on all fours with her head turned backwards. Do you know what movie it is in talking about?

It sounds like you are talking about In The Mouth Of Madness directed by John Carpenter.

[easy-pete-confessions]

Easy Pete created cazadors

[allegaeon]

I just realized that your icon is of her singing. I always thought that mic was a bong x)

Ah yes. Nothing like the world’s proudest straightedge woman in the world (yes i said that twice) hitting a fucking bong lmao

[dailyclaymore]

theaceofwands replied to your post: Favorite moment in the series ever?

When Alicia and Beth fight Riful and Dauf while Luciela fights Isley

Clarification: The Isley vs Luciela fight takes place right after the Pieta arc, much earlier than the fight between Alicia + Beth vs Riful + Dauf.

Alicia + Beth (plus the Abyss Feeders) only come after Riful + Dauf once Isley has fallen, which Riful realizes once the battle begins.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I just read your response and I'm heartbroken that so many people skip Brienne. I love her SO much! Like her arc is all about the meaning of a true knight which is one of the central most themes of the books!

I know, I know. Brienne is so important. But like I said in that post, many readers skip “boring” things, they skip themes, they want witty jokes and shocking violence. It’s a mistake to think that’s exclusive to shownly fans; my (unhappy) experience on w.org years before the show was made told me otherwise. (Though FWIW they’re the kind of people who haunt the WotW comment sections sucking up to every change the show made because it got rid of the “boring” AFFC/ADWD storylines.) But I’ve even seen it occasionally in people liveblogging their reads in the tumblr tags. It just makes me sad.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hey Mindset! Hope you've been well 😊 I've got a question! What do you think rose from the ruins of Winterfell? Do you think that we will learn what it was in the next books? Or do you think GRRM is done explaining whatever that was?

Sorry, I’m sure that it was only smoke and fire from Winterfell being sacked, from a wolf’s-eye view. Look at the context.

The ashes fell like a soft grey snow.He padded over dry needles and brown leaves, to the edge of the wood where the pines grew thin. Beyond the open fields he could see the great piles of man-rock stark against the swirling flames. The wind blew hot and rich with the smell of blood and burnt meat, so strong he began to slaver.Yet as one smell drew them onward, others warned them back. He sniffed at the drifting smoke. Men, many men, many horses, and fire, fire, fire. No smell was more dangerous, not even the hard cold smell of iron, the stuff of man-claws and hardskin. The smoke and ash clouded his eyes, and in the sky he saw a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame. He bared his teeth, but then the snake was gone. Behind the cliffs tall fires were eating up the stars.All through the night the fires crackled, and once there was a great roar and a crash that made the earth jump under his feet. Dogs barked and whined and horses screamed in terror. Howls shuddered through the night; the howls of the man-pack, wails of fear and wild shouts, laughter and screams. No beast was as noisy as man. He pricked up his ears and listened, and his brother growled at every sound. They prowled under the trees as a piney wind blew ashes and embers through the sky. In time the flames began to dwindle, and then they were gone. The sun rose grey and smoky that morning.

–ACOK, Bran VII

There was a big airburst, a plume of flame and smoke, when one of the buildings collapsed, possibly the roof of the Great Hall, maybe the stables. The other big roar and crash probably came when the wall of the First Keep came down, or maybe the bridge.

Besides, if it were an actual dragon, someone would have noticed it by now. Because, y’know, dragons have to eat, and missing cows and sheep would certainly be remarked upon. That’s always something that’s made me roll my eyes about the whole underground dragon heating the hot springs of Winterfell legend – what is this supposed dragon eating? How does it even live? No, sorry, it’s just geothermal energy.

And the “winged snake” was just smoke and fire. That’s the thing about GRRM’s Chekhov’s guns… if they’re important, they keep getting mentioned. Nymeria’s been referenced constantly, Dany often worries about the HotU prophecies, even Tyrek’s disappearance was thought about in ASOS and AFFC… but this wolf dream’s supposed winged snake has never been brought up again, not in Bran’s chapters, not by anyone in the north or anywhere in Westeros. So yeah, I think GRRM’s done explaining. If there were anything more to explain there would have been something said already, anything at all.

Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hi Mindset! I've got a question about LOTR. Why is it that when people in the story besides the Fellowship seem to think that Lothlorien a dangerous place? When it's brought up, there's always sometimes an implication that you'd be lucky to leave if you were ever there, and they're always talking about being ensnared in Galadriel's web. What's up with that?

This is pretty much Tolkien playing with the concepts of Fairyland, of the Fair Folk who steal away children or entrance handsome singers and return them a hundred years later to a world that’s left them behind. La Belle Dame Sans Merci, “we daren’t go a-hunting for fear of little men”, the Queen of Elfland in Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin, all that sort of thing. But the point is that the Men who believe such things are wrong, that the lies of Sauron have made them afraid of the true goodness of the elves and Galadriel, etc.

On the other hand, there are certain elements of truth to these rumors. (Not actual truth mind you, just elements of it.) With Galadriel’s use of her elven-ring, she was able to create a haven in Lothlorien, a forest of light and music, with immense magical golden trees from Valinor, beautiful and ageless for thousands of years. Men might hear tales of this forest of wonder, ruled by a glorious golden queen (and silver king), but they could never see it for themselves. The Galadhrim were very protective of their land, and while they might only slay orcs that tried to invade, any innocent men wandering nearby might find themselves lost and confused, turned around by magic or by careful hindering by the guardians, unable to enter the forest and not knowing how or why. (Old tales of the Girdle of Melian, which magically protected Doriath in the First Age, also might apply here.) And that, plus any sights of orcs or Sauron’s men entering but never leaving, would add to the eerie impression that “nobody ever goes in… nobody ever comes out”.

Still, again, the point is that these rumors are wrong, that there is no malice to the mystery. Nevertheless, while those that relate these tales in LOTR (like Eomer) will learn the truth, as the ages pass and the elves fade from Middle Earth, the stories will remain, and (per Tolkien) lead to the misconceptions of elves among mankind for centuries to come.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

@theaceofwands replied to your post “Hi Mindset! I have a question. I’m confused… Because last time I…”

Thank you Mindset! What do you think? That’s he’s the gravedigger? Dead? I thought that we were supposed to be under the impression that Sandor bled so much that even if he is alive and is the gravedigger, that he wouldn’t be the same person anymore from the blood loss probably causing brain damage.

As I said in that post and in the gravedigger theory post I linked in that post (just linked it again), this is one of those theories that I believe to be so true that I don’t even consider any alternate option. Every single post that I have written about Sandor and his potential future in the books has the thesis that he is still alive, that he’s the novice gravedigger on the Quiet Isle. (Just like every single post I have written about Jon is with the understanding he is Rhaegar and Lyanna’s son, just like every post I’ve written about the last greenseer notes that he’s Bloodraven, just like every post I’ve written about Alleras contains the fact that “he” is Sarella Sand, just like every post I’ve written about the mean old black tomcat in the Red Keep mentions that he’s Princess Rhaenys’s kitten Balerion. Some things aren’t theories. They’re facts, whether the books have revealed them straight up yet or not.) Hell, I had Rory McCann sign my copy of AFFC on the page with the gravedigger, even.

Sandor’s major problem wasn’t blood loss. Yes, the cuts on his ear and neck bled a lot, but head wounds often do. It wasn’t enough to kill him, just weaken him. Very badly, but certainly not enough to cause brain damage, my god, you have to lose more than 3 pints of blood (which is a lot) for brain-damaging hypoxia, you’ve got to go into a coma at the very least. Sandor only fainted for a bit when Arya cauterized his wounds, because of the pain and his fire PTSD. The real problem was gangrene in his leg, and the fever from the infection:

Long before noon, Sandor Clegane was reeling. There were hours of daylight still remaining when he called a halt. “I need to rest,” was all he said. This time when he dismounted he did fall. Instead of trying to get back up he crawled weakly under a tree, and leaned up against the trunk. “Bloody hell,” he cursed. “Bloody hell.” When he saw Arya staring at him, he said, “I’d skin you alive for a cup of wine, girl.” She brought him water instead. He drank a little of it, complained that it tasted of mud, and slid into a noisy fevered sleep. When she touched him, his skin was burning up. Arya sniffed at his bandages the way Maester Luwin had done sometimes when treating her cut or scrape. His face had bled the worst, but it was the wound on his thigh that smelled funny to her.

--ASOS, Arya III

Sandor was alive and conscious when Arya left him, he was alive and conscious when the Elder Brother found him and started treating his wounds. When the Elder Brother says that “the Hound” died in his arms, that should be understood to mean the same thing as when the Elder Brother says he himself died when he drowned in the Trident, and was reborn when he washed up on the Quiet Isle. (Note, 3 characters who have drowned enough to go unconscious: the Elder Brother, Tyrion, and Davos; none of which show any signs of brain damage. Tyrion wasn’t brain damaged from his injuries at the Blackwater either.) There’s nothing about the gravedigger that shows brain-damage-type personality changes, only a leg injury:

On the upper slopes they saw three boys driving sheep, and higher still they passed a lichyard where a brother bigger than Brienne was struggling to dig a grave. From the way he moved, it was plain to see that he was lame. As he flung a spadeful of the stony soil over one shoulder, some chanced to spatter against their feet. “Be more watchful there,” chided Brother Narbert. “Septon Meribald might have gotten a mouthful of dirt.” The gravedigger lowered his head. When Dog went to sniff him he dropped his spade and scratched his ear. […] By the time the readings were completed, the last of the food had been cleared away by the novices whose task it was to serve. Most were boys near Podrick’s age, or younger, but there were grown men as well, amongst them the big gravedigger they had encountered on the hill,  who walked with the awkward lurching gait of one half-crippled.

--AFFC, Brienne VI

Now, granted, Sandor might have some personality changes if/when he shows up again. But if so, they’ll be due to the kindnesses of the Elder Brother and his talk therapy, and the “death” of the Hound persona, as well as any difficulties he may have getting back into fighting shape and warrior mindset due to the damage to his leg. (See Jaime and his hand.) But not because of brain damage, ffs. And as to whether Sandor will be “the same person” anymore, well, just look at his horse:

Way down at the far end, well away from the other animals, a huge black stallion trumpeted at the sound of their voices and kicked at the door of his stall. Ser Hyle gave the big horse an admiring look as he was handing his reins to Brother Gillam. “A handsome beast.” Brother Narbert sighed. “The Seven send us blessings, and the Seven send us trials. Handsome he may be, but Driftwood was surely whelped in hell. When we sought to harness him to a plow he kicked Brother Rawney and broke his shinbone in two places. We had hoped gelding might improve the beast’s ill temper, but... Brother Gillam, will you show them?” Brother Gillam lowered his cowl. Underneath he had a mop of blond hair, a tonsured scalp, and a bloodstained bandage where he should have had an ear.

[...] “You may have seen a big black stallion in our stables. That was his warhorse, Stranger. A blasphemous name. We prefer to call him Driftwood, as he was found beside the river. I fear he has his former master’s nature.” The horse. She had seen the stallion, had heard it kicking, but she had not understood. Destriers were trained to kick and bite. In war they were a weapon, like the men who rode them. Like the Hound.

--AFFC, Brienne VI

Just like the brothers of the Quiet Isle couldn’t turn Stranger, a warhorse, into a plowhorse, they’re not going to be able to make Sandor into a penitent brother, living a lifetime of silent prayer. The Hound might be dead, but what’s left is Sandor Clegane -- whoever that might be. Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

So to follow up on my question... the Uruk-Hai are different from the orcs because they're larger right? Are they made the same way as conventional orcs, and just fed "man flesh" like Ugluk said? Moreover, by "man flesh", did he mean that Saruman was feeding them human flesh or did he mean that he was feeding them like beef and pork?

The exact origins of the Uruk-hai are a mystery. Most orcs can’t stand the sun and become weakened in daylight, but Uruk-hai could travel during the day without any problems. (They still don’t like the sun very much, though.) They’re bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter than typical orcs. The Uruk-hai of Saruman may or may not be the same as the big and strong uruks that Sauron had developed some 600 years earlier; it’s possible that Saruman had improved on Sauron’s own changes to the race. What exactly they did to make those changes, though – some suspect that Orcs had been blended with Men somehow, a great evil. Again, it’s stuff I honestly would prefer not to think about.

The “man’s-flesh” that Saruman feeds the Uruk-hai is people, yes. Like, did you think it was Old Folks Country Sausage? ;)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hello Mindset! Question about LOTR. I'm SO confused. Tell me if I'm understanding this right. Elrond and Elros were brothers, the sons of Earendil. Elros is the old king of the Numenorians. Elendil is one of his descendents, and so is Aragorn. What I'm confused about is the races of these figures. Elendil was a man, but he was descended of Elros, so he's half Elf right? So that means Isildur was half elvish and so is Aragorn. So is Elrond have Elvish too?

Continued: I guess what I’m wondering is why were Elros and his descendants kings of men while Elrond was a Lord of Elves?

OK, this is a little complicated, but hopefully not too hard to understand. The Peredhil, the Half-Elven, were descendants of two lines of Elf/Man marriages. Elwing was the daughter of Dior who was the son of Beren (Man) and Luthien (Elf/Maia), and Dior’s wife Nimloth (Elf); Earendil was the son of Tuor (Man) and Idril (Elf). Earendil and Elwing married, and had twin sons, Elros and Elrond. (So technically Elros and Elrond weren’t 50/50 Elf/Man, but rather 9/16 Elf 3/8 Man 1/16 Maia, but they’re called Half-Elven.)

Earendil and Elwing traveled to Valinor to beg help from the Valar for the fight against Morgoth. Because of the bravery and self-sacrifice of their deeds (as they knew anyone going to Valinor could be punished with death), the Valar granted them and their descendants the choice of which race to belong to, Elf or Man. Elwing chose the Elves, and for her sake Earendil did too (he was also bound to sail the heavens as the evening star but that’s not important right now). Elrond chose the Elves, and his brother Elros chose Men, and became the first king of Numenor. The Three Houses of the Edain, those tribes of Men who were allies of the Elves, populated the island and became his people.

Now, while Elrond’s children were also given the choice of the Peredhil, Elros’s descendants were not. Once you choose the Doom of Man, apparently you can’t go back. For what it’s worth, Elros did live a very long time, to 500 years old, and the people of Numenor had great longevity in general (average lifespan 300-400 years for the nobility, around 200-250 for those of lower status). However, the fact that they were mortal eventually led to their jealousy of and distancing from the Elves, their corruption, and the shortening of their lifespan. :/

Anyway, the amount of descendants from Elros to Elendil was, um… about 25, over 3000 years. So by no sense of the word were Elendil or his son Isildur half-Elven; the Numenoreans were pretty much entirely Man by that point. The number of descendants of Dunedain from Isildur to Aragorn was about 40, again over about 3000 years, so all the more so with him. Though Aragorn was granted the lifespan of his ancestors (the Dunedain still lived long, but not nearly as long as the original Numenoreans, averaging around 100 or so) and lived to 210 – he was in his late 80s during the War of the Ring, actually. (Interesting fact: Aragorn adventured in Gondor in his youth, under a pseudonym, and Denethor became jealous of him.)

There’s a nice family tree made by @askmiddlearth​ that helps explain this all a bit:

So yeah, Aragorn does have a tiny bit of Elvish blood, but super tiny, probably no more than 0.01%. Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hey Mindset! I've got an unusual question. In LOTR, how does one just go about mustering an army of orcs? I know that there is a mention of breeding them, but how is that done? Do you just get some together and give them a place to stay + food and allow them to mingle?

“Allow them to mingle”? Are you suggesting some kind of orcish dating service? ;)

No, but mustering orcs I imagine is just like mustering any other army, just more brutal. Word comes from on high that it’s time to fight, the chieftains send out their captains who send out their subordinates who go into the warrens and round up orcs of fighting age/size. Kick and whip them into order, form up squads, force march them to meet up as an army, etc.

As for breeding, Sauron is said to have been able to breed armies of Orcs at enormous speed, so perhaps there’s some kind of dark magic involved to make them reproduce quickly. I don’t like to think about it, tbqh. Bad enough he reduced their individual wills to an almost ant-like state...

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hey Mindset! Two questions about LOTR. Gandalf says that he didn't know that the riders had risen, otherwise he would have made it a point to travel with Frodo. Were the Black Riders in some kind of dormant state before they started looking for The Ring? Moreover, what is the degree of difference of Sauron's power with the ring vs without it?

Sweet, more LOTR questions. :)  Assuming you are where I think you are in FOTR, what Gandalf says is that he didn’t know that Ringwraiths had arisen again. A little later from where you are, though, he’ll tell a story that clarifies that a bit – that he heard the Ringwraiths were abroad again.

See, for the past millennium or so, the Nazgul had been living (so to speak) in Minas Morgul (the city formerly known as Minas Ithil), though a few were garrisoned in Dol Guldur (the dark tower in southern Mirkwood, where Sauron was living as the Necromancer before Gandalf and the White Council defeated him during the events of the Hobbit). They weren’t in stasis or anything, they just weren’t traveling. Especially not to the northwest of Middle Earth, where none of the Nine had been since the defeat of the Witch-King of Angmar, the chief of the Ringwraiths. (Well, his forces were entirely defeated, but he alone escaped, at which time the prophecy was made that he would not fall by the hand of man.)

Also, note that the Ringwraiths are almost entirely incorporeal, existing mostly in the spirit world. They can only interact with the material world through special clothing and weapons provided for them by Sauron. So the fact that Sauron had set that up for them – all nine of them – and given them black horses stolen from Rohan and sent them out searching, was tremendously alarming for Gandalf to learn. (BTW, their clothes and weapons and horses being destroyed by Elrond and Gandalf’s magic wave is what forced the Nazgul to stop hunting Frodo and to return to Sauron.)

As for Sauron and the Ring, when he forged it he put most of his power in it. (All the power of a fallen angel, pretty much.) And as the “One Ring to rule them all”, not only did he have its power, but all of the magic of the other Rings of Power as well. But then, Sauron was caught in the Downfall of Numenor (his fault), and his body was destroyed, but his spirit was able to flee back to Mordor with the Ring. He was able to use the Ring to reconstruct a body (although he could no longer create the fair form with which he had deceived and corrupted the Elves of Eregion and the Men of Numenor), and re-built up his army in Mordor. Then about a hundred years or so later, there was the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, where Sauron was defeated, the Ring was taken from him, and his body was destroyed again. Without the Ring in his possession, Sauron was unable to take physical form for over a thousand years. And even when he did make a body for himself, his hand only had four fingers, missing the one that had borne the Ring and that Isildur had cut off.

Anyway, once Sauron had reconstructed himself and returned to Mordor, he was very strong, but without the Ring, without full access to all of his powers, he preferred to stay in Barad-Dur and control his armies at a distance. Though even without the Ring in his possession, Sauron was able to maintain full control of the Nine Rings of Men and the Ringwraiths, and he was able to track down and acquire the Seven Rings of the Dwarves that still existed. (Several had been destroyed by dragonfire.) However, the Three Rings of the Elves, which had been designed and forged without Sauron’s influence or knowledge, were able to stay secret and unaffected by his malevolence, and their Bearers were able to use them to create protected havens, places of peace and beauty and knowledge and safety. But if Sauron were able to regain the One Ring… he would immediately know the locations of the Three Elven-Rings, and see into the hearts and minds of their bearers, and everything that had been made by them would be corrupted and destroyed, making things worse than if they had never existed at all.

Hope that clarifies some things!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hi Mindset! I have just been shamelessly bombarding you with questions, but only because you answer so well! I have two questions about LOTR. Firstly, is Elendil related to Eärendil? He's descended from Elros (right?) So that means that Eärendil is his great grandfather? Also, are many or most of the Elves that were created by the Valar directly still alive? Like are there Elves that were made by the Valar directly, like Gil-Galad, and others like Legolas, who is the son of Thranduil?

Hey, happy to answer, it’s a nice variation from ASOIAF. :)  (I can do other fandoms too, lol.)  I answered your question about Elendil and Earendil here – basically you need to add a couple dozen great-s, there. Your other questions, well…

The Elves were not created by the Valar. Elves and Men are the Children of Iluvatar, Eru the creator of the universe. (“Eru”=“the One”, “Iluvatar”=“All-Father”.) The Ainur, the Valar and Maiar, were Eru’s first creations, sparks of his mind and his Flame Imperishable, and helped him sing the world into existence. Each of the Valar had various attunements, from the part of Eru’s mind they came from – Yavanna is the grower and guardian of plants, Varda is the star-kindler, Manwe is the lord of the skies, Ulmo is the lord of the seas, etc. But the Children of Iluvatar were created by Eru alone as part of his great plan, and he placed them in the world.

Now, the Elves were the Firstborn, and awoke long before the Sun and Moon were made, when only the stars lit the sky, for which reason they praise Varda, Elbereth, the most of all the Valar. Per Elvish legend, there were 144 Elves that were Unbegotten, that were not born but rather awoke as adults far to the east of the world. Not long after Morgoth found them (unfortunately), and their legends say that some vanished if they went too far away alone – per some versions of the story, this is when he kidnapped some Elves to twist them into Orcs. So the Valar, to protect the Elves, invited them to Valinor, and many came. Many stayed in Middle-Earth, either refusing the call or tarrying upon the way, but the ones who went to Valinor gained a certain amount of “holiness”, so to speak, power and learning and beauty beyond those who stayed.

(Re other races – Men are Eru’s Secondborn and awoke with the rising of the sun. Dwarves were created by the Vala Aule, who was impatient for the Children of Iluvatar to awaken; because Eru saw that it was done with good intent, and Aule was even willing to destroy them when reprimanded, he granted the Dwarves life and sentience and souls and free will, making them his “adopted children”, so to speak. (The Dwarves venerate Aule, and believe Eru has set a place for them in the Halls of Mandos.) Ents were created by Eru after the Vala Yavanna worried that the Dwarves would destroy all her trees; they’re trees inhabited by spirits. Orcs and Trolls were created by Morgoth “in mockery” of Elves and Ents.)

Now, the names given to the Elven leaders in the legend of the 144 Unbegotten are numeric names (meaning “First”, “Second”, “Third”), and they aren’t mentioned afterwards, so it isn’t certain if those who followed the Valar Orome west to Valinor were the very first Elves, or if they were their children. (Some of the leaders of the journey are said to have siblings, so they must have not been the very first.) Of the earliest Elves known, Ingwe, the leader of the Vanyar, the High King of the Elves, was one of the first to come to Valinor, and he still lives, though he has never returned to Middle-Earth. Cirdan was another of that host, kin to Thingol (the father of Luthien); he never went to Valinor, and as of the start of LOTR, he was the oldest elf in Middle-Earth, about 15000+ years old. (He’s so old he has a beard.) So those two, Cirdan and Ingwe, are the oldest living Elves that we know of, but they were not necessarily of the Unbegotten.

As for Gil-galad, he was Ingwe’s great-great-great-nephew (probably: his ancestry was revised a lot and is very confusing), born to the Noldor in the First Age, some time after they had left Valinor and returned to Middle-Earth. Glorifindel was born in Valinor some time in the Years of the Trees (before the creation of the sun and moon); he died in the First Age (fighting a Balrog) and was re-embodied some time in the Second Age, so he’s not as old as he might be (so to speak), but his experience in Valinor is why he glows so brightly in Frodo’s vision of the spirit world. Thranduil was born some time in the First or Second Age; his father Oropher was one of Thingol’s people, and founded the Woodland Realm in Greenwood during the Second Age.

Hope that helps!