Gildor

A wanderer of the House of Finrod

Gildor named himself of the House of Finrod, one of the exiled Noldor who had never returned to the West and still lingered in Middle-earth long after the passing of their kings. By the end of the Third Age he led a company of the High Elves who travelled between Rivendell and the Tower Hills, looking on the stars from the towers there and the sea beyond, and who passed through the Shire at need on their way to and from the Grey Havens. They were among the few Elves that Hobbits ever saw, and were fading from the land even as Bilbo heard of them.

The meeting in the Woody End

On the evening of the twenty-fourth of September, T.A. 3018, Frodo, Sam and Pippin, on the first day of their walk out of Hobbiton, hid from a Black Rider on the road. Before it could find them the singing of Gildor's company came up the hill, and the Rider slipped away. Gildor hailed Frodo by name, having heard of Bilbo's strange nephew, and took the Hobbits to supper with the Elves in a wooded hall above the Woodhall. In talk afterwards Frodo told him something of his errand and asked about the Riders, and Gildor, unwilling to give counsel in a matter that belonged to Gandalf, was nonetheless plain that the Riders were deadly and that Frodo should go on quickly and not alone. He named Frodo Elf-friend and promised to send news of him to those who ought to know. He kept the promise: word passed to Aragorn at Bree, to Tom Bombadil, and on to Rivendell, and Frodo's road was watched from then on.

The last riding

Gildor appears once more. On the way to the Grey Havens in September T.A. 3021, Elrond and Galadriel rode through the Shire with many High Elves, and Gildor was among them; he took ship with the Ring-bearers and left Middle-earth for good.

Legacy

Gildor is the reader's first Elf in The Lord of the Rings, and his warning that the wide world lies beyond the borders of the Shire is the first statement of the book's theme. His refusal to give counsel to a stranger, and his care in passing news, are small things that helped the Ring reach Rivendell.

Sailed into the West from the Grey Havens in T.A. 3021.