Avallonë

The haven of the West

Avallonë stood on the east coast of Tol Eressëa, the side that faced Middle-earth and, later, Númenor. It was built at the end of the First Age when the Valar pardoned the exiled Noldor and the Elves of Beleriand, both Noldor and Sindar, sailed west and were settled on the Lonely Isle. The haven was their harbour and their principal town, and its white tower, rising above the water, was the landmark that told a mariner approaching from the east that he had come to the Undying Lands. It was the nearest of all the cities of the Eldar to the mortal world.

Avallonë and Númenor

In the Second Age the haven was the link between the Eldar and the Dúnedain. From Avallonë the Elves of Eressëa sailed east to the havens of Andúnië and Eldalondë in the west of Númenor, bringing seeds and flowers, songbirds, knowledge and gifts. The most famous of these was the seedling of Celeborn, the White Tree of Eressëa, which became Nimloth in the king's court at Armenelos. The palantíri that the Faithful later carried to Middle-earth were also gifts from the Eldar, and Unfinished Tales preserves the tradition that the Master-stone of the set stood in the tower of Avallonë, so that Elendil in Arnor could look toward it from the Tower Hills. On the clearest days the tower could be glimpsed from the summit of the Meneltarma.

As the Númenóreans turned from the Valar, the ships of Avallonë came to their shores less and less, and after the days of Tar-Palantir not at all. When Ar-Pharazôn sailed against Aman his fleet passed Eressëa in silence and the haven was encompassed by his ships before he landed on the mainland. At the Downfall it was removed from the world with the island, and thereafter the Elves who took ship from the Grey Havens sailed the Straight Road toward the tower of Avallonë as the first sight of home.

Avallonë lay on the eastern shore of Tol Eressëa, looking out over the Great Sea toward Númenor and Middle-earth. Behind it westward the island rose toward the Bay of Eldamar and the coast of Aman, with Tirion and Taniquetil beyond.