Falathrim

The people of the shore

When the Teleri came at last to the coasts of Beleriand, some of them settled on the western shore where the Sea broke on the cliffs of the Falas, and there Ossë came among them and taught them the lore of the waters. When Ulmo returned to carry the Teleri to Aman, these coast-dwellers chose to stay: Ossë had asked them to, and they loved the shore too much to leave it. Their lord was Círdan, the Shipwright, a kinsman of Elwë, and by the accounts in Unfinished Tales he too had longed for the West but stayed out of loyalty to his lost king and afterwards accepted a vision that his time to sail would come only at the very end. His people were the Falathrim, the folk of the foaming shore, and they alone among the Elves of Middle-earth built sea-going ships.

The Havens

The Falathrim raised two walled harbours on the Falas: Brithombar in the north at the mouth of the Brithon and Eglarest in the south at the mouth of the Nenning. They acknowledged Thingol as their overlord and were counted among the Sindar, but they lived far from Doriath and outside the Girdle, and in the First Battle of Beleriand they were cut off and besieged by Orcs while the Sindar of the interior fought alone. The return of the Noldor relieved the Havens, and Círdan became a firm friend of Finrod, who rebuilt the walls of the harbours and raised the tower of Barad Nimras on the cape between them to watch the western Sea. Through the long Siege of Angband the Falathrim were mariners and fishers, and their ships explored the coasts as far as the Isle of Balar.

Fall of the Falas and Balar

After the Nirnaeth Arnoediad the hosts of Morgoth came down on the Falas, and in F.A. 473 both Havens were taken and their walls broken. Círdan gathered the survivors onto his ships and withdrew to the Isle of Balar and to the Mouths of Sirion. There the Falathrim built a new haven and the last free Elves of Beleriand gathered around them: refugees of Nargothrond and Doriath, and after the fall of Gondolin the household of Tuor and Idril. It was Círdan's shipwrights who helped Eärendil build Vingilot, the ship that found the way to Aman. When the sons of Fëanor destroyed the refuge at Sirion, Círdan and Gil-galad sailed from Balar and rescued whom they could.

Lindon and the Grey Havens

After the drowning of Beleriand the Falathrim settled the coasts of Lindon, and Círdan founded the Grey Havens, Mithlond, on the Gulf of Lhûn. From there, for two ages, the ships of the Falathrim carried Elves into the West. Their mariners sailed to Númenor in the days of friendship and taught the Númenóreans shipcraft; their ships bore Elendil and his sons' allies to war in the Last Alliance, and in the Third Age Círdan sent ships north to Forochel in a vain attempt to save Arvedui. They were the guardians of the Havens and the keepers of the road to the West, and Círdan himself held Narya, the Ring of Fire, until he gave it to Gandalf.

What sets them apart

The Falathrim are the only Elves in Middle-earth who ever had a fleet and the only ones whose whole life was bound to the Sea. They shared the grey eyes and quiet temper of the Sindar, but they were more far-sighted, for Círdan's people saw the shore of Aman only in longing and knew from the first that their road ended there. They were less warlike than the Noldor and less secluded than the Elves of Doriath, and they were the natural friends of every people who came to the coast, from Finrod to the Dúnedain.

Fate

The Falathrim endured longest of all the Sindar because their task was the last to end. Círdan built the ship that carried the Ring-bearers from the Grey Havens in T.A. 3021, and the tale says he would remain until the last ship sailed and then go West with it.

The Falathrim were Sindar of the coast, grey-eyed and weathered by the Sea; Círdan alone among Elves was described as bearded, a mark of great age.

Shipwrights, fishers and mariners, the Falathrim built the only Elven fleet of Middle-earth. Their harbours were walled and lit, and their ships were grey and swift. They spoke Sindarin and were ruled by Círdan from the Havens of the Falas, then from Balar, then from the Grey Havens for the rest of the Elder Days and after.

The Falathrim were the Teleri of the Beleriand coast who, taught by Ossë, chose the shore of Middle-earth over the crossing to Aman when Ulmo's island came for the last time.

They keep the Grey Havens and build the ships that bear the Elves west until the last of them departs with Círdan at the end of the tale.