Si, but i was referring to the remaining exiles at the end of 1st age not the 3rd.
Gil-galad was born in
Middle-earth after his father journeyed from Eldamar in the Rebellion of the
Noldor, whether his father was
Fingon or
Orodreth, so no ban against his sailing into the West was ever set.
Galadriel, however, was one of the leaders of the Noldor and also one of the leaders of their Rebellion: she did face a ban on her return; or at least, she did in
Tolkien’s mind as late as 1967.
The only Noldorin descendants of
Finwë at the end of the
First Age were Galadriel; Gil-galad, who inherited the crown of the Noldor and was their last king in Middle-earth;
Maglor son of
Fëanor, who seems to have lost his mind after casting his purloined Silmaril into the sea and spent the rest of his life wandering the coasts and singing laments; and
Celebrimbor son of
Curufin son of Fëanor, who with Galadriel founded Eregion, with
Sauron forged
the Nine and Seven
Rings of Power, and alone forged the Three Rings.
That means four descendants of Finwë were still alive in Middle-earth when the
Second Age began. Celebrimbor died in Second Age 1697 defending the House of the Mírdain in Ost-in-Edhil during its invasion by Sauron in the War of the
Elves and Sauron. Maglor died: we are not told when, where, or how, but
if he lived through the Second Age, and
if he remained wandering the coastlands, then the tsunami that swept the western shores of Middle-earth in the Downfall of
Númenor probably took him; but however long he lived, it seems Maglor suffered some
Elvish version of insanity, apparently from overwhelming regret. Gil-galad died along with
Elendil in Second Age 3441 in personal combat against Sauron on the slopes of Orodruin in the
War of the Last Alliance. That leaves only Galadriel at the beginning of
the Third Age.
There were a great many other Noldor at the end of the First Age, but it seems most of them passed over the Sea into the West, ending their self-imposed exile. Those that remained settled mostly in
Lindon as the Second Age began: Lindon was all the mainland that remained of
Beleriand, though the island of Himling, formerly
Maedhros’
fortress of Himring, seems large enough to have been populated, were any Elves so inclined. Early in the Second Age, Galadriel and Celebrimbor set out east across
Eriador and settled Eregion, Hollin, a land they could rule without reference to Gil-galad: Ruling her own
realm was one of Galadriel’s desires, and one of the driving reasons behind her eagerness to leave Eldamar in the first place: hence her struggle to refuse
Frodo’s offer of
the One Ring despite thousands of years of reflection upon such a possibility. When Sauron arrived in disguise as
Annatar, Giver of Gifts, Galadriel spoke against him, but Celebrimbor and the Mírdain turned against her, and she had to leave Eregion. She passed through
Khazad-dûm to
Lothlórien on
the east side of the
Misty Mountains where
Amroth ruled. (Amroth may or may not have been her son.)
During the War of the Elves and Sauron, Gil-galad sent
Elrond with some troops to help the Noldor of Eregion, but to no avail: Sauron swept away all resistance, and Elrond and the survivors with him found themselves cut off from escape to Lindon, so he led those survivors to a valley in the northwestern Misty Mountains where he founded
Imladris,
Rivendell. Rivendell, then, was populated by Noldor of Eregion who survived the attack, Noldor of Lindon who accompanied Elrond, and
Sindar of Lindon who accompanied Elrond. It is likely the Elven smiths who reforged
Narsil for
Aragorn in
The Fellowship of the Ring were surviving Noldor of Eregion.
Finally, there were “Wandering Companies.”
Gildor was leading one of these when he and his companions met Frodo,
Sam, and
Merry. Their conversation indicates that they had homes,
“This is poor fare, … for we are lodging in the greenwood far from our
halls. If ever you are our guests at home, we will treat you better.”
but we never learn where their halls were located. Gildor says that “some of our kinsfolk dwell still in peace in Rivendell.” Since these are Noldor –
The Road Goes Ever On indicates they were returning from a pilgrimage to the Tower
Hills, where they looked into the
Palantír of Elendil to see a vision of Eldamar and perhaps of
Taniquetil – their “kinsfolk” are also Noldor. Whether the Wandering Companies were nomadic or pilgrims is not clear, since they themselves indicate to Frodo they have more permanent homes.
So at the end of the Third Age, the Noldor reside in Lindon, Rivendell, and make up some or all of the Wandering Companies. In
Letter 347 written late in his life, Tolkien observed,
It may be noted that at the end of the Third Age there were prob[ably] more people (
Men) that knew Q[uenya], or spoke S[indarin], than there were Elves who did either! Though dwindling, the population of
Minas Tirith and its fiefs must have been much greater than that of Lindon, Rivendell, and
Lórien.
This would include not only the Noldor, but also the Sindar. Moreover, the story of Pengoloð the Sage indicates that while his father was a Noldo, his mother was a Sinda: a mixed population of Noldor and Sindar arose in Beleriand. If Minas Tirith could of itself raise an army of about six thousand men, then the population of the
city was not likely more than sixty thousand at a maximum, or perhaps twenty-four thousand at a minimum: that might give you a rough idea of the number of Noldor and Sindar remaining in Middle-earth, if there were more Men in Minas Tirith than Eldar anywhere in Middle-earth. (
Stephen Wigmore has a good essay on this.)
Do not speak ill of yourself: Your enemies will gladly save you the trouble.
