# Aragorn dies during the quest. What happens to the RingWar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769 "2010-04-20T17:43:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/41 "2010-04-22T13:39:54Z")
Someone please refresh my memory. Do the wood elves, the ones who never knew Valinor, get to go to the West when they weary of life in Middle Earth? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/42 "2010-04-22T13:44:12Z")
It would appear that the Ents paid for the whole ‘free people’ thing by losing their females and dooming their race to extinction. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/43 "2010-04-22T13:44:22Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > Someone please refresh my memory. Do the wood elves, the ones who never knew Valinor, get to go to the West when they weary of life in Middle Earth? Yes they do. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/44 "2010-04-22T15:12:57Z")
Well they’re given the option too - whether or not they accept this summons might be in question. The Avari _don’t_ know the Ainur in the same way the Eldar do. Oh and elf gestation is roughly on par with humans…I seem to remember it being exactly 1 year and so a birthday is really a conception day. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/45 "2010-04-22T17:16:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Someone please refresh my memory. Do the wood elves, the ones who never knew Valinor, get to go to the West when they weary of life in Middle Earth? The original intention of the Valar was that _all_ of the Elves would come to Valinor to live with them, but some stopped along the way for various reasons. So they wouldn’t be taking the trip, so much as finishing it. Legolas, in fact, was a Wood-elf, though from a line heavily influenced by the High-elves. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/46 "2010-04-22T17:45:07Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > Someone please refresh my memory. Do the wood elves, the ones who never knew Valinor, get to go to the West when they weary of life in Middle Earth? > [@Chronos](#): > > The original intention of the Valar was that _all_ of the Elves would come to Valinor to live with them, but some stopped along the way for various reasons. So they wouldn’t be taking the trip, so much as finishing it. Legolas, in fact, was a Wood-elf, though from a line heavily influenced by the High-elves. My recollection of the taxonomy of the Elves is that the ones who never saw Valinor were the Avari, and they are different from the Wood-Elves. Except for the Avari, all of them eventually made it to Valinor, some in time to see the Trees and some not. Then many of them came back to Middle-Earth to fight Morgoth. After the War or Wrath, some went back and some (like Galadriel) did not. The Wood-Elves, Legolas’ people, were among those who had been there but did not return. I don’t know that we ever actually see the Avari in the books, after they decide to stay behind. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/47 "2010-04-22T18:00:22Z")
For what it is worth, Legolas and Thranduil and Oropher, Thranduil’s father were all Sindarin. Most of the Elves of Mirkwood were Avari. Oropher was a Sindarin Elf from Doriath. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/48 "2010-04-22T18:11:06Z")
Celeborn was also Sindarin, though Galadriel was a Noldo. > [@](#): > > Most of the Elves of Mirkwood were Avari. I thought the majority of the elves of Mirkwood (Greenwood) and Lorien were Silvan. There’s a distinction between the Avari, who never left Cuivienen, and the Silvan Elves, who were mostly Teleri who peeled off of the West-bound Host somewhere around the Vales of Anduin. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/49 "2010-04-22T19:25:44Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Celeborn was also Sindarin, though Galadriel was a Noldo. > > I thought the majority of the elves of Mirkwood (Greenwood) and Lorien were Silvan. There’s a distinction between the Avari, who never left Cuivienen, and the Silvan Elves, who were mostly Teleri who peeled off of the West-bound Host somewhere around the Vales of Anduin. That is probably more accurate. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769/50 "2010-04-23T13:49:46Z")
And thank you all for your thoughtful and knowledgeable responses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aragorn-dies-during-the-quest-what-happens-to-the-ringwar/536769.md?page=2)