The Backstory Of The Lord Of The Rings Elves Explained

If you want to understand the backstory of the Elves, it helps to start with a quick rundown on the world that they walked into. The history of Middle-earth goes way back, tens of thousands of years before the Elves ever set foot on the continent. In these early days, Arda — that is, the world — is created by Ilúvatar. His servants, the angelic Valar, enter with the task to shape and protect it from the Dark Lord Morgoth (Sauron's original master).

Eventually, ongoing, world-shattering wars with Morgoth lead the good guys to let the Dark Lord run loose on the central continent of Middle-earth while they withdraw west, across the sea. Here they build a heavenly new home in the heart of a continent referred to thereafter as the Blessed Realm — we're talking about the same place Frodo and Bilbo head for at the end of The Return of the King.

While this relocation works for the moment, critically, the Valar also know that, sooner or later, Ilúvatar is going to send an unknown but important group of peoples he refers to as his "Children" into the world to inhabit it, and they must be prepared to receive them. With that in mind, one of the Valar, named Varda, creates bright new stars and hangs them in the sky to light the path for these mysterious "Children" when they arrive.