Once an Elf is granted passage from the Grey Havens to Valinor, they sail across the Sundering Seas and enter the Undying Lands, never to return to Middle-earth. Valinor is its own sort of heaven, an eternal land of paradise for Elves to live among the gods.
However, if a mortal were somehow to slip past Manwe, hidden among elves and masked in the glow of their immortality, most believe it to be unlikely that they would survive long in Valinor. This is because their body and soul would not be able to find harmony within the land without the gift of the Valar.
Certain Elves were once cursed by Doom of Mandos preventing them from returning to Valinor, including Galadriel. According to the lore, the curse would have been lifted by Middle Earth and they could return if they had nothing left holding them in Middle Earth.
Why Couldn't Men go to Valinor? Middle-earth Explained
Why was Galadriel banned from Valinor?
Being one of the chief leaders of the Noldorin rebellion, Galadriel was not allowed to return and a ban was set upon her, to which she replied that she had no wish to do so.
Spirits of dead Elves go to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor, a sort of Earthly Paradise, for an afterlife. After a period of rest that serves as "cleansing", their spirits are clothed in bodies identical to their old ones.
They note, too, that a mortal's stay in Valinor is only temporary, not conferring immortality, just as, in medieval Christian theology, the Earthly Paradise is only a preparation for the Celestial Paradise that is above.
But whether they've been to Valinor before or not, all elves go there when they die, and all elves can leave Valinor and sail to the rest of Middle-earth if they want — though that hasn't happened particularly often in Tolkien's work, and when it has it's usually a big deal.
By special permission of the Valar, the Hobbits Frodo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins, and Samwise Gamgee were also permitted to go to Valinor, as they had once borne the One Ring of Sauron. Later, after the death of Aragorn, Legolas the Elf would sail to Valinor and bring with him Gimli the Dwarf.
The ship passed west upon the sea, and then took the hidden straight path to Valinor. Gandalf became Olórin once more. There, presumably, he dwells still in the gardens of Irmo.
After the death of King Elessar, Legolas made a ship in Ithilien, and through Anduin, he left Middle-earth to go over the sea. His strong friendship with Gimli prompted him to invite Gimli to go to the Undying Lands; making him the first and only Dwarf to do so.
This is all described by Tolkien in Letter 325: “As for Frodo or other mortals, they could only dwell in Aman for a limited time – whether brief or long. The Valar had neither the power nor the right to confer 'immortality' upon them.
Darkening of Valinor was the destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor, by Morgoth and Ungoliant in Y.T. 1495. The five Valian Years between the Darkening and the rising of the Sun was known as the Long Night.
No, Galadriel / Artanis was not the last surviving elf born in Aman. Her cousin and kinslayer, prince Maglor(1), was born in Valinor too, if you go strictly by the people who survived all ages of Middle-earth and did not die and subsequently go to Halls of Mandos.
This is implied in the Akallabeth, where men might be 'burnt out' by too much proximity to the Ainur. However, the refusal of the Valar to admit men may also be a consequence of men being corrupted early after awakening by Melkor, or his agents.
She wasn't forbidden to return. After the War of Wrath, the Valar invited the Eldar in Middle-earth (including the Noldor) once more to come to Valinor (Tol Eressëa more specifically). She remained in Middle-earth out of pride and misbelief [and a personal ban against the Noldorin leaders of the rebellion].
Once an Elf is granted passage from the Grey Havens to Valinor, they sail across the Sundering Seas and enter the Undying Lands, never to return to Middle-earth. Valinor is its own sort of heaven, an eternal land of paradise for Elves to live among the gods.
By the Time of The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel Is Over 8000 Years Old. With Galadriel being born in YT 1362, that means she lived for 138 years in Valinor, as the Years of the Trees ended in 1500. So, her 138 years, multiplied by 9.582, places Galadriel at 1322 years old when the First Age of Middle-earth began.
Finwë is the first person to be murdered in Valinor: he is killed by the Dark Lord Morgoth, who is intent on stealing the Silmarils. The event sets off the Flight of the Noldor from Valinor back to Beleriand in Middle-earth, and its disastrous consequences.
Some fans think Valinor is like Lord of the Rings' heaven, but that's not the case. Mortals died in Valinor, just like they did in Middle-earth. The Lord of the Rings ended on a fairly happy note.
Glorfindel fought the Balrog and succeeded in slaying the monster, but was himself mortally wounded. His body was recovered by the great eagle Thorondor and buried under a stone cairn, where afterward grew yellow flowers.
Elves are basically immortal beings who age into a state of ethereal hotness and then stop the clock. They live for millennia, so being pregnant for one hundred years is actually not that bad when you look at it that way. Both parents are also aware of the baby elf growing in the womb the whole time.
All those Elves who never reached Valinor are "Dark Elves." In the First Age, the Sindar viewed the term "Moriquendi" as offensive, so the Noldorin Exiles gave the name Úmanyar ("Those not of Aman") to those who started the journey but did not finish it.
