Valinor

Valinor, the Land of the Valar, was the realm of the gods in the uttermost West of the world, beyond the Great Sea. Also called the Blessed Realm, it was the dwelling of the Valar and the Ainur, and home to the Vanyar and Noldor Elves who answered the summons into the West. With its city of Valimar and the haven of the Teleri at Alqualondë, it lay upon the continent of Aman.

Geography

Valinor lay west of the Pelóri, the great Mountains of Defence raised by the Valar to guard their land. Within its borders stood Valimar, the city of bells, and the dwellings of the various Valar. Before the city grew the Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin, whose mingled silver and gold light illumined the land in the ages before the Sun and Moon.

History

After the destruction of their first home, the Valar removed into the West and raised up Valinor in Aman. They summoned the newly awoken Elves to dwell with them in bliss, and many came. The land knew its greatest glory in the Years of the Trees.

This peace was broken when Morgoth, with the spider Ungoliant, destroyed the Two Trees and stole the Silmarils. In the darkness that followed, Fëanor and many of the Noldor rebelled and left Valinor to pursue Morgoth into Middle-earth, a departure marked by the kin-slaying at Alqualondë and the doom pronounced upon them.

The Undying Lands

After the Downfall of Númenor, Aman and Valinor were removed from the circles of the world, so that mortal mariners could no longer reach them by sailing west. Only by the Straight Road, granted to the Elves and a few others, could ships pass thither. At the end of the Third Age, the Ring-bearers and the last of the great Elves sailed from the Grey Havens into the West to find rest in the Undying Lands.