Círdan
the Shipwright; lord of the Grey Havens; the keeper of the Third Ring
Name and Office
Círdan — “the Shipwright” — the lord of the Falathrim, the Sea-elves of the western coasts of Beleriand, from the earliest days of the Elves: he is — he “was of the Teleri… and had been a friend of Ossë”. His craft made him the keeper of the havens and the maker of the ships of the Eldar in every age; his home was first the Falas (Brithombar and Eglarest), then (after their fall) the isle of Balar, then the Grey Havens (Mithlond) in the far west of Middle-earth, which he built after the War of Wrath.
In the First Age
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The friend of the sea: He alone of the Sindar loved the deeps; from Ossë he learned the shipwright’s art and “the making of the ships that swim the sea” — the skill behind every voyage of the Eldar in the dark years.
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The keeper of the Havens: When Nargothrond and Gondolin fell, and the survivors gathered at the mouth of the Sirion, Círdan was the safe harbour-master of the age — he it was who counselled Eärendil — who built (with) the Wingilótë — he helped build the great ship Vingilot for Eärendil, and the fugitives of the half-elven went forth by his hand.
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The hero of the last war: He dwelt at the isle of Balar in the wreck of the age, and his fleets carried the remnant; in the War of Wrath the ships of Círdan, it is remembered, were the first the sea-lord brought to the landing.
The Second Age and after
He raised the
Grey Havens and reigned there under Gil-galad’s overlordship of Lindon; and when the Three Rings were made, Círdan received Narya — the Ring of Fire — “for the kindling of hearts”; at the end of the Second Age he gave it to Gandalf (his foresight). He is the longest-waiting of all the Eldar, “the only one of them who never ceased to wait” for the ships that bear the last Elves to the West — the final keeper of the tradition of the sea.
Significance
Círdan is the myth of the shipwright and the harbour: the Elf who never fought a great battle yet without whom no escape, no voyage, no rescue would have been; his presence spans from the first age’s dawn to the end of the Third Age — the oldest living memory of the Elder Days.