Chronicled in Mithlond in the realm of Lindon,
On this the 51st day of Iavas in the Year 3018 of the Third Age.
Te teliannen. My counsel was unneeded, for Naneth of her own choosing has taken ship; and with the setting of the Sun, she has forever departed the shores of Ennor to travel the Straight Road unto the Blessed Realm. Not for nothing is she named Ýridhremes, Wise Course, for she knew all my mind and intent, better perhaps than I myself, and indeed has foreseen that great good may yet come from my desire to linger in Ennor. I am much relieved, both for her well being and that I had no cause for deceit after all, but I am deeply saddened by our parting.
Cuio vae, Naneth. May Elbereth watch over you always.
As ever, when my happiness wanes I find great comfort in lore, and so now I turn my thought to her long journey and the course she follows. In that time which songs call Nurtalë Valinóreva, after the destruction of the Two Trees, the realm of Aman in the West came to be safeguarded by the chain of the Enchanted Isles and the bewilderment and darkness of the Shadowy Seas. I know not if this still holds true, for it is written by Elendil the Fair in Akallabêth, after the Downfall of Númenor, now called Atalantë, the World was made Bent and the the lands of the Uttermost West were removed from the Circles of the World.
Henceforth, mortals sailing into the West would but circle the World-globe and thus return to their place of starting; but by the grace of the Valar, an elven-ship sailing into the West leaves the Bent World and travels through the air 'as it were on a mighty bridge invisible'1 until it comes to Tol Eressëa and the Undying Lands. And this is called the Straight Road, for it follows the course of old across Belegaer from before the Flat World was made Round.
The truth will not be known to me until that day when I too board a White Ship for my final journey out of Ennor, but today is not that day. For now I must prepare for a very different journey, one that will take me into lands as yet unknown to me, but which I have long desired to see; and despite the great sorrow I feel for my father's death and my mother's parting, my heart is aflame with the prospect.
1 from Akallabêth, The Silmarillion
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