Ellenhil was born very shortly after the first rising of the sun, in the lands of the Laegrim in Ossiriand. With but a few notable exceptions, Ellenhil's early years were ones of contentment in the safety of the lands of his people. Even during the drowning of Beleriand, much of Ossiriand was spared, and Ellenhil and his kin became inhabitants of the new realm of Lindon. As the Second Age waxed and waned, most of the Laegrim journeyed into the East, either of their own accord or led by Galadriel and Celeborn, yet some stayed and took the Noldo Gil-Galad as their first king since the passing of Denethor upon Amon Ereb a full age before. In that time the kingdom of Numenor came into power, then lost it beneath the waves, and Sauron's influence stretched far into the West for a time, but life in Lindon was unchanged for the Laegrim who yet lingered there.

Then came the Third Age, and the long years of the Watchful Peace, and the time came when Ellenhil felt a stirring in his heart. For standing on the Westernmost shores of Middle-Earth he watched the eldar begin to trickle out from the lands which they had for so long called home, and sail away into the West to seek those shores which Ellenhil and his kin had not yet laid eyes upon. And seeing this he desired not to follow the road of those who departed, but instead to see for himself all the wide lands of which they had grown weary.

So it was that Ellenhil passed East of Lindon for the first time in all his long years, and for much of the later Third Age he would wander Eriador, sometimes alone and sometimes in company, and look upon the ruins of Arnor, and sing under the starlight or the green leaves overhead. Yet as Ellenhil's life approached its seven thousandth year, he saw that in all the lands he wandered in (except perhaps the Shire), a darkness had begun to take root and grow, and the evil of the realm of Angmar was stirring once again. At this time he began to work more actively in the defense of Eriador, roaming the roads and fields between the settlements of men and giving such aid as a solitary elf might be able to provide, sometimes by the welding of his blades and sometimes merely by the singing of a song to lift the spirits. Yet he also sought after a company of warriors to whom to pledge his service, that in their service his contribution might be magnified.

He is most often called Ellenhil, meaning "follower after the stars". This is an after-name referencing the time of his birth at the very first dawn of the years of the sun, for when the sun first rose after the long night, it was noted to hide the stars completely due to its radiance, and therefore seemed almost to be their successor.

His father-name, Eglerion, he rarely uses, but he does use his mother-name Baraphadron meaning "Eager Follower", and hence he renders his name most often as Ellenhil Baraphadron.