Sea-folk

Of the Three Kindreds of the Elves, it was the Teleri who were most attuned to the works of Ulmo, and they delighted in the music of water. Those of the Teleri who followed the Great Journey into Beleriand eventually reached the western shores of Middle-earth, and there they encountered the Sea for the first time. They also encountered the Maia Ossë, who taught them much about the Great Sea and the making of ships to sail upon it.

The purpose of the Great Journey had been to cross the Sea and come to Valinor, and this many of the Teleri went on to do, but not all. Círdan and his people had become enchanted by the shores of Middle-earth, and chose to remain behind. On the western coasts of Middle-earth they founded Havens, and there they became known as the Falathrim, the people of the shore.

Meanwhile the other Teleri, those who had made the crossing of the Sea, settled at first on the Lonely Isle, and then eventually on the jewelled shores of the Blessed Realm, where they made themselves a harbour at Alqualondë. Like their fellow Teleri who remained in Middle-earth, these Sea-elves maintained their close ties with the Great Sea, and were known as the Falmari or the Foamriders.

In Middle-earth, Círdan and his Falathrim dwelt in their Havens of the Falas for centuries, until those Havens were overrun after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The Elves escaped by ship, sailing down the coasts of Beleriand to eventually settle on the Isle of Balar. It is during this later part of their history that these people were described as the 'Sea-folk', though their long association with the Great Sea implies that the name might have been meaningfully used at any time in their long history.

Círdan and his people survived the destruction at the end of the First Age, and once again founded new havens, this time in the land of Lindon. Once far from the Sea, Lindon now lay on the coasts of Middle-earth, and there Círdan maintained his Grey Havens of Mithlond until the end of the Third Age. From those havens many of the Elves who had remained in Middle-earth set sail for the West, and eventually Círdan himself made the voyage aboard the Last Ship of the Sea-folk.