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Straight Road
(redirection from Straight Way)
The path over the Sea into the Ancient or True West, on which the ships of the Elves might still sail after the Downfall of Númenor and the changing of the World.
| Thus in after days, what by the voyages of ships, what by lore and star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round, and yet the Eldar were permitted still to depart and to come to the AncientWest? and to Avallónë, if they would.
Therefore the loremasters of Men said that a StraightRoad must still be, for those that were permitted to find it. And they taught that, while the new world fell away, the old road and the path of the memory of the West still went on, as it were a mighty bridge invisible that passed through the air of breath and flight (which were bent now as the world was bent), and traversed Ilmen which flesh unaided cannot endure, until it came to TolEressëa, the LonelyIsle, and maybe beyond, to Valinor, where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of the World. And tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the StraightWay and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the WhiteMountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died. | | Akallabêth |
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