Adding a little to Kathira's post, it is only in Lorien, under Galadriel's and
Nenya's power, that the elvendom is fully experienced in the light of the
sun. As Sam says, "'It's sunlight and bright day, right
enough,' he said. `I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but
this is more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of." This is possible
because Lorien preserves the world as it was when it was younger: "As
soon as [Frodo] set foot upon the far bank of
Silverlode a strange feeling had come upon him, and it deepened as he
walked on into the Naith: it seemed to him that he had stepped over a
bridge of time into a corner of the Elder Days, and was now
walking in a world that was no more. In
Rivendell there was memory of ancient things; in Lorien the ancient
things still lived on in the waking world."
In Rivendell the elvendom is of the Third Age, though preserved and enhanced by
Vilya. In contrast to Lorien, the hobbits, both Bilbo in the Hobbit and
the four in FotR, enter Rivendell at twilight, which is the time of the elves
in this age. In The Hobbit, the day is passing, but the stars are bright,
and there is a sound of laughter: "Their spirits rose as they went down and
down. The trees changed to beech and oak, and there was a comfortable feeling
in the twilight. The last green had almost faded out of the grass, when they
came at length to an open glade not far above the banks of the stream. 'Hmmm!
it smells like elves!' thought Bilbo, and he looked up at the stars. They were
burning bright and blue. Just then there came a burst of song like laughter in
the trees...."
Even in the FotR, the day is passing, but the sounds, and climate, and the
hobbits, show vigor: "Shadows had fallen in the valley below, but there
was still a light on the faces of the mountains far above. The air was warm.
The sound of running and falling water was loud, and the evening
was filled with a faint scent of trees and flowers, as if summer still
lingered in Elrond's gardens.
...
`Gandalf has been saying many cheerful things like
that,' said Pippin. `He thinks I need keeping in order. But
it seems impossible, somehow, to feel gloomy or depressed
in this place. I feel I could sing, if I knew the right song for the
occasion.'
`I feel like singing myself,' laughed Frodo. `Though at the
moment I feel more like eating and drinking!'
`That will soon be cured,'
said Pippin. `You have shown your usual cunning in getting up just in
time for a meal.'
`More than meal! A feast!' said
Merry. `As soon as Gandalf reported that you were recovered,
the preparations began.' He had hardly finished speaking when they
were summoned to the hall by the ringing of many bells."
The arrival of the Elves in Gondor, to me, seems quieter, more elegaic.
The air is cool and fragrant; Arwen glimmers in the evening; and even the
stars, while bright, are described as flowering, a soft word.
Tolkien uses the sunlight/twilight imagery, combined with other elements, to
reflect different sides of elvendom. Lorien showed its past glory;
Rivendell, a preserved and enhanced present; and Gondor, a blessed
passing.
