Are Elves Immortal

Our favorite Tolkien scholar.

the elves are said to live forever. for this reason you can believe that the elves are older than the ents. true that gandalf said that treebeard is the oldest living thing in middle earth. Could this mean the oldest living mortal thing? One must think so because there is no doubt that he can not be the oldest in middle earth. Gandalf himself, the balrog, and sauron, all being maia were in existence before Arda was created.

Gandalf's comments about Treebeard's age undoubtedly excludes Tom Bombadil, Ainur and even trees, but not Elves. At the end of the Third Age all the Elves who had lived before Treebeard were not to be found in Middle-earth. They would be in Valinor, Eressea or the Halls of Mandos.

The Elves moreover did not live forever, just an extremely long amount of time. They could live only as long as the world, and the stragglers in Middle-earth would fade before its end. They were more properly called indefinitely longeval.

Then again, there is Cirdan. If the Elves woke up the Ents, and Cirdan took part in the Great Journey, isn't he older than Treebeard?

Well, I suppose Treebeard was alive before he was 'Entish' and was taught speech.

So where do elves fo after the Halls of Mandos?

If the judgement of Mandos goes well (and Manwë has the final word), they return to the living. Their body is made again as it was before whatever evil assailed it, and they return to Middle-earth if possible and if their home had been there, or remain in Aman.

[galadriel]

I'm interested in this concept of Elven wraiths. There are plenty of human wraiths, such as the Nazgul and the Barrow-wights, but I've never heard of an Elven wraith. Any particular ones that I should be aware of?

[Ñólendil]

Actually the Barrow-wights may be Elvish wraiths. Mannish wraiths were much more rare. They only remained within the Circles of the World after death in the most rarest cases, most definitely leave forever. Elves, on the hand, their fëar, or spirits may refuse the summons of Mandos (although this was an evil thing to do) and linger in Middle-earth. So most wraiths in Middle-earth, famous or not, were Elvish. They may even possess the unweary (and unwise) who summon them.

[ranger]

I think ents were first but the elves taught them how to speak

[Arien the Maia]

Originally posted by ranger
I think ents were first but the elves taught them how to speak

Ents couldn't have been first b/c Eru says to Aule and Yavanna that their thoughts (Ents and Dwarves) will not come before the Elves that are to be the Firstborn.