Board Thread:Lore/@comment-26272311-20150412005128/@comment-26298013-20150422194010

Well, in the Third Age there is no way for your average Elf, apparently, to return to Middle Earth, but Elves can still leave. Glorfindel of Rivendell may or may not be the Glorfindel of Gondolin, but it, however he is, Glorfindel's power does not stem at all from his perhaps having died.

Those of the Firstborn, at least, who have lived in the Blessed Realm of Valinor "dwell at once in both worlds" (I believe I have that quote correct, not using a book as reference right now, just my memory. This is out of FoTR, BTW), and "against the Seen and the Unseen they have great power" just like Galadriel. She came out of Valinor with the Noldor after seeing the Trees. Oh, and seeing the light of the Two Trees also somehow confers beauty and power in Tolkien's world. Therefore, super-Elves! Who probably have not returned from the dead, because the Silmarillion states that Elves go to the Hall of Mandos to wait until the changing of the world.