The Undying Lands are a place of extreme blessings, essentially the heaven counterpart of Middle Earth. Very few are permitted to go there after an ancient rift in which some elves chose immortality, and others chose to take on a mortal lifespan. This decision of the forefathers applied to all the generations that came after them, and those who were on the path of mortality were allowed to live, love, and grow old on Middle Earth, never to see the Undying Lands again. Those who had mortality were the only ones allowed to sail across the sea into the west, and return to the pure lands with blessing. This blessing is known as the Gift of the Valar.