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We haven't had a good elf-bashing in a while. Here is a summary of some of my reading last night which might serve as a nice starting point.

When the elves first appeared on the earth the Valar led most of them to Valinor (I believe this is the place they go when they sail off to the west). In Valinor were two trees. These trees provided the light for that land.

An elf named Feanor came along and decided to make three jewels. In these jewels he put some of the light from the two trees, the jewels were called the Silmarils.

To make a long story short, Melkor(Morgoth) had been freed from his captivity, deceived some of the elves into thinking that the Valar were jealous of them, and escaped into the south where he convinced Ungoliant, the mother of Shelob, to come with him back to Valinor where she could feed on the light of the two trees. Melkor and Ungoliant snuck into Valinor and Ungoliant devoured the light from the two trees, killing them. Melkor stole the Silmarils and he and Ungoliant escaped into the north lands of Middle-Earth.

Now Feanor was devestated by the loss of his Silmarils. He blamed the Valar, remember his mind had been poisoned by Melkor. Feanor rallied a majority of the Noldor(elves) to his side and they left to go back to Middle-Earth, reclaim the land they had left, and win back the Silmarils from Melkor. On the trip back to Middle-Earth Feanor and his army, which was divided into two different bands, came to the edge of Valinor and could not pass over the sea back to Middle-Earth.

They visited their kin, the Teleri, who dwelt on the coast and had beautiful white ships. The Teleri refused to help them rebel against the Valar so Feanor and his army attacked the Teleri, killing many. Feanor loaded his host into the ships and set sail for M/E.

They sailed north where the sea was narrower. They eventually came to a strip of land. They anchored the boats there to decide what to do next. Feanor had two options: 1) Walk over land to M/E through the frozen northlands or 2) Sail the ships to a spot of M/E further south. There were not enough ships to carry all of Feanor's host at once back to M/E. This was because Ulmo, the Valar who had the charge of the oceans, sent storms and waves to hinder the Noldor because of their attack on the Teleri.

Feanor chose a third option. He chose to sneak off in the ships with those who were loyal to him, leaving everyone else stranded on that northern strip of land. When Feanor and his band arrived in M/E his son asked who would Feanor send back with the ships to retrieve their compatriots. Feanor said no one would go and he burned the ships.

Needless to say the stranded elves saw the glow of the burning ships and knew what had happened. So they determined to make it overland to M/E. They did so, losing some of their people in the process.

I like how Tolkien worded how the abandoned elves felt as they returned to M/E, "Small love for Feanor or his sons had those that marched at last behind him, and blew their trumpets in Middle-earth at the first rising of the moon."

So you see those elves were backstabbers from the start. And you know, Galadriel was part of that bunch with that had to journey through the northern wastes.