Galadriel

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For other uses, see Galadriel (disambiguation).

Galadriel
Celebrían
Book(s)The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
The Return of the King (1955)
The Silmarillion (1977)
Unfinished Tales (1980)

Galadriel (IPA: [ɡaˈladri.ɛl]) is a character created by J. R. R. Tolkien in his Middle-earth writings. She appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales.

She was a royal

Vanyar
through her grandmother Indis. Galadriel was a leader during the rebellion of the Noldor, and present in their flight from
Celebrían was the wife of Elrond and mother of Arwen
, Elladan, and Elrohir. Tolkien describes Galadriel as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" (after the death of Gil-galad)[T 1] and the "greatest of elven women".[T 2]

The Tolkien scholar

Scylla and Charybdis
.

Modern songwriters have created songs about Galadriel; Tolkien's Quenya poem "Namárië" has been set to music by Donald Swann. Galadriel has appeared in both animated and live-action films and television. Cate Blanchett played her in Peter Jackson's film series, while Morfydd Clark played her in an earlier age in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Fictional biography

Stories of Galadriel's life prior to the

Aman or Middle-earth.[T 3]

According to the older account of her story, sketched by Tolkien in

kinslaying of elves by elves.[T 7]

Second Age

Galadriel and Celeborn travelled first to

River Anduin, which became Lothlórien. At some point, Celeborn and Galadriel left Eregion and settled in Lothlórien. According to some of Tolkien's accounts, they became rulers of Lothlórien for a time during the Second Age; but in all accounts they returned to Lórien to take up its rule after Amroth was lost in the middle of the Third Age.[T 3]

Celeborn and Galadriel had a daughter,

Half-elven of Rivendell.[T 2]

During the

Dol Amroth.[T 3]

Third Age

'And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!' [Galadriel] lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark... Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad. 'I pass the test', she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel'.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In

dominion of Men would be to return at last to Valinor.[T 9] It is implied, backed up by other writings, that in acknowledgement of this renunciation of power her personal ban from Valinor was lifted.[T 1][T 3]

When the Fellowship left Lothlórien, she gave each member a gift and an Elven cloak, and furnished the party with supplies, both as practical support and as a symbol of faith, hope and goodwill. Her husband Celeborn likewise provided the Fellowship with Elven-boats.[T 10] On the day that the Fellowship left Lórien, but unknown to them,

Gwaihir. Galadriel healed his wounds and re-clothed him in white, signalling his new status as head of the Istari, the order of wizards.[T 11]

After Sauron perished, Celeborn led the host of Lórien across the Anduin and captured Dol Guldur. Galadriel came forth and "threw down its walls and laid bare its pits".

Ring-bearers Bilbo and Frodo, marking the end of the Third Age.[T 12] Celeborn remained behind, and Tolkien writes that "there is no record of the day when at last he sought the Grey Havens".[T 13]

Characteristics

The Dúnedain said that her height was two rangar, or "man-high" – some 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm).[T 14] However, Galadriel's most striking feature was her beautiful long silver-golden hair. The Elves of Tirion said it captured the radiance of the Two Trees Laurelin and Telperion themselves.[T 15]

Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful, and her hair is held a marvel unmatched. It is golden like the hair of her father and of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold is touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar say that the light of the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, has been snared in her tresses.[T 15]

Silmarils.[T 15]

Many thought that this saying first gave to Fëanor the thought of imprisoning and blending the light of the Trees that later took shape in his hands as the Silmarils. For Fëanor beheld the hair of Galadriel with wonder and delight.[T 15]

Nevertheless, Galadriel never repaid Fëanor's admiration. Fëanor "had begged her thrice for a tress and thrice she refused to give him even one hair. It is said that these two kinsfolk, being considered the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, remain unfriends forever."[T 15]

Her character was a blend of characteristics of the

Finrod.[T 15]

She was proud, strong, and self-willed, as were all the descendants of Finwë save Finarfin; and like her brother Finrod, of all her kin the nearest to her heart, she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be her own to order as she would without tutelage. Yet deeper still there dwelt in her the noble and generous spirit of the Vanyar, and a reverence for the Valar that she could not forget. From her earliest years she had a marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her goodwill from none save only Fëanor. In him she perceived a darkness that she hated and feared, though she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own.[T 15]

Her sympathy for

Dwarf to Lothlórien, completely won him over.[T 9]

Relationships

Family tree[T 15]
Melian
the
Vanyar
GaladhonEärwenFinarfin
Finrod
Aegnor
DiorNimlothOrodreth
ElurédElurínElwingGil-galadFinduilas
ElrosElrondCelebrían
Tar-Elendil
SilmariënTar-Meneldur
ElendilAr-Pharazôn
IsildurAnárion
ArveduiFíriel
Aranarth
AragornArwenElladanElrohir
Eldarion
Colour key:
Colour Description
 
Elves
 
Men
 
Maiar
 
Half-elven
  Half-elven who chose the fate of elves
  Half-elven who chose the fate of mortal men

Analysis

Further information: Women in The Lord of the Rings

Reconstructed Old English elf

The critic

Ithilien that Galadriel must be "perilously fair", Shippey comments that this is a "highly accurate remark"; Sam replies that "folk takes their peril with them into Lorien... But perhaps you could call her perilous, because she's so strong in herself."[1]

Angelic being

Shippey also considers the Christian

hagiographic work which he supposes Tolkien must have read, that elves were angels. In Shippey's view, Tolkien's elves are much like fallen angels, above Men but below the angelic Maiar and the godlike Valar. He comments at once that Galadriel is in one way certainly not "fallen", as the elves avoided the war on Melkor in the First Age; but all the same, "Galadriel has been expelled from a kind of Heaven, the Deathless land of Valinor, and has been forbidden to return." Shippey suggests that the Men of Middle-earth might have thought the fall of Melkor and the expulsion of Galadriel added up to a similar fallen status;[2] and he praises Tolkien for taking both sides of the story of elves into account.[1]

Arthurian figure

The Tolkien scholar

Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat; she notes that Ayesha was herself an Arthurian figure, transposed to 19th century Africa.[3]

Marjorie Burns's comparison of Galadriel with Ayesha and the Lady of Shalott[3]
Attribute Galadriel Ayesha (She) The Lady of Shalott
Image
Galadriel in front of her mirror
Galadriel in front of her mirror

Tessa Boronski, 2011
Depiction of She, Holly, Leo, and Job journeying to the cavern containing the Pillar of Life. Ayesha stands on one side of a deep ravine, having crossed over using a plank of wood as a demonstration of its safety. She beckons the three Englishmen to follow her. A great beam of light divides the darkness about them.
Depiction of She, Holly, Leo, and Job journeying to the cavern containing the Pillar of Life. Ayesha stands on one side of a deep ravine, having crossed over using a plank of wood as a demonstration of its safety. She beckons the three Englishmen to follow her. A great beam of light divides the darkness about them.

Edward Killingworth Johnson, 1887
PreRaphaelite oil painting of the Lady of Shallott, finely dressed, on a small boat in a river
PreRaphaelite oil painting of the Lady of Shallott, finely dressed, on a small boat in a river

John William Waterhouse, 1888
Life immortal Elf immortal human after
entering the flame 		"fairy"
Beauty very fair
long blonde hair 		men fall to their knees
long raven-black hair 		great beauty
very long dark hair
Wisdom
Power
sees more than any man
 dangerous and strange
Work
weaving, and overseeing weaver-maidens
 weaves continually
Place
isolated realm, sheltered from change
 enchanted island
Healing
heals and preserves
 enchanted
Magic mirror
(dish of water) 		sees past, present,
"things that may yet be"
denies it is magic 		sees past and present
denies it is magic 		"the mirror's magic
sights"
Ending her ring loses power
elves leave and diminish 		re-enters the flame
shrivels up and dies 		relinquishes power
and dies

Medieval celestial lady

Sarah Downey, in

allegorical. Downey notes that Tolkien's protestation that he "cordially dislike[d] allegory" has not spared him from much analysis of his writings to be interpreted, but states that Galadriel appears as a fully-fledged figure of "history, true or feigned", with problems of her own making, rather than being a flat allegorical symbol of goodness and purity. The fact that Galadriel is a "penitent" seeking readmission to Aman, Downey comments, makes it clear, too, that she cannot be straightforwardly equated with a figure of perfection like the Virgin Mary.[4]

Sarah Downey's comparison of Galadriel with the Pearl-maiden and Dante's celestial ladies[4]
Attribute Galadriel Pearl-maiden Dante's Matelda Dante's Beatrice
Image
Frodo to look into her mirror-fountain, the light of a star shining through her ring-finger.
Alexander Korotich
, scraperboard, 1981
The Pearl-maiden is across the stream from the Dreamer.
Cotton MS Nero A X
Matelda, Dante, and Virgil in the Earthly Paradise
John William Waterhouse, c. 1915
Dante sees Beatrice (centre) by the River Arno in Florence
Henry Holiday, 1883
Celestial lady who gives guidance Lady of Lothlórien yes yes yes
Earthly Paradise
 Lothlórien is like Aman, but in Middle-earth Otherworldly garden, Heaven just across the stream Guides Dante through the Garden of Eden At top of
Mount Purgatory, near but not in Heaven
River-as-boundary Between two rivers Clear stream, with Heaven on far side Bathes Dante in river Lethe Across a pure stream
Dreamlike time Timeless land; Elves are immortal is dead is dead is dead
Allegorical
 No, she is "penitent", a fully-developed character yes yes yes
Ordeal, loss, death yes, Gandalf has just been lost in Moria yes yes yes
Water and light "tall and white and fair"; light of
Nenya
, the Ring of Water		 white and gold "clothed in the colour of a living flame"
Vision and redemption Sam sees destruction in the Shire in Galadriel's Mirror; Frodo glimpses "parts of a great history in which he had become involved", is enjoined not to touch the water; test is for Galadriel (not the narrator), tempted to take the One Ring Narrator looks across the stream to the Heavenly Jerusalem; he jumps into stream and wakes up Dante's vision within a vision, a pageant with Beatrice

Homeric benefactor

Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus by John William Waterhouse
, 1891.
Further information: Tolkien and the classical world

The Tolkien scholar Mac Fenwick compares Galadriel and what he sees as her monstrous opposite, the giant and evil spider

Eärendil's star, able to blind and ward off Shelob in her darkest of dark lairs. Galadriel's gifts, too, are Homeric, including cloaks, food, and wisdom as well as light, just like those of Circe and Calypso.[5]

Mac Fenwick's comparison of Galadriel
with the Homeric Circe and Calypso[5]
Attribute Galadriel Circe and Calypso
Place
own magical realm
Assistance
help and advice
Monstrous
opposites
Shelob,
giant spider of darkness
Scylla and Charybdis
,
who would destroy his ship
Gifts
cloaks, food, wisdom, light

Jungian archetypes

Further information: Character pairing in The Lord of the Rings
Diagram of Patrick Grant's Jungian view of the hero Frodo with Galadriel as his anima, opposed by Shelob[6]

Patrick Grant, a scholar of

Virgin Mary; on the destructive side, she can be symbolised, he writes, by the siren of mythology who lures a man to disaster, or a "poisonous and malevolent" witch.[6] Grant states that the anima and animus are "further from consciousness" than the shadow archetype.[6] Both the anima/animus and the shadow are presented in conjunction with the hero archetype, signifying an "individuation process which is approaching wholeness".[6] The set of archetypes creates an image of the self.[6] Burns adds that the opposed characters of Galadriel and Shelob are indicated by elements such as the Phial of Galadriel, whose light contrasts with the darkness of the spider.[7][8]

Legacy in music

Tolkien wrote a poem "

Blessed Realm and the Valar, her longing to return there, and at the end a wish or hope that even though she herself is forbidden (by the Ban) to return, that Frodo might somehow come in the end to the city of Valimar in Valinor. The poem was set to music by Donald Swann with Tolkien's assistance. The sheet music and an audio recording are part of the song-cycle of The Road Goes Ever On. In a recording, Tolkien sings it in the style of a Gregorian chant.[9]

Hijaz
Howard Shore used the Arabic maqam Hijaz scale to give the Lothlórien/Galadriel theme a sense of antiquity.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Galadriel's songs are omitted from Howard Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings film series;[10] instead, Shore created a Lothlórien/Galadriel theme using the Arabic maqam Hijaz scale to create a sense of antiquity.[a][11]

Yulia Townsend and Will Martin.[12]

On their album

John Lees played John Lennon's Epiphone Casino guitar on this track, an event later recounted in a song on the band's 1990 album Welcome To The Show titled "John Lennon's Guitar".[13]
Hank Marvin and John Farrar wrote a song "Galadriel", recorded by Cliff Richard; the four five-line stanzas include the couplet "Galadriel, spirit of starlight / Eagle and dove gave birth to thee".[14][15] An Australian band named Galadriel released a self-titled album in 1971 which "became a highly sought-after collectors' item among European progressive rock circles".[16]

Adaptations

Galadriel in Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord of the Rings

Galadriel was voiced by Annette Crosbie in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film of The Lord of the Rings,[17] and by Marian Diamond in BBC Radio's 1981 serialisation.[18]

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Galadriel is played by Cate Blanchett.[19] In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel narrates the prologue that explains the creation of the One Ring, as well as appearing in Lothlórien.[20]

Rebecca Jackson Mendoza in the elaborate[21] costume of the Toronto musical production[21]

While Galadriel does not feature in Tolkien's The Hobbit, the story was amended so that she could appear in Jackson's films based on the book.[22]

On stage, Galadriel was portrayed by Rebecca Jackson Mendoza in the 2006 Toronto musical production of The Lord of the Rings; Mendoza's dress was hand-embroidered with some 1800 beads.[21] The musical was revised and moved to London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2007, with Laura Michelle Kelly in the "glittering" role.[23]

Galadriel appears in video games such as The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, where she is voiced by Lani Minella.[24]

In the 2022 television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, young Galadriel was portrayed by Morfydd Clark,[25] and her younger version by Amelie Child Villiers.[26]

Notes

  1. ^ Lothlórien/Galadriel theme Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine (listening sample)

References

Primary

  1. ^
    Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
    "
  2. ^ a b c Tolkien 1955, Appendix B, "The Tale of Years"
  3. ^ a b c d e Tolkien 1980, 4. "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", "Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 9 "Of the Flight of the Noldor"
  5. ^ Tolkien 1980, part 2, ch. 4 "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" discusses "the reasons and motives given for Galadriel's remaining in Middle-earth", citing The Road Goes Ever On.
  6. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 13 "Of the Return of the Noldor"
  7. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 15 "Of the Noldor in Beleriand"
  8. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2 ch. 6 "Lothlórien"
  9. ^ a b Tolkien 1954a, book 2 ch. 7 "The Mirror of Galadriel"
  10. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2 ch. 8 "Farewell to Lórien"
  11. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 5 "The White Rider"
  12. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"
  13. ^ Tolkien 1954a, "Prologue", "Note on the Shire Records"
  14. ^ Tolkien 1980, part 3, ch. 1 "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Appendix (Númenórean Linear Measures)"
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Tolkien 1980, part 2, ch. 4 "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"

Secondary

  1. ^
    ISBN 0261102753
    .
  2. ISBN 0261102753
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8020-3806-7
    .
  4. ^ a b Downey, Sarah (2011). "Cordial Dislike: Reinventing the Celestial Ladies of Pearl and Purgatorio in Tolkien's Galadriel". Mythlore. 29 (3). Article 8.
  5. ^ a b c Fenwick, Mac (1996). "Breastplates of Silk: Homeric Women in The Lord of the Rings". Mythlore. 21 (3). article 4.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Grant, Patrick (1973). "Tolkien: Archetype and Word". Cross Currents (Winter 1973): 365–380. Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
  7. ^ Burns, Marjorie. "Double". In Drout, Michael D.C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 128.
  8. ^ Burns, Marjorie. "Shelob". In Drout, Michael D.C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 606.
  9. ^ Hargrove, Gene (January 1995). "Music in Middle-Earth". University of North Texas. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  10. ^ Jorgensen, Estelle R. (December 2004). "Music, Myth, and Education: The Case of The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy" (PDF). Reasons of the Heart: Myth, Meaning and Education, an International Conference, University of Edinburgh, September 9–12, 2004: 6–7.
  11. ISBN 978-0-7390-7157-1
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1904994107
    .
  13. ^ "Galadriel". Barclay James Harvest. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  14. ^ Library of Congress Copyright Office (1977). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. p. 1618.
  15. ^ Gramophone. Vol. 61. C. Mackenzie. 1983. p. 541.
  16. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived
    from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  17. ISBN 978-1-56976-222-6
    .
  18. ^ "Riel Radio Theatre — The Lord of the Rings, Episode 2". Radioriel. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  19. ^ "Torn Exclusive: Cate Blanchett, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Mikael Persbrandt join cast of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit"". 7 December 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  20. ^ Harl, Allison (Spring–Summer 2007). "The monstrosity of the gaze: critical problems with a film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings". Mythlore. 25 (3). Article 7.
  21. ^ a b c Brantley, Ben (24 March 2006). "Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings,' Staged by Matthew Warchus in Toronto". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  22. ^ Child, Ben (8 December 2010). "Peter Jackson tinkers with Tolkien to hand Cate Blanchett Hobbit role". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  23. ^ Billington, Michael (19 June 2007). "Guardian review, "The Lord of the Rings"". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  24. ^ "Galadriel". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  25. ^ Kroll, Justin (17 December 2019). "'Lord of the Rings' Series Taps Morfydd Clark as Young Galadriel". Variety. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  26. ^ Welch, Andy (2 September 2022). "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power recap episodes one and two – like no TV you've seen before". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2022.

Sources

Related articles

  • The Phial of Galadriel
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