Galadriel

History and context

The Fellowship reaches her realm after Gandalf’s fall in Moria. Galadriel tests and assists the travellers, shows Frodo and Sam visions in her Mirror, and refuses Frodo’s offer of the One Ring. Her gifts later help the company in ways that range from practical survival to resistance against spiritual terror. The phial she gives Frodo holds the light of Eärendil’s star as gathered in her fountain. She departs from Middle-earth after the destruction of the One Ring, when the power supporting the preservation of the Elven realms is ending.

Literary context and distinctions

Galadriel’s early history is not a single, fully stabilised account. The published Silmarillion, the discussions assembled in Unfinished Tales and Tolkien’s later writings preserve different developments concerning her motives, movements and relationship to the rebellion of the Noldor. These versions should be identified rather than silently combined. Her refusal of the Ring can be read as a rejection of domination, but it also involves accepting the loss of a realm she has laboured to preserve. Film portrayals sometimes add actions and settings that do not appear in the narrative of The Lord of the Rings.

Primary references

• The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Mirror of Galadriel” and “Farewell to Lórien”.
• Unfinished Tales, Part Two, “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”.
• The Return of the King, “The Grey Havens”.