Lady Galadriel

After their arrival in Lothlorien, the Fellowship met Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn, who together ruled the forest kingdom. 

Galadriel was a powerful, wise, and respected ruler.

During their first meeting with Galadriel, she used her psychic powers to test if each adventurer was to truly committed to their dangerous mission.

  

All of them, it seemed, had fared alike: each had felt that he was offered a choice between a shadow full of fear that lay ahead, and something that he greatly desired: clear before his mind it lay, and to get it he had only to turn aside from the road and leave the Quest and the war against Sauron to others. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

This immediately sets Galadriel apart from almost all other characters in Middle Earth. Few had the ability to communicate telepathically. 

Moreover, Galadriel seemed to understand the adventurers' deepest desires, which many of the Fellowship chose not to share aloud when they talked among themselves about the odd experience afterward.

Later, Galadriel revealed to Frodo that she wore an Elven Ring.

Galadriel said that if Frodo failed to destroy the Ring of Power, the Elves would be conquered by Sauron. If Frodo succeeded in destroying the ring, however, she said the Elven Rings would lose their magic, and Lothlorien would fade away.

Frodo asked Galadriel which outcome she preferred, and she replied she would rather see the Ruling Ring destroyed.

Then, in one of my favorite passages, Frodo offered to give the Ruling Ring to Galadriel, who considered what she could do with the powerful ring.

Galadriel spoke her thoughts aloud as she considered Frodo’s offer. Her remarks reveal a great deal about her character.  

 

'You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel,' said Frodo. 'I will give you the One Ring, if you ask for it. It is too great a matter for me.'

Galadriel laughed with a sudden clear laugh. 'Wise the Lady Galadriel may be,' she said, 'yet here she has met her match in courtesy. Gently are you revenged for my testing of your heart at our first meeting. You begin to see with a keen eye. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer.

For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp. The evil that was devised long ago works on in many ways, whether Sauron himself stands or falls. 

Would not that have been a noble deed to set to the credit of his Ring, if I had taken it by force or fear from my guest? [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7] 

 

In an amusing turn of events, Galadriel had to reckon with a difficult choice and face temptation, as she had required the members of the Fellowship to do when she met them.

Gandalf and Elrond, who were knowledgeable about the Ring of Power, spoke of the ring as if it has its own will that it exerts over those it encounters.

Here Galadriel examines the consequences of that belief — namely, that someone could choose to do something immoral in pursuit of the ring, and blame their misdeed on the ring itself.

Then Galadriel considered the potential benefits and risks of accepting the Ring of Power.

 

'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!'

She 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. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. 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.' [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

Galadriel believed that if she wore the Ring of Power, she wouldn’t be as dreadful a ruler as Sauron. She also considers how powerful she would be if she wielded the One Ring.

While she might not become evil, the image she evoked for herself was nonetheless frighening.

I love the line, “All shall love me and despair!”

In a wonderful example of character-building, Galadriel even changed in appearance as she considered what she could do if she used the ring. She appeared as a powerful figure, “tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful” and then shrunk to once again become “a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.”

After considering her options, Galadriel told Frodo that she decided not to accept the Ruing Ring.

Frodo then asked Galadriel a question about the Ruling Ring and its powers.

 

They stood for a long while in silence. At length the Lady spoke again. 'Let us return!' she said. 'In the morning you must depart for now we have chosen, and the tides of fate are flowing.'

'I would ask one thing before we go,' said Frodo, 'a thing which I often meant to ask Gandalf in Rivendell. I am permitted to wear the One Ring: why cannot I see all the others and know the thoughts of those that wear them?'

'You have not tried,' she said. 'Only thrice have you set the Ring upon your finger since you knew what you possessed. Do not try! It would destroy you. Did not Gandalf tell you that the rings give power according to the measure of each possessor? Before you could use that power you would need to become far stronger, and to train your will to the domination of others.

Yet even so, as Ring-bearer and as one that has borne it on finger and seen that which is hidden, your sight is grown keener. You have perceived my thought more clearly than many that are accounted wise. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 7]

 

Frodo asked Galadriel why he can’t know the thoughts of those who wear the lesser rings, even though he has worn the Ring of Power. Galadriel explained that he would have to train himself to “the domination of others” to be able to do so. But she also observed that Frodo already understood her thoughts, as a bearer of one the Elven Rings, better than many others.

Galadriel also warned Frodo not to use the ring too often, because he might fall under its power and control.

As The Fellowship prepared to leave Lothlorien, Galadriel and Celeborn provided them with a parting feast. During the feast, Frodo observed Galadriel and remembered their discussion about the Ruling Ring.

 

There in the last end of Egladil upon the green grass the parting feast was held; but Frodo ate and drank little, heeding only the beauty of the Lady and her voice. She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor filled with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of Time. [The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter 8]

 

Galadriel did not return to the intimidating presence that she had earlier displayed. Tolkien once again referred to the waning prominence of the elves, whose time on Middle Earth was coming to a close.

Galadriel wasn’t the only ally against Sauron to be tempted by the ring. Boromir, one of the members of The Fellowship, would be tempted as well.

In my next analysis, I will examine Boromir’s plan to use the ring to defend his people against Sauron and Tolkien’s portrayal of the corruptibility of men.