Not sure where to post this but I just read Galadriel's page in the character biographies section, and in my opinion it needs a bit of revision. I'm glad to see the notion of Galadriel's ban in the bio, as this was published by Tolkien himself in 1967 in
The Road Goes Ever On.That said, a few things...
Quote:
Name Meaning: Lady of Light (Sindarin Elvish) Aliases: Altariel, Alatariel, the Lady of Lorien, Galadhriel, the Lady of the Wood, the Lady of the Galadrim, the Sorceress of the Golden Wood, the Mistress of Magic, the White Lady, Queen Galadriel, Nerwen
Although Tolkien himself worded the meaning differently at different times, I would probably give the meaning as "Lady crowned with light" as Galad
riel includes an element derived from "crown" and the name refers to her hair. Also I would add
Artanis along with Nerwende (already there in the short form as Nerwen).
In short, the bio as it now stands has Galadriel's Mother-name Nerwen ("man-maiden"), but not her Father-name
Artanis ("noble woman")
Quote:
Siblings: Finrod, Orodreth, Angrod, and Aegnor
I don't consider this wrong, and it agrees with the constructed Silmarillion (which is probably intentional) but I might footnote that Orodreth was ultimately dropped as Galadriel's brother. In the latest known scenario Tolkien imagined Orodreth as the son of Angrod and the father of Gil-galad, and was possibly (seemingly) given a new Sindarin name as well:
Arothir (the name Arothir is certainly attested I'm just not wholly positive that "Orodreth" had been dropped).
Quote:
History: (...) When Fëanor's Silmarils were stolen, Galadriel was the only woman who played a prominent part in the rebellion of the Noldor. She was eager to journey to Middle-earth, and may even have joined in the Kinslaying at Alqualondë: she certainly did not hinder the bloodshed.
I don't think I would say that Galadriel "certainly did not hinder the bloodshed".
According to the Silmarillion as constructed and published by Christopher Tolkien in 1977, there seems no way to know for certain that Galadriel had even been present for the bloodshed, and actually I believe this to have been the case when Tolkien introduced her into the tales of the Elder Days. However, as that argument might induce sleep, I'll note it more fully below the line of sleep (further down in this post).
It's probably best not to operate heavy machinery when reading the material below the line
And in later texts (not taken up into the constructed Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien) Galadriel defends the Teleri here. I'm not saying this should be added to the bio, but just to note it.
In any case, while the statement is technically correct even if Galadriel arrived too late to do anything about the bloodshed, the statement suggests (to me) that she could have hindered it, but did not.
Again, even if only the 1977 Silmarillion is being employed here, the passage describing the Kinslaying says nothing about what the Finarfinians did or did not do, or even could do. We don't even know if they were present before all was said and done. We know Angrod later tells Thingol that the Finarfinians came not red handed from Aman.
Quote:
After Doriath fell, Galadriel and Celeborn fled to Arvernien.
To my mind this is not really a certainty although it seems to fit the scenario of the constructed Silmarillion. The movements of Galadriel and Celeborn can sometimes be rather hazy. A passage in
The Lord of the Rings suggests that Galadriel (but seemingly without Celeborn) might have left Beleriand before the Fall of Nargothrond:
"He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat."But this appears to represent an earlier idea (see Christopher Tolkien's commentary about this in Unfinished tales) in which Celeborn was a Nandorin Elf and Galadriel left Beleriand and met him already ruling in Lorien. If so it might seem strange that JRRT never revised this passage in
The Lord of the Rings, for even by the end of the first edition Celeborn had become a Sindarin Elf, and is explicitly referred to as Sindarin in the first edition version of Appendix B -- a section which was revised for the second edition, confusingly enough perhaps, although Tolkien would once again note Celeborn as Sindarin in
The Road Goes Ever On (1967).
Anyway the later idea was (as already noted in the biography) that Galadriel met Celeborn in Doriath and (as also in
The Road Goes Ever On), after the Fall of Morgoth they passed over the Blue Mountains and passed to Eregion. If so, where were these two characters before the Fall of Morgoth?
"It is a natural assumption that Celeborn and Galadriel were present at the ruin of Doriath (it is said in one place that Celeborn "escaped the sack of Doriath"), and perhaps aided the escape of Elwing to the Havens of Sirion with the Silmaril -- but this is nowhere stated." Christopher Tolkien, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn,
Unfinished TalesSo things can get a little hazy here (and I'm wholly ignoring Tolkien's very latest text on Galadriel and Celeborn, in which Galadriel is removed from Feanor's Rebellion and Celeborn is a Telerin prince of Aman, due to the information there conflicting with what the author himself published about Galadriel's role in the Rebellion). Once again I would be inclined to simply jump to "known" history, skipping over the difficult parts.
Quote:
In the early Second Age, they founded Lothlórien, which she modelled after Doriath, and made the land beautiful with the help of the Ring of Adamant, Nenya. Nenya was one of the Three Elven Rings, and was given to her by Celebrimbor at its making. Sauron endlessly tried to know Galadriel's mind, but it was closed to him, though she could read his thoughts.
I don't think Galadriel and Celeborn founded Lorien even according to just
The Lord of the Rings, as Amroth was seemingly king there before them: Haldir notes that Cerin Amroth was the heart of the old realm, and Legolas' song of Nimrodel marks Amroth himself as a king, seemingly a king of Lorien in my opinion. I suppose it's arguably not wholly explicit here, but I think it's strongly suggested.
Also even
if Galadriel and Celeborn had founded Lorien early in the Second Age, the Three did not exist untill SA c. 1590, and Sauron forged the One c. 1600, Celebrimbor perceiving the designs of Sauron in this same year. While the three were "hidden" in 1693 I would think they would not be used after Celebrimbor perceived Sauron's ruse.
That really only leaves about (considering "c." next to these dates) ten years between the forging of the Three and the making of the One: in other words, even if Lorien had been founded early in the Second Age, Galadriel could not have used Nenya in Lorien before the Three existed (of course), and very arguably not again after Celebrimbor and the Elves became aware of Sauron's deception.
I suppose the wording in the bio could intend to mean "founded" as in "took over an existing realm and made it so very different as to be considered a new realm"... but in any event, Tolkien's later concept (Unfinished Tales) was that after Amroth's death
in the Third Age Galadriel and Celeborn took up rule in Lorien. What they did before this -- between the fall of Eregion and the loss of Amroth -- would take some time to explain and require some subjective choices, so here again I would suggest leaving the matter vague in any bio.
Quote:
In autumn of TA 3021, because of her long opposition to Sauron, the ban was lifted: she was finally permitted to fulfill her desire and pass over the Sea.
As I say I agree with including Galadriel's ban, but I would rather say generally that the ban was lifted, and give the date of Galadriel's sailing, which is not quite the same thing as worded in the bio.
And I know this post seems long, but it's mostly explanation; in other words, the actual revisions I would make based on these explanations would not amount to relatively that much.
The line of sleep...
__________the banSo in published accounts Galadriel is a Noldo, her husband a Sinda, and the reader of
The Lord of the Rings (at least) does not know specifically why Galadriel hadn't passed Over Sea. She seems to think she can, as after her rejection of the One she says:
'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel'. But other statements that follow this one seem to suggest Galadriel might not be allowed West, which becomes noted only much later in 1967, in Tolkien's
The Road Goes Ever On.According to
The Lord of the Rings Galadriel
appears to have passed over the Blue Mountains before the fall of Nargothrond, and met Celeborn in Lorien,
but the mountains are not actually named, and Celeborn, being Sindarin, must have been in Beleriand before ending up in Lorien. Even according to the first edition (Appendix B) it's said that some time in the Second Age Celeborn passed to the south of Greenwood [although this will change for the second edition of the 1960s].
After Galadriel appears in
The Lord of the Rings she will then enter the Silmarillion tradition of course. Skipping over some various notions as Tolkien explored her "true" history, Galadriel was born in Eldamar in the Year
1362 [Year of the Trees], the daughter of Finrod [later Finarfin]. After the speech of Feanor, Galadriel
'... the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes' was eager to be gone [eager to see Middle-earth]. She swore no oath, but Feanor's words had kindled her heart, and she longed to see the wide lands of Middle-earth and to rule there a realm maybe, at her own will."She is here said [Annals of Aman] to be the youngest of the House of Finwe, and ultimately she became a leader. After Feanor sailed off:
'Therefore, led by Fingolfin and his sons, and by Inglor [Finrod] and Galadriel the valiant and fair, they dared to pass into the untrodden North,...'the kinslayingThese last two quotes are part of the version chosen by Christopher Tolkien for the 1977 Silmarillion, including Galadriel's later conversation with Melian. Here I'll note
something about the Kinslaying: in this conception, in a certain 'phase' of writing, so to speak, I believe that Galadriel was simply not present for the Kinslaying.
Before Galadriel existed in Tolkien's imagination, in the Silmarillion as it stood in the mid to later 1930s, the people of Finrod
'had no part in the dreadful deed that was then done', as during the march [earlier in the text]
'... and at the rear came sorrowing Finrod and Inglor and many of the noblest and fairest of the Noldor; and they looked often backward, until the lamp of Ingwe was lost in the gathering tide of gloom...'So to me it seems clear that [the idea is]: the folk of Finrod [later his name became Finarfin and Inglor Felagund became Finrod Felagund] were the hindmost group, and simply came too late in any case. When this passage was written Tolkien had not yet realized Galadriel existed...
... but she was ultimately 'dropped' into this family.
Tolkien essentially revised this passage in
The Annals of Aman in the early 1950s, and dropped the statement I quoted above [had no part in the dreadful deed], and at this point at least he seems to have left it alone in
Quenta Silmarillion itself.
Anyway, if we jump to a later text written after the publication of The Lord of the Rings [from 'Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn'], we still find the description:
'She was welcome in Doriath, because her mother Earwen, daughter of Olwe, was Telerin and the niece of Thingol, and because the people of Finarfin had had no part in the Kinslaying of Alqualonde; and she became a friend of Melian.'So in the 1930s Finrod's [Finarfin's] folk had had no part in the Kinslaying [arguably being part of the hindmost group in any case], and Galadriel drops into this family. Then a revision to the 1930s version takes out the explicit reference, but a yet later text states the same basic thing in my opinion -- although admittedly without noting that they were hindmost in the march of the Noldor, but that they had had "no part" suggests to me that the older idea was possibly still in play.
In any case, as I say above, I don't think it needs to be suggested that Galadriel could have hindered the bloodshed but didn't. That might be someone's interpretation of the silence in the 1977 Silmarilion, but even considering this alone, it remains equally possible, if not certain, that she arrived too late, even as late as after the battle had ended.
Just my opinions. If anyone reading this is still awake