Galadriel () 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 Elf of both the Noldor and the Teleri, being a grandchild of both King Finwë and King Olwë. She was also close kin of King Ingwë of the Vanyar through her grandmother Indis. Galadriel was a leader during the rebellion of the Noldor, and present in their flight from Valinor during the First Age. Towards the end of her stay in Middle-earth, she was joint ruler of Lothlórien with her husband, Celeborn, when she was known as the Lady of Lórien, the Lady of the Galadhrim, the Lady of Light, or the Lady of the Golden Wood. Her daughter Celebrían was the wife of Elrond and mother of Arwen, Elladan, and Elrohir. Tolkien describes her as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" (after the death of Gil-galad) and the "greatest of elven women".
The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey has written that Galadriel represented Tolkien's attempt to re-create the kind of elf hinted at by surviving references in Old English. He has compared his elves also to those in a Christian Middle English source, The Early South English Legendary, where the elves were angels. The scholar of English Sarah Downey likens Galadriel to a celestial lady of medieval allegory, a guide-figure such as Dante's Beatrice and the pearl-maiden in the 14th-century English poem Pearl. Another scholar, Marjorie Burns, compares Galadriel in multiple details to Rider Haggard's heroine Ayesha, and to Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott, both being reworked figures of Arthurian legend. Galadriel, lady of light, assisting Frodo on his quest to destroy the One Ring, opposed to Shelob, the giant and evil female spider of darkness, have been compared to Homer's opposed female characters in the Odyssey: Circe and Calypso as Odysseus's powerful and wise benefactors on his quest, against the perils of the attractive Sirens, and the deadly 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
First Age
Stories of Galadriel's life before the War of the Ring appear in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. She was born in Valinor, a member of the royal House of Finwë. She was the only daughter and youngest child of Finarfin, prince of the Noldor, and of Eärwen, daughter of Olwë and cousin to Lúthien. Her elder brothers were Finrod Felagund, Angrod, and Aegnor. Galadriel was often called the fairest of all Elves, whether in Aman or Middle-earth. She could peer into the minds of others to judge them fairly.
According to the older account of her story, sketched by Tolkien in The Road Goes Ever On and used in The Silmarillion, Galadriel was an eager participant and leader in the rebellion of the Noldor and their flight from Valinor; she was the "only female to stand tall in those days". discusses "the reasons and motives given for Galadriel's remaining in Middle-earth", citing The Road Goes Ever On. She had, however, long since parted ways with Fëanor and his sons. In Beleriand she lived with her brother Finrod Felagund at Nargothrond and the court of Thingol and Melian in Doriath. She carried some dark secrets from those times; she told Melian part of the violent story of the Silmarils and Morgoth's killing of Finwë, but did not mention the kinslaying of elves by elves.
Second Age
Galadriel and Celeborn travelled first to Lindon, where they ruled over a group of Elves, and were themselves ruled by Gil-galad. According to Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, they then removed to the shores of Lake Nenuial (Evendim) and were accounted the Lord and Lady of all the Elves of Eriador. Later, they moved eastward and established the realm of Eregion (Hollin). They made contact with a Nandorin settlement in the valley of the 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. Celeborn and Galadriel had a daughter, Celebrían, who married Elrond Half-elven of Rivendell.
During the Second Age, when the Rings of Power were forged, Galadriel distrusted Annatar, the loremaster who taught the craft of the Rings to Celebrimbor. Again according to some of the accounts, Celebrimbor rebelled against her view and seized power in Eregion. As a result, Galadriel departed to Lórien via the gates of Moria, but Celeborn refused to enter the dwarves' stronghold and stayed behind. Her distrust was justified, for Annatar turned out to be the Dark Lord, Sauron. When Sauron attacked Eregion, Celebrimbor entrusted Galadriel with Nenya, one of the Three Rings of the Elves. Celeborn joined up with Elrond, whose force was unable to relieve Eregion but managed to escape back to Imladris. Celeborn reunited with Galadriel when the war ended; according to one text, after some years in Imladris (during which Elrond first saw and fell in love with Celebrían) Galadriel's sea-longing became so strong that the couple removed to Belfalas and lived at the place later called Dol Amroth.
Third Age
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel welcomed the Fellowship to Lothlórien after their escape from Moria. When she met the Fellowship in her tree-dwelling she gave each member a searching look, testing their resolve—though Boromir interpreted this test as a temptation. She was in turn tested when Frodo Baggins offered to place the Ring in her keeping. Knowing that its corrupting influence would make her "great and terrible", and recalling the ambitions that had once brought her to Middle-earth, she refused the Ring. She accepted that her own ring's power would fail, that her people would diminish and fade with the One Ring's destruction, and that her only escape from the fading of the Elves and the dominion of Men would be to return at last to Valinor.
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 gift to Frodo was the magical Phial of Galadriel, containing a little of the light of Eärendil's star. Her husband Celeborn likewise provided the Fellowship with Elven-boats. On the day that the Fellowship left Lórien, but unknown to them, Gandalf arrived, carried by the eagle Gwaihir. Galadriel healed his wounds and re-clothed him in white, signalling his new status as head of the Istari, the order of wizards.
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". She travelled to Minas Tirith for the wedding of her granddaughter Arwen to King Aragorn. Galadriel passed over the Great Sea with Elrond, Gandalf, and the Ring-bearers Bilbo and Frodo, marking the end of the Third Age. Celeborn remained behind, and Tolkien writes that "there is no record of the day when at last he sought the Grey Havens".
Characteristics
The Dúnedain said that her height was two rangar, or "man-high" – around . However, Galadriel's most striking feature was her beautiful, long, silver-golden hair. According to the late essay The Shibboleth of Fëanor (referring to Galadriel's rebellious exile and Celeborn as a Teler), the Elves of Tirion said it captured the radiance of the Two Trees Laurelin and Telperion themselves.
Fëanor greatly admired her hair; it may have inspired him to create the Silmarils.
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."
Her character was a blend of characteristics of the Eldar from whom she was descended. She had the pride and ambition of the Noldor, but in her they were tempered by the gentleness and insight of the Vanyar. She shared the latter virtues of character with her father Finarfin and her brother Finrod.
Galadriel's sympathy for Gimli the Dwarf, when she rebuked her husband Celeborn for being tempted to regret his decision to admit a Dwarf to Lothlórien, completely won him over.
Relationships
+ 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 § These figures appear in Unfinished Tales, but not in the published Silmarillion. The pre-1968 descent of Celeborn (as a Sinda) is shown. In later texts, Celeborn (as a Teler) is specified at various times to be the son of Gilitīro, p. 143 and the grandson of Olwë.
¶ In the published Silmarillion, Edhellos does not appear, Orodreth is Finarfin's son (and still Finduilas' father), and Gil-galad is Fingon's son (and thus would not be on this tree).
Late changes
Late in life, Tolkien made several changes to the story of Galadriel and Celeborn. In The Lord of the Rings, Celeborn is called a "kinsman of Thingol"; in The Road Goes Ever On he is described as one of the Sindar. The Silmarillion adds that Galadriel and Celeborn met in Doriath. Tolkien changed his mind in texts dating from c. 1968 onwards, making Celeborn a Telerin Elf of Alqualondë. This meant that he was still a kinsman of Thingol, but only "afar off". In this late conception, the two had met in Aman.
Between 1967 and 1971, Tolkien several times mentioned that Galadriel was banned from returning to Valinor, since she had been a leader in the revolt of the Noldor (the only surviving one in the late Third Age)., "Of Dwarves and Men" This personal ban was lifted in acknowledgement of her refusal of the Ring and her renunciation of power. Such a ban had not existed at the time The Lord of the Rings was written.
In August 1973, Tolkien decided to rewrite the story entirely, so that Galadriel did not reach Beleriand with the other rebellious Noldor. Instead, she was "unstained" (having done nothing evil), and had wished to go to Middle-earth to exercise her talents. However, just as she and Celeborn (again a Telerin Elf, and this time Olwë's grandson and thus her first cousin) were about to seek the Valar's permission, Valinor was darkened. She did not take part in Fëanor's rebellion, and (with her brother Finrod) fought against him at the Kinslaying; but she nonetheless despaired of Valinor, and sailed into the darkness with Celeborn. Tolkien died the next month, and thus never completed this revision.
Analysis
Reconstructed Old English elf
The philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that in creating Galadriel, Tolkien was attempting to reconstruct the kind of elf hinted at by elf references in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) words. The hints are, he observes, paradoxical: while ælfscyne, "elf-beautiful", suggests a powerful allure, ælfsogoða, "lunacy", implies that getting too close to elves is dangerous. In Shippey's view, Tolkien is telling the literal truth that "beauty is itself dangerous", as Chaucer did in The Wife of Bath's Tale where both elves and friars are sexually rapacious. So when Faramir says to Sam Gamgee in 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."
Angelic being