#at the least there's more than enough justification to write galadriel using nenya in the second age

[undercat-overdog]

In Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien draws the conclusion that the Three Rings can not have been used until after the loss of the Ruling Ring*. I think this conclusion is incorrect and that both the text of Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age (Silm) and the History of Galadriel and Celeborn (UT) support the idea that the Three Rings were used in the Second Age.

The Silmarillion states that they weren’t used openly, which doesn’t preclude some secret use, whatever that might be; the text implies to me that the Three were used secretly:

But Sauron could not discover [the Three], for they were given into the hands of the Wise, who concealed them and never again used them openly while Sauron kept the Ruling Ring.

(Who the Wise were varies somewhat. Appendix B states that they are Galadriel, Círdan, and Gil-Galad and that Gil-Galad gave Vilya to Elrond before his death, while in other sources it’s Gil-Galad who receives both Narya and Vilya. In one version he gives Narya to Círdan immediately but in another he keeps Narya for himself and gives Vilya to Elrond in the Second Age after a council following the War of the Elves and Sauron.)

Meanwhile, the History of Galadriel and Celeborn outright states that Galadriel used Nenya in the Second Age:

Galadriel counselled [Celebrimbor] that the Three Rings of the Elves should be hidden, never used, and dispersed, far from Eregion where Sauron believed them to be. It was at that time that she received Nenya, the White Ring, from Celebrimbor, and by its power the realm of Lórinand was strengthened and made beautiful; but its power upon her was great also and unforeseen, for it increased her latent desire for the Sea and for return into the West, so that her joy in Middle-earth was diminished.

Later, there’s a line about her giving away the Elessar since she didn’t feel she needed it after Nenya had come into her possession (seemingly immediately after it comes into her possession, implying that as soon as she was given Nenya she used its power).

But afterwards when Nenya, chief of the Three, was sent to her by Celebrimbor, she needed it (as she thought) no more, and she gave it to Celebrían her daughter.

Christopher, in note #9 of the History of Galadriel and Celeborn, is confused by the former passage, and says:

Galadriel cannot have made use of the powers of Nenya until a much later time, after the loss of the Ruling Ring; but it must be admitted that the text does not at all suggest this (although she is said just above to advise Celebrimbor that the Elven Rings should never be used).

(Galadriel seems to have counseled that they destroy the Three, and they ‘failed to find the strength,’ so I don’t see why she couldn’t fail to find the strength to forgo using Nenya. Perhaps she felt that Sauron couldn’t master her.)

But that note is Christopher’s, not his father’s, and Tolkien’s own text outright says that Galadriel uses Nenya in a time before the One Ring was lost. She must have used it secretly, as the Silmarillion says the Elves used the Three secretly during the Second Age, but I think all the evidence suggests she used it in at least some manner, if not flamboyantly. I don’t think Sauron’s possession of the One necessarily would have stopped her. As for other two, we know that, like Nenya, they weren’t used openly. What the difference between open and secret use is is unclear; perhaps the latter is just a passive positive blessing on the land and wielder, perhaps something more or less. But I think that they were used.