#my take on the many galadriel+celeborn versions is the one I accept is the one that makes her The Worst

[rivalsforlife]

I sometimes think of Galadriel as the “girl of all time” which feels rude to Luthien. But like Luthien is objectively more powerful but she’s also too perfect. Galadriel has that Noldor Messiness to her and proper ambition for power and ruling lands of her own. Luthien’s moments of Power are protecting her little human boyfriend which I mean good for her but it’s not as interesting. Tolkien trying to backpedal Galadriel’s role in the rebellion was a mistake imo because her being actively involved in this rebellion and still power-hungry even well into the third age where being an evil queen is still so tempting to her is like the main appeal of her to me. 

[amaziana]

Rings of power rant

I never actually thought I’d do this (mainly because english isn’t my first language), but here we are but I just need to vent or I’ll explode. strap in because this is going to be long. Also keep in mind that this is a rant and I’m just getting stuff off of my chest so formating probably isn’t the best. 

First of all, I’m hard core Tolkien fan. I don’t remember time when I didn’t know the story of the hobbit and I read the lotr books for the first time when I was seven three times in a row. In my teens I started exploring Silmarillion and the rest of the middle-earths history. I know the lore like the back of my hand. It’s safe to say that Tolkiens works have shaped my worldwiev heavily and I love them fiercely.

So Rings of Power is out and it’s bad. And no, poc actors and women wielding swords is not the problem. Actually I think hawing Poc characters is great and completely in harmony with Tolkiens writings. For example, harfoots are described as being “browner of skin” that other hobbits. I’d even go as far as argue that every single actor playing a harfoot should be poc. Now as for Disa, there are seven dwarven clans in Arda, four of which originated from far east. I see no reason why one of these clans couldn’t have darker skin than the rest and why Disa couldn’t be from this clan. However I do think that it would make more sense lorevise if she was portrayed by east-asian actress due to the previously mentioned fact that four of the clans come from the far east. As for Arondir, Tolkien describes elves as being fair of skin, but I don’t see anything wrong with having elves of different skin colors. 

My problem with Galadriel isn’t that she is a woman who is in power and wields a sword. I myself am a girl and own a sword and have learned the basics of german longsword. In general I’m very interested in martial arts. Now when it comes to cannon lore elves have multiple names and Galadriel doesn’t even receive that name until she meets her husband, Celeborn, (which the show seems to have forgotten about). Her original names, ones that should be used in the Valinor flashbacks, were Artanis and Nerwen. First meaning “noblewoman” and second meaning “man-maiden”. Now she was named Nerwen because she was taller than most of the other women of noldor and she was strong of body, will and mind. She was also of “Amazon disposition” and “bound her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats." She even defended her mothers people when Feanor, her uncle and greatest of Noldor, attacked them for their ships. So yeah, she was a badass. The problem with her character is that by the second age, the time the show is portraying, she moves from place to place and lives in several places, including Lindon and Eregion. She is also married and gives birth to her daughter some time before the rings of power are forged. 

So no, the poc characters and powerful women do not make the show bad. What does is the fact that it shows such disregard for it’s source material and the spirit of Tolkien. It takes his work and turns it into generic, your run of the mill fantasy story without spirit. It blatantly ignores the lore in order to create a storyline that Amazon thinks it can sell. It turns Galadriel, who is a powerful woman in so many levels, both physically, meantually and spiritually, into you cardboard cutout of what Hollywood thinks is the only acceptable version of a strong female character. The dialogue is corny and often sounds like they are just trying to sound cool and wise, the costumes are bad and feel like, well, costumes and not something the people of that world would actually wear. The black goo they use to show the evil still lurking in the world/ coming back is cliche and boring. Now the visuals are good I’ll give them that. Lindon is beautiful and I like how it feels so close to nature. 

All in all, the story seems to relay more on nostalgia than anything else. They take some things from Tolkiens works, couple of things from the original Lotr movies and completely made up the rest and wrapped it in a nice golden paper with a ribbon. The result is bland and tasteless story that isn’t intriguing at all and disrespects Tolkiens work on fundamental levels. Best way I can describe it is if someone painted a picture of Mona Lisa with all the wrong colors making a duckface and it was hung in the museum besides the original piece.

[absynthe--minded]

“which has a version of Lothlórien’s founding that contradicts The Lord of the Rings (and therefore I consider that specific element noncanonical)” It’s been so long since I’ve read both, but what does LOTR say that contradicts Unfinished Tales? Whats the difference between the two?

So this is a pretty summed-up explanation, but essentially: in one of the drafts preserved in Unfinished Tales, Galadriel founds Lothlórien with Celeborn, and it’s done by more or less taking over the Silvan elves who were already living there. She and her husband (and their son, because in this version they have a son rather than a daughter) then rule over this kingdom for the rest of its existence, basically. You’ll note this is exactly what Oropher is recorded to do to Mirkwood in yet more additional drafts.

In the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Lothlórien is said to have been founded by Amdir, a relative of Celeborn, and the woods that he established his realm in were in part occupied by Silvan elves, but many of them departed once he’d really made himself known as ruler. Celeborn and Galadriel move there, and then are essentially elected to rule when the last king, Amroth, vanishes. This is because Celeborn is kin to that family, not because Galadriel is scheming to be in power. I consider this version to be the true canon, since it’s present in a published work rather than one of various drafts.

This is actually my second-biggest “draft woes” problem - Galadriel’s character and motivations etc change drastically depending on which version of the story you accept as canonical, and dismissing UT entirely is hard because that section has all the information we have about the Second Age in Eregion and the War of Sauron and the Elves, but both versions of this story cannot be true. So I hold to LotR canon in my own writings and arguments.

[gaolcrowofmandos]

Elfstone discourse? (Is this a thing?)

So I was re-reading The War of the Jewels the other day, when I came across two life-changing scribbles of Tolkien's, right in the thick of the commentary on ‘The Later Quenta Silmarillion’ (p. 176-7 of my paperback):

“He [Fëanor] gives the Green Stone to Maidros.”

This line was admittedly, “not in fact to be inserted,” but then this proceeds it:

“‘At the top of this page [in the QS manuscript] my father penciled: ‘The Green Stone of Fëanor given by Maidros to Fingon.’”

Wait, what Green Stone?

Thanks, Christopher, for the confirmation:

“This can hardly be other than a reference to the Elessar that came in the end to Aragorn…”

Folks.

In this older draft, Fëanor makes the Elessar. It comes to Maedhros (whether by deathbed gift or simple inheritance). After Thangorodrim Maedhros gives it to Fingon. and Fingon later gives it away like he does a certain Helm

CT suggests that this idea was replaced by the essays found in 'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn,' but y’all: no one will take this away from me.

Here’s why:

(Buckle up and get ready for Draft Hell under this cut.)

So we’ve got three different origins stories for the Elessar in UT, and no clear indicator that Tolkien ultimately chose one or the other. To me, that makes the slightly older ‘Maidros gives the Green Stone to Fingon’ version, which is never explicitly overwritten, an equal contender.

Those three alternate versions run pretty simply as follows:

V1: Enerdhil (more on him shortly) makes the Elessar in Gondolin. Eärendil of course sails with it. Olórin brings it back to Middle-earth and gives it to Galadriel.

V2: Enerdhil makes the Elessar in Gondolin. Eärendil of course sails with it. In Eregion, Celebrimbor, a random smith of Gondolin, makes a second, lesser Stone for Galadriel.

V3: Random Guy Celebrimbor makes the first Elessar in Gondolin. Eärendil of course sails with it. In Eregion, Celebrimbor makes a second, lesser Stone for Galadriel.

The ‘Green Stone of Fëanor’ scribbles form a much more satisfactory explanation of the Elessar’s origin than any of these (incomplete and textually isolated) stories. Aside from the obvious implications for Mae and Fingon, it makes so much sense from a narrative perspective. I shall explain.

Let’s start off by tackling the first UT version head on, alias Exhibit A: What is an Enerdhil?

No, seriously:

“There was in Gondolin a jewel-smith named Enerdhil, the greatest of that craft among the Noldor after the death of Fëanor.” (p. 248 of my Houghton Mifflin paperback)

Yet somehow he’s literally nobody? Christopher Tolkien makes it clear:

“Enerdhil appears in no other writing...” (p. 251)  

There are next to no Tolkien ‘artifacts’ made by named individuals with no other narrative significance. Let’s take Telchar, who ostensibly exists only to make stuff. But the fact that the same smith made Angrist, the Dragon-helm, and Narsil is narratively significant. Enerdhil the One-Hit Wonder doesn’t jive.

So, it seems this is why Tolkien writes off his existence in favor of Celebrimbor making the Stone:

“...[T]he concluding words of the text show that Celebrimbor was to displace him as the maker of the Elessar in Gondolin.” (p. 251)

Okay, so Enerdhil is out of the picture, but let’s take a look at the latter two versions (the second with both him and Celebrimbor, the third with only Celebrimbor).

In both texts, Celebrimbor is not a Fëanorian:

V2: “[Celebrimbor] was of Gondolin long ago, and a friend of Enerdhil…” (p. 251)

V3: “The Elessar was made in Gondolin by Celebrimbor, and so came to Idril and so to Eärendil.” (p. 251)

Not only do we know Tolkien later overwrote Celebrimbor’s origins (making these drafts less than authoritative), but in these versions, the Stone is strongly attached to Celebrimbor, still maker of the Three Rings, as well as to Gondolin. If we assume that this Rings/Elessar association should be maintained, Celebrimbor's LotR-compliant transposition to the line of Fëanor should imply that the Elfstone goes with him.

Tolkien seems to be getting down with the powers of healing and preservation the Elessar shares with the Three. That metaphorical significance works brilliantly with ‘Green Stone of Fëanor’: The symbolism of the Stone’s transfer from Maedhros to Fingon (and potentially from Fëanor to Maedhros priorly) strongly enhances its meaning later in the legendarium.

So let’s talk healing, which is exactly what we see post-Thangorodrim, albeit of a different kind than we tend to link to the Elessar:

“By this deed [i.e. rescuing Maedhros] Fingon won great renown, and all the Noldor praised him; and the hatred between the houses of Fingolfin and Feanor was assuaged.” (‘Of the Return of the Noldor’)

And Our Favorite from ‘The Grey Annals’:

“Thus he rescued his friend of old from torment, and their love was renewed…” (p. 32)

What gift could dovetail with this moment better than the Elessar:

“For it is said that those who looked through this stone saw things that were withered or burned healed again or as they were in the grace of their youth, and that the hands of one who held it brought to all that they touched healing from hurt.” (UT, 249)

Withered and burned stuff in need of healing? Looking back to youth? I’d say the Elessar is the sparkly symbol for the job. Also, do they use the Elessar to heal Maedhros after his rescue? Hell yeah, they do.

Additionally, if we emphasize the --admittedly discarded -- first note, with Fëanor bequeathing the Stone to Maedhros in his dying moments, as the note’s placement suggests, we catch an enigmatic insight into Fëanor’s view of his eldest. If he’s assigning the task of healing something (the world? the family? his own legacy?) to Maedhros as the flesh is falling burnt off his body, that’s monumentally important... But it’s also a topic for a different post.

Anyway, it certainly fits to see Maedhros give the Elessar to Fingon in direct conjunction with the healing of the feud. After all, the Stone represents both preservation and restoration

Those same attributes also have a tremendous significance for the Exiles who linger in Middle-earth in the Second Age, and the Elessar’s return (whether as the same stone or a replica) serves as a forerunner of the Three Rings’ powers of preservation.

In V2, Galadriel sees Nenya as having the same function as the Elessar, if in a stronger capacity:

“Wielding the Elessar all things grew fair about Galadriel, until the coming of the Shadow to the Forest, 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, and so it came to Arwen and to Aragorn who was called the Elessar.” (P. 251)

Suffice to say, the Elessar’s healing properties take on a new connotation when it’s introduced early in the First Age. It becomes a token both political and spiritual - just as it becomes for Aragorn.

In the UT theories, the Stone certainly has a spiritual meaning, but on the brow of Envinyatar the Renewer, it represents a very Silm-esque union of realpolitik and in-universe theology: the reunification of Gondor and Arnor, and more importantly the passing of dominance in Middle-earth from the Eldar to the Atani.

Galadriel’s gift of the Elessar marks (in addition to a wedding gift, per LACE)  both a willing surrender of power as the Three fade and a resignation to fate. Hmm, sounds a bit like the self-Dispossession we see in Maedhros’ abdication - which should also be marked by the transfer of the Stone. While the dooms which Galadriel and Maedhros accept are strikingly different (the forgiveness of the Valar, as opposed to their curse), the same spirit of surrender aligns the two transfers of the Elessar.

So to summarize the theory: Fëanor makes the Elessar, and Maedhros gives it to Fingon because:

1. Enerdhil is a fake. 2. Celebrimbor is a Fëanorian. 3. The Elessar is a symbol.

However, this theory does raise one giant problem: how does it get from Fingon to Eärendil, and then, potentially, from Eärendil to Galadriel?

In V1 above, we see some level of in-universe debate about whether Galadriel's Elessar is even the same as Eärendil's, or if a second one is made in Eregion:

“Some say that the second was indeed only the first returned, by the grace of the Valar; and that Olórin...brought it with him out of the West.” (p. 249)

While I'm all in favor of a return to the Hither Lands á la Glorfindel, the two Elessari-conception also works in a universe where the original is Fëanor's work.

It's no stretch to imagine that the grandson who carves  the Star of Fëanor on the Doors of Durin, and has a damning *ahem* demonstrated passion for healing Arda's hurts and preserving its beauty, might emulate one of Fëanor's early projects as a precursor to the Three. He could then still give it to Galadriel, just like his Gondolin Doppelganger does.

Still, how does the Elessar get from Fingon to the refugees at Sirion? We know it’s canon that it comes to Eärendil. After all, Aragorn has Bilbo include this in his oh-so-cheeky verses about Eärendil:

“In panoply of ancient kings, In chained rings he armored him…. An eagle-plume upon his crest, Upon his breast an emerald.” (‘Many Meetings’)

The chain of transmission isn’t an insurmountable problem. Fingon just has to send or give it (most likely) to a relative in Gondolin, or (less likely) to Círdan (who we know becomes Eärendil’s friend). I have a couple wonky theories, but this post is already way too long. (Any thoughts?)

Okay, wow. This has been a mile-long ramble about why two penciled scribbles are a better headcanon than fully-formed essays.

Moral of the Story: Nobody scribbles marginal notes like Tolkien scribbles marginal notes.

(Quickie Disclaimer: Apologies if someone has already written about this. I haven't found anything in fandom about it, but if something exists, please link me to it - I'd love to see!)