Let's Get Nerdy

    Who is Galadriel? – Let’s Get Nerdy!

    Ashley Victoria RobinsonBy 6 Mins Read

    Amazon Studios The Rings of Power is here. We want all Spoilerites to have the best viewing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Second Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!

    I’ve written a lot about Galadriel over the course of this feature series. She’s been the subject of much

    Galadriel by: Tessa Boronski

    debate across Lord of the Rings fandom and the Tolkien community for the past few years. She’s the queen of love and beauty. She’s a ring bearer. She’s one of the only women in the entire world of Middle-Earth. We all have an idea – perhaps for some of us an ideal – of this elf. I want to go back to Tolkien’s text and break down who she is on the page.

    In The Mirror of Galadriel chapter of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien writes:

    “Very tall [Galadriel and Celeborn] were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold… but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.”

    Okay. So she’s tall, she’s blonde, she’s pretty, and she’s old.

    Rebecca Jackson Mendoza as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings musical

    Galadriel was born in Valinor and immigrated to Middle-Earth with her fellow Noldor elves. I’ve restrained from writing too much about Noldor elves up to this point. If you’ve been left wondering about them I encourage you to check out next week’s Let’s Get Nerdy! for the full Noldor experience! Galadriel is the daughter of Finarfin. Finarfin is the youngest child of Finwë. If you’re a Tolkien book nerd your brain is tingling simply reading “Finwë”. Finwë is the first King of the Noldor and the elf who led the Noldor across the sea to Middle-Earth.

    Tolkien described the child and young woman Galadriel as wild in a letter: 

    “she was then of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats”

    TL;DR Galadriel was born elf royalty.

    In Silmarillion Galadriel is described thusly:

    “the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth”,

    … and in the appendices of TheLord of the Rings: 

    “greatest of Elven women”.

    So, she’s also very popular within her race and without.

    Galadriel became a ring bearer during The Second Age of Middle-Earth when the elf-smith Celebrimbor

    Galadriel at the kinslaying at Alqualondë by: Elena Kukanova

    gifted her Nenya. Following Sauron’s supposed death at the hands of The Last Alliance of Men and Elves the whereabouts of The Rings of Power was unknown. During this time Galadriel and her husband Celeborn ruled the kingdom of Silvan Elves named Lothlórien. Celeborn being a Silvan Elves, so it makes more sense than you may think. It’s not until The Third Age of Middle-Earth when The Fellowship of the Rings (minus Gandalf the Grey – fallen at the hands of The Balrog), notably Frodo Baggins, arrive in Lothlórien that Galadriel reveals herself and her Ring.

    It’s not until Sauron’s ultimate and true death at the hands of Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee that Galadriel and her husband Celeborn left Middle-Earth via the Grey Havens, in the company of fellow ring bearers and Frodo himself, to return to the West from whence she came.

    In past articles I have answered the question: 

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    She/her. Canadian actress. Bi Queen. Canadian co-host of Geek History Lesson. Canadian comic book writer: Witchblade, Apollo IX, Jupiter Jet series, Science! The Elements of Dark Energy, Aurora and The Eagle. Award-losing: actor, writer, podcaster. https://linktr.ee/AshleyVRobinson

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