One of the biggest criticisms of the Rings of Power thus far has been the portrayal of Galadriel. Many who don’t know the source material are confused, not understanding this harsh version of the elven queen-to-be, while many who claim to know the source material have been quick to label her portrayal as “nothing like anything Tolkien ever wrote” (which is a statement that makes me laugh in its absurdity, while also provoking just enough annoyance to cause me to write this post) Even if I ignore the most juvenile criticisms of her portrayal in the show (which often base themselves on anti-woke-hollywood political biases instead of actual literary analysis) I still can’t help but feel that I have no idea what these people are talking about. The fact of the matter is, if you’re familiar with Tolkien’s writings on Galadriel in any capacity, it’s painfully obvious how The Rings of Power got to their version of her for the first season, even if you don’t necessarily like their execution of her portrayal.
Somewhere along the way, the notion that Galadriel is a wise, kind, and gentle queen cemented itself into most people’s brains without bringing along any of the other baggage that is essential to her character. Yes she is the lovely queen whose beauty inspires us, who holds the realm of Lothlorien in a state of bliss to almost rival Valinor. Yes she is the wise queen who aids, comforts, and sets the fellowship back on their path after the great loss of Gandalf. But we should not forget that she has the potential for a much darker side to her as well (as do all the Noldor) and that the Galadriel we know from The Fellowship of the Ring is actually Galadriel at the very end of her journey - both literally and figuratively.
Tolkien first conceived of Galadriel when he was writing the Fellowship of the Ring, and after writing her in, he had considerable trouble figuring out who exactly she was, what her backstory should be, and what her role in the greater earlier history was going to be.
“There is no part of the history of Middle-earth more full of problems than the story of Galadriel and Celeborn, and it must be admitted that there are severe inconsistencies "embedded in the traditions"; or, to look at the matter from another point of view, that the role and importance of Galadriel only emerged slowly, and that her story underwent continual refashionings.” - Christopher Tolkien; Unfinished Tales
I intend to dive into some of the drafts that Tolkien wrote on Galadriel’s early history during the first and second age, but would like to first stop and examine her as she was written in the Fellowship of the Ring - when Tolkien first put her onto paper. Yes, there are inconsistencies across her different versions, but I believe that her characterization at a high level has always remained relatively consistent, and that the seeds of this characterization are evident even in the Fellowship of the Ring. She has always been defined by her wisdom and grace that is held in contention with her darker side: namely her pride. The journey of her character arc is that she overcomes her darker elements through her deeper wisdom of the light.
Part 1: Galadriel in the Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkien loves weaving lore into the narrative anywhere possible, so we are introduced to Galadriel through other people’s stories before we actually get to meet her. Boromir is more than a little unhappy that they will be passing through the enchanted woods of Lothlorien:
“‘And now we must enter the Golden Wood, you say. But of that perilous land we have heard in Gondor, and it is said that few come out who once go in; and of that few none have escaped unscathed.’
‘Say not unscathed, but if you say unchanged, then maybe you will speak the truth,’ said Aragorn. [...] ‘But lore wanes in Gondor, Boromir, if in the city of those who once were wise they now speak evil of Lothlórien. Perilous indeed, fair and perilous; but only evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them.’”
It must be admitted that Boromir’s superstition is founded on the waning lore of Gondor, as Aragorn himself remarks, but it’s also important to note that it’s not completely unfounded either. We need to recognize Aragorn’s bias here as well. He has a surety of purpose and extreme confidence in the pureness of his heart and his mission, a conviction and belief in himself that is so strong it borders on prophetic vision later in the novels. He’s also set up with Galadriel’s granddaughter which doesn’t hurt, and has been to Lothlorien before. It takes more than just being a decent person to enter into Lothlorien, and the treatment the fellowship receives from Galadriel’s guards on the edges of her wood should be evidence enough of the peril of her realm, especially at a time of impending war. It’s only because of the pureness of their purpose (and might I add, “lofty connections”) that the fellowship is able to pass through Lothlorien at all, and they indeed come out of it changed. When they finally meet her, they are put through a test of ‘purity’ so to speak.
“And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in silence looked searchingly at each of them in turn. None save Legolas and Aragorn could long endure her glance. Sam quickly blushed and hung his head."
When the group discusses this later, Sam describes:
"If you want to know, I felt as if I hadn’t got nothing on, and I didn’t like it. She seemed to be looking inside me and asking me what I would do if she gave me the chance to flying back home to the Shire to a nice little hole with – with a bit of garden of my own.”
Galadriel peers into the minds of each of the fellowship and tests them using her powers of enchantment. Knowing that the road they face ahead is a nearly insurmountable obstacle, she is testing each of them with visions and offers of an easier path. The logic is that they should know now rather than later which of their company is true enough of heart to continue the journey. Each of them passes the test, some (like Boromir) a little more shaken than others. It all works out and the fellowship is stronger for it in the end, but this seems like an incredibly bold, risky, and invasive move to make. Galadriel is taking things into her own hands, knowing that she has the power to alter the course of events if she deems it necessary and trusting in her wisdom that this is the right move to make despite the risks.
And then, the most interesting and eye opening chapter of all: The Mirror of Galadriel. There’s so much layered into the conversation between Frodo and Galadriel that I won’t be able to unpack nearly all of it, and I’m going to focus on one specific part: Galadriel’s own test of temptation, and her knowledge of and relationship with the One Ring. When Frodo offers it to her:
“Galadriel laughed with a sudden clear laugh. 'Wise the Lady Galadriel may be,' she said, 'yet here she has met her match in courtesy. Gently are you revenged for my testing of your heart at our first meeting. You begin to see with a keen eye. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp'”
I’d just like to pause and have people really think about these lines and what they imply. She is telling us that she has pondered “for many long years what she might do” if the One Ring came to her. This is not some test she is undergoing because Frodo just pulled out the One Ring and its corrupting influence is actively present. This is a test she has been anticipating and ruminating over with a clear mind (fully outside the influence of The One) for many years. This means that, despite knowing full well what the One Ring is and who made it, it took her more than just a little bit of thinking to decide what she would do with it. Which means that there is a very large part of her which would have accepted and used the Ring. What would happen if she did? Oh yes, she’s thought a lot about that too:
“In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”
The mythic imagery here is incredible, note Tolkien’s use of upper case indicating the archetypal Morning, Sea, or Sun - she will be a queen so powerful that she encompasses the very elements of nature (please don’t blame me if I root for her to take The Ring so we could see this). Notice the opposites of tone at play. She will be beautiful and terrible. Fair and dreadful. We will love her and despair. I will get more into this in the next section, but Galadriel is a character who is defined by seemingly contradictory traits. She is the greatest of the elves (except Feanor) as Tolkien himself tells us, and as such is gifted with incredible blessings but also equally intimidating vices. In order to complete her character arc, she needs to learn how to conquer her vices with her gifts - something most of Tolkien’s “great” characters like Feanor fail to do (and in this regard I would argue Galadriel is actually the greatest of the elves). Her denial of Frodo’s offer is the passing of her final test, which ultimately redeems her for past mistakes and past decisions which were more self-centered and driven by pride. Denial of the ring is her letting go. Letting go of Middle-earth and finally accepting her time there is over - something she and the Elves of Eregion were not able to do during the second age.
We like to see her as the wise queen who is able to resist the influence of The One because that’s how she is first introduced to us in The Fellowship of the Ring, but we need to internalize that this is actually her at the end of her completed character arc. And even then, after all her wisdom has accumulated, the picture we get of her in Fellowship of the Ring is clearly not that of a queen who I’d be comfortable relaxing around, or even visiting.
Part 2: Galadriel’s Character Development
Now I’d like to go backwards in time and look at Galadriel as she is defined at the beginning of her character arc. This is where her portrayal in the show begins to become more clear. Confusingly, this is actually content that Tolkien wrote way later, and is mingled in with a bunch of other slightly different versions of her. It's important to remember that there is no one single version of Galadriel when it comes to her role in Tolkien's earlier stories. The following quotes have therefore been chosen with intention: they are taken from a single passage of Unfinished Tales that is one of the more complete descriptions of Galadriel. They were written after Tolkien decided that he wanted to have her reject the pardon of the Valar at the beginning of the second age (which is the same decision for her the show emphasized in its first episode). I’m not going to intersperse any commentary with these quotes since I believe they speak for themselves with regards to Amazon’s portrayal:
“Galadriel was born in the bliss of Valinor, but it was not long, in the reckoning of the Blessed Realm, before that was dimmed; and thereafter she had no peace within. For in that testing time amid the strife of the Noldor she was drawn this way and that.”
“She was proud, strong, and selfwilled, as were all the descendants of Finwë save Finarfin; and like her brother Finrod, of all her kin the nearest to her heart, she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be her own to order as she would without tutelage. Yet deeper still there dwelt in her the noble and generous spirit of the Vanyar, and a reverence for the Valar that she could not forget”
“From her earliest years she had a marvelous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her goodwill from none save only Fëanor. In him she perceived a darkness that she hated and feared, though she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own”
“Even after the merciless assault upon the Teleri and the rape of their ships, though she fought fiercely against Fëanor in defense of her mother’s kin, she did not turn back. Her pride was unwilling to return, a defeated suppliant for pardon; but now she burned with a desire to follow Fëanor with her anger to whatever lands he might come, and to thwart him in all ways that she could.”
I mean, that’s pretty clearly the Galadriel we got in The Rings of Power season one is it not? In this version of her characterization Tolkien literally writes that she came to middle earth not to pursue Morgoth, but to thwart another elf that she had beef with. I mean come on… It’s right there…
Notice the two opposing aspects of her character description. She is defined by being “proud, strong and self willed”, and she clearly struggles early on with vindictive tendencies. And yet she is also defined by her grace: her “noble and generous spirit” and her boundless “mercy and understanding”. She is all of these things at once. As a character described by Tolkien, she is incredibly complicated, and her journey to come to terms with these different parts of herself, particularly her pride, is essential to portray if your goal is to show the audience how she acquires her wisdom.
What some of the more fervid critics of the show will tell you is that the quotes I’ve provided are actually from the first age, and that the Galadriel in the show (during the second age) should be much wiser by now. Which is true. The quotes above are indeed a description of her from the first age, and if we are going by the source material, by the time the events of the show roll around, she should have had a ton of time to reflect and study under the teachings of Melian the Maiar: one of the major characters in the first age known for her wisdom and grace.
“Therefore [Galadriel] remained in the Hidden Kingdom, and abode with Melian, and of her learned great lore and wisdom concerning Middle-earth.” - The Silmarillion
What this line of thinking blatantly ignores is that the show clearly wants to give us a full picture of Galadriel’s character arc, early stages and all. It’s my belief that the show has intentionally given us an anachronistic portrayal of Galadriel for exactly this purpose. It seems so obvious to me that they want us to experience the full transformation she undergoes in order to get to the wise enchantress we need her to be in Fellowship. I’m really glad they decided to throw a bit of anachronism into the mix so that we are able to see the full journey her character undertakes rather than just completely ignore her more fiery beginnings - but that might just be me.
Even if intentional anachronism doesn’t satisfy you with regards to why she is portrayed so hot-headed in the show, I would still be extremely hesitant to say that Galadriel during the second age was “wise” and completely quenched of her earlier fire. She certainly would be “wiser” by the time the second age rolls around, and as is stated in the Silmarillion, she has gained “wisdom concerning Middle-earth”, but Tolkien also pretty clearly tells us that:
“Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar for all who had fought against him, and remained in Middle-earth.” - Unfinished Tales
Even after her time with Melian, I would still expect Galadriel to be facing her vices, particularly her pride. I'm not at all convinced by the argument that Galadriel would be wholly wise in the second age simply due to the time she spent as Melian's student, or because of the events she sat back and witnessed during the first age. Spending time with Melian doesn't automatically make one wise as is evident with her spouse, king Thingol, often driven by pride to make some of the most anger-inducing decisions in the Silmarillion. To gain wisdom you need real experience, and you need to make mistakes, and until Galadriel leaves the side of Melian, she wouldn't have had much real opportunity. I’m talking about real character development here: something that is (intentionally) missing from Tolkien’s mythical outlines of the second age.
And where is there more opportunity for mistakes and character development than in the interactions with Sauron and the mistakes he pushes the Elves of Eregion to make? I shouldn’t have to explain how perfect it is to have a Satan-esque figure in disguise be the catalyst for development in a character whose main internal battle is with their pride and internal darkness. There's nowhere else where Galadriel would have been challenged more - dealing with a highly persuasive and corrupted fallen angel whose surface-level goals: the empowerment of middle-earth seemed to go right along with what the Elves of Eregion wanted (and convinced themselves they needed). Which brings me to a common question I’ve heard about the show: "But what about Sauron and the forging of the rings of power? Galadriel figured out who Halbrand was and still let them continue? Do the showrunners think she’s stupid?"
“[Sauron] perceived at once that Galadriel would be his chief adversary and obstacle, and he endeavored therefor to placate her, bearing her scorn with outward patience and courtesy. (No explanation is offered in this rapid outline of why Galadriel scorned Sauron, unless she saw through his guise, or of why, if she did perceive his true nature, she permitted him to remain in Eregion).” - Unfinished Tales; parenthesis is commentary added by Christopher Tolkien
The thing about Sauron in Eregion and the elven rings of power is that Tolkien never tells us definitively what the narrative was - he leaves it outlined and up to interpretation. It’s pretty clearly left as a possibility that Galadriel could have known who Sauron was, and that despite this, allowed his work to continue. My personal head-canon for the source material has always been that she had a suspicion of who Sauron was, and chose to look the other way because she wanted the power of the rings. In her pride, she believed that she (and the elves) would be wise and strong enough to avoid whatever inherent trap Sauron was cooking up. That certainly lines up with what we know of her from Fellowship, and how it took her many long years to decide that she would not take the One Ring if it came to her. It makes for a great full-circle moment and redemptive arc when she ultimately rejects Frodo's offer all those years later.
So how does she get to that final position of wisdom? In the show she's very far from wise, and often seems nowhere near her "marvelous gift of insight into the minds of others". After all, she's led along by Halbrand for quite some time before recognizing any of his red flags. Simple: the very same quote that describes her inherent insight concludes by stating: "she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own". In the show's first season, just as in the early version of her character from the source material, her insight does not initially extend to the shadow of evil within herself or within those she's close to. It's her one blind spot. Adar hits the nail on the head when he tells her to look in her own mirror. How is she supposed to recognize the dark tendencies of others if she can't yet use herself as an accurate compass? This is what her character development (that Tolkien never wrote) needs to come in and show us, and the show has chosen to lean into a biblical concept in order to do so: knowledge of good through knowledge of evil (touch the darkness). We seem to be on a journey with Galadriel in which she will acquire her knowledge and wisdom of "good", by messing up big time, and finding out that the light is not something inherent in each individual, but something everyone has to constantly work towards themselves.
I’m going to allow myself to be a critic for a second in order to conclude. If the show has messed up Galadriel's portrayal, it messed up by making her less driven and less powerful than Tolkien wrote her to be in the second age. In the show she squabbles about finding evil and rooting it out, and goes on a literal and figurative journey to discover the shadow of evil that “fell upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own” - which strikes me as the show attempting to haphazardly squeeze in Galadriel’s early character origins inside their time-compressed original story. I would have expected her to be way past such personal issues by now, and instead be actively pursuing power and influence because she believes that she can do it better than anyone else. Her time under Melian would have given her confidence, knowledge, and her 'magic'. Of all the remaining elves in middle-earth, she is now one of the oldest and most powerful - and she would know this and be seeking out “lands and dominions of her own to order as she would without tutelage”. Rather than rejecting Sauron’s offer at the end of the first season because she thinks ruling is morally reprehensible, she should have rejected Sauron’s offer of power at the end because she believed she could rule better than him.
The Galadriel we have gotten in the first season of The Rings of Power represents a much earlier version of Galadriel’s character that has not matured as much as she would have when compared to the chronology of Tolkien’s source material. However, if you look at her larger character arc, the show’s portrayal is doing everything that it should - and they’re doing it within their own original story. By having their first season not follow canon events, they have given themselves leeway to bring important elements of Galadriel’s character development into focus which could easily have been glossed over otherwise. Where I think they’ve failed is that the original story they are telling is not particularly compelling, and seems to be all over the place. My hope is that as they transition the show into the framework of stories that Tolkien left us, that the value of the early character development we are getting in season one will become apparent. We will have to wait and see. What we have now has the potential to be a really good interpretation of Galadriel, or a really poor one, and it all depends on how the rest of the show plays out. Don’t be hasty.
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