LotR: Who is Galadriel – Fairest & Wisest of Elves
The hauntingly beautiful Lady of the Wood has returned from the Undying Lands and has graced the screen again. Here is Galadriel’s lore and lineage.
Love it or hate it, Amazon’s series The Rings of Power has shown us another side of the Elven leader—the warrior side. But even before she bore a Ring of Power, Galadriel was renowned for her wisdom and grace.
Tolkien describes Galadriel as “the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth.”
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The Lady Galadriel’s Lineage
Galadriel was a niece of a great Elven king and craft smith of the First Age. Fëanor created the Silmirils, jewels from the essence of the Two Trees of Valinor. The Two Trees provided light to the world until their last fruit and flower were fashioned into the sun and the moon. These jewels were kind of a big deal. I mean, there was a whole war over them.
She was considered to be beautiful even amongst the Elves. Her golden hair was said to shine and glow with the light of the Two Trees.
Galadriel was very moved by her uncle’s tales of Middle Earth, so she left Valinor before the First Age. She’s married to Celeborn, Prince of Doriath. Their daughter, Celebrían, would eventually marry Lord Elrond. She’s grandmother to their children, including Arwen Undómiel.
The First Age of Middle Earth
At this time in her life, Galadriel was still new to Middle Earth. She spent some time traveling its lands with her brothers. She eventually became the leader of the Noldor after the destruction of the Two Trees.
While there were sparkly jewelry wars and tree wars going on all around, we don’t know a lot about Galadriel’s doings in the First Age. She believed at the time that the Eldar weren’t powerful enough to defeat Morgoth. Amazon’s new show rewrites the character as a warrior who, alongside Fingolfin, who is her brother in this story, fought the hoards of Morgoth during the war.
The Second Age: Lothlórien & the Forging of the Nine Rings
Galadriel and Celeborn came to rule land under Gil-galad, the High King of Elves in the West. The land lies just west of the Misty Mountains, very near the Dwarf city of Khazad-dûm. As such, they openly traded with the Dwarves.
The city was very prosperous and was later ruled by Galadriel’s ally Celebrimbor after she settled in Lothlórien. Celebrimbor is the guy who made the rings. Yeah, the Rings.
When he realized his friend Annatar was actually Sauron in disguise, Celebrimbor and Galadriel decided to protect the rings from the One Ring’s influence. Galadriel became responsible for Nenya, the Ring of Water.
Nenya’s powers included protection, preservation, and concealment from evil. But while Sauron wore the One Ring, she refrained from using Nenya.
After the first defeat of Sauron, the One Ring was lost. Lady Galadriel was then free to use Nenya’s powers to protect her people. And she cast a really beautiful but terrifying visage on anyone foolish enough to try to cross Lothlórien’s borders.
The Lady of the Wood in the Third Age
During the Third Age, Galadriel helped form the White Council in opposition to the growing power of Sauron (he’s baaaack). She actually campaigned to make Gandalf the leader, but the Council wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.
During this time, she often uses her skills to protect her allies in the battle against Sauron. And that’s just her gig for a long while, ruling over her woodland hideaway and advising Gandalf. She does manage to pull some pretty impressively creepy moves, like hiding the Éothéod in a thick mist so they could ride into battle unharmed.
The Éothéod would later become the Rohirrim. And they’re a big part of the reason why men fear to behold the Lady of the Wood.
Galadriel & the War of the Ring
Without Galadriel’s influence, the War of the Ring would have been an entirely different story. Of course, she shelters the Fellowship after Gandalf’s fall in the ruins of Khazad-dûm. And she allows Samwise and Frodo a peek into her famous magical mirror.
When Frodo offers her the One Ring, she does the aforementioned shiny rage, turning dark for a moment as she wrestles with temptation. But in the end, she refuses the ring, passing a test of the spirit. At this moment, she accepts that the Age of Men is nigh, and decides to return to Valinor after the war is ended.
Galadriel then urges Aragorn to take the Paths of the Dead. She also contacts the Rangers in the North, spurning them to join in the fight.
Of course, Sauron wasn’t pleased that the wisdom and cunning of the Elves stood in his way, so he set an assault against Lothlórien. But the power of Nenya and the army of Elves prevented him from breaching the Woodland Realm.
After the final defeat of the Dark Lord Sauron, Galadriel came to witness the wedding of her granddaughter Arwen. Then, she and many of her Elven brethren boarded a ship and set sail for Valinor, the Undying Lands. She was approximately 8,000 years old when she left Middle Earth.
Galadriel on Screen
This Elven queen was flawlessly and famously portrayed by Cate Blanchette in Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings series. Amazon Prime’s original series The Rings of Power, is the tale of Middle Earth through earlier ages.
Actress Morfydd Clark plays a young Galadriel who may be more battle-worn than we assumed, but honestly, Tolkien’s lore doesn’t really account for her comings and goings during this time, apart from saying that she was strong and basically not to be f*cked with. There’s no reason why Galadriel couldn’t be the warrior queen the new series has built her up to be.
The Amazon series also gives us a look at Galadriel’s eldest brother Finrod, who in the books played major roles in several First Age battles. In the series, Sauron kills her brother, fueling her quest for revenge.
