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jrrtolkiennerd:

jrrtolkiennerd:

“Nay,“ Galadriel said. “Angrod is gone, and Aegnor is gone, and Felagund is no more. Of Finarfin’s children I am the last. But my heart is still proud. What wrong did the golden house of Finarfin do that I should ask the pardon of the Valar, or be content with an isle in the sea whose native land was Aman the Blessed? Here I am mightier.”

In his many portrayals of Galadriel Tolkien painstakingly made and remade her entrance into Middle-earth as set apart from the other Noldor and thus apart from the sin of the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, but in LOTR he also presented Galadriel’s meeting with Frodo as a humbling of the Noldor’s pride. Frodo literally *offers* her the source of Sauron’s power, the very power that Fëanor probably would have grasped with both hands if he could, and Galadriel denies it.

After everything the Noldor foolishly bled and died for, the dream of their own rule and their own destiny, Galadriel has the ability to accept the Grace of her nature and of her limitations. “I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.”

This is what makes her such an interesting character, and a far wiser ruler than most of the Noldorian men I may add.

IDK man, I think probably the above sentiment is the most quintessentially Noldor thing she could possibly have said. To want her own kingdom where she is mighty, to attest she has nothing to beg the Valar’s pardon for, that she would rather see an undying realm in Middle Earth than go across the sea. And she DOES grasp the power that lets her achieve that; she has a ring of power and has used it to keep Lothlorien an entropy-free zone. She is tested by the One Ring as well; it wouldn’t have been a test if she had been entirely immune to it, like Bombadil. It takes strength to do it, it’s not an innate quality. 

It takes her a long while to reach a state of humility. I don’t know that she displayed more grace than the rest of the Noldor (Fëanorians aside) in her entrance to Middle Earth, but she’s definitely displayed more change and growth over time than the rest of them, and lived longer, with the least strife between other elves. I absolutely agree that the contrast makes her interesting, and at least for me, its her ambition and strength along with her ability to change that makes her special. 🙂 Gosh she’s great.