The Fall and Repentance of Galadriel
2007; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 25; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoALTHOUGH is one of the best known and best loved characters in Lord of the Rings, surprisingly little has been written about her. It is true that she only really plays an important role in the Lothlorien episode in Book II: 6-8, and at the very end of Book VI. Part of the problem is that the story of her past life in Middle-earth was never really told in Lord of the Rings, but only hinted at in the of Galadriel (LotR II.8). Tolkien himself obviously felt dissatisfied by his treatment of after LotR was published, and elaborated on her history in several late writings, including post-LotR versions of Silmarillion (Sil.), some of his late letters (Letters), the section on History of and Celeborn in the Unfinished Tales (UT), and some notes that Tolkien himself supplied to Donald Swann's Song Cycle Road Goes Ever On, first published in 1967. In addition Volumes 6-9 and 12 of History of Middle-earth (HME) also contain early drafts of LotR, which allow us to see more clearly the emergence of into the narrative. In several of these late writings Tolkien elaborated a story of Fall and Repentance, only to repudiate it in the final year of his life. (2) Perhaps the most succinct statement of the later story of Fall and Repentance can be found in a letter to Mrs. Ruth Austin in 25th Jan. 1971, written only two years before Tolkien's death: I was particularly interested in your comments about Galadriel..... I think it is true that I owe much of this character to Christian and Catholic teaching and imagination about Mary, but actually was a penitent: in her youth a leader in the rebellion against the Valar (the angelic guardians). At the end of the First Age she proudly refused forgiveness or permission to return. She was pardoned because of her resistance to the final and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself. (Letters #320, p.407) In the draft of an earlier letter to Mr. Rang dated Aug. 1967, Tolkien states that The Exiles [who fled from Valimar] were allowed to return--save for a few chief actors in the rebellion of whom at the time of the L.R. only remained (Letters #297, p.386). In a note attached to this passage, Tolkien further explains that At the time of her lament in she believed this to be perennial, as long as Earth endured. Hence she concludes her lament with a wish or prayer that Frodo may as a special grace be granted a purgatorial (but not penal) sojourn in Eressea, the Solitary Isle in sight of Aman, though for her the way is closed. [...] Her prayer was granted--but also her personal ban was lifted, in reward for her services against Sauron, and above all for her rejection of the temptation to take the Ring when offered to her. So at the end we see her taking ship. (Ibid.) About the same time as this letter was written Tolkien added some notes to Ai! laurie lantar lassi surinen Galadriel's Lament in Lorien, no.5 in Donald Swann's 1967 Song Cycle Road Goes Ever On, which was originally published in the Farewell to Lorien Chapter in LotR (II.8). In commenting on the line Si man i yulma nin enquantuva? (Who now shall refill the cup for me? LotR II.8, p.368), and on the question What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea? at the end of her earlier song (I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew, II.8, p.363), Tolkien explains that [Galadriel] was the last survivor of the princes and queens who had led the revolting Noldor to exile in Middle-earth. After the overthrow of Morgoth at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so. She passed over the Mountains of Eredluin with her husband Celeborn (one of the Sindar) and went to Eregion. But it was impossible for one of the High-Elves to overcome the yearning for the Sea, and the longing to pass over it again to the land of their former bliss. …
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