Galadriel: Parallels among Women in History and Literature by MirienSilowende

This article aims to explore the character of Galadriel and compare her to some literary and historical figures in history that have parallels with her character development and her role within the story of The Lord of the Rings.

Galadriel in some ways is quite a mysterious character, as most of what we know of her in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion comes from her time in Valinor or in the Third Age. But her history is problematic, as Christopher Tolkien admits in Unfinished Tales:

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.¹

This means that, while we can take references from various works in the legendarium about Galadriel, how reliable they are is sometimes questionable. We know that she was considered to be the greatest of the Noldor, except perhaps for Fëanor, although she was wiser than he. Her mother-name was Nerwen, man-maiden, her father-name Artanis, noble woman, and she was noted as taller than most women: "She grew to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor."²

She was described as proud, strong, and self-willed, but she had a great reverence for the Valar. She chose to fight against Fëanor at Alqualondë and, further, wished to thwart him in all he did in Middle-earth:

Even after the merciless assault upon the Teleri and the rape of their ships, though she fought fiercely against Feanor in defence of her mother’s kin, she did not turn back. Her pride was unwilling to return, a defeated supplicant for pardon; but now she burned with desire to follow Feanor with her anger to whatever lands he might come, and to thwart him in all ways that she could.³

However, this is written in Unfinished Tales and, as such, is not present in The Silmarillion, which describes her somewhat differently:

Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending Princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Feanor concerning Middle-Earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will."⁴

So we can see that she was indeed valiant and tall, but perhaps her wrath at Fëanor for his actions is not as likely. Certainly later, when Galadriel is staying with Melian, she refers to the Oath and her purpose of taking vengeance upon Morgoth, but not Fëanor:

"Near," said Galadriel; "save that we were not driven forth, but came of our own will, and against that of the Valar. And through great peril and in despite of the Valar for this purpose we came: to take vengeance upon Morgoth, and regain what he stole."⁵

In The Lord of the Rings, she has quite a different character, where she is portrayed as a beautiful Elf who uses magic, not physical force:

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.⁶

Which then raises the question: Which is accurate? If we have differing versions, which one is right? Of course there is no clear answer to this. It will depend on whether you consider The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion only to be canon, or if you encompass the wider books too. There are some who consider only The Silmarillion to be canon and discard the other books such as Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth (HoMe), and there are others who consider parts of Unfinished Tales and HoMe as canon due to them being written directly by the Professor. Christopher himself has admitted that his editing of The Silmarillion was at times problematic due to his not knowing which version his father would have wanted.

The Professor himself was clearly undecided about Galadriel’s role, even rewriting her origin story later in life. Christopher had to pick his way through conflicting accounts to piece together a narrative of her earlier life.

Was Galadriel a warrior? Did she bear arms, fighting at Alqualondë to protect her kin? It is certainly plausible. But after the events when she leaves Valinor, Galadriel is never seen on a battlefield. She does not take part in the kinslayings, nor in the War of Wrath, nor in the later War of Elves and Sauron. Celeborn was documented as being present at the War of Elves and Sauron, but she was not. In fact we do not see a reference of her fighting at all in Middle-earth until the very end of the Third Age when she throws down the walls of Dol Guldur. This however could be argued that it was done magically, not by force of weapon:

When the Shadow passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lorien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed.⁷

The Professor asserted that Galadriel did not have divine power and that her healing, for example, was more of a physical kind.⁸ In his discussion of temptation, Tolkien further asserts that Galadriel would have used a military strategy if she had taken the Ring:

In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron, alone, unaided, self to self was not contemplated.⁹

So what is Galadriel? Is she some kind of Amazonian warrior that has sprung up from myth or is she more of a benevolent queen character? Mac Fenwick attests in his article that Galadriel takes the role of a queen figure in The Lord of the Rings, much like a Homeric figure.  I say queen figure, but she is certainly not an Elven queen, despite ruling Lothlórien in her own right. The role of her character is to offer wisdom or gifts, which she certainly did while in Lothlórien. In fact her role in The Lord of the Rings closely follows the Homeric structure:

Galadriel gives her heroes many of the same things that the Homeric queens give Odysseus. Galadriel gives the magical food of the Elves, lembas, to the members of the Fellowship (389). Galadriel not only provisions the Fellowship with food and drink, she also gives them several very important, and interestingly Homeric, gifts.¹⁰

Fenwick also asserts that her prophetic counsel is her power, and this would closely align with Circe who aided Odysseus with her prophetic knowledge. In this, it would seem that Galadriel is more of an aid to help the heroes on their quest, rather than a warrior in her own right:

Of all the gifts that Homer's and Tolkien's female rulers give, however, what the heroes most highly prize is their prophetic counsel. Circe is a perceptive woman who is able to understand Odysseus' desires and nature, thus enabling her to give effective counsel and guidance . . ..

. . . Galadriel, like Circe, uses water as her prophetic medium, providing the hero with visions that, like Circe's well in the Underworld, are neither directly controlled nor conjured by herself.¹¹

It is difficult to say which historical figures Tolkien may have been inspired by when thinking about Galadriel, if he was at all. But there are women within history who may have resembled her. I am looking at two specific examples for the purpose of this article, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Joan of Arc.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a duchess in her own right and grew up in France. She became queen to King Louis VII in 1137, bearing him two daughters. They later annulled the marriage as they did not have a son. In 1152 she married Henry, Duke of Normandy, who became King of England two years later.

She was known to be accomplished, well-educated, and clever. She was known to have a high-spirited nature.¹² She also took part in the Second Crusade in 1147, claiming feudal leadership of the soldiers from her own duchy. During this time she was compared to the Amazonian Queen Penthesilia, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates.¹³

Joan of Arc, or Jeanne D’Arc, is now the patron saint of France, and her origins are understandably murky. We know that she was born in around 1412 in northeast France. When she was seventeen she received a vision from God and went to Charles, the then-contested heir of France, to help save their country from English domination. Charles sent her to Orleans as head of a relief army to save the city. In April 1429, the English abandoned the siege. She encouraged the king to aggressively pursue the English, and they celebrated a great victory which brought about the end of the Hundred Years War some years later. Charles was crowned as King of France with Joan at his side in 1422.¹⁴

Both women stepped out of their preconceived roles of womanhood to achieve great things. Both took command of armies. Joan was known as a visionary due to her heavenly visions and later became a saint. Unlike Galadriel, these two women have been oft-maligned by historians for their unwomanly ways.

Galadriel, in contrast, has always been treated with a reverence, by Tolkien himself and indeed her fans. Did he draw inspiration from Homeric stories? Perhaps, as he was certainly a fan of the classics, more so than more contemporary literature.

Did he draw inspiration from early medieval female characters? It is certainly possible. Did he deliberately create Galadriel to be a martial warrior? I would say it is less likely. Perhaps he was reluctant to have her scrutinised and criticised as those women in history are for being more controversial, and so he contained her power into that of a benevolent "queen" figure, someone who developed into her womanhood and chose another way to rule.

Works Cited

1. Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn," introductory remarks.
2. Unfinished Tales, Narn i Hîn Húrin, "The Childhood of Túrin."
3. Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn," excerpt from "a very late and primarily philological essay" included in the introductory remarks.
4. The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor."
5. The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand."
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Mirror of Galadriel."
7. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Appendix B.
8. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "156 To Robert Murray, S.J. (draft)."
9. Ibid.
10. Mac Fenwick, Breastplates of Silk: Homeric Women in The Lord of the Rings, Mythlore 21, no. 3 (1996): 18.
11. Ibid.
12. Marion Meade, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography (New York: Penguin, 1977).
13. Ibid.
14. Régine Pernoud and Marie-Véronique Clin, Joan of Arc: Her Story, trans. Jeremy duQuesnay Adams (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1999).