"I didn't mean Elrond was light years ahead of Galadriel or anything"
Me neither. Or that the Isildurioni are the equals of wizards. Just that the Half-Elven's mixed heritage gives them certain unique strengths and advantages in some areas over their 'purebred' kin. Maybe it's that Maiar strain from Melian.
It has been suggested by Marnie Goodbody, (of The_Istari list) that Galadriel flagrantly and unecessarily overuses Nenya in a slightly hubristic attempt to imitate Melian of Doriath and a *very* hubristic effort to recreate the timelessness of Aman in Middle Earth.
Tolkien himself writes disapprovingly of the Elven tendency to 'embalm' as he puts it the past and regard change as an evil. In fact if I read his 'Letters' correctly he seems to be saying that the Three Elven Rings were a mistaken attempt to forstall the natural and necessary 'fading' of the Elves and so flawed in their very conception.
Certainly in the UT story of the making of the Elessar Galadriel's detachment from and resentment towards the natural cycle of life and change in general is made chillingly clear. As is her desire to recreate a little piece of Aman for herself.
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