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Originally Posted by Gorthaur the Cruel
Then she really was raped if not seemingly.
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We'll never know, so its all speculation - you might as well toss a coin. The only thing we can know is the effect of the Orcs' 'torment' on her. I suspect that Tolkien chose not to tell us exactly what happened because he didn't feel that it was relevant.
Basically, the alternatives are: a)unknown/unknowable 'torment' in the dark at the hands of the Orcs, or b) specific,
known torment (rape or otherwise).
a) is more disturbing & from a literary point of view more effective, because all we need to know is that what Celebrian went through was enough to break her spirit & make it impossible for her to remain in Middle earth. As soon as the 'torment' is precisely defined - whatever it was - there will be some readers who respond 'Well, that wasn't all
that bad - fancy being broken by something like that!'. To know the
effect on Celebrian engenders sympathy/empathy, because the reader will think of the worst 'torment' they can imagine for themselves - which might not be rape at all, whereas to know the
cause, may produce the opposite effect & cause her to be percieved as 'weak'. The unseen monster is always scariest (as PJ should have realised re the Balrog!)