[davem]

Some points already touched on (esp. by Child, but no time to edit)

Galadriel, as Esty says, is at the centre of this chapter, but she seems to manifest aspects of three figures, two within the Legendarium, one outside it. Within it we find aspects of Elbereth & Melian, outside it of the Virgin Mary. If we take the latter aspect first, & look at the 16th Century ‘Litany of Loreto’, we find a series of titles, among which are:

Mother of Divine Grace; Mother most pure;Mother most chaste; Mother most pure; Mother of good counsel; Mirror of justice; Seat of wisdom; Spiritual vessel; Mystical Rose; Gate of Heaven; Morning Star; Health of the sick; Comforter of the Afflicted.

Clearly, Tolkien is using images of the Virgin to emphasise Galadriel’s nature, & her role within the story. She is a reconciler of ‘enemies’ - almost the first thing she does is bring peace between Celeborn & Gimli. She seeks to know the hearts of the Company, principally for their own good: they need to know themselves, to confront their own motives & desires. She effectively shows them themselves - so its significant that her symbol & ‘magical’ tool is a Mirror, & that the Ring she bears is the Ring of Water (though originally it was to have been the Ring of Earth). She is Mistress of the knowledge of past, present & future.

She also displays aspects of Melian, in her role as guardian & protector of Lorien. She keeps alive, & accessible, the Elder Days - in Lorien Elvendom is present in the waking world. But we also see something else in Galadriel, & its not something entirely comfortable. She tells Frodo that if she takes the Ring ‘All shall love her & despair.

She lifted up her white arms, & spread out her hands in a gesture of rejection & denial. Earendil, the Evening Star, most beloved of the Elves, shone clear above. So bright was it that the figure of the Elven Lady cast a dim shadow on the ground...

‘In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And i shall not be dark, but beautiful & terrible as the morning & the night! Fair as the Sea & the Sun & the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm & the Lightening! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me & despair!

She lifted up her hand & from the Ring that she bore there issued a light that illuminated her alone & left all else dark. She stood before Frodo now seeming tall beyond measurement, & beautiful beyond enduring, terrible & worshipful.

If we look at Tolkien’s description of Elbereth from ‘The Road Goes Ever On’, we find:

As a ‘divine’ or ‘angelic’ person Varda/Elberethcould be said to be ‘looking afar from heaven’ (as in Sam’s invocation)... She was often thought of, or depicted, as standing on a great height looking towards Middle earth, with eyes that penetrated the shadows, & listening to the cries for aid of Elves (& Men) in peril of grief. Frodo & Sam both invoke her in moments of extreme peril. the Elves sing hymns to her.

It seems that with the Ring she would become a kind of pseudo-Elbereth (at least at first. But she ‘passes the test’, rejects the option of becoming Middle earth’s Elbereth (as Sauron would become Middle earth’s Eru) & chooses to ‘diminish, pass into the West, & remain Galadriel’.

So, we maybe get a glimpse of what she means by ‘all loving her & despairing’ - she would have become a ‘goddess’ within the world. This is interesting in itself - we have the idea that in taking the Ring one would become a monster but Galadriel would become beautiful as the morning, fair as the Sun & the Snow upon the Mountain (I think the image of Oiolosse is deliberate). And Celeborn? Would he be her Manwe? How much, how deeply, has she pondered what she would do if she found the Ring? She seems to have pondered the options & the outcome in some depth, & even constructed a whole scenario - what she would do, how she would rule - even how she would appear to her ‘slaves’. In this, she is probably a greater danger to Frodo & the Quest than any of the Great - she has everything planned, & would get straight to work.

But in the context of LotR alone, what does she symbolise? The otherworld? She is a test (as others have pointed out). Its almost as if the ‘danger’ she symbolises is not ‘Galadriel becoming an evil version of Elbereth’, but rather the danger of the otherworld itself overwhelming the mortal, everyday world, of Dreaming overwhelming waking, of the Unconscious overwhelming consciousness, the irrational overwhelming the rational, & sweeping them all away. Its interesting that the images she uses of herself are all natural things - sun, sea, a mountain, morning, night, storm, lightening - none of them are ‘conscious’ or ‘rational’ things. Its almost as if the ‘danger’ she represents in LotR is not the danger of a ruling deity but rather of a sinking back into a participation mystique of the rational consciousness, a reversion to unselfconscious ‘nature’, where the separation of rational consciousness from the great Sea of the Unconscious is swept away. ‘All shall fall asleep, & there will be no awakening’. Galadriel with the Ring would not simply turn the whole of Middle earth into Lorien, she will force it all into an eternal ‘dream’ among the Mallorns.

Sauron, whatever else he may desire, is, strangely, attempting to ‘awaken’ the world to full consciousness, to the ‘rationality’ of the Machine. Its significant that his most powerful foes are Elves, & Wizards - beings from the Dreaming. But is it so simple? The Elves & Wizards are attempting to defeat Sauron - not in order to put a spell of sleep on mortals, but to enable them to awaken in a different way - not to the ‘reality’ of The Machine, but to another ‘reality’, one which is in harmony with the living world, in which Sun, Sea, Mountains, Storm & Lightening is not either worshipped or controlled, but loved & respected - which is the place of mortals within the great Music.

(Re Bb's question about James - traditionally Thomas was the twin brother of Jesus ('Thomas' & 'Didymus' both meaning 'twin') & there's the whole Gnostic thing of Jesus having married Mary Magdelaine & having children by her, etc, etc, which i don't think we want to get into here!)