[davem]

(The idea for this thread was sparked by a talk at Tolkien 2005 in Birmingham. The speaker ummed & erred a lot, so it was difficult to follow his argument. This thread idea, therefore, is made up of my own thoughts, inspired by what I heard).

Galadhremmin Ennorath

Shippey translates (Author of the Century) this as ‘tree-tangled Middle-earth’ & refers to various images in Tolkien’s works. He says

The images oppose stars & trees: the stars give a promise, or for Elves a memory, of a world elsewhere; the trees represennt both this world & a barrier to starlight, something through the branches of which mortals look up to try to catch a glimpse of the vision which would otherwise be clear.

So, for Shippey, the branches of trees (the things of Middle-earth - even the natural ones) get in the way of the pure, clear vision of the spiritual world. The branches are a ‘barrier’. If the branches were removed, therefore, the stars would be revealed in all their glory.

Yet the Elves love trees most - after the stars - so do they really think of them as a ‘barrier’, as something in the way, an ‘obstacle’ to their vision of the stars?

The image of ‘light’ shining through tree branches is a recurring one which runs throughout the history of Middle-earth.

Now Eriol was coming from the south & a straight road ran before him.....in places overhung with great dark yews. Through them as he climbed the road he could see the first stars shine forth...

The sun had sunk beyond the boughs of the elms .....& sometime had its gold faded through the leaves.... (Cottage of Lost Play:Book of Lost Tales)

Thy singing poplars; & ther splendid yews
That crown thine aged walls & muse
Of sombre grandeur alll the day-
Until the twinkle of the early stars
Is tangled palely in their sable bars.....

And oft they dance beneath the roofless sky,
When naked elms entwine in branching llace
The Seven Stars, & through the bough the eye
Stares golden-beaming in the round moon’s face
(Kortirion among the Trees:BoLT)

High to heaven they (elm trees) rose in three lessening storeys of bright foliage, & the sunlight that filtered through was very cool - a golden green...

Now was Orome less gloomy & Palurien was comforted, seeing the beauty of the first stars of Varda gleaming in the pale heavens through the shadows of the first trees boughs....(The Chaining of Melko:BoLT)

He gazed, & as he gazed her hair
Within its cloudy web did snare
The silver moonbeams sifting white
between the lleaves, & glinting bright
The tremulous starlight of the skies
was caught & mirrored in her eyes..(early version)

And Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering

(Lay of Leithian)

Bear with me on the last one - there is a link between trees & hair.

Above her brow her head was covered with a cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittereing white....(Many Meetings)

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold....
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden tree
beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone...

And in a fading crown have twined the golden Elanor
(Galadriel’s song in Lorien)

The last line quoted is interesting, given that the literal translation of ‘El-anor’ is ‘star-sun’. Galadriel has woven a ‘crown’ of star-suns’ to place on her head/in her hair...

‘There is nothing, Lady Galadriel,’ said Gimli......’Unless it is permitted to ask...a single strand of your hair, which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the gems of the mine.’(Farewelll to Lorien)

Enerdhil loved all green things that grew, & his greatest joy was to see the sunlight through the leaves of trees. And it came into his heart to make a jewel within which the clear light of the sun should be imprisoned, but the jewel should be green as leaves....

For it is said that those who looked through this stone saw things that were withered or burned healed again or as they were in the grace of their youth. (History of Galadriel & Celeborn)

Finally, coming back to Galadriel’s hair - allso in Galadriel & Celeborn we’re told that:

...her hair held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her father & of her foremother Indis, but richer & more radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory f the starlike silver of her mother; & the eldar said that the llight of the Two Trees, Laurelin & Telperion, had been snared in her tresses. Many thought that this saying first gave to Feanor the thought of imprisoning & blending the light of the Two Trees that later took shape in his hands as the Silmarils. For Feanor beheld the hair of Galadriiel with wonder & delight. He begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair.

In light of this last statement, we can see how significant is Gimli’s request for a single hair from Galadriel’s head. Feanor requests a tress of it & is rejected. Gimli asks for one, to set in [i]imperishable[/b] crystal & she gives him three. This may be even more significant, if Gimli goes on to set each of the three hairs in a crystal of its own.

Galadriel’s name is usually translated as ‘Lady of Light’ but its actually closer in meaning to ‘radiient haired maiden’ Tolkien describes her hair as ‘’shining’. It shines with the light of the Two Trees, So, if the hairs are set in animperishable crystal each by Gimli, what he will end up with are three imperishable crystals, shining with the light of the Two Trees.

The similarity between the Quenya & Sindarin words for ‘Tree’ & ‘Light’ are interesting in this context:

Quenya Sindarin

Alta = Light = Galad
Alda = Tree = Galadh

What we have, running right through the Legendarium, from Tolkien’s earliest writings down to his final ones, are the twin images of light shining either through tree branches or in women’s hair. Why? The hair thing is difficult to answer, but the connection of Light & Tree is easier - the ultimate, archetypal, trees in Middle-earth were Telperion & Laurelin, which shone with Golden & Silver Light. It may be that light shining in or through hair is meant to work as analogy. Every appearance of trees with light shining through their branches seems to be a deliberate ‘echo’ of the Primal trees, as is every image of gold & silver light - especially when they are mingled - as in the hair of Galadriel. So, its not so much that the branches of trees get ‘in the way’ of the stars, but rather that the two - trees & gold/silver light are a single thing, a tree of light..

Or am I completely wrong here?