Why didn't Galadriel warn Aragorn that Boromir wanted the Ring?

[Ivriniel]

I've moved up in the hierarchy - I'm a Haunting Spirit! Post 51

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Because I just can't envision Galadriel in a police search dog role, or a security guard role. "Scanning for virus. Minds left: 8. Estimated time: 6.4 seconds". In that moment, as in most moments, I see her as radiating power because she radiates that power, not to accomplish a purpose that would otherwise be unachievable. She can sense people's emotions because she can sense them, not because she needs or wants to find out about who is tainted with Sauron. And because evil that men bring with them, as Aragorn says, is not necessarily Sauron's touch. And because some of these "temptations" are not even evil, but are still temptations. If Galadriel is testing, it's not for signs of "Sauronism", but for the strength of the loyalty to the quest.

I don't dispute that Galadriel reads emotions. Or that she is part of the LAPD, or NYPD, and that she doesn't have sniffer dogs. I'm sure she didn't have a meth lab either, though I wouldn't be surprised if Sauron did. Orcs, after all, were rather perverse and behaved much like a human being on stims.

Having said that, her realm was guarded by the equivalent (of sniffer dogs, both in the literal and metaphysical senses). They had bows, and were xenophobic to serious extremes. Binding the eyes of the Ringbearer's quest was a rather intrusive gesture, after first threatening their lives.

I'm not going to see Galadriel as blunted in perception to the extent that she wasn't looking, *very* closely at the Ringbearer's company to see who stank of corruption. She read how their miens responded to her probing Elfy eye. Her whole realm was in danger, and she'd faced Sauron before. She knows, first hand, how he works. And she knows, first hand, how people fall to evil and temptation. She, herself, was tempted by The Ring and knew how it weaved violation upon those it ensnared. Recall Bilbo's equivocation just on the East side of the Misty Mountains after he found the Ring and how Gandalf sensed the subtle change in Bilbo's character. We're talking about someone (Galadriel) tens of thousands of years old, who'd dwelt in Valinor, witnessed Morgoth's prevarication, and saw the Two Trees, and their fate. She'd fought in the wars for the Silmarils, had stared at Balrogs and Dragons. She knew that Sauron had a tower on Sirion in (FA) with a den of vampires, and knew how Sauron worked. He was an enslaver, an energy thief, an invader of the mind, a perverter and someone who possesses mortal souls. She had seen the early signs of perversion in many mortal men well before Boromir. As I noted, his very denial, to what he took as 'temptation' would have announced his human foibles to her, in a heartbeat. *That* he saw 'temptation' in Galadriel's gaze *was* the test that he set for himself and that he failed. To Galadriel, watching on, she would have seen a face clamp down, shut her out, and announce some kind of human pride to Galadriel. She wasn't trying to tempt him-but that's what he saw when he looked at her. These features would have been very revealing of Boromir to Galadriel, especially since she knew she wasn't 'tempting' him at all. In modern times, we'd call it a 'projective test'.

In her position, who wouldn't use every power known to Elvendom to establish the emotional state of the Ringbearer's company. She was aware, I suspect, of Boromir's peril, though what she meant, saw, appreciated and discerned, exactly, we'll never quite know.