Galadriel: with what was each member tempted?

[Formendacil]

There's an assumption--not stated as such--running through some of the posts that I think is worth teasing out: namely, that the temptations must have involved the Ring. Is that certain? Obviously, Galadriel is testing everyone's resolve and thus implicitly in relationship to the Quest, but it's not at all clear to me that the temptation doing the testing would necessarily have involved the Ring. I think because Boromir's test is the most prominent, especially in light of what comes later, we sometimes fall into thinking that they were all tempted alike.

I have my doubts that the junior Hobbits were tempted by the thought of possessing the Ring and what they might achieve with it. I think their temptation would more likely have been along the lines of Sam's: return to the comfort and security of home. That's a very provisional reading, because I don't think that either Merry or Pippin--yet--have that desire the way Sam does, but it fits better than "wealth and power" anyway.

Legolas, I think, might also be tempted with the "running away" option--but in the general "Elvish Original Sin" sense of trying to turn back time, which was how the Rings were first wrought. Not that Galadriel need offer thoughts of the Ring to effect this temptation, as I think Elempi has a very plausible temptation in this vein in the idea of "turn Dark Elf."

I think LMP might also be right about Aragorn, but that's partly because I keep thinking of the test of the palantír, which he passes by exercising his authority. But maybe that's the point: everyone but Boromir seemingly passes this test by Galadriel, though perhaps all by degrees rather than outright.