Galadriel

Galadriel is an Elf whose story in J. R. R. Tolkien’s works stretches from the First Age to the end of *The Lord of the Rings*. Born in Valinor, she was the daughter of Finarfin and Eärwen and the sister of Finrod Felagund. Through her mother, she was also a granddaughter of Olwë, a leader of the Teleri. She left Valinor for Middle-earth during the rebellion of the Noldor, though Tolkien’s accounts of her motives and journey differ.

In the First Age, Galadriel lived for a time in Doriath, where she learned from Melian and met Celeborn, whom she married. Their daughter, Celebrían, later married Elrond; their children included Arwen. By the Third Age, Galadriel and Celeborn governed Lothlórien, the woodland realm visited by the Fellowship of the Ring after Gandalf fell in Moria.

Galadriel bore Nenya, one of the Three Rings of the Elves. Its power helped preserve Lothlórien against the decay felt elsewhere in Middle-earth, but its fate was bound to that of the One Ring. When Frodo offered her the One Ring, she imagined the terrible power she might wield with it, then refused. “I pass the test,” she told him, accepting that she would “diminish, and go into the West.”

During the Fellowship’s stay, Galadriel showed Frodo and Sam her Mirror, whose visions could reveal things that had happened, might happen, or might never come to pass. Before the travelers departed, she gave them gifts with consequences later in the story. Frodo received a phial containing the light of Eärendil’s star, which helped him and Sam in their encounter with Shelob. Sam received a box of earth from Galadriel’s orchard and a mallorn seed. After returning to the Shire, he used the earth to restore damaged land and planted the seed where the Party Tree had stood.

Galadriel was also a member of the White Council, which opposed Sauron’s growing power at Dol Guldur. During the War of the Ring, forces from Dol Guldur attacked Lothlórien. After Sauron’s defeat, Celeborn took the fortress, and Galadriel cast down its walls and exposed its pits.

The destruction of the One Ring meant that the power of the Three Rings would fade. At the close of the Third Age, Galadriel departed from the Grey Havens aboard the ship that also carried Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, and Elrond westward.