The Fall and Repentance of Galadriel ("the Lord of the Rings" Character)

ALTHOUGH Galadriel is one of the best known and best loved characters in The Lord of the Rings, surprisingly little has been written about her. It is true that she only really plays an important role in the Lothlorien episode in Book II: 6-8, and at the very end of Book VI. Part of the problem is that the story of her past life in Middle-earth was never really told in The Lord of the Rings, but only hinted at in the "Lament of Galadriel" (LotR II.8). Tolkien himself obviously felt dissatisfied by his treatment of Galadriel after LotR was published, and elaborated on her history in several late writings, including post-LotR versions of The Silmarillion (Sil.), some of his late letters (Letters), the section on The History of Galadriel and Celeborn in the Unfinished Tales (UT), and some notes that Tolkien himself supplied to Donald Swann's Song Cycle The Road Goes Ever On, first published in 1967. In addition Volumes 6-9 and 12 of The History of Middle-earth (HME) also contain early drafts of LotR, which allow us to see more clearly the emergence of Galadriel into the narrative. In several of these late writings Tolkien elaborated a story of Galadriel's Fall and Repentance, only to repudiate it in the final year of his life. (2) Perhaps the most succinct statement of the later story of Galadriel's Fall and Repentance can be found in a letter to Mrs. Ruth Austin in 25th Jan. 1971, written only two years before Tolkien's death: