"What
you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it
shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But
which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to
look?"
"You
will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a
Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and
the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain!
Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the
earth! All shall love me and despair!"
"I
pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West and remain
Galadriel."
"Though
you should find all barren and laid waste, there will be few gardens in
Middle-earth that will bloom like your garden, if you sprinkle this earth
there. Then you may remember Galadriel, and catch a glimpse far off of Lórien..."
"In
this phial is caught the light of Eärendil’s star, set amid the waters of
my fountain. It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a
light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out. Remember Galadriel
and her Mirror!"
Youngest
child and only daughter of Finarfin of the Noldor. Galadriel was born in
Valinor while the Two Trees still grew there. She travelled to Middle-Earth
at the beginning of the First Age with her four brothers.
In the Second Age, Galadriel founded Lorien and became Queen there. During
the War of the Ring, she provided shelter to the Nine Walkers, and gave great
gifts to each member of the Company. It was her gift of the Phial of
Eärendil's star to Frodo which saved he and Sam in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol,
pursued by Shelob.
Galadriel
revealed herself to Frodo and
tested his heart at the Mirror of Galadriel, a source of great power for the
forecasting of future events, and the interpretation of current ones. Frodo freely offered her The One Ring, and she
was tempted, but refused, and so passed "the test."
Because of this, and because of her long opposition to Sauron, the Valar
permitted her to return to Valinor. Galadriel wore Nenya, the Ring of
Adamant. In Year 3021 of the Third Age, she sailed over the Sea with the
other Ringbearers.
