Celeborn could be considered 'wise' if you view him in the context of consort to an incredibly charismatic woman - her immense power and her effect on others seems to outshine his own wisdom. Although it does appear that he is not as wise as Galadriel, his wisdom may lie in other areas, e.g. those of learning, which are completely outshone by Galadriel's persona.
Thinking about figureheads in our own societies, there have been several examples where the charisma of the woman in the partnership has outshone that of the man, which ever one has held the 'real' power. The Duke of Edinburgh is said to be a very learned person, but is obviously outshone by his wife, as she is monarch (and he also shares the trait of saying the wrong thing with Celeborn
). This pattern was also displayed by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Margaret Thatcher (please bear with me, I'm not saying I agreed with her) was highly powerful, with almost uncanny abilities to control others, rather like Galadriel has, while her husband attracted ridicule from the media as being rather weak in comparison, despite being a successful businessman. In the partnership between Hilary and Bill Clinton, it was obviously Bill who had the real power, but Hilary's persona often outshone his.
Now I
don't think that Tolkien was saying that Galadriel had in some way 'emasculated' the power of Celeborn, but I
do think that with Galadriel he was showing his readers something of the nature of power as he perceived it, that charisma is very important. I think that Galadriel does have innate power, but she is clearly masterful at making an impression, in a magical, Elven way, in order to reinforce her own power.
I do agree with what Imladris says here:
Quote:
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Simply, my point is this: it must have taken great humility to apologize to a dwarf. Humility, to me, is a sign of wisdom -- probably one of the greatest forms of wisdom. Humility is contrary to pride, which has been a prominent vice in all of the "bad guys" -- and as such, pride was their downfall. To me, humility is astonishing so wise and great a lord. All in all though, we don't know enough about Celeborn to judge him on this little incident.
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It is always the wiser person who is able to apologise.
Galadriel and Celeborn simply display different types of wisdom. His is quiet, and hers is charismatic. This could almost be contrasted, without insinuating anything about Galadriel, with the different types of power displayed by Saruman and Gandalf.