This CBC has spurred a lot of discussion and it's no surprise, because after reading it again there is much for anyone to ponder.
Pippin's curiosity again. In the previous chapter he asks Sam what he saw when Gimli led him and Frodo to Mirrormere.. This chapter he asks Sam what happened between him and Galadriel's gaze. It's not at all surprising when Pippin is drawn to look into the palantir.
Sam is the only one who is open in revealing what Galadriel's test was, and it's clear she is acting as the Ring in her testing of the Fellowship. Sam's tempted by having a nice bit of garden.
It's pretty easy to guess what the test for Boromir was, and he makes an interesting statement about it: "what she pretended to have the power to give." I think Boromir is correct in that statement, but it would be accurate to say the same of the Ring, and unfortunately Boromir does not perceive the deceit of the Ring, as he perceived Galadriel's deceitful testing.
We're left wondering what Merry and Pippin's tests were, and I think as I continue in this reread it will be revealed. Considering the tests that were revealed in this chapter, we know Sam speaks true of his test, Boromir doesn't say what his test was but he doesn't have to, Frodo's test is to give the Ring to someone else...we will be able to figure out what Merry and Pippin's tests were at some point.
I'm thinking about if Frodo had not accepted to be the Ring-bearer, what was Elrond and Gandalf's plan B? Was it possibly Merry as the Ring-bearer? I think he is the closest representation to Frodo, and after all he was attacked by the Nazgul before Frodo. Merry got a taste of the evil and danger of the Nazgul before Frodo. You could also say Pippin is to Merry's "Sam." I don't mean as the same social status, but just the similar friendship and roles they play.
The similarities between the Mirror and the palantir:
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"Many things I can command the Mirror to reveal," she answered. "and to some I can show what they desire to see. But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. 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?"
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This got me thinking of Sauron's use the Palantir to corrupt and deceive Saruman and Denethor. Galadriel says she can command the Mirror to reveal many things, but if the viewer leaves the Mirror free to work, then she cannot tell what the viewer will see. Sauron's will can command the palantir to reveal what he wants it to to Denethor and Saruman. But then we have Aragorn with the "right" and "will" to command what he wants it to reveal to Sauron.
This chapter really sets it up that Galadriel, even more so than Elrond or Gandalf, is the counter to Sauron. She has a viewing device that she could have used to bend the viewers to do her will. Sam was ready to abandon everything and run back to the Shire that very instant after looking in the Mirror. Galadriel stops him and says to look is both good and perilous and..."Some never come to be, unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them."
Galadriel has her test where she is offered the Ring. And I think this is the first time in the book the "Eye of Sauron" isn't just used as a metaphor, but becomes a vision of "the Eye" in the Mirror. Galadriel's impact and aid later in Mordor makes all the sense. Sauron and Galadriel, the two most powerful beings in Middle-earth and there's the slightest of differences which makes Galadriel the "good force's" counter to Sauron's evil force. But, also the frightening reminder that Galadriel could have been Sauron had she not passed the test:
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..."I wish you'd take his Ring. You'd put things to rights. You'd stop them digging up the Gaffer and turning him adrift. You'd make some folk pay for their dirty work."
"I would," she said. "That is how it would begin. But it would not stop with that, alas! We will not speak more of it. Let us go!"
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