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‘Then I need say no more,’ said Celeborn. ‘But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.’
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Yet as is the way of Elvish words, they remained graven in [Frodo’s] memory, and long afterwards he interpreted them, as well as he could: the language was that of Elven-song and spoke of things little known on Middle-earth.
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These two moments come as the Fellowship is leaving Lorien. The first are the last words spoken by Celeborn in the chapter, and the second is Frodo’s reaction to Galadriel’s parting song – so they really are the ‘final words’ of Lorien in a way. What is interesting is how they are about the same sorts of ideas, but with different emphases. Both are about memory and permanence, specifically, the necessary permanence ‘feminine’ memory.
In Celeborn’s parting words to Boromir we seem to be getting some foreshadowing to Ioreth and the “old wives’ tales” that will be one of the first things to proclaim Aragorn as the King; that Celeborn is saying this to Boromir is no accident, I think, as he is a Gondorian Man who still needs some convincing that Aragorn is the rightful leader. Boromir anticipates those Men of Minas Tirith who are perhaps too caught up in the manly pursuit of war to pay heed to the ‘woman’s wisdom’ that will announce that the King has come.
The effect Galadriel’s song on Frodo is marvellous insofar as it seems to spring from a kind of art that achieves near absolute creativity. The language of her song is almost like the divine creative language insofar as it seems to create a new reality for Frodo, or, at least, to become a palpable part of his reality. Just as Eru sang the world into being (and just as God spoke the world into being – “let there be light”) so too does Galadriel’s song create and become memory. The experience of the song does not survive in his memory, but the song itself is like a memory that Galadriel puts there. So as with Celeborn’s words of warning to Boromir, femininity, memory and the necessity of paying attention to these are being emphasised. It’s almost as though Frodo is doing what Boromir cannot: Frodo is open to being ‘imprinted’ by the actual experience of the past embodied by the experience of Galadriel’s lament; Boromir is in danger of being closed to the same.
We’ve done quite a bit in response to gender in these chapters and I think that here these issues are given some kind of resolution: Frodo remembers, absolutely, the feminine power of Lorien; Boromir is dangerously incapable or unwilling to heed the feminine, so devoted is he to the masculine.
davem made the excellent point above about Aragorn’s sword and scabbard as combining male/phallic and female/yonic symbolism – is it going too far to suggest some kind of pattern here?
Boromir/male: does not heed women’s tales; doesn’t think that anything they preserve is at all important.
Frodo/female: heeds Galadriel’s song so closely that it literally enters his mind and becomes part of who he is.
These two characters end up ‘unhappily’ although, obviously, in very different ways (although, perhaps, not all that different, insofar as – in the end – they are both wounded by the Ring which they have tried to claim for their own; and in each case, it is their very attempt to take the Ring that makes its destruction possible…) Only Aragorn is able to bring these two ‘sides’ into balance: he bears with him the memory of Lorien (as does Frodo) and he is heading toward reclaiming the inheritance held for him ‘in trust’ by the “old wives’ tales” of women like Ioreth.