Unfinished Tales - Part Two - IV - The History of Galadriel and Celeborn

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Dilettante

No one is going to mention the Elessar?

Well I wanted to be the first! but now...

Or the debate whether Olorin brought back the original Elessar or Celebrimbor made a new one?

The Olorin version carries a somewhat outnocuous idea in my opinion, as I don't understand why Galadriel would need to consider the jewel to keep her land from fading -- or to help with this problem in some measure at least -- in the Third Age. I suppose one could argue that she, 1,000 or so years into the Third Age, was still reluctant to use Nenya for some reason, but that doesn't seem to sit well with Appendix B in my opinion.


And although there are several texts in this section which are characterized as rough drafts in the first stages of composition, following Christopher Tolkien's lead I also find it odd that Galadriel, co-founder of Eregion, would allow Sauron in, where Gil-galad did not. To my mind this seems to chip away at Galadriel's insight, or her esteem or power as ruler of Eregion -- granted we have the Mirdain eventually taking power, but that implies Sauron was allowed 'in' in order to cozen them in the first place (unless they were meeting secretly with Annatar, which isn't noted).

Perhaps this is partly why the idea was (if so) abandoned -- that is, if I'm right that it was abandoned.



Although I muchly enjoyed this section for various reasons, as far as calculating contradiction with already published texts goes, or sighting seemingly superseded ideas, or presenting possibly problematic notions, I have a number of questions with respect to some of these tales.