LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 07 - The Mirror of Galadriel

[Aiwendil]

Bethberry wrote:

Aiwendil, thank you for that reference to Beleriand and Broceliande from CT. However much Tolkien derived his name from that of Troyes, my sense of the enchanted forest in the chanson bears greater affinity to the descriptions of Lothlorien than to those of Beleriand.

Oh, I concur. I just things its interesting - and it may suggest that Troyes was more in Tolkien's mind than one might at first suspect.

I think we must ultimately rely solely on LotR as Galadriel was invented for it and back written so to speak into The Silm. Who was it here--Child?--who pointed out that this is one of the few relationships in LotR which is not depicted as successful.

I must say that I don't see their relationship as particularly unsuccesful. Certainly not in this chapter. Yes, Galadriel returned west and Celeborn did not - but is there really a suggestion of estrangement between them?

As for the Silmarillion material - I don't think that the only valid approach is to restrict ourselves solely to LotR. Of course we must always bear the relative dates and such of various texts in mind - but I think that some of the very late Galadriel texts do in fact provide a certain valuable insight into the character.