Of the Three and the Fading of the elves

[Galin]

It's interesting that when Tolkien decided that time passed at the same rate inside Lórien as without, he noted however that it would be difficult to count the time in Lórien (italic lettering as published):

'... They cannot count the time, for they do not age in that time, but outside in fact 30 days goes by'. In Scheme a similar note says: 'They cannot count the time, for they themselves do not age or only very slowly. Outside in fact about 30 days passes.'

This was one of the effects of the Elven-ring worn by Galadriel. Bilbo had commented on a similar inability to reckon time in Rivendell, where Elrond also wore and Elven ring.'

The Lord of the Rings, a Reader's Companion, Hammond and Scull

As H&S also note, Bilbo remarks (Many Meetings) that time doesn't seem to pass in Rivendell: 'it just is'.



I find the 'very rough' Elessar text problematic in general, for example: why would Galadriel desire the stone in the Third Age after Gandalf arrives? Or why (according to the second version) would she think she needed it no longer in the Second Age when in another text, arguably written at about the same time according to Chistopher Tolkien (Concerning Galadriel And Celeborn), it was Galadriel herself that counselled Celebrimbor that the Three should be hidden and never used -- naturally enough, as Sauron still had the One at this point.

This is the power of the Elessar as first described in the Unfinished Tales text (italic lettering here for my emphasis):

'For it is said that those who looked through this stone saw things that were withered or burned healed again or as they were in the grace of their youth, and that the hands of one who held it brought to all that they touched healing from hurt.'

Granted, further description states or implies that the lands about the wielder grew fair, but, and this is just my personal opinion (and as of today), I think I prefer the Elessar being limited to this initial description, as I read it anyway -- by which I mean I am interpreting a lesser power here, in comparison to Nenya, based on this passage alone. This to me seems to nicely lay a foundation for the later and greater power to be wielded by Galadriel in the Third Age, even though she had to 'wait' for Sauron to lose the One to employ it.

Just to note that it exists: in the Later Quenta Silmarillion the -Green Stone of Feanor given by Maidros to Fingon- appears to be an 'alternate' previous history of the Elessar, and although both ideas are unpublished (by the author himself), and the LQS 'version' quite brief in any case, the text published in Unfinished Tales is later however.