The History of Galadriel and Celeborn

[Galin]

Back to The Elessar for a moment.

If I recall correctly Hammond and Scull note that according to the Olorin version of the Elessar tale, Galadriel would seem to have neglected her charge in that she herself did not keep the Elessar for Aragorn [Gandalf says that she shall hand the jool on when the time comes, to one named Elessar] -- as, according to the already published text in The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel gave the stone to Celebrian.

Of course she did ultimately 'hand' the Elfstone to Elfstone


And back to the second version, or Celebrimbor version, the seeming chronology puzzles me a bit:

Wielding the Elessar all things grew fair about Galadriel, until the coming of the Shadow to the forest. But afterwards when Nenya, chief of the Three, was sent to her by Celebrimbor, she needed it (as she thought) no more, and she gave it to Celebrian her daughter, and so it came to Arwen and to Aragorn who was called Elessar.'

The giving of the jool to Celebrian now agrees with The Lord of the Rings, but I suppose I should be reading this 'afterwards' to refer to some time 'after' wielding the Elessar, not to after the coming of the Shadow, as...

'... but 'the coming of the Shadow to the forest' undoubtedly refers to the arising of Sauron in Dol Guldur, which in Appendix A...'

Christopher Tolkien, commentary, The Elessar, Unfinished Tales

I mean according to The Lord of the Rings Celebrimbor died in Second Age 1697, and Galadriel must have had Nenya way before the arising of Sauron in Dol Guldur, even if she could not employ it until after the Last Alliance.

Also regarding Nenya as chief of the Three: in The Lord of the Rings Vilya is said to be the mightiest of the Three. I suppose one could try to make a distinction between the words 'mightiest' and 'chief' but again I wonder if Tolkien was not simply writing this draft without checking his previously published statements about the Three.