Why didn't Galadriel warn Aragorn that Boromir wanted the Ring?

[Ivriniel]

Originally Posted by The Mouth of Sauron

Galadriel must have known before the Company left Lorien that Boromir wanted the ring. So why didn't she at least warn Aragorn? Or better still, detain Boromir in Lorien?

[Cheeky]Because Galadriel was selfish. All she could think about was about her escape plan to get away from her psycho husband, Celeborn, who had been stalking her since, way back when, she did some kind of favour for yet another domineering male elf from the First Age, who insisted that she accept Celeborn as a pet husband.

I mean, it's not like Frodo was the centre of her universe. She had a bogus Ring on her hands, and *sighs* yet another stalker, Sauron, wanting to hang out in Lothlorien, really, didn't he! "Green is not your best colour, Saurons", Galadriel often said to herself==he was always a jealous brat. He just wouldn't leave her alone. Eru-dammit, Sauron blackening yet another of my favourite night clubs, she said. He [sauron] just couldn't let the Mallorn trees alone, could he? Oh no, they had to be pits of fire and smelly Orc hovels, didn't they in Lothlorien? Then that crappy Mirror of hers that had caused more trouble and anxiety than it was worth! All those psych referrals because people just got so freaked out by having a look. I dunno, all this drama about Elfy artefacts, it's just so hard!

'Look Frodo' she said to herself 'you're worried about who wants that stupid Ring! Deal with it kiddo. I've got a Maia hounding my heels, trying to force marriage upon me and make my pretty elf realm look like his dustbowl! You reckon you've got troubles, why don't you try being a female Elf in this male dominated environment![/cheeky]

[Lotrelf]

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

[Cheeky]Because Galadriel was selfish. All she could think about was about her escape plan to get away from her psycho husband, Celeborn, who had been stalking her since, way back when, she did some kind of favour for yet another domineering male elf from the First Age, who insisted that she accept Celeborn as a pet husband.

I mean, it's not like Frodo was the centre of her universe. She had a bogus Ring on her hands, and *sighs* yet another stalker, Sauron, wanting to hang out in Lothlorien, really, didn't he! "Green is not your best colour, Saurons", Galadriel often said to herself==he was always a jealous brat. He just wouldn't leave her alone. Eru-dammit, Sauron blackening yet another of my favourite night clubs, she said. He [sauron] just couldn't let the Mallorn trees alone, could he? Oh no, they had to be pits of fire and smelly Orc hovels, didn't they in Lothlorien? Then that crappy Mirror of hers that had caused more trouble and anxiety than it was worth! All those psych referrals because people just got so freaked out by having a look. I dunno, all this drama about Elfy artefacts, it's just so hard!

'Look Frodo' she said to herself 'you're worried about who wants that stupid Ring! Deal with it kiddo. I've got a Maia hounding my heels, trying to force marriage upon me and make my pretty elf realm look like his dustbowl! You reckon you've got troubles, why don't you try being a female Elf in this male dominated environment![/cheeky]

Either you are joking or you did not take books seriously. Sigh!

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lotrelf

Either you are joking or you did not take books seriously. Sigh!

Ummm...Ivriniel enclosed her remarks with [cheeky]. "Cheeky" means impudent or saucy; rude and showing a lack of respect often in a way that seems playful or amusing. So, yes, she was joking.

[Inziladun]

Thinking on this, maybe it's possible Galadriel didn't know exactly what was on Boromir's mind. When Gandalf the White meets Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, he says Galadriel warned him Boromir was in peril. That's fairly vague.
Boromir himself said of his experience with Galadriel's "trial", that

'....it seemed exceedingly strange. Maybe it was only a test, and she thought to read our thoughts for her own good purpose; but almost I should have said that she was tempting us, and offering what she pretended to have the power to give. It need not be said that I refused to listen. The Men of Minas Tirith are true to their word.'

FOTR The Mirror of Galadriel

Why would Galadriel be "offering" the Ring? It was not in her possession, and Boromir would not have felt her permission to use it necessary. And what word would Boromir have been breaking by taking the Ring? Elrond specifically said at Rivendell that only Frodo was held to an oath in relation to the Quest. Perhaps Galadriel divined a more general lust for power to defeat Sauron, coupled with a desire to have Aragorn out of the way and rule Gondor himself. After all, I doubt Galadriel could literally read minds. The test of the Fellowship seems more like a overall sensing of the target's emotional state, in response to Galadriel's selective "temptations".

[Ivriniel]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Thinking on this, maybe it's possible Galadriel didn't know exactly what was on Boromir's mind. When Gandalf the White meets Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, he says Galadriel warned him Boromir was in peril. That's fairly vague.
Boromir himself said of his experience with Galadriel's "trial", that

FOTR The Mirror of Galadriel

Why would Galadriel be "offering" the Ring? It was not in her possession, and Boromir would not have felt her permission to use it necessary. And what word would Boromir have been breaking by taking the Ring? Elrond specifically said at Rivendell that only Frodo was held to an oath in relation to the Quest. Perhaps Galadriel divined a more general lust for power to defeat Sauron, coupled with a desire to have Aragorn out of the way and rule Gondor himself. After all, I doubt Galadriel could literally read minds. The test of the Fellowship seems more like a overall sensing of the target's emotional state, in response to Galadriel's selective "temptations".

Yes. I suspect, exactly, that probing others for Sauronic perversion meant probes for detecting lust, greed and power in the motivational architecture of the being she was reading. There was a particular constellation of mental artefacts--a subset of overall cognition--that Tolkien imputed were 'Sauronic'. Domination, callous sadism, corruption (of Elvish beauty--though he saw beauty in his own realm, no doubt), violation of will, enslavement. And, especially, lust and greed.

I wish I could find the quote from LotR, but I forget where I saw it. Sauron had some kind of partial win, or there was reference to that, in LotR, or Silmarillion about how his mind worked. Tolkien actually wrote "...and his lust and greed were increased...".

Tolkien tended to use the word 'lust', and I think with somewhat non-sexual connotations. Some sexual emphasis was also apparent in Tolkien's 'Dark Lord' motifs though also in his use of lust for power. E.g. Morgoth coupling with a troll to birth Gothmog (FA Gothmog), and Maeglin's perversion through the promise of (oh god, I forget, was it Idril or Aredhel!).

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

...and Maeglin's perversion through the promise of (oh god, I forget, was it Idril or Aredhel!).

Idril. Aredhel was his (dead) mother.

I don't think Galadriel was looking for "Sauronic" traits or influence. I don't think she was looking for anything. She was just showing each person to himself, playing the role of an external conscience. The person with a clear and doubtless conscience wasn't embarassed, upset, afraid, etc. In a way, she spelled out each person's dilemma that they may have been half-consciously hiding in their minds. She wasn't exactly tempting, but taking an existing temptation out in the open.

[Ivriniel]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Idril. Aredhel was his (dead) mother.

I don't think Galadriel was looking for "Sauronic" traits or influence. I don't think she was looking for anything. She was just showing each person to himself, playing the role of an external conscience. The person with a clear and doubtless conscience wasn't embarassed, upset, afraid, etc. In a way, she spelled out each person's dilemma that they may have been half-consciously hiding in their minds. She wasn't exactly tempting, but taking an existing temptation out in the open.

Not so sure about this--why:

Galadriel had faced the evil variant of tolkienian perversion since valinor. She'd been fighting it in numerous incarnations for millennia, knows its stench and all the guises of mortal men in how they lie to themselves about their 'lust for power '.

She saw her ost in edhel destroyed, saw celebrimbor's head on a pike, and - through her own ring - knew first hand the taint of saurons touch.

I find it highly unlikely that - knowing the evil of the ring was in Lorien - knowing saurons presence through it, that boromir's stench would not have been divined. And attributed to the ring and how men deny - outwardly - evil influence.

I suspect his denial of 'temptation' smacked of the duality in boromir's persona versus inner greed--and lust--for the power of the ring .

Nine for the mortal men doomed to fie

[Ivriniel]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Ummm...Ivriniel enclosed her remarks with . "Cheeky" means impudent or saucy; rude and showing a lack of respect often in a way that seems playful or amusing. So, yes, she was joking.

- yes joking - though there are items to rescue from the post about Galadriel's motivations. Sauron was the archetypal intrusive psyche, and his impacts upon cognition through the Ring was to create the same (Borormir to Frodo). I suspect that when Galadriel was reading minds or discerning a person's inner orientation, she was looking for that which was familiar to her about how Sauron worked.

I wonder, though, if Galadriel was, herself, not completely sure of an outcome between Boromir and Frodo. She did not read exact thoughts, only indications of overall bearing in the covert mental realm. She was also not able to read Annatar, (and neither did the Gwaith-i-Mirdain) which implies limits to the discerning Elvish eye. She may have detected greed for the ring, or some unrest, or something 'sneeky' that was Boromir's covert scheming, or restive thinking. He was, from the beginning, pro 'Ring for Gondor'. How would she have assessed the level of impact of the risk? How could she know whether or not he was going to actually try to take the Ring?

In which case, if one imagines taking a friend aside and saying, basically, 'look, one of your close companions is going to rob your home-but I'm not sure'. It's not the sort of thing one would usually say. It pre-empts difficulties in friendship/peer circles and was basically, akin to gossip. So, I take the points upstream citing Elvish wisdom as, generally, not something that engaged in 'counsel'--

Though that's also quite difficult to square off in another series of senses.

1. The entire White Counsel is an intervention, and involves counsel that affects the socio-political orientation of the anti-sauronic movement.
2. It is also difficult to square against the entire premise of the Mirror itself! The darned thing gives insights about the future! and
3. It was antithetical to Galadriel's approach to Frodo in the Mirror of Galadriel chapter. The whole chapter was about her counsel to and of Frodo.

I also seem to recall that Frodo already suspected Boromir. I wonder if this was an unspoken between Frodo and Galadriel, where their conversational focus was elsewhere. Recall that Frodo could discern Nenya on Galadriel's hand where that was generally not doable. So, the two had a kind of 'Ring-ish' understanding anyway.

Ivriniel