Galadriel's Ban

[Galin]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I can't see how 'Farewell to Lorien' can be read except as implying the existence of the Ban, the text of Namarie admitting I think to little other interpretation than the one JRRT assigned to it in RGEO in 1967. (And "I sang of trees...." even more so).

I agree that these texts seem to indicate a ban, even if Tolkien hadn't yet thought of a reason for Galadriel specifically to be banned.

Anyway, the reason I "woke up" this thread concerns a possible next stage in the imagined history. At one point Galadriel reveals: "We have dwelt here since the mountains were reared and the sun was young . . . [addition]
And I have dwelt here with him since the days of dawn, when I passed over the seas with Melian of Valinor; and ever together we have fought the long defeat.”

Would this not suggest a "phase" (if possibly short lived, and ultimately revised of course) wherein Galadriel is not even part of the Rebellion? One person elsewhere on the world wide web has stated that Galadriel's songs could not, then, have referred to her ban -- I disagree with that so far, due to how I read the textual sequence given in The Treason of Isengard. . . and I'm wondering if you, or anyone, read the TOI description as I do. Which is (so far?):

manuscript -- no Melian statement
fair copy manuscript -- no Melian statement
typescript (not made by Tolkien) -- basically a copy of the fair copy -- no Melian info as typed

Melian added "later" on both typescript and manuscript

And Christopher Tolkien describes: "The initial workings for Galadriel's songs were nonetheless found with the earliest manuscripts of this chapter, both her song upon the swan-boat (of which there is also a finished text) and Namarie. The completed form of the first reads: . . ."

Maybe that's a bit vague, but if I read things rightly, I think it might leave room for two ideas here. If not, it seems
a bit odd that Tolkien should be thinking Galadriel has been banned within the same conception that she passed over the sea with Melian.


Of course, ultimately the Melian statement is dropped, with revision to the "mountain sentence", but I just wondered if you or anyone cared to comment further here.