Why Galadriel Is the Greatest of All Elves

When accepting defeat is mightier than choosing to win

“Galadriel was the greatest of all Noldor, except Fëanor maybe, though she was wiser than he, and her wisdom increased witht the long years”. This is said by Tolkien himself, clearly and unmistakably, in the Unifinished Tales. The first time I read it, I took the statement at face value: after all, Galadriel is the Lady of Lothlórien, member of the White Council, enemy of Sauron, and master of the Ring of Water. Pretty great-sy resumé.

I mean, look at her. She’s awesome.

But her competition is strong. Galadriel is but one of the many lords of Noldor — and, compared to them, her achievements start to look somewhat less impressive. Fëanor was the greatest craftsman to ever walk the earth, died fighting multiple Balrogs, and his actions, for good or ill, single-handedly shaped the fate of elvenkind. Fingolfin led his people (including Galadriel, according to the published Silmarillion) across the Helcaraxë, reign during the siege of Angband, and maimed Morgoth before dying. Both Finrod and Turgon ruled over kingdoms mightier than Lothlórien. Gil-Galad had the longest reign and led the elves at the War of the Last Alliance. “Fighting the long defeat”, as Galadriel describes her career since crossing the Misty Mountains, is an evocative and mythical sentence, but what does it really mean? Should we, the readers, accept her title of Greatest because Tolkien says so?

If the reader now replies with a loud YES, I blame him not. But let us look at the original text once more:

Galadriel was the greatest of the Noldor, except Fëanor maybe, though she was wiser than he, and her wisdom increased with the long years.

Her mother-name was Nerwen ("man-maiden"), and she grew to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor; she was strong of body, mind, and will, a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their youth. Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful, and her hair was held a marvel unmatched.

Though Tolkien gives us the original proposition — Galadriel is the greatest of the Noldor — without qualifiers, he quickly explains that greatness in specific terms: she is great among the athletes, great among the lore and craftsmen, and great in her beauty.

On these terms, it is indeed hard to find competition for Galadriel. She created her Mirror, which can see other spaces and times, a power shared only with the Palantír; and she captured the light of Eärendel, the light of a Silmarill, on the phial she gives Frodo. Her knowledge and discernment were shown when she was the first to see through Anatar, the fair form of Sauron in the Second Age; and, when the White Council first met, she appointed Gandalf as its leader, even then not trusting Saruman completely.

So perhaps Galadriel is superlative in some areas — on her craft, knowledge and wisdom — and great in many others — her athleticism, her reign over Lothlórien, her work against Sauron. Others may have been more powerful, or led greater kingdoms. But Galadriel is the one who best unites these aspects of greatness into one person.

There is, however, another answer. Though not suggested directly by the Unfinished Tales, I would argue it is only a natural conclusion from Tolkien's themes.

History in Arda is in a perpetual state of generational decay. Gondor is a lesser version of Númenor. The love of Aragorn and Arwen is a lesser version of Beren and Luthien. Galadriel's swan boat is lesser than the great white ships of the Teleri, which are lesser than the magic swans that carried Tol Eressëa. But one overlooked parallel is the one between Valinor, Gondolin, and Lothlórien.

Valinor, we may remember, was originally created to be a haven for the Valar. After the destruction of the Lamps by Melkor and the loss of Almaren, the Valar decided they needed a place to gather together, heal, and recover before they could reclaim Middle-earth. What was originally a mean to an end, however, became an end in itself. By choosing to bring the elves to Aman, the Valar chose their own land over Middle-earth, their own creation over the place in which Ilúvatar created His Firstborn.

The same mistake was made by Turgon in regard to his own work: Gondolin. The Hidden City was a re-creation of Tyrion over Tuna, the top-hilled city of the Noldor in Valinor. It was meant to be a sanctuary of elvendom in the East, a place where the beauty and knowledge of the eldar could be preserved and where those fleeing from the War of the Jewels could find refuge. But, as the Valar before him, Turgon became enamored with his own work. Gondolin, the refuge, became Gondolin, the isolated. What was created to preserve beauty became concerned only with preserving itself. And because of it, Gondolin fell.

I argue that, as Gondolin is to Valinor, Lothlórien is to Gondolin. To breathe the air of the White Lady's city is to breathe the air of the Old Days. Memory of the West like Gondolin, ruled by a king's mighty and a queen's wisdom like Doriath, Lothlórien is the greatest work of Galadriel.

Keep this point in mind while we take a detour to talk about Galadriel herself. She is great, as we have established. But greatness, in Tolkien's works, rarely comes without a cost. On her youth in Valinor, Galadriel heard the words of Melkor and Fëanor, both her enemies, and was aflamed by them, desiring a kingdom and ruleship over others. Latter she crossed the mountains with her husband, and together they “fought the great defeat”. By that we mean the fading of the elves and the dominion of Men, yes; but also her own fading, and the loss of her own dominion. The end of the third Age means, to Galadriel, the defeat of everything she built in Middle-earth, everything she left Aman and crossed the Helcaraxë for.

And so comes The Fellowship of the Ring, and Frodo brings the One Ring straight to Galadriel. This is her great temptation, for the Ring offers everything she ever wanted: power, dominion, and resistance against the fading. The Ring could beat the Great Defeat. And Galadriel would become a monster by it.

“And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful.

Galadriel, however, refused the Ring.

Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

“I pass the test”, she said. “I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.”

In the end, Galadriel is the greatest of the Noldor. Not because of her power, but because of her abdication of it.

The love for one’s creation is a pervasive theme of The Silmarillion. Even Melkor’s rebellion is a subcreative one, founded on the desire to create things by himself. Time and time again the wise and mighty fell into the trap of seeing their works as ends in themselves, instead of a reflection of the work of the One.

But not Galadriel. Though mighty, she avoided the trap. She accepted the end of Lothlórien, and her own. Like Turgon, Galadriel fell in love with her own creation. But unlike Turgon, she knew when it was the time to let go.

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