How Galadriel In 'The Rings of Power' Differs From Galadriel In 'The Lord of the Rings'
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Galadriel. A lady that goes by many names, such as Lady of Lorien and the Lady of the Light. She is considered to be one of the greatest elven women. So great, in fact, that she could wear a ring of power herself. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote Galadriel as an important character throughout all ages of Middle Earth, so it should be no surprise that she is the central protagonist of Amazon Prime's new show, The Rings of Power. However, the Galadriel we see in the series is a bit different from the character we're familiar with in Lord of the Rings.
Galadriel is thousands of years old. However, in The Rings of Power, she is much younger than when Frodo meets her in The Lord Of The Rings. She has a while to go yet until she becomes the hero, and someone worthy of a ring of power. In The Lord of The Rings, she seems at peace with her place in the world, and manages to resist the temptation of the one ring. In The Rings of Power, she's a fiery warrior, hellbent on revenge. According to The Silmarillion and Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales, Galadriel did not take part in the wars that occurred during the First Age. She did not believe that it was the responsibility of her or her people to stop Morgoth.
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With how old Galadriel is, it makes sense for her character to be a skilled warrior. Tolkiens’ works have described her as amongst the most powerful of her kind. In the books, Galadriel has magical abilities which enable her to see into the hearts and minds of people, no matter how far they are. We have not seen this ability or any magical ability from her yet, but it doesn’t mean we won’t.
The Rings of Power portrays Galadriel as a disobedient child to Gil-galad. The elf has respect for her, but her status is lower in comparison. In canon, Galadriel is regarded with more respect than even Gil-galad himself. Every elf would’ve known who she was, and he would’ve had no authority to send her to Valinor. Her relationships are also different than what we see of her in the show. In the second age, Galadriel is already married to Celeborn, and has given birth to Celebrian. Within Tolkien’s works, she and Elrond have a close relationship. We saw this in both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Neither of these ever showed the close familiarity we see portrayed in The Rings of Power. In canon, Elrond married Celebrian, Galadriel’s daughter. In Tolkien’s works, Galadriel never had a close relationship with the race of men until the early Third Age with the Rohirrim, and later with Aragorn, as we saw in The Lord of the Rings. So her relationship with Halbrand, the human man she found on the raft, never happened in Tolkien canon. Their fated meeting will most likely have an influence between the two races.
Image Source: IGN
The Galadriel we see in The Rings of Power is different from what we’re used to in Tolkien canon. While Tolkien did imply that she was a great warrior, Amazon has had to take some liberties in other cases, and that’s okay. Galadriel is a great character in both The Rings of Power and The Lord Of The Rings, and viewers should be excited to see what she does next.
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Sources: Screen Rant, Inverse