The ‘Rings Of Power’ Haters Are Wrong, Tolkien’s Galadriel Was Always A Warrior

One of the weirdest controversies to emerge (out of many) about Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is this new version of Galadriel, who is portrayed as a fierce elven warrior hunting Sauron to the ends of the earth.

The Tolkien fanboy idea is that this was never how she was supposed to be, and they don’t like how different she is from the serene, occasionally explosive sorceress version from the Jackson trilogy.

The problem? The Tolkien fanboys have apparently not read enough Tolkien.

In addition to the fact that Galadriel is thousands of years old and in those millennia, likely picked up a sword from time to time, there are indeed specific passages that describe her fighting across much of Tolkien’s work.

Redditor Spyson summed up a slew of references to this quite nicely:

Nature of Middle-Earth: “”Account of Galadriel’s quarrel with the sons of Fëanor at sack of Alqualondë. How she fought…”

Unfinished Tales: “she… fought heroically”

Morgoth’s Ring: “Marginal note against the passage describing the involvement of the second host in the fighting: ‘Finrod and Galadriel (whose husband was of the Teleri) fought against Feanor in defence of Alqualonde.”

People’s of Middle-Earth: “Even after the merciless assault upon the Teleri and the rape of their ships, though she fought fiercely against Feanor in defence of her mother’s kin, she did not turn back. Her pride was unwilling to return, a defeated suppliant for pardon; but now she burned with desire to follow Feanor with her anger to whatever lands he might come, and to thwart him in all ways that she could.”

If there was ever a character to attempt to describe as a “Mary Sue,” with unearned talent, it is not the thousands-year old elf that Tolkien repeatedly says is among the most powerful and strong characters in his entire cast. She’s described as “Amazonian” at one point, which is certainly the version we’re seeing in the show: “”[Galadriel] was then of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats,” Tolkien Letter 348.

Of course this is all just…extremely stupid. It’s a combination of misogyny, where it’s your typical crowd of dudes who think any woman being portrayed as a badass warrior is “woke,” and then at least some on the opposite end of the spectrum where they think it’s a betrayal of the sword-less Jackson trilogy Galadriel and Tolkien’s work to make her a violent warrior, which as we can see, is just not true at all. The sooner we get past this the better, but I don’t see that happening any time soon, no many how many book passages we can quote at people.

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