Caras Galadhon

The Day

January 17th 3019

“Suddenly they came out into the open again, and found themselves under a pale evening sky pricked by a few early stars. There was a wide treeless space before them, running in a great circle and bending away on either hand. Beyond it was a deep fosse lost in soft shadow, but the grass upon its brink was green, as if it glowed still in memory of the sun that had gone. Upon the further side there rose to a great height a green wall encircling a green hill thronged with mallorn-trees taller than any they had yet seen in all the land. Their height could not be guessed, but they stood up in the twilight like living towers. In their many-tiered branches and amid their ever-moving leaves countless lights were gleaming, green and gold and silver. Haldir turned towards the Company. ‘Welcome to Caras Galadhon!’ he said.”

Following Gandalf’s fall in Moria, the fellowship, now led by Aragorn, made their way to Lothlorien, seeking aid from the elves that dwelt there. On the 17th, in the evening, the company reached Caras Galadhon. Before that, however, they encountered Haldir, and spent the night in the trees, at which point this adorableness happened:

“Pippin wen on talking for a while. ‘I hope, if I do get to sleep in this bed-loft, that I shan’t roll off,’ he said.‘Once I do get to sleep,’ said Sam, ‘I shall go on sleeping, whether I roll off or no. And the less said, the sooner I’ll drop off, if you take my meaning.’”

Caras Galadhon is the city in which Celeborn and Galadriel live. Who, I must say, are considerably more friendly in the book than the movie made them out to be. In the movie, they are rather reserved and cold, and Haldir isn’t even willing to lead the fellowship to Caras Galadhon until Aragorn argues with him about it.

In the book, the elves are very friendly and nice, and when when they first meet Celeborn:

“’Sit now beside my chair, Frodo of the Shire!’ said Celeborn. ‘When all have come we will speak together.’”

For the purposes of this post, I skimmed through the chapters “Lothlorien and The Mirror of Galadriel” in hopes of finding a few outstanding quotes to use. Alas, the entire thing is one big amazing quote, and I have had to choose only a few more pertinent ones to pop in here. But in general, I plan on working future posts of this sort around actual quotes from Tolkien. His language and his words are just as important as the story itself, and the two should not be parted.

THE YEAR

For this, I shall just give a direct quote, as I couldn’t really think of any easier way to explain what happened.

Appendix B >> The Tale of Years
c. 3000 The shadow of Mordor lengthens. Saruman dares to use the palantir or Orthanc, but becomes ensnared by Sauron, who has the Ithil-stone. He becomes a traitor to the Council. His spies report that the Shire is being closely guarded by the Rangers.