Galadriel's Ban

[Orald]

I was looking over the front page of the Barrow-Downs and it had the history of Galadriel. Anyway, something caught my eye and I decided I was unsure as to the authenticity of what was stated. Basically, it said that at the end of the First Age, Galadriel was forbidden to return to Valinor being the last of the Noldorin leaders alive. Where does it say this and is it Galadriel saying it herself, or is this a pronouncement of the Valar or is this just stated by an omniscient narrator at some part?

And if it was Galadriel who said this (and not directly from the Valar or a Tolkien as he is narrating the story) then I think that Galadriel must have been mistaken. This side story draws many similarities to Dr. Faustus in that both do something wrong and then believe that they can't be saved.

And really if you think about it, why would Galadriel's punishment have been worse than anyone else's? She did not take part in the kinslaying, and in different versions of her story left by completely different means and for other reasons than many of the Noldor.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

As far as I know, Galadriel was not forbidden to return by the end of the First Age, she could return as much as anybody by the end of the First Age: all Noldor were pardoned back then. She willingly decided not to return, yet, my belief is that she thought she could at last now start a "new life" and base her own realm in Middle-Earth. She was kinda stubborn back then. And only later she perhaps wondered (cf. her songs) whether she still has the chance to return - or rather, to escape yet from the fading world.

[Morthoron]

Well, I'm at work so I can't quote specifics, but Galadriel fell under the Doom of Mandos when she and the Noldor fled from Valinor. Even though she did not take part in the Kinslayings, all Noldor who left at that time fell under the Ban. There was an amnesty after Morgoth was defeated and the Silmarils were lost at the end of the 1st Age, but she refused to return to Aman. So, refusing the amnesty, Galadriel invoked a further ban that was only lifted at the end of the 3rd Age.

[Orald]

I understand that you are at work, and unable to find a specific quote, as long as one is found eventually.

And the point of my question was asking whether or not it is truly a ban by the Valar or more self-imposed. I seem to recall something along the lines of Galadriel not returning because she wanted to search out new lands for her own, as you said, but I don't believe making that decision would or should have any more repercussions than returning. I mean, it isn't like all of the Noldor returned at the end of the First Age, many did but many stayed. And the Noldor were a blended people by this time, many likely being descended from Sindar as well.

It would just seem prudent to me, if I were a Vala, to stop laying down Dooms after a while.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The problem is that Tolkien could never make up his mind, either about the manner of Galadriel's departure, or the nature of the Ban. So in one place he says that Galadriel "proudly refused" to return into the West, and in another he says that the Ban was not lifted for the chief actors in the Rebellion, including Galadriel (actually the only C.A. left alive).

If we want to intrude 'argument from canon', it's pretty clear from the two songs in the chapter "Farewell to Lorien" that Galadriel wanted to go back, but was prohibited from doing so.

[The Might]

Firstly, how it all started for Galadriel...

From a late, primarily philological essay according to the UT:

So it came to pass that when the light of Valinor failed, for ever as the Noldor thought, she joined the rebellion against the Valar who commanded them to stay; and once she had set foot upon that road of exile she would not relent, but rejected the last message of the Valar, and came under the Doom of Mandos.

Also, from a letter written in 1967:

The Exiles were allowed to return – save for a few chief actors in the rebellion, of whom at the time of The Lord of the Rings only Galadriel remained. At the time of her Lament in Lórien she believed this to be perennial, as long as the Earth endured. Hence she concludes her lament with a wish or prayer that Frodo may as a special grace be granted a purgatorial (but not penal) sojourn in Eressëa, the solitary isle in sight of Aman, though for her the way is closed. Her prayer was granted – but also her personal ban was lifted, in reward for her services against Sauron, and above all for her rejection of the temptation to take the Ring when offered to her. So at the end we see her taking ship.

However, there seems to have been a development here as CT continues by saying:

This statement, very positive in itself, does not however demonstrate that the conception of a ban on Galadriel's return into the West was present when the chapter "Farewell to Lórien" was composed, many years before; and I am inclined to think that it was not.

In this philological essay I mentioned there does not seem to be a trace of a ban being lifted:

Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar for all who had fought against him, and remained in Middle-earth. It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown and she rejected it, and passing the last test departed from Middle-earth for ever.

Furthermore from another story about Galadriel and Celeborn:

It is very notable that not only is there no mention in this text of a ban on Galadriel's return into the West, but it even seems from a pas*sage at the beginning of the account that no such idea was present; while later in the narrative Galadriel's remaining in Middle-earth after the defeat of Sauron in Eriador is ascribed to her sense that it was her duty not to depart while he was still finally unconquered. This is a chief support of the (hesitant) view expressed above (p. 240) that the story of the ban was later than the writing of The Lord of the Rings, cf. also a passage in the story of the Elessar, given on p. 261.

Finally, a quote from a partially unintelligible (sp?) note, the last thing Tolkien ever wrote on Galadriel and Celeborn and also one of the last things he wrote on M-e in general.

There they were welcomed with joy, as being of the kin of Elwë (Thingol). In the years after they did not join in the war against Angband, which they judged to be hopeless under the ban of the Valar and without their aid; and their counsel was to withdraw from Beleriand and to build up a power to the eastward (whence they feared that Morgoth would draw reinforcement), befriending and teaching the Dark Elves and Men of those regions. But such a policy having no hope of acceptance among the Elves of Beleriand, Galadriel and Celeborn departed over Ered Lindon before the end of the First Age; and when they received the permission of the Valar to return into the West they rejected it.

So, to conclude, did Tolkien wish to include the ban in the stories?

At first apparently no, in earlier writings at least no such idea is existent. There is no ban, Galadriel simply is too proud to leave M-e, wants a realm of her own to rule and so goes east. She afterwards simply realises that M-e is no longer the palce for her and she goes back to Aman.

It is in later writings that a type of purge takes place and Galadriel feels that she is still under a ban of the Valar. She rejects the proposal to return and thus somewhat separates herself from the Valar and manages to bring herself closer to them by refusing the Ring and by aiding the free people of M-e in their fight against Sauron.


Btw, this is just a number of quotes I felt summed up the whole topic best, however for deeper knowledge I strongly recommend reading the entire "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" chapter in the Unfinished Tales. A lot more interesting information on these two and also on Amroth to be found there.

[Galin]

Yes Galadriel had been banned. The letter of 1967 (already quoted in the thread) 'goes with' the following:

'After the overthrow of Morgoth at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so.'

JRRT, The Road Goes Ever On

In Unfinished Tales (in commentary following a very late sketch removing Galadriel from the Rebellion) CJRT notes that Galadriel's actions 'could still be transformed radically, since The Silmarillion had not been published.'

However The Road Goes Ever On had been published, so there were some details about Galadriel that Tolkien himself had made official for his readers.