Flammifer
Well-Known Member
The class has taken a rather dim view of Galdor, and his comments during the Council of Elrond.
Let’s look at the Council from Galdor’s point of view? Galdor is one of Cirdan’s crew. Cirdan’s crew must see themselves as self-sacrificially denying themselves Elvenhome, so that those Elves who did not heed the words of Eonwe, Herald of Manwe, when he summoned the Elves of Beleriand to depart from Middle-earth, would still be able to repent and be able to find a way across the Western Sea.
To Galdor, Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-galad, and the Elves of Rivendell are all apostates.
(‘Appostacy’: An act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith.)
They refused to obey the Summons from Manwe, via Eonwe, to depart from Middle-earth.
When Elrond says, “Too often the Elves have fled that way (across the sea)”, I imagine that Galdor’s blood must boil. “Too often! Too often! Not nearly often enough! You benighted apostates! You refused the command of the Valar back when there was no Sauron, and now you rationalize that you have to do something in opposition to him! You do not! Get on the ships! Repent! Obey! You risk your own chance to repent and return if Sauron marches in power along the coasts into the North. Not only your own chance, but that of all the other poor Elves (including earlier schismatics and apostates). ‘Hereafter the Elves may have no escape from the lengthening shadows of Middle-earth!’”
Is it any surprise, given what we know from the Silmarillion, that Galdor seems to jar with the flow of the Council?
Galdor perhaps thinks, “Oh Elrond, you think yourself so clever! You think you have read the music and the course of Destiny. How can we trust you? How can we believe you? Wrong once! Visibly wrong! How can we, or you, possibly think that you are not wrong again?”
Now, of course, if we are just doing a close reading of TLOTR, then the class’s general sense that Galdor is out of kilter with the rest of the Council is reasonable. We need to have read the Silmarillion and realized that the Elves were summoned by the Valar to the Blessed Realms, to get the perspective on why Galdor reacts as he does, and that he represents the Faithful in the Den of the Schismatics.
With a close reading of TLOTR, we get a hint, perhaps, about Galdor’s perspective, when Galadriel says, “I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.” It is a fairly murky hint, however, and, for the first-time reader, it has not come yet by the Council.
I think that this illustrates the dangers of muddling perspectives when reading TLOTR. Is Galdor’s perspective that of the Faithful among the Apostates? Or is it the perspective of Not-Wise, failing to see the interpretation of Destiny by the Wise? How should we interpret Galdor at the Council? Well, does it not depend entirely on which perspective we, as readers adopt?
I have no problem with looking at TLOTR from different perspectives, but I think we should be more clear about which perspective we are using at any particular time, and more careful to compare and contrast interpretations from different perspectives. To muddle them up is just to create confusion.
Let’s look at the Council from Galdor’s point of view? Galdor is one of Cirdan’s crew. Cirdan’s crew must see themselves as self-sacrificially denying themselves Elvenhome, so that those Elves who did not heed the words of Eonwe, Herald of Manwe, when he summoned the Elves of Beleriand to depart from Middle-earth, would still be able to repent and be able to find a way across the Western Sea.
To Galdor, Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-galad, and the Elves of Rivendell are all apostates.
(‘Appostacy’: An act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith.)
They refused to obey the Summons from Manwe, via Eonwe, to depart from Middle-earth.
When Elrond says, “Too often the Elves have fled that way (across the sea)”, I imagine that Galdor’s blood must boil. “Too often! Too often! Not nearly often enough! You benighted apostates! You refused the command of the Valar back when there was no Sauron, and now you rationalize that you have to do something in opposition to him! You do not! Get on the ships! Repent! Obey! You risk your own chance to repent and return if Sauron marches in power along the coasts into the North. Not only your own chance, but that of all the other poor Elves (including earlier schismatics and apostates). ‘Hereafter the Elves may have no escape from the lengthening shadows of Middle-earth!’”
Is it any surprise, given what we know from the Silmarillion, that Galdor seems to jar with the flow of the Council?
Galdor perhaps thinks, “Oh Elrond, you think yourself so clever! You think you have read the music and the course of Destiny. How can we trust you? How can we believe you? Wrong once! Visibly wrong! How can we, or you, possibly think that you are not wrong again?”
Now, of course, if we are just doing a close reading of TLOTR, then the class’s general sense that Galdor is out of kilter with the rest of the Council is reasonable. We need to have read the Silmarillion and realized that the Elves were summoned by the Valar to the Blessed Realms, to get the perspective on why Galdor reacts as he does, and that he represents the Faithful in the Den of the Schismatics.
With a close reading of TLOTR, we get a hint, perhaps, about Galdor’s perspective, when Galadriel says, “I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.” It is a fairly murky hint, however, and, for the first-time reader, it has not come yet by the Council.
I think that this illustrates the dangers of muddling perspectives when reading TLOTR. Is Galdor’s perspective that of the Faithful among the Apostates? Or is it the perspective of Not-Wise, failing to see the interpretation of Destiny by the Wise? How should we interpret Galdor at the Council? Well, does it not depend entirely on which perspective we, as readers adopt?
I have no problem with looking at TLOTR from different perspectives, but I think we should be more clear about which perspective we are using at any particular time, and more careful to compare and contrast interpretations from different perspectives. To muddle them up is just to create confusion.