Welcome back to my series detailing how J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings is different from its film adaptations. Did you know that Frodo wasn’t the only hobbit to look into the Mirror of Galadriel?
Get ready to learn about that, as well as some hints as to what would have happened if a good person like Galadriel or Gandalf had claimed the Ring and used it against Sauron!
Staying in Lothlórien for some days, the fellowship grieved the loss of Gandalf, talking of all that they knew about the wizard. Both Frodo and Sam made up poems in his memory. One evening, as Frodo began to feel that they must soon leave Lórien, he and Sam went for a walk.
Just as the conversation turned to Lady Galadriel, she appeared out of the trees and led the hobbits to a garden. There she presented them with the Mirror of Galadriel and offered to let each of them look into it. Frodo asked what they’d see in the Mirror, to which Galadriel replied:
‘Many things I can command the Mirror to reveal,’ she answered, ‘and to some I can show what they desire to see. But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell.’
The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅱ, Chapter Ⅶ)
Pay close attention to that last point: that “even the wisest” cannot be sure whether what they see is the past, the present, or the future. This will become important in Book Ⅵ: The End of the Third Age.
Sam’s Visions
Frodo hesitated, and Galadriel asked Sam if he wanted to look into the Mirror, noting that the Westron language doesn’t distinguish between the art of the Elves and the magic of the Enemy (as it calls them both “magic”). Sam agreed to look into the Mirror of Galadriel first.
At first, Sam saw only stars, but after a moment the Mirror showed him the sun shining through the trees in the wind. This was closely followed by a vision of Frodo lying “asleep” under a cliff. Those who’ve read to the end of Book Ⅳ will know exactly what this vision means. The prose here is intentionally disconcerting:
Then he seemed to see himself going along a dim passage, and climbing an endless, winding stair. It came to him suddenly that he was looking urgently for something, but what it was he did not know.
The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅱ, Chapter Ⅶ)
Then Sam saw another vision: trees falling to the ground. He soon realized that Ted Sandyman, a hobbit who’d scoffed at Sam’s interest in elves, was cutting down trees in the Shire. Next he saw, where the Old Mill had been, a building made of red bricks and a nearby chimney pouring forth black smoke.
A Dangerous Guide
Sam’s first instinct was to go home, but Galadriel reminded him that they had no way of knowing if his visions would actually happen:
‘Remember that the Mirror shows many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be, unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them. The Mirror is dangerous as a guide of deeds.’
Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅱ, Chapter Ⅶ)
Sam resolved to continue on the long road with Frodo, leaving the reader with the idea that Sam’s vision would not come to pass, so long as the Fellowship succeeded in their quest. Of course, after two barrels full of foreshadowing at Isengard, we would learn that what he saw was already happening—the devilry of the traitor Saruman.
Frodo’s Visions
Next it came Frodo’s turn to look into the Mirror of Galadriel. His first vision was of a figure in white, and with a white staff, walking down a road. Frodo wondered if this was a vision of Gandalf in the past or of Saruman. There followed a glimpse of Bilbo pacing in his room.
After a number of visions concerning Gondor during the coming battles, the mirror went dark. The Eye of Sauron appeared, searching for the Ring. This is how it’s described here:
The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.
The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅱ, Chapter Ⅶ)
Galadriel ended the vision before the Eye could find Frodo. She then revealed Nenya, one of the Three Rings of the Elves. She explained that if Frodo fails, Nenya would be revealed to Sauron. But even if he succeeds, Lórien will be diminished and swept away by time.
Temptation
Frodo offered Galadriel the One Ring, and although Galadriel had desired the Ring for a long time, she resisted this temptation of power. Along with Gandalf and Aragorn, among others, Galadriel would likely have been able to wield the Ring against Sauron. However, as is a central theme here, literally anyone would be corrupted by the Ring.
Had any of these mightiest beings in Middle-earth taken the Ring and cast down the Dark Lord, they would quickly become like Sauron and take his place. Indeed, as we’ll learn in later posts, Sauron was incapable of imagining that they might do anything else, since that’s what he would have done in their place.
How It Would Begin
Galadriel explained to Frodo that to use the Ring, he would have to train his will “to the domination of others.” Even his ability to see Galadriel’s ring, which is invisible to Sam, is a result of his carrying the One Ring. Sam voiced his opinion that Galadriel should take the Ring, but Galadriel again refused.
‘But if you’ll pardon my speaking out, I think my master was right. I wish you’d take his Ring. You’d put things to rights. You’d stop them digging up the Gaffer and turning him adrift. You’d make some folk pay for their dirty work.’
‘I would,’ she said. ‘That is how it would begin. But it would not stop with that, alas! We will not speak more of it. Let us go!’
The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅱ, Chapter Ⅶ)
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