What makes Galadriel such a remarkable figure is her serenity amidst the coming defeat of her realm and her people. Far from resigning herself to any sort of fatalism, she desires only that the ought shall become the is:
"Yet if you {Frodo} succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlorien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away.
We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten."
Frodo bent his head. "And what do you wish?" he said at last.
"That what should be shall be," she answered. "The love of the Elves for their land and their works is deeper than the deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying and cannot ever wholly be assuaged. Yet they will cast all away rather than submit to Sauron: for they know him now." {1.380}
"Yet if you {Frodo} succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlorien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away.
We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten."
Frodo bent his head. "And what do you wish?" he said at last.
"That what should be shall be," she answered. "The love of the Elves for their land and their works is deeper than the deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying and cannot ever wholly be assuaged. Yet they will cast all away rather than submit to Sauron: for they know him now." {1.380}
( Ralph C. Wood )
[ The Gospel According to ]
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