The Power of Women in the Rings Trilogy, Three Novels by J. R. R. Tolkien

Women have often been the center of debate within Tolkien‘s trilogy, as they appear very sparsely and only for short amounts of time and interaction. However, the women shown so far are not simply the owner of a tavern or a field hand but instead elven ladies and wives of powerful beings in Middle-earth and have been shown to rival the power of their male counterparts in more than one instance. Not all influence the hobbits and their quest permanently, but many have a part yet to play in the future and will help them to continue on their quest.

The first woman encountered is Goldberry, the happy-go-lucky wife of Tom Bombadil. She introduces herself as “Goldberry, daughter of the River,” implying she was born of magical means, not biological. Over the next few passages, Frodo and his band of hobbits continue to describe Goldberry as something akin to the sole meaning of beauty and lightheartedness, as she continued to dance about them, singing and laughing.

By itself, this has little meaning as anyone with the spirits to do so can cheer up an entire room, but Goldberry’s effect has a magical air to it, as it caused the hobbits to forget about their troubles while in her presence. Only a short mention throughout two chapters does Goldberry make her appearance, but she has a profound effect on the halflings before they continued on with their quest. The argument against Goldberry‘s significance is an easy one to make, due to her short length of appearance in the overall tale.

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Although mysterious and not human, Goldberry only showed herself within two chapters and is then never mentioned again, promoting the argument of the females mentioned being unimportant to the story or readers.

However, of the three, Goldberry appears the least and is the least important to the story Once the group of hobbits had made it to Rivertdell, they encountered Arwen, daughter of Elrond, who was lord of the hold. Arwen is never talked to directly within the text, but Frodo often remarks upon her extraordinary beauty and youthful look, despite being hundreds of years old, This depicts the air of magic about her, both giving her the unseen but sensed strength and protecting her from the ravages of time. Elvish history backs up Arwen’s power, as the elves described her as “the likeness of Luthien [in] come on earth again” (Tolkien 221). Luthien is akin to a demigod of the elves, and is one of Elrond‘s ancestors. She was the first elf to marry a man, rescued a Silmaril (a gem of unequal earthly power), and is claimed by the elves to have been the most beautiful woman in the history of Middle-earth (“Luthien”).

Arwen’s innate power is so much that Frodo feels abashed for being included in such a council of high elf lords and ladies(Tolkien 221). Although not the lady of Rivendell — the daughter of she, in fact — Arwen is as important as her father in the dealings with the company, though does not ever speak. Another show of Arwen‘s power is her effect upon Aragorn, who is also her lovert Similar to the Gate of Argonath, when Frodo describesAragorn as suddenly “[still] Strider, and yet not Strider; for the weatherworn Ranger was no longer there. In the stern [of the boat] sat Aragorn son of Arathorn, proud and erect“, Aragon appears as more king than Ranger in the instant Frodo glimpses him standing next to Arwen. Both the statues of Aragorn‘s ancestors and Arwen the elf maid caused the same enlightening effect upon Aragorn, giving the sense that Arwen can produce a similar amount of power, whether magical or otherwise.

The argument against Arwen is short and similar to that against Goldberry, although Arwen’s effect upon Frodo is profound, both directly and through her effect on Aragorn, she has a very short appearance, and she did not say anything directly to Frodo or any of the company besides Aragorn She stays within Rivendell after the company departs, and doesn’t influence their journey. Besides appearing through a glance or through simply catching an eye, Arwen does not interact or influence any of the main char.acters of the story, despite any magical power she may possess. The third, final, and most powerful and influential female character the Company comes across is Galadriel, the lady of Lothlorien, Galadriel is the wife/partner of Celeborn, the Lord of Lothlorien, but she speaks more often and with more power than him Notably is Galadriel‘s effect upon Gimli, the dwarf.

Dwarves and elves are not friendly with each other, and Gimli is even required to be blindfolded upon entrance into the forest Lorien Sam feels similar effects from Galadriel, mentioning “I felt as if I hadn’t got nothing on, and I didn’t like it, She seemed to be looking inside me and asking me what I would do if she gave me the chance of flying back home”. Similar to arwen, her beauty possesses a magical air to it, enticing all races who saw her to he in awe. In response to Sam‘s comment on her effect being unenjoyable and frightening, Aragorn tells the entire Company not to speak ill of Galadriel, as she holds no evil in herself. This progresses the argument of Galadriel’s important by showing the lack of evil, which most of even the elves have a modicum of. She has little within her, and seeks to purify the land instead of manipulate it for herself.

In the same evening, Galadriel beckons Frodo and Sam to follow her to the Mirror of Galadriel: a magical device that shows past, present, and possible futures. Separating this from the previous female characters is the apparent magic within the Mirror Before this instance, no tangible form of magic had shown itself to the Company, and because this belongs to Galadriel her importance as an essential character continues to rise Galadriel also mentions that she senses Sauron’s presence in her mind, searching for her thoughts, and yet she is continually able to fight him off and keep him away from her thoughts (Tolkien 355). Lastly, Galadriel possesses one of the Three Rings for the elves, which allow them to bring beauty into the nature they so covet. The importance is not in her possession alone, but in that she held the ring, not her partner Celeborn, making her the first time there has been a female character more important than their male counterpart. For a brief but terrible moment, Galadriel showed the power she might have were Frodo to give her the.

One Ring, but decided against it, and resolved to fade with the remainder of her race instead of rule over Middle-earth. Now, she proved to be more powerful than her partner Celeborn, possessed a tangible form of magic, and had also a pure conscious, incorruptible by the power of the Ring. The women in The Fellowship of the Ring are few and very far between, but each shows their own right to be a part of the story. Goldberry interacts lovingly with the hobbits and is the wife of the mysteriously powerful Torn Bombadil. Arwen Evanstar> daughter of Elrond is the panner of Aragorn and brings him to his true glory like few other things and instances in Middle—earth. Finally, Galadriel, lady of Lothlorien, shows Frodo the possible future and possesses one of the. Three Elven Rings of power, and yet cannot be corrupted by the power of the One or by Sauron’s influence. Though the encounters are short, the women of Middle-earth met so far play a large role in the Company’s future and ability to succeed at their quest.