"It was golden like the hair of her father and of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar said that the light of the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, had been snared in her tresses. Many thought that this saying first gave to Feanor the thought of imprisoning and blending the light of the Trees that later took shape in his hands as the Silmarils. For Feanor beheld the hair of Galadriel with wonder and delight. He begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair. These two kinsfolk [Galadriel and Feanor], the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, were unfriends for ever." --Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien
"'There is nothing, Lady Galadriel,' said Gimli, bowing low and stammering. 'Nothing, unless it might be - unless it is permitted to ask, nay, to name a single strand of your hair, which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the gems of the mine. I do not ask for such a gift. But you commanded me to name my desire.'
The Elves stirred and murmured with astonishment, and Celeborn gazed at the Dwarf in wonder, but the Lady smiled. 'It is said that the skill of the Dwarves is in their hands rather than in their tongues,' she said; 'yet that is not true of Gimli. For none have ever made to me a request so bold and yet so courteous. And how shall I refuse, since I commanded him to speak? But tell me, what would you do with such a gift?'
'Treasure it, Lady,' he answered, 'in memory of your words to me at our first meeting. And if ever I return to the smithies of my home, it shall be set in imperishable crystal to be an heirloom of my house, and a pledge of good will between the Mountain and the Wood until the end of days.'
Then the Lady unbraided one of her long tresses, and cut off three golden hairs, and laid them in Gimli's hand. 'These words shall go with the gift,' she said. 'I do not foretell, for all foretelling is now vain: on the one hand lies darkness, and on the other only hope. But if hope should not fail, then I say to you, Gimli son of Gloin, that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.'" --The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2 comments:
Goodness gracious! I do suspect she has mellowed, through three ages of the World, at least, but I think from what else we know of Feanor she probably showed great forsight there.
Say, were you writing a poem, this time 'round? Only I can't find either my word or my question elsewhere at all!
She indeed must have mellowed, as you say. There's something very Christian in her giving her hair to a dwarf long after refusing to give any to Feanor. I can picture Feanor getting quite mad were he to see Galadriel giving the strands to Gimli - a dwarf of all recipients.
No, I copped out of this W&Q. Sounds like somebody is slow to get a poem done!
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