Skip to main content

tolkiens legendarium - Why did Fellowship of the Ring stay in Lothlorien for so long?


When the fellowship of the ring left Lothlorien, Sam commented on the position of the moon and questioned how long they had stayed in Lothlorien. Aragorn replied to Sam as follows:



The old moon passed, and a new moon waxed and waned in the world outside, while we tarried there. And yestereve a new moon came again. Winter is nearly gone.




-The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter IX


Moreover, "What is the timeline for The Lord of the Rings trilogy?" indicates the fellowship remained in Lothlorien approximately a month. Since it seems that the fellowship had a somewhat urgent quest to complete, why had they "tarried" in Lothlorien?



Answer




While the company may have appeared to have "tarried" as their time in Lothlorien wore on, an earlier draft on the topic suggests that they themselves hadn't aged.



The Coy. [Company] stays in Lórien for many days. They cannot count the time, for they do not age in that time, but outside in fact 30 days goes by.


They cannot count the time, for they themselves do not age or only very slowly. Outside in fact about 30 days passes.
The History of Middle-earth - Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, Chapter VI: Tale of Years




This may have been the same in the published Legendarium, however at the time Tolkien meddled with the idea that some form of time manipulation by Galadriel may have prevented the ageing of the lands of Lothlorien


This idea is supported by Celeborn in The Mirror of Galadriel (the chapter):



It is eight and thirty years of the world outside since you came to this land; and those years lie heavy on you. But the end is near, for good or ill. Here lay aside your burden for a while!
The Fellowship of the Ring - Book II, Chapter 7: The Mirror of Galadriel



Celeborn speaks of two very interesting things here, the first being that the years in "the world outside" seem to be different to those recorded in Lothlorien, again suggesting that time passes differently. Furthermore, he suggests that Aragorn can set his burden aside for a while, suggesting that Lothlorien seems like an ancient spa resort, where one forgets their pains and worries.


When asking about Gandalf, Legolas gives us a little more insight into the magical affects of Lothlorien




At first we were weary and danger was too close behind and afterwards we almost forgot our grief for a time, as we walked in gladness on the fair paths of Lórien.
ibid.



A final point on why the company stayed so long is to replenish and recover after the loss of Gandalf.



you should have refuge in this City, until you were healed and refreshed. Now you shall rest, and we will not speak of your further road for a while.
ibid.



The time spent in Lorien was beneficial to the Company and the gifts they received proving instrumental in their success.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...