Fellowship of the Ring‘s Mirror of Galadriel Scene Is Still One of the Trilogy’s Finest

Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ringturns 20 this month , and as our thoughts lingerthere and back again , we ’re remind of just how many of its momentsremain so brilliantly memorabledecades by and by . But one of its most haunting and tragic scenes still lingers as a clear standout in Peter Jackson ’s trilogy : Frodo ’s encounter with the Mirror of Galadriel .

At the gunpoint when the Fellowship reaches the secure harbour of Galadriel and Celeborn ’s protection in Lothlórien , it is buffet and bruise both physically and spiritually . Having just fled Moria and mourning the loss of its lynchpin in Gandalf , all seems hopeless for the grouping , not just in get down to Mount Doom and completing their pursuit but being able-bodied to even ride out together as a rum unit . As the Fellowship spend the night in melancholy cerebration , licking its wounds , Frodo finds himself alone , until he chances upon the Lady Galadriel herself , and is given the hazard to peer into her magical font of foresight , to see what could become of the world should the Fellowship and its ringbearer , in particular , should falter .

What wee the Mirror of Galadriel sequence so stunning is not what it has to say about the enticement of the One Ring — the horror Frodo is call for to face commit the visual sense of Galadriel ’s desires , should she yield to his offering and take its burden from her — but the way it exaggerate the tragical forlornness that hail with have a bun in the oven a band of power . Few people Frodo has encountered up to this point , not even Gandalf really , can have-to doe with to the isolation of being a ring holder . But Galadriel , the keeper of Nenya , can — and those fears of isolation , and the need to just get through the will - sapping process of carry the gaud to its end of the world in Mordor , are what drives Frodo and Galadriel to nerve themselves for their respective tests in this brief moment together . Sure , there ’s dire warning of Boromir ’s faltering enticement to take the ring to Gondor and the promised doom of the Scourging of the Shire — an event from the books otherwise exit untouched in Jackson ’s trilogy after its coup d’oeil here — but what drive Frodo and Galadriel alike in this import is that melancholic , plaintive desolation .

Galadriel offers Frodo a view of things that were, things that are, and some things… that have not yet come to pass.

Galadriel offers Frodo a view of things that were, things that are, and some things… that have not yet come to pass.Screenshot: Warner Bros.

The first visual modality Frodo sees in the Mirror of Galadriel is n’t the Shire ’s dire portion should he give up , but the faces of his friends and their crushing dashing hopes . What Galadriel wants , should she become the Dark Queen is more than power , but to be have it away , as terrible as it would be , by the people she could delight with its might . The two ringbearers are entice by the prospect to not have to present their job alone , even as Galadriel urges the untried Hobbit that he must lead the Fellowship behind in club to resist a chance of completing his pursuit . Not that he get a say in that matter at long last , with Sam coerce himself along for the drive out of his passion for his supporter anyway — but that ’s only after .

In this moment in the shade of Lothlórien , Frodo has confronted and steel himself to the idea of make to put away his motive for company to face a task that only he can do . If the price to devote for bearing such awful powerful artefact is solitariness , it ’s one that has to be pay — Galadriel putting apart her longing to be adored is rewarded with her getting to remain herself , and pass into the undying realm to be with her people . Frodo ’s acceptance is honour with convey out of the Battle of Amon Hen in one piece before the Fellowship ’s unfastening can be his own … albeit with the ever - close Sam in tow , rather than really alone .

But Sam ’s crease to the lesson Galadriel has Frodo learn is , in turn , part of what give Fellowship such abeautiful , earnest escapade moviein the first post . Frodo ’s gravid test in the movie is to take over that he and he alone can carry the One Ring ’s loading , that the tragedy is in the solitariness he will sense to do so . But he also does n’t realize until Sam wades into the waters of the Anduin after his full friend that some bonds of friendly relationship , some loves , ultimately , are too unassailable to let such a catastrophe stand . Even if Frodo is prepared to take on his grand pursuit alone , he has a admirer who ’s more than willing to share the lode of such a sad and solitary project to fight against that prescribed black bile .

Screenshot: Warner Bros.