Disclaimer: I am not J.R.R. Tolkien and I own neither Middle-earth nor The Lays of Beleriand (1985), to which I am once again much indebted.  And “canon” becomes amazingly negotiable when the Unfinished Tales (1980) are brought into play...

being a fantastical account of the Lady Galadriel’s journey to Middle-earth by an unknown author;
edited and with critical comments by Erestor and Melinna of Ered Luin;
preface by the Lord Celeborn of Lórinand,
formerly of Doriath, Sirion and Eregion.

To Thranduil Oropherion Redux and Aislynn Crowdaughter,
the following pages are very respectfully and gratefully inscribed by the author,
in memory of the conversation whence this piece sprang...

And a significant debt is owed to the very late Mrs. Keturah Jeffreys,
whose account of Madagascar and her husband’s missionary career may be found
at the Internet Archive.

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“... but Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.” Silm. 1977: 83–4.

“A wholly different story, adumbrated but never told, of Galadriel’s conduct at the time of the rebellion of the Noldor appears in a very late and partly illegible note...” U.T. 1980: 299.

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PREFACE

THE workings of the Elvish mind are often marked by a whimsical delight in story-telling beyond the constraints of mere fact. Never is this more plainly apparent than when those who have been long the subject of great admiration, and even adoration, are depicted as the protagonists in their own histories. To them, indeed, most flattering is the experience; a delightful exchange of heroism and untroubled virtue for the miserable and often troublesome truths that necessarily attach to any person who has lived through the troubled and ruinous events of the First and Second Ages of the Sun. But to those around them, – above all, to those attached by bonds of blood or matrimony and a share in that same history, such fantastical tales are naturally adapted to excite less kindly emotions; and were it not for their enduring love and affection, would undoubtedly induce a keen and outraged disbelief.

Such were the feelings experienced by the Writer of this Preface when the following Volume, discovered in Lórinand and comprising a wholly fictive account of the LADY GALADRIEL’S voyage to Middle-earth, was presented to him. From the opening pages, detailing his future wife’s commanding stature in Aman and her unwavering opposition to her kinsman Fëanor, to the account of her later counsels that an unsanctioned war in Middle-earth against Morgoth Bauglir should prove fruitless, it was evident that the unknown author of this supposed Journal had not hesitated to resort to fantastical embellishment in those instances when certain well-known facts of his subject’s life proved unpalatable. The Journal must be considered a token of the respect and affection in which Lady Galadriel is held among the Silvans, since the course of Elvish history has been amended in order that she might be shewn to best advantage. It was therefore deemed fitting for the Journal to be circulated more widely, as a tribute to her genuine virtues and the many commendable deeds in truth accomplished by her, through which she has made herself so beloved.

The Writer of this Preface need not detail the manifold peculiarities of the history on display within the Journal, – that task having been admirably accomplished by the editors in the critical notes that accompany the text, – and he feels the cheering assurance that no person of intelligence could believe such absurdities as his own unaccountable presentation as a prince of the Teleri, one “Teleporno”. The facts of his kinship with Elu Thingol and his honoured position in Doriath before the tragic fall of that glorious kingdom are known to all and require no further elaboration. May the readers of this Journal, ever mindful of the Elvish delight in story-telling, be duly wary of the tale adumbrated by its anonymous author; and this fantastical record of a Lady’s deeds testify not to the events of her true history; but instead, in the full awareness of its provenance, to the remarkable quality of her achievements and person.

LORD CELEBORN OF OF LÓRINAND,
FORMERLY OF DORIATH, SIRION AND EREGION.

Caras Galadhon, Lórinand,
Aug. 11, 2127 T.A.

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EDITORS’ FOREWORD

WHEN the editors stumbled across a curious document entitled The Journal of Alatáriel, Missionary on a recent visit to Lórinand, our first reaction was naturally amazement; the type and extent of the historical inaccuracies on display was such that it seemed inconceivable that anyone could have taken it seriously as an account of the Lady Galadriel’s journey from Aman to Middle-earth. A little investigation, however, revealed that in certain parts of Lórinand the account detailed by the Journal was not only known but indeed current, especially among the wood’s younger inhabitants. We were therefore obliged to class the Journal as the authentic manifestation of a highly apologetic strand of Silvan thought that seeks to cleanse the object of its attentions from any hint of prior stain or impropriety while simultaneously emphasising or indeed exaggerating the same object’s glorious origins. (A similar tendency has been observed in Eryn Galen, where the tradition that the royal dynasty’s founding father, King Oropher, was a prince of Doriath has almost entirely eclipsed his real origins as a Nandorin prince of Ossiriand and kinsman to Denethor son of Lenwë.) As such, the Journal will be of unique interest to anyone concerned with the history and lore of Middle-earth, and we are grateful to Lord Celeborn for granting us permission to prepare an edited version of the text for further circulation. We would also like to express our thanks to him for supplying the preface to this edition and for his assistance in the preparation of the critical notes, the Lady Galadriel having found herself unable to comment at this time.

E. & M.

Caras Galadhon
August 2127 T.A.