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Prince Valium?  by Marnie 16 Review(s)
CorielReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
YES. Another well-deserved plug for Celeborn and all his lovely outspoken Sindarinness. Again, you know what you're talking about, and made it a pleasure to read. I love serious essays that make me laugh! :D

Author Reply: Thanks for the review, Coriel :) Lately everything I read either doesn't have Celeborn in it, or has nasty!Celeborn, and I guess I saw red and was a bit more outspoken than normal. My excuse is, I'm only following my muse's example of forceful tactlessness ;)

ElvenesseReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
Thank you so much for writing this. I like Galadriel, but it seems that she spends quite a lot of her time gliding around and playing with her foresight and Magic Mirror (okay that's over exaggerated). I think they make a perfect team and as you point out, he is very like the Elves in the Silmarillion – full of life and very much there. Maybe those who revere Galadriel think he’s beneath her, but then they are discrediting her. She chose him as her husband and she named him Wise.

What you point out is so obvious and yet I've never properly thought about it before.

Author Reply: Thank you for the review, Elveness :) It does seem to me that if Galadriel spends all that time with the Magic Mirror, making Lembas and weaving the cloaks of the Galadhrim, there simply isn't *time* for her to run the country as well.

Personally I revere Celeborn and have to make myself like Galadriel for his sake, against my own inclinations. But I guess that's just wierd of me ;)

Sometimes the obvious gets overlooked just because it's so obvious, so I'm glad to know I've done a good job in pointing it out. Thanks!

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
I meant, just in case you misinterpreted it - I am doing the mindless wittering. You are the one who knows your stuff. Very well.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
You feel quite strongly about this, don't you?

Good for Celeborn - top elf. And Galadriel - top elf's wife.

Do you think perhaps he deliberately stuck her up there to grab the limelight? While he preferred to be the producer?

Mindless wittering - you know the stuff!

Author Reply: Yes, I do feel quite strongly about it; was I foaming at the mouth a bit? ;) Trust me to fall in love with a character that either no one writes at all, or they write vapid, insipid and boring. (Present company excepted, of course.)

I think he was probably fairly happy to have her in the limelight, being fully aware that her people skills were greater than his. I can see her loving the diplomacy for its own sake, and him getting impatient with how long it took to get anything done.

Anyway, now I'm wittering :) Thanks for the review!

Thundera TigerReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
Oh Marnie, how I love thee. Let me count the ways...

This essay is BEAUTIFUL! A wonderfully cutting depiction of Celeborn, an elf I've always loved for many of the same reasons that you do. But I could never put it as eloquently as you, so I'm endlessly glad whenever you churn out these little essays. They're so accurate! So plain! So obvious! And yet we still all sit around reading it saying things like, "Oh yeah...I guess that DID happen..."

I think the description I like best is "one of the most swiftly decisive, practical, and forceful elves in the book." And that's nailed everything on the head. Our experiences with elves include Gildor and his painful dithering when Frodo tries to get some pretty obvious advice out of him concerning Black Riders, Elrond and his crazy council which spend the bulk of the morning recounting history, and Legolas who plays background mantel-piece elf for pretty much the entire trilogy. Then there's Celeborn, who is so different from everyone else that it's like being woken by a splash of ice water in the early morning, and you've taken the time and effort to show us why.

I love your explanation of Galadriel's place, putting her in a mothering role. It's actually a perspective I hadn't looked at before, and that entire scene with Gimli now makes much more sense than before. I also love the way you point out that the major decisions come from Celeborn, something I knew but never actually connected with. And I'm right there with you on believing that the Celeborn and Aragorn conversation in FotR:EE was spot on. Perfect!

I have *one* tiny little quibble, and strangely enough, it's about Galadriel, not Celeborn. I don't know of anybody who understands Celeborn better than you, so I'm not going to doubt any of your assertions. I agree with all of them anyway. But back to Galadriel, you make the claim that she misses Boromir's problem as she didn't talk to Aragorn about it. Which would be fine except that Gandalf says she spoke to *him* about it. And the only reason I remember this because I thought it odd that she wouldn't say anything to Aragorn. Thoughts on that, oh great mistress of the Lothlorien couple? Why would Galadriel let slip something so vital when the Fellowship was there to be helped and then tell Gandalf about it later? Or was Boromir's problem not big enough to mention at their first meeting and grew until it was a problem by the end of their stay in Lothlorien? Just thoughts.

Anyway, thank you SO much for clearing up Celeborn so many times. It's always a pleasure to read!

Author Reply: Wow! *blushes* Thanks! I think it's telling that it's Celeborn and Thranduil who get such a hard time in fandom (zombie!Celeborn and evil!Thranduil). They are the only two elves who appear to have an agenda (dare I say it, a life) of their own, and don't consider themselves to be entirely there just to aid the heroes. That makes them considerably more bolshy than your average elf. I loved the way you put it - like a splash of ice water. Yes, all through LotR you're expecting the elves to be gentle and nice, and here's Celeborn getting angry and critical. There's no wonder no one knows what to make of him.

I have to confess I forgot that bit about Galadriel having warned Gandalf. That was useful of her, wasn't it! My guess was that she was being a typical cautious Noldo and saying to herself 'it may never happen - he's tempted, but he may yet hold out. I won't tell Aragorn, because that might make matters worse...'

Or, of course, it might be that it was her testing which brought Boromir's problem to the fore (as Sam implies), so that, as you say, by the end of the stay he was noticably worse than at the beginning.

Or perhaps it was something she saw in her mirror between the Fellowship leaving Lorien and Gandalf arriving? Either way it seems fairly characteristic that she would give the warning just when it was too late to do any good. (I'm sorry, I try my hardest to write her sympathetic, but in my deepest, darkest heart I don't really like her very much. Probably because she's just too bloody omniscient and I can't bear it ;) )

Many thanks for such a great review!

Ms. WhatsitReviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/16/2004
This is an interesting essay, and I like it very much (I also prefer the blunt Sindarin elves to the Noldor). The part about Galadriel acting as the "mother" of the country is intriguing--I hadn't thought about her actions in that light before.

I think Celeborn's a bit overlooked even by the characters in his own universe. Galadriel's the only one to call him Celeborn the Wise--even Aragorn, when he's talking about the wise people who he thinks can see through Saruman, only mentions Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel. And Celeborn doesn't show up in any songs the way Galadriel does, poor guy.

Author Reply: Thanks for the review, Ms Whatsit. Yes I was amazed, when reading this book on Anglo-Saxon feasting, to find a description of the role of the Lady of the Hall which fitted Galadriel perfectly. The whole bit in 'Farewell to Lorien' where she takes the cup round to Celeborn and then to the guests is right out of a Saxon etiquette manual ;)

Perhaps Celeborn turns up in the songs of the Sindar/Silvan elves, which attribute the success of the C+G partnership entirely to him? I'd like to think so ;)

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