Celeborn Unplugged - Page 9
© Michael Martinez
If the only doubt Celeborn expresses concerns his warm welcome to Gimli, a doubt easily set aside with encouragement from Galadriel, then he is easily the strongest-willed Elf-lord in the book. Even Legolas seems a bit wishy-washy at times. Elrond, for all his wisdom, cannot seem to figure out what to do with Frodo. It's only after Frodo offers to take the Ring to Mordor that Elrond puts all the clues together and sees that is the task appointed to the Hobbit. Celeborn, on the other hand, seeing how everyone else is scratching their head over what to do next, figures out a way to help people move closer to their goal while leaving their options open.
Of course, there is another passage where Celeborn seems a little doubtful. And that is toward the end of the book, when he and Galadriel are speaking with Treebeard. "I do not think we shall meet again," Treebeard says to them. "I do not know, Eldest," Celeborn says respectfully. Frankly, I think it's a bit more tactful than respectful. That is, Celeborn probably understands the three of them will never be together again. People point to Galadriel's flowery "in the willow-meads of Tasarinan" reply as if it bridges the gap between idiocy and Einsteinian physics.
For me, the greatest significance of this passage is that the reader is being treated to yet another glimpse of one of those stories Tolkien never found the time to tell. If you go back and reread Treebeard's remarks to Merry and Pippin concerning Fangorn Forest and Lothlorien, and then look at his bittersweet farewell to them in "Many Partings", it becomes obvious that Celeborn, Treebeard, and Galadriel have a history. What have they done in past ages? How many times have they been together?
When Tolkien translated Treebeard's Elvish salutation to Celeborn and Galadriel (A vanimar vanimalion nostari!), he wrote: "Treebeard's greeting to Celeborn and Galadriel meant 'O beautiful ones, parents of beautiful children.'" While it's common knowledge that Celebrian was the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, it's not so well known that -- for a while -- Tolkien envisioned Amroth as their son, too. Amroth eventually became the son of Amdir (or Malgalad), but Treebeard's words imply that he knew (and loved) the children of Galadriel and Celeborn. Clearly, there was more to the Treebeard/Galadriel/Celeborn connection than Tolkien revealed in The Lord of the Rings.
And the same is true of Celeborn himself. We see only brief flashes from Celeborn's many facets. He is not a diamond in the rough so much as a glittering jewel lying half-buried amid other jewels, some brighter or less covered up. As Tolkien himself could have said, there is no record of the full tale of Celeborn, for his tale was bound up in Tolkien's heart, and when Tolkien at last sought the Grey Havens in his own way, with him went the last unrevealed memories of Celeborn's days in Middle-earth.
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