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In Lieu of Glorfindel: The Portrayal of Women in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring

Two of the most striking character interpretations in New Line Cinema?s new film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien?s The Fellowship of the Ring (the first part of a trilogy based on Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings are, not coincidentally, of the two significant female characters in the story, Arwen and Galadriel. Of the many residents of Middle Earth with significant roles in The Lord of the Rings, only three are women: Arwen, Galadriel, and ?owyn, the lady of Rohan (the words ?women? and ?men? here refer to the genders of all characters, not merely humans). No women attend the Council of Elrond, the Fellowship of the Ring consists only of men, and as far as we see, the forces of darkness are entirely male.
Women are largely absent in The Lord of the Rings. The fate of the world is being decided without them, and while those few women who are present are leaders among their people, they are leaders in a very limited sense only. The recent film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring (originally published in 1954) deftly enhances the roles of the story?s female characters, reducing, though not eliminating, the extreme gender imbalance in the story without detracting from the spirit of Tolkien?s original work.
Arwen, the daughter of the Elvish lord Elrond and future wife of Aragorn, is a "prominent" female character, but really only a marginal one in the novel. She is held in high esteem by the honorable characters in the novel-she is ?queenly,? with the beauty and knowledge that accompany nobility in Tolkien?s world-but Tolkien only shows her from afar, and she never acts decisively to affect the fate of the world. Arwen speaks to Aragorn during his stay in Rivendell, but we are not privy to the substance of their conversation. She sends Aragorn an amulet through Galadriel to bring him hope, she arrives in Gondor to marry him when the battle against Mordor is over, and in her only true action, she gives up her place with the Elves across the sea to Frodo. She is not present at the Council of Elrond as Glorfindel and the other Elf lords are, so her wisdom is not being employed to help in the fight against Mordor. Gimli is present along with his father Gl?in, so the meeting is not restricted to the current, most powerful leaders of peoples represented, and if she is to be taken seriously as a respected Elf and the future queen of Gondor, she should be at the Council. Furthermore, since Arwen is ?lately arrived? in Rivendell from her former home in Lothl?rien, she cannot fill an essential and active role in Rivendell.
All honorable people admire Arwen, but their admiration is empty-she never provides opinions and she never acts. Arwen is a non-entity, beautiful and ?high? due to her birthright, but no more than an inspiration in the form of a valuable prize. She will adorn Aragorn in his leadership as king if he succeeds in his quest, but she will not act to help decide the fate of the world. Arwen?s lack of characterization is an unnecessary flaw in Tolkien?s story. The fight against Mordor cannot be a conflict between pure evil, as represented by Sauron, and pure good and beauty, as represented by Arwen (who would consequently have no distinct or interesting identity). The Elves are moving to the West, and the fight against Sauron is led by humans, who are less pure and more prone to evil, and Arwen cannot represent the beauty of Gondor because she is an outsider there. Arwen can, in fact, be admired more freely if she acts in a manner that shows she is worthy of admiration.
In the film, Arwen receives a more prominent role. When we first meet her, she saves Frodo from the nine Nazg?l (the so-called Black Riders) during the last leg of his journey to Rivendell, outrunning them on horseback and then summoning a flood that drowns the riders? horses. In the novel, a modified version of this role belongs to Glorfindel, an Elf lord of old lineage and great power who does not appear again in the story except to speak at the Council of Elrond. Due to Glorfindel?s limited role and minimal characterization, his excision from the story is not problematic, and nothing opposes the choice of Arwen to replace him. In the world of Middle-earth as developed by Tolkien, a person?s ancestry is strongly correlated with his or her power and influence. Arwen, daughter of Elrond, one of the most powerful Elves, is as likely as any to command the power of her people to raise the water of the river near Rivendell and to track and eventually outride the Nazg?l.
This alteration to the story does not prevent Arwen from inspiring Aragorn in his quest. She encourages him not to feel constrained by the past, and actively chooses to stay with Aragorn rather than following the Elves into the West. Having an individual personality and making an individual contribution to the passage of the ring does not change Arwen's committment to Aragorn. The film?s love scene between Arwen and Aragorn is very sentimental, but it would be even less convincing if Arwen had not appeared in a significant role previously. The love between Aragorn and Arwen is uninteresting in the book though ostensibly intended to be significant. Still, in the film Arwen is not an equal partner in the affairs of Middle-earth. Though she demonstrates more interest, initiative, and power to affect the world than the Arwen of the novel, she does not take the second portion of Glorfindel?s role and attend the Council of Elrond. She is still not treated seriously, though a future leader of Middle-earth, and her role remains severely restricted.
Unlike Arwen, Galadriel does not undergo a drastic change in her actions in the film, but the film selectively includes those portions of the party?s interaction with her that demonstrate her power, and as a result the Galadriel of the film is substantially more frightening than her literary counterpart. The film omits Galadriel?s claim that ?not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be,? and reinforces her status as the leader of her people by reducing the role of Celeborn, who in the novel serves as the nominal leader of the Elves in Lothl?rien and performs the social function of greeting the Fellowship of the Ring when it arrives. The film's marginalization of Celeborn does not alter the spirit of the novel: only a strong mind can control a ring of power, and Galadriel is widely recognized in the book as the most powerful person in Lothl?rien and the source of its strength. Celeborn?s character is less important, and his role as the public face of Lothl?rien?s leadership is unnecessary. Galadriel loses none of her mysterious ability to make vague predictions about the future by assuming this role-she may use the fickle insight of her mirror in combination with her judgment to lead as much as anyone else may use her knowledge to inform his or her actions.
Galadriel is certainly more frightening in the film than she is in the novel. Instead of emphasizing her ability to nurture her people?s development, the film emphasizes her ability to peer into the minds of others and find the flaws and fears hidden there as well as her struggle between the desire for power and the desire to act sElflessly for the good of Middle Earth. When Frodo offers her the ring, Galadriel, in both the film and the book, expresses her desire for the ring in an awesome display of power, and in both she overcomes her desire and sadly proclaims that she has chosen the good of others and that she will consequently diminish. Galadriel finds her choice disappointing because she wishes to be powerful, both loved and feared by all, but her choice proves that in spite of her forbidding demeanor, she is truly a force for good (as Aragorn claims). Galadriel?s internal conflict and the results of her choice are the same in the book and the movie, as is her method of expressing this conflict. Galadriel is more frightening in the film because she speaks less in film, both in general and during her meeting with Frodo near the mirror, and consequently her motives are initially more mysterious and her power struggle forms a greater portion of her characterization. The Galadriel of the film has fewer traditionally maternal attributes than the Galadriel of the novel - she is less nurturing and she does not weave the cloth for the cloaks offered to the party upon their departure-but she is equivalently powerful and her defining struggle between good and evil remains the same.
This emphasis on the treacherous power underlying Galadriel?s beauty serves a second purpose in the movie, made necessary by the brevity of the film?s portrayal of Lothl?rien. In Tolkien?s novel, the party lingers in the forest, awed by its fantastic beauty and all the while aware of the desolation and danger that surround it. The Elves guard their borders well, and no evil can enter Lothl?rien-this circumstance alone reveals the Elves? great power not just to create beauty but also to defend it. The movie, in contrast, conveys the immense power in Lothl?rien not through the forest itsElf but by emphasizing the strength of the source of that power, namely Galadriel and her ring.
Finally, in the novel ?owyn rides to battle in disguise along with the men of Rohan, expressly against the wishes of her people who advise her to stay behind because she is a woman, but ?owyn rides into battle in order to win Aragorn?s love, and she gives up her ambition in battle to marry Faramir. She acts bravely in battle, but she is there for the wrong reasons-she does not want to lift hersElf to greatness but rather she wants to be lifted to greatness through marriage. Because she is strong and beautiful, honorable characters in the story pity her, and in the end Tolkien condescendingly finds her an honorable husband with whom she will ?make a garden? and, presumably, be happy. How she will be treated in the films remains to be seen.
The film is able to improve the gender dynamics in Tolkien?s story without changing that story too significantly more easily than one might expect considering the manner in which Tolkien limits the roles of women his novel. For the most part, rather than including many weak or submissive women in his story, Tolkien omits women altogether. While class hierarchy is deeply entrenched in and fundamental to The Lord of the Rings, from Sam?s unswerving devotion to ?Master Frodo? to the supremacy of the blood of Numenor that allows Aragorn, descendant of kings, to save Gondor while Boromir, descendant of Stewards, cannot, gender hierarchy is not critical to the story. And in spite of their lack of decisive power, Arwen, Galadriel, and ?owyn are not weak. Upon encountering Arwen for the first time at the feast in Rivendell, Frodo decides that ?thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring.? Galadriel wears a ring of power and is the force behind the strength and beauty of Lothl?rien, and ?owyn bravely defeats the Lord of the Nazg?l on the battlefields outside Gondor.
Tolkien?s women are few and far between, and they either do not participate in or they are discouraged from participating in the quests and wars that define their age, but the queens and ladies of Tolkien?s world are not merely objects of beauty. They too have wisdom, though it is perhaps more limited and less used in decision-making than that of the men in the story. Thus film may treat Arwen as Tolkien might have treated a son of Elrond who was living in Rivendell and Galadriel as Tolkien might have treated an Elf lord in her place. For Tolkien, courage, wisdom, and bravery are determined primarily by blood line and only secondarily by gender and individual personality-those of noble birth, male or female, are beautiful and wise and strong, and Arwen, Galadriel, and ?owyn are all of noble descent. Their actions are limited by their gender, but their worth, which must in Tolkien?s novel be associated with their wisdom, is not.
Gender hierarchy is present in, but not critical to, Tolkien?s The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien treats ?owyn as misguided, looking for a role worthy of her, but still for a traditionally female role. He treats Arwen as an inspiration without identity, a prize for Aragorn to win along with his crown. And he treats Galadriel (most favorably) as the power behind the beauty of, but still not the leader of, Lothl?rien-a woman with great power to foretell, but none to council and thus often a passive rather than an active employer of her power. But all three have power associated with bravery and wisdom, and the new film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring effectively extends that power to build stronger roles for Arwen and Galadriel without changing the spirit of Tolkien?s work.