Note that Galadriel says:
'For the Lord of the Galadhrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves of Middle-earth,'
not
'For the Lord of the Galadhrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves in Middle-earth.'
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| Born in Middle-earth* |
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| Born in Aman |
Just sayin'.
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*Obviously, this whole post is a joke. I am, however, following the tradition found in The Silmarillion (114, 234, 254, 298, 321, 331) and almost elsewhere else that he was a 'prince of Doriath', not the very late variation that he was of the Teleri of Aman. For discussion of Galadriel, Celeborn, and their history, see Unfinished Tales, 228-267.
And Galadriel's smirk is just so self-satisfied.
ReplyDeleteisn't it just?
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the important distinction between "the gods in Lankhmar" and "the gods of Lankhmar".
ReplyDelete:-D
ReplyDeleteNice catch!
The whole sentence is absurd: the passive voice, which leaves out the names and numbers of the implied wisdom accountants; the diction, which asks us to believe that wisdom is such that it can be summed like so many dollars; and the transposition of syntax and reality, such that Elves seemingly universally comprise a hierarchy of wise, wiser, and wisest, with the person Galadriel has just subjunctively and conditionally rebuked for a miscue of wisdom apparently inhabiting the top spot!
ReplyDeleteThe sense of all this wordplay I think is to obscure to her guests her own primacy within Lorien. And thus, paradoxically, to reveal it, to whoever has eyes to see.