#celeborn/galadriel

[z-h-i-e]

Could you write a Galadriel/Celeborn piece about them in Doriath with supportive Lúthien and Melian? (Also I really liked your sympathetic Thingol piece!)

Sure I can! (I can write anything! Proven with that Glorfindel/Balrog piece I can never unsee.)

I have a soft spot for Celeborn–you know it, I know it, his wife knows it (gave me the title of Homewrecker of Lorien, you know). But, because I love Elrond/Celebrian so much, and I know there’s no Celebrian without Celeborn/Galadriel, I guess I’ll go with a schmoopy romancey story for them. Anyhow, I tend to go with a timid Doriath Celeborn with a stutter when he’s nervous, and that is who showed up for the muse casting call today. Enjoy! (Also, no wonder we don’t get Sindarin version of Nerwen from Tolkien – Nerwen was bad enough. Read on…)

---

“Good afternoon, Celeborn.”

“Good afternoon, Princess Luthien.” 

The two happened to come around the same corner of one of the florist stalls set up in the courtyard market.  Walking in opposite directions, Celeborn was intently inspecting the blooms in the baskets that lined the stall; he would have walked right into Luthien, had she not been the more attentive of the two and stepped safely aside. 

“I see you have selected some of the more vibrant flowers they have here today.  What is the occasion?” asked Luthien. 

Celeborn tried not to blush, and failed miserably.  “I happen...to have...a meeting tonight...with a friend...for dinner.”  The words stuttered out, each phrase from the young scribe a little softer than the former. 

Luthien smiled.  “It must be a special dinner if you are bringing flowers.  Or are you hosting a party?”

Celeborn shook his head.  “N-no.  No party.  Just myself...and a...friend.”

Luthien leaned down to sniff one of the orchids Celeborn was clutching.  He had also selected lilies and hydrangeas.  “Your friend must like large flowers.”

“I...do not...know?”  He bit his lip and looked down shyly.  “Truth told,” he whispered, “this is more of a…social engagement…of a…romantic nature.”

“And you have chosen orchids?” wondered Luthien.  “She must like the bright and the bold.”

Again, Celeborn chewed at his lip.  “I am not...not sure?”  His shoulders slumped and he whispered, “I am doing my best.  I d-do not have a sister, and m-my brother said I am...reaching...too high.”

Luthien stepped beside Celeborn and placed her hands on his shoulders.  “I have an idea!  I can help you shop!  I have no brother, so this will be fun–for both of us!  Of course, you will have to tell me who she is, so I can help.”

Red flushed Celeborn’s cheeks again.  “She is j-just about the prettiest g-girl I have ever seen.”  He swallowed audibly.  “D-do you know Princess Dirgwend of N-nargothrond?” 

“Oh, yes!”  Immediately Luthien cringed and looked over the flowers Celeborn was clutching.  “Oh, no.”

“N-n-n-n-no?”  Celeborn frowned.  “You think I am t-t-too far b-beneath her, too?”

“No!  I think, honestly, you are such a gentle person, and thoughtful, and kind, and brilliant–because she is as sharp as a hound’s tooth–I think she is lovely and you would be a lovely match!”  Luthien grimaced and slowly extracted a hydrangea from Celeborn.  “Ah, this, though…”  She caught sight of someone in the crowd and lifted the hydrangea above her head.  “Ulli!”

Melian was only five or six meters away, and smiled at her daughter, standing beside the youngest of the library scribes.  

“Ulli, akaeί akablanditiae tαdιχαόου mūαtheteυόmūeνος” called out Luthien.

“Oh!” Melian approached with a approving look on her face.

Luthien held up one of the flowers.  “akaόχοtte akadίν aū iniðel”

“Ooooh.” Melian clasped her hands together and slowed her steps as she approached.  “I seeeeee.”  She stopped in front of them and appeared to analyze each flower separately.  “May I safely assume this is your first time arranging flowers?”

“Y-yes, your majesty.”

“And may I safely assume you wish to make a positive impression on our visiting diplomat?” 

Celeborn nodded. “I need help,” he said sadly. 

Luthien was already pulling the bountiful bouquet from his hands.  “Are you familiar with roses, Celeborn?  I believe I saw some lovely peach and pale pink varieties around the corner.”

Artanis calmly picked up her gloves from the desk as she heard the knock upon her door.  She made sure to have them on and took one more look at her hair in the mirror and waited a moment more until there was a second knock before she opened the door. 

Before her stood Celeborn, holding an exquisite collection of roses, carnations, and delicate buds, a swirl of white and pastels.  He held them out to her.  “Good evening.  May I...present you with this...small token of affection?”

With lips pressed together to mute her grin, Artanis took the flowers and sniffed them experimentally.  “These are lovely.”

“I picked them out m-myself,” he said, and then added, “With help...f-from some…f-friends.”

Artanis sniffed them again to hide her next smile.  “My brother always says it is a wise man who knows when to ask for aid.”  She peered over the flowers at the tall, lanky scholar who was trying not to appear nervous, but the fidgeting of his hands while they were hidden in his sleeves gave him away.  

Yes, he was as sweet as Luthien had said, and as kind as Melian told her.  Her brother had hinted to her that while his time in Middle-earth would be one of solitude, that he did not see that for her, but no suitor would she find in Nargothrond.  It was part of why Artanis chose to spend so much time in Doriath (though her studies more than filled most of the time).  

There were many occasions when Artanis had asked for assistance from Celeborn when she visited the library.  There were many scribes there, all willing to help, but something seemed to draw her instead to the shy one who insisted on carrying books for her, holding the door, or retrieving more ink for her any time the well ran dry.

She still played coy when he finally gathered the courage to ask her to dine with him.  He nearly took it as a rejection, the poor dear.  She decided he deserved a token himself, for his good behavior.  “Would you like to come in while I put these in a vase?”

“Yes, I would.  Th-that would be very kind of you,” said Celeborn. 

Yet he remained standing on the doormat while Artanis walked to a cabinet. “Are you going to come in, then?” she asked. 

“Y-you only asked if I should like to.  I did not...wish to...assume.”

Artanis smiled with her back turned.  “You may come in, if you like.”

Celeborn took a deep breath and stepped just inside of the suite. 

Artanis turned, and studied him with amusement as she carried the vase with the flowers to a table.  “You have chosen to leave the door open,” she observed. 

Celeborn gave a quick nod, and said, “I shall not have anyone question your honor, and so, in-in lieu of a chaperone, I f-feel it appropriate.”

The vase was placed on the table. While Finrod had encouraged her to seek out true love, her other brothers seemed wary that she might become entangled with a less than savory courier in the kingdom.  Celeborn was clearly anything but. He would more than do. 

“Shall we dine?” asked Artanis as she came to stand beside Celeborn. 

He offered her his arm, which she took, and after the door was closed, the two walked down the hallway together, both a little nervous, both a little excited, neither noticing Luthien spying from around the corner. 

--

Notes:

I had to fuss around with Valarin, mainly ‘making shit up’, because if you think that Khuzdul and the Black Speech are limited, you haven’t met fucking Valarin yet. 

I put my research goggles on, found references about Valarin being a sexy mix of Latin and Greek, so I came up with some words for Luthien and Luthien’s mom. 

Ulluiός : Water Parent (I didn’t think Luthie would be using ‘mom’ and ‘dad’. I also thought about it, and with how the Ainur are, even the mom and dad thing seems not quite right. So I came up with this concept of, there’s a water parent, and a fire parent. In this case, Melian was the water parent.)

Of course we can’t have Luthien using the full ass version, so ‘Ulli!’ sounds way more like a title an Ainu kid would call their parent. 

There are two sentences, and before we get to the ‘what is it supposed to mean’, I have a lot of thoughts about Valarin, and how the sentences are open ended at the start and end, that the Song of Creation at the beginning of the legendarium is a loop, and that language for the Ainur is woven in and out of the song, and there’s no capitalization unless the first word is a proper noun and there’s no punctuation unless there is a question but that does not mean the question mark has to go at the end. A little language chaos. So! Now that you know that, here’s those two sentences, keeping in mind, I spent more time figuring out these two sentences than I did the rest of the story, and yes, it’s shit I made up because Tolkien didn’t leave us a lot of Valarin words, and what he did leave is shit he made up. So let’s all go make up some Valarin words mashing Greek and Latin together until it sounds good or at least looks impressive enough to be spoken by the Valar. 

akaeί akablanditiae tαdιχαόου mūαtheteυόmūeνος - Celeborn is courting your apprentice 

akaόχοtte akadίν aū iniðel - He intends to give her lilies

And I find it perfectly reasonable that Luthien shouts this across a market to her mom because the two of them are the only two people who can speak the language who are in that vicinity. 

[raointean]

I found a poem assigned in my American Lit class ("A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment" by Anne Bradstreet) that has SUCH strong Galadriel/Celeborn vibes! (RoP specifically, but it works for the Silm too) I just had to show you guys! (I've edited it a bit to make the parallels more obvious, but it's a really old poem, so you can probably just google the title to find the original.)

My head, my heart, mine Eyes, my life, nay more,

My joy, my warehouse of earthly store,

If two be one, as surely thou and I,

How stays thou away, whilst I 'cross Arda fly?

So many steps, head from the heart to sever

If but a neck, soon should we be together:

I, like the earth this season, mourn in black,

My Sun is gone so far in’s Zodiack,

Whom whilst I ’joy’d, nor storms, nor frosts I felt,

His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.

My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn;

Return, return sweet Sol, my Celeborn;

O strange effect! now thou art southward gone,

I weary grow, the tedious day so long;

But when thou northward to me shalt return,

I wish my Sun may never set, but burn

Within the summer of my glowing breast.

In your welcome house, I cannot rest,

I cannot stay, but go ever thence,

Till natures sad decree shall call thee hence;

Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone,

I here, thou there, yet both but one.

[unavidas]

A young Celeborn and Galadriel, sometime during the first age

[sakasakiii]

elrond through the ages based on one glorious panel from chapter 95 of Black Butler (hopefully i got that right....). in the context of this sequence, i always thought it was sad to think abt how many people elrond has lost throughout his life alongside how remarkable he is to remain "as kind as summer" still by the time the hobbit rolls around 🥺

i redrew elrond's poses based on ciel's in the original panels BUT i forgot what page exactly the original panel sequence is... however!! if you scroll down to the middle half of this blog post you can find the original reference pic :D warning that it includes heavy spoilers for the black butler manga so u could just alternatively google 'ciel phantomhive running' and it'd probably be one of the first results that pop up haha

[afanofmanyhats]

One of my favorite things about Tolkien's writing is that he has a very specific, recurring trope. For lack of a better term, I'm dubbing this the Tolkien Wife-Guy.

This is mainly obvious in the Silmarillion, but Tolkien loves to write couples where the man is a notable individual- nobility, commits a great deed, or both- but the wife is at least equally notable, if not more beloved or powerful. Manwe is the king of the Valar and Eru's main representative in Arda? Everyone loves Varda more, and Melkor fears her more than his own brother. Elu Thingol is the king of the Silvan Elves? His wife is Melian, whose Girdle is the magic that keeps Morgoth's forces at bay. Beren is a chief among the Edain, who befriends animals and survives one of the most nightmarish places in Beleriand? His wife is Luthien.

Even in Lord of the Rings we see this occur, though the couples are on more even footing. Tom Bombadil is... Tom Bombadil, but Goldberry is the River-daughter, and Tom adores her above everything else, and the hobbits are completely taken in with her when she's their host. Similarly, while Celeborn is a mighty lord among Elves, Galadriel is one of the only Noldor in Middle-earth who saw the Two Trees, and her hair inspired Feanor to make the Silmarils, not to mention her own accomplishments in the war against Morgoth. Aragorn is the king of Gondor and Arnor, but Arwen is the Evenstar of the Elves, the descendant of three(?) different royal Elven lines. And Faramir becomes the Steward of Gondor and is one of the noblest men alive, but Eowyn killed the Witch-king, so you know. She got the grander moment for the saga.

But with (most) of these couples, we never get the impression that the man views his wife as Less-Than, or as a junior partner. Thingol is the main exception to this in how he dismisses Melian's counsel, and that's made out to be his foolishness within the text. Otherwise, Manwe treats Varda as his co-ruler, Beren never tries to downplay Luthien's achievements, and I'm pretty sure most of Tom Bombadil's dialogue is about how gorgeous Goldberry is. It's really sweet.

All of these examples really testify to how much Tolkien loved his wife. People rightly point to Beren and Luthien as the prime example of that, but I think you can find it in these other couples too. Even though Edith is mainly known to history as Mrs. Tolkien, it's evident to me that Jirt saw her as a whole person worthy of admiration outside of being his wife.

[tripadvisor-said-fivestar-mordor]

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember in the Silmarillion or the Lord of the Rings any characters who fell out of love (like mutual love not unrequited crushes (and unless death (or presumed death) separated them)). Arwen and Aragorn remained together till death did them part, and so did Beren and Lúthien. Elrond never replaced Celebrían, Celeborn followed Galadriel wherever she went, Eärendil chose immortality and remained by Elwing’s side, Idril stayed with Tuor, I’m not talking about Nimrodel and Amroth, and Gorlim betrayed everyone for Eilinel.

I just feel like that says a lot about Tolkien’s view on love / Edith

[cottoncandiescupcakes]

'Elves are gay'

Yes but NOTHING is as gay. I repeat, nothing is as gay as Celeborn chosing to not go to the undying lands WITH HIS WIFE GALADRIEL, who instead went with Elrond but instead

Get this

Deciding to hang out in the woods WITH KING THRANDUIL for literal years

Sorry but what. Your wife is like 'I am going to Valinor darling please join me so we can be reunited with our daughter. Elrond is also coming to be with his wife'

But he's like, sorry entire family, I'm going to hang out in the woods with King Thranduil to merge our Kingdoms together, not like through marrying our sons and daughters but just two middle-aged men frolicking in the meadows and then presumably leaving on the last ship to Valinor together

????????????????????????????? All the 'cheating' Galadriel did doesn't compare to this honestly that's fully insane lol also this is actually canon as in Tolkien wrote this

[dagordagorath]

17 January: The Fellowship arrives at Caras Galadhon

[velvet4510]

I don’t think any of us should ever overlook Celeborn’s love for Galadriel, because it’s really something.

Usually in Tolkien’s texts, it’s the girl following the guy. Lúthien followed Beren to Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Angband and later into death itself, Níniel followed Turambar to Cabed-en-Aras, Elwing followed Eärendil to Valinor, Éowyn followed Faramir to Ithilien, Arwen followed Aragorn to Gondor and later into death itself, etc. Not that this is a bad thing, not at all. (It should never be deemed disempowering for a woman to follow a man she loves and who loves her and treats her right, if that is her choice.) But overall, considering the wide variety of couples in Middle-earth, it does get repetitive sometimes.

Yet with these two, it’s the opposite. Celeborn always followed Galadriel.

When Galadriel departed Doriath, Celeborn went with her. He left all his kin behind to be with her. We don’t know for sure how his kin reacted to his relationship with a Noldo, but it could very well be that they eloped. She was just that important to him.

Then for the next 2 ages, they endured all sorts of trials and tribulations together across Middle-earth and eventually settled down in Lothlórien. There, Celeborn never tried to make Galadriel subservient to him. She had as much say in how things were run as he himself did. They were true co-rulers, equals in every way.

Then finally, Celeborn temporarily let Galadriel go. He was alright with her leaving on the White Ship to see their daughter and her parents and brothers again, while he stayed behind to finish what needed to be finished. He didn’t force her to stay with him when he himself could not (yet) leave. He didn’t hold her back from reuniting with people she loved and had lost so long ago.

And ultimately, Celeborn followed Galadriel once again. Though he was a Sinda born and bred, and never before had any desire to cross the Sea, he left his own homeland behind forever to reunite with her in her homeland. She still was just that important to him.

This guy was down bad for this girl. He lived his whole life drunk on wifeguy juice. Respect Celeborn.

[thesummerestsolstice]

Broke: Celeborn is a calming presence; Galadriel is much less intense after marrying him.

Woke: Celeborn is a horrible enabler who supports Galadriel's rights, and more importantly, Galadriel's wrongs. She could commit murder and he wouldn't bat eyelash.

Bespoke: Celeborn is also secretly the "cause problems on purpose type" and he and Galadriel enable each other. Their relationship is wonderful for them! Slightly worrying for the rest of Middle-Earth though.

[z-h-i-e]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Celeborn/Galadriel (Tolkien) Characters: Celeborn (Tolkien), Galadriel (Tolkien) Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Light Dom/sub, When they have sex the armor stays on, Well some of it does Series: Part 96 of Zhie's Bunniverse (AKA The Purple Plot Bunny AU) Summary:

Naughty stuff happens when two elves consider historical deviations.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

"Celeborn will be a calming influence on Galadriel" You fools. YOU ABSOLUTE FOOLS. YOU HAVE MISREAD THE WIFEGUY MANUAL. HE WILL BE 10/10 DOWN FOR THE UNHINGINESS. HE WILL BE GIL-GALAD'S SECOND HEADACHE. PREPARE FOR THE LESLIE KNOPE AND BEN WYATT OF MIDDLE-EARTH.

[unavidas]

a soft celedriel moment 🌿

[cheesy-cryptid]

“The war seemed so very far away then”

[sorcerousundries]

Lalala vs okokok with lotr and the hobbit

Your the lalala, they’re the okokok

Thorin, Fíli, Aragorn, thranduil, Elrond, Arwen, bilbo, gimli, Sam, Éomer, Glorfindel, Bard, Beorn, glóin, Tauriel, Faramir, Boromir, Haldir, Bifur, Dwalin, Balin, Dori, óin, Galadriel

They’re the lalala, your the okokok

Legolas, Frodo, merry, pippin, Éowyn, kíli, celeborn, also Arwen, Lindir, bombur, ori, nori, bofur, meludir

[glorf1ndel]

On January 16, the Fellowship of the Ring passes through Lothlórien, where they meet Galadriel and Celeborn. It's their day! Your Honor, whether you like it or not, they are married. Deal with it.