#celedriel

[balrogballs]

A Flower to the Sun

A short and bittersweet ficlet about fatherhood and a slightly different take on elven fading. Samwise Gamgee comes across Celeborn of Lothlorien on a lonely Lindon beach, the two discuss their daughters, and a decision to sail together is made.

Samwise watches Celeborn sitting on the beach, his legs crossed beneath him, the certainty he's learned to associate with the elves in stark contrast to how… lost this one looks. Sam had found him here on a visit to Lindon, on a solitary beach he’d picked because it was far from the bustle of the Havens.

Unfortunately, the elf clearly thought the same, so much of Sam's visit had been spent sitting on a set of logs watching Celeborn watch the sea. So much for a retirement holiday, he thinks to himself. Celeborn of Lothlorien is frankly the last person he'd expected to spend any part of his dotage existing next to. Perhaps this is just the elf's way of retiring too, he supposes. Perhaps even this ridiculous creature got bored of his trees at last.

On the twelfth day of doing the exact same thing in silence, Sam plods over to Celeborn reluctantly, and offers him a little bow.

“Doing all right, my Lord?” he asks awkwardly. Celeborn offers him a similarly confused, slightly vague smile. “Have you been here long?”

“Ah. Yes, yes. Three hundred and sixteen evenings and counting. But I am sorry, young friend, you seem to know me. Have we met before?”

Sam frowns. Young? His hair was white from head to foot. Every damned curl, and he’d earned it. Had it been literally anyone besides an elf lord who’d said it, he’d….

And then he blinks at the other, something else, something worse catching at him. Have we met? Elven memories this, elven memories that, he’d been told all his life, then they met Elrond who (in Pippin’s words, not his!) “has all the glad and sorrowful memories of the world shoved up his arsehole, ready to be fingered at request”. Have we met?

And then he blinks at Celeborn. The lord is as young and beautiful as ever, yes, but oddly vacant and near-translucent in some lights. Like he isn’t even there, and then is, and then isn’t.

Ah, he realises. Ah.

“Yes, my lord,” Sam says quietly. “We have met. My name is Samwise Gamgee. We met during the Ring Quest. I was with, with, with Mister Frodo. My greatest friend in the world. I’ll be off to see him soon.”

“Is that so?” Celeborn blinks at him, confused. “My greatest friend is Galadriel, my wife. Marvellous thing, she is, my sun and stars. Ring quest, is it? Probably something Elrond thought up, I wager. Do you know him? He’s the little donkey that my daughter, my Celebrían, married. For good or for ill. Do you have a daughter?”

“I do,” Sam smiles reflexively, passing over the lord calling Elrond a donkey, having existed for far too long near Pippin, who has called him far worse. “My Elanor, lively thing she is. Apple of my eye, then and now.”

“Ah, so you know!” Celeborn smiles at him, looking almost solid for a split second. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it? That first moment, when you hold them in your arms. Feet first, my Cello-baby was born, did you know that? Feet first, and then the rest of her, and I was the first to truly hold her skin-to-skin. She had opened her eyes right there, like a flower to the sun as I always say, those scraps of blue sky in her eyes, and I fell feet-first into this unbearable affliction. That of loving something far more than yourself. Just like that. What an astonishing honour it is, Samwise, to be gazed at by a wonder like that. Don’t you agree?”

“Absolutely, sir, I just ‘bout burst into tears when I first held my Nori,” Sam feels a lump tighten his throat at the thought of that and of their farewell, though he is somewhat comforted seeing that Celeborn is just as misty-eyed. “You’re absolutely right. A right honour, that’s it.”

“Ah, I can see from the look in your eyes,” Celeborn claps his hands together and Sam is startled to her near-silence, as if the slap of his palms hadn’t even happened. “I can see you know what I do: holding your baby daughter for the first time, how it feels!”

“Like the bravest Hobbit to ever live,” Sam sits on the sand next to him, looking out at the sea.

“Yes! Like the most noble elf in all of history. Like you have made a friend for life, just like that,” smiles the lord.

Sam can almost see the trees through his eyes.

The loneliest creature in all of Arda, he thinks inexplicably.

“Just like that,” he echoes. Celeborn offers him a drink from his flask companionably, which he gratefully accepts.

“Would you wait with me, Master Hobbit?” asks the elf lord. “I think today might be the day.”

“Might be the day, my lord?”

“That her ship arrives,” Celeborn tells him, gesturing out at the sea ahead of them. “She went on a journey, you see. My Celebrían. It was on this little beach we all said our farewells and see you soons, you see. I don’t remember when. Maybe a couple of years have gone by, so, she should be arriving back soon. She’d always hated the sea, you know. I tell you, that Elrond probably has something to do with this delay, the little mollusc.”

“You’re waiting for… you’re waiting for your daughter?” Sam whispers. “For Celebrían?”

Celeborn nods casually, says “I’ve been here every day,” and then slaps his knees, smiling. “I seem to have forgotten the date she’d said she’d come back, see? But today’s the day. I’m certain.”

Oh Mister Frodo, Sam finds himself thinking, eyes filling with sudden tears. Such a land of sorrows ours has become.

“Today’s the day,” Celeborn says again, in a fierce whisper.

He’s not even here. He’s not been here for years.

“It isn’t,” Sam says steadily, but reaches out and grasps Celeborn’s phantasmal, translucent hand in his liver-spotted one. “They’ve stopped receiving ships in this harbour, see. In the Havens that is. But there’s a way.”

Celeborn’s fingers tighten on his, shaking, and Sam almost feels it. “Is there a way? Do you know it? I’ll go. I’ll go now, I’ll go anywhere for her. She must be thinking I’m so... so silly. Having waited on the wrong beach. But I have forgotten…”

“Do you know Círdan?”

Celeborn shakes his head slowly.

“Should I? I have forgotten much, I think. I don’t know how. Oh, I fear I have forgotten ever so much, my friend. I did not want to. I didn’t mean to.”

“That’s all right,” Sam reaches out, wipes a freezing tear off the trembling chin. “I know him. You don’t need to. You remember the important people, that’s enough. It’s a while away, this place, but we’ll go together, you and I. It’s a little while away, over the sea.”

“Do you know the way to where she is, once we get there?”

“Well, no,” Sam shrugs, still smiling. He grasps Celeborn’s other hand, warms it in his. “But when we get there, Mister Frodo told me he’d be waiting on the docks. And he’ll know the way, I promise you that. I’d not lie to you, Lord Celeborn. And not just your girl. Your Lady Galadriel too. Both of them.”

Celeborn is shaking all over now, looking at Sam with suddenly wide-helpless eyes.

“What is it, lord?”

“I have forgotten much, my friend,” he repeats. “What if they have forgotten too? What if they have forgotten me? I have wasted too much time, I fear. What if they do not recall me?”

His eyes look like Mister Frodo’s eyes, Sam realises. During those last steps up the mountain. Like a calamity certain to pass.

Sam had never thought this would be what it means to fade like the elves. He had thought it would be easy, painless, much better than dying. But this. This is worse than dying, he thinks. To fade is not to leave a land of sorrows, but to become part of it. To become another sorrowful thing, nameless and drifting about hills and trees. And Samwise Gamgee has always refused to let such things happen. No, not on his watch.

Celeborn is far too tall for Sam to carry. He won’t even try. But his hands are steady, and so is his shoulder. There’s plenty of him left to lean on, that he knows. He clasps Celeborn’s own shoulder, squeezes it tight and turns the elf towards him.

“Don’t even think about it, Lord Celeborn. Where they are, there’s no forgetting, absolutely not,” he grasps his hands again, rubbing some warmth back into them. “You get off that boat with me, we’ll say good-day to Mister Frodo, and then we’ll be off to find your wife, and your girl. There’s no forgetting in that place, you see, nothing like that at all. She’ll open her door, and her awful husband may be there but your girl will see you and know exactly who you are.”

The elf lord laughs a little, brushing his cheek with his sleeve. “She’ll think I’m awfully silly. Waiting in the wrong place like this.”

“That she will. That’s what daughters do, we know that. And then she’ll look at you, like, what was it again you said, sir? Like poetry it was, but I don’t remember...”

“I do,” Celeborn’s eyes are almost solid enough to reflect the dusk-stained sea. He smiles, hands squeezing Sam’s. “She’ll look at me, like a flower to the sun.”

[helenvader]

Celeborn is a canon character. It was always clear he'd have to be in the show, because they need to end in a place that is compatible with the books.

I have never cared about Celeborn, because he wasn't a flashed-out character in the books. But neither was Míriel, and look at what they managed to do with her! If they manage to do that with Celeborn, too - and I trust them they will - I might finally find him interesting.

It won't take anything from Haladriel, though? The special connection will always be there. The show is based on that one monologue. It's just that it was always to be a doomed relationship. But the tragedy can be beautiful as well. The show as such is a tragedy, we knew that from the beginning.

So, instead of freaking out about something we have no idea about how it will play out on screen, it would be more productive to enjoy what's there, and hope for the best. :-)

I mean well, btw.

[hikarielizabethbloom]

Chill!

We're just having fun.

Jamie will play Anarion.

Celeborn is the writers' curveball. We won't see him coming.

[serregon]

“how could you like Galadriel with Celeborn he’s such a boring guy compared to her” you absolute buffoon you will not survive the winter. Celeborn being boring compared to his eldritch angel wife is the whole appeal. it’s elf Connecticut Clark x Malvina

you’re invited to dinner at casa Lothlorien and you ask Galadriel to pass the butter and she looks you dead in the eyes and tells you the exact time and place of your death. and Celeborn is just like “isn’t my wife smart 😃”

“what do you see in that guy” “he makes me laugh” a la Jessica Rabbit, but Galadriel’s laugh is absolutely terrifying. Celeborn tells a shitty pun straight out of some dollar store joke book and Galadriel lets out this classic Disney villain laugh, and the sky quakes and you hear fear in the language of the leaves and Celeborn is just like “I’m glad you liked that one ☺️”

[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.

[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.

[cheesy-cryptid]

“The war seemed so very far away then”

[mhevarujta]

It's funny how Celeborn is being called boring and his relationship with Galadriel is being hated upon by people who claim that they're all about Galadriel being valued, because this is literally what this dynamic is all about.

In a world where many people treasure gold and jewels, Celeborn's treasure is Galadriel. Yet he never treats her as an object. He never handles her as something fragile to be put aside and to be protected and marveled at. They fight the long defeat together. They find a place to call home. They realize their ambitions and rule their lands together. When the time comes, she follows her path to go West and diminish, thus passing her final test, and he is allowed to linger to the place that has been his second love, knowing that he and Galadriel will meet again. Even so, it still hurts him that he has to let her go despite it being temporary.

There's so much talk about people LOVING the concept of a guy being absolutely in love with and in awe of his wife, but when it actually happens (and Tolkien was admirably ahead of his time in writing such a ship and in making Galadriel the most important of the two, and possibly the most important among his elves as he kept editing) it's not enough.

I also love this one version of Galadriel choosing this specific name, which was given to her by Celeborn, because it was the most beautiful of her names. In Tolkien names have meaning and importance, and many characters gain names that they either do or don't want through the way they are seen by others. There's something so special to me about Galadriel feeling so seen and understood and seeing such beauty in the name that Celeborn gave her, that she chooses this upon all the other names given to her by family and since much earlier. And everyone around her falls in line because on the one hand they probably saw how fitting it was and on the other she has THAT kind of power to those around her. She has the will and strength to shape who she is and how she wants to be perceived.

[thelien-art]

Galadriel & Celeborn

For Valentine :) fav old couple, they just give off such amazing energy, and I love that for them.

The Valentine entry post for the event, write something for the drawing or draw it in your own style, can be found here with four other drawings :)

@laisrinel ✨ them✨ 

Support me on Ko-Fi - get early access drawings + WIPs

[melkor-did-nothing-wrong]

[celedrielarchive]

pity those who only watched the trilogy and based their impression of Galadriel and Celeborn solely on it. In the wider legendarium they have several versions of their meeting and story and all of them are extremely romantic and beautiful.

I love them falling in love in Doriath, and Galadriel leaving everything and everyone behind and staying there and even in Middle-earth first and foremost to be with him, and him later leaving everyone and everything he knows behind to travel with her.

I adore the version where they met in Valinor too, i think this one would make for an amazing on-screen adaptation. Elvendom in Valinor is in a crisis and falling apart, Galadriel of the Noldor is ready to push back against Feanorians, and suddenly she comes across a Telerin prince Celeborn who shares her convictions wholeheartedly. They fall in love and become a team, fighting together, then deciding to leave for Middle-earth together. Celeborn builds her a boat and they both sail to Middle-earth not caring for anything they left behind, or if the Valar would disapprove of their departure. And again, since then they are a team, a united front, and a constant for each other amidst the ever-changing world around them, “fighting the long defeat” together.

Can’t wait for Rings of Power to bring this beautiful dynamic to life on screen once Celeborn makes his debut at last!

[balrogballs]

celeborn appreciation post for absolutely no reason except that he exists

look at him in his cute little outfit. apologising to gimli for being mean the minute he’s called out for it. staying behind in middle earth for a bit longer because boy does he love his silly little trees. my guy really had a treehouse as an elfling and used that as an architectural model for one of the last elven strongholds of middle earth. looks adorable in literally everything he wears.

immense golden retriever energy. i know full well elladan and elrohir ran circles around him in the fourth age but he tries his best to keep them in line. man has a resting scared-face. he’s too quiet? good because literally every other elf doesn’t shut the fuck up.

i hc him as being completely obsessed with galadriel yes but also galadriel being equally obsessed with him. she gives him silly woodlandy nicknames. she calls him her squirrel. when they argue she calls him a damned monkey. he teaches himself to draw and spends the fourth age running around arwen and her kids trying to draw little portraits of them to take back to valinor when he sails so elrond and celebrían can see.

tldr: in a world of elrond “recites you the entirety of the noldolante as exposition when you ask him what he did last weekend” peredhel and thranduil “remember when we were three years old and you stole my rubber duck” the elvenking and legolas “probably leads orcs to the fellowship every morning by belting out aa elbereth gilthoniel while taking a shit in the woods” greenleaf, be a celeborn.

[hailturinturambar]

Galadriel and Celeborn in Doriath.

[feydrawings]

Galadriel and Celeborn for @thelien-art Valentine Day Event

thank you so much for hosting this, i love your designs <3

[hikarielizabethbloom]

First scene of s3