Q: How Did Galadriel Know Gandalf Was Alive?
ANSWER: A reader submitted the following question in April 2022:
Gandalf explained to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas it’s Galadriel who asked Gwaihir the eagle to go look for him after his resurrection by Ilúvatar. How did she know he was alive?
The exact passage in The Lord of the Rings reads thus:
‘There upon Celebdil was a lonely window in the snow, and before it lay a narrow
space, a dizzy eyrie above the mists of the world. The sun shone fiercely there, but all below was wrapped in cloud. Out he sprang, and even as I came behind, he burst into new flame. There was none to see, or perhaps in after ages songs would still be sung of the Battle of the Peak.’ Suddenly Gandalf laughed. ‘But what would they say in song? Those that looked up from afar thought that the mountain was crowned with storm. Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil, and leaped back broken into tongues of fire. Is not that enough? A great smoke rose about us, vapour and steam. Ice fell like rain. I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me; and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.‘Naked I was sent back – for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top. The tower behind was crumbled into dust, the window gone; the ruined stair was choked with burned and broken stone. I was alone, forgotten, without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth. Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone. And so at the last Gwaihir the Windlord found me again, and he took me up and bore me away.
”Ever am I fated to be your burden, friend at need,’ I said.
”A burden you have been,’ he answered, ‘but not so now. Light as a swan’s feather in my claw you are. The Sun shines through you. Indeed I do not think you need me any more: were I to let you fall you would float upon the wind.’
”Do not let me fall!’ I gasped, for I felt life in me again. ‘Bear me to Lothlórien!’
”That indeed is the command of the Lady Galadriel who sent me to look for you,’ he answered.
‘Thus it was that I came to Caras Galadhon and found you but lately gone. I tarried there in the ageless time of that land where days bring healing not decay. Healing I found, and I was clothed in white. Counsel I gave and counsel took…
Let me call out one point from that passage. Gandalf said: “Those that looked up from afar thought that the mountain was crowned with storm. Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil, and leaped back broken into tongues of fire.”
So who could have seen the lightning and fire on the mountain? Khazad-dûm faced the Vale of Anduin and Celebdil overlooked the realm of Lorien. I think Gandalf implied that the Elves of Lorien saw the battle from afar.
Galadriel either would have heard the thunder and seen the flashes herself, or been informed of the battle. At that point she need only look in her mirror to try to understand what was going on. When she allowed Frodo and Sam to look in the mirror, she said:
`Many things I can command the Mirror to reveal,’ she answered, `and to some I can show what they desire to see. But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?’
I don’t think it requires a stretch of the imagination to say she could have commanded the mirror to show her what happened on the mountain. In fact, having been informed by the Fellowship that Gandalf had fallen in Moria, I’d surprised to learn that J.R.R. Tolkien ever told anyone Galadriel did NOT try to find out what happened to Gandalf.
But I think his battle would have been seen by the strengthened border-guard. The narrative says the Fellowship did not see Haldir immediately after they met with Celeborn and Galadriel because many Elves had been sent to watch the border. According to the Tale of Years, the Battle of the Peak began 6 days after the Fellowship arrived at Caras Galadhon and it lasted for about 2 days. Galadriel showed Frodo and Sam her mirror over 2 weeks later.
Gandalf returned to life 2 days before the Fellowship left Lorien (on the same day Galadriel took Frodo and Sam to the mirror), and Gwaihir found him on the 3rd day. It may be that Galadriel became aware of Gandalf’s need only after she said farewell to the Fellowship.
If we work from that assumption, then I’d say there are 3 highly probable possible explanations (but there may be others that seem less probable but which are not completely unreasonable):
- Galadriel sensed Gandalf’s mind. They could communicate telepathically even after the Rings of Power failed; so her ability to sense him may have been enhanced before the One Ring was destroyed.
- She could have sent Gwaihir out to look for Gandalf’s body, unaware of whether he was alive or dead.
- She could have received a message from the Valar (not likely, in my opinion) or from Ilúvatar himself
If Galadriel received some kind of message, it need not be more clear and explicit than a dream. The Silmarillion says that the Valar and Maiar sometimes communicated with Elves indirectly via dreams.
We can only be sure that Galadriel would have known Gandalf lived once Gwaihir brought him to Caras Galadhon. Up to that moment, Galadriel could have been in doubt about Gandalf’s fate. After all, no one in the Fellowship actually saw him die. They only saw him fall into the abyss. She could have deduced that Gandald would have a good chance of surviving the fall – and her suspicions (if she had such) might have been strengthened by any reports she received of a battle on the mountain.
So she need not know anything at all. It could be she only sought to learn what actually happened on the peak, and maybe confirm whether Gandalf was alive or dead. It’s an interesting question but not one, I think, that can be resolved definitively.
See Also
How Does the Mirror of Galadriel Work?
Did Gandalf Really Die after Killing the Balrog?
How Did Gandalf Kill the Balrog of Moria?
How Long Did Gandalf and the Balrog Fall?
How Does Gandalf Get His Staff Back?
How Did Gandalf become A White Wizard?
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Interesting thought indeed!
Galadriel might well have suspected that Gandalf had survived his encounter with the Balrog – she was probably one of the very few Elves who knew or guessed at Gandalf’s true nature. If so, what stopped her telling the other Fellowship members of her surmise, and saying that she would try to find out for sure? A clue, maybe, in Pippin’s (or maybe it was Merry’s – I haven’t my copy to hand) remark at Isengard that nobody, including Elves, will say much about Gandalf when he isn’t around. If the rule among the Elves was not to second-guess wizards, perhaps Galadriel and Celeborn decided against giving false hope to the Fellowship. If Gandalf turned out to be still alive, he could catch them up in his own time. If not, they were better off getting on with their quest, even if it had become much more difficult with the loss of Gandalf.
To the speculation that, “1. Galadriel sensed Gandalf’s mind…” I’ll note that during the Fellowship’s initial meeting with Galadriel she said, “Gandalf the Gray set out with the Company, but he did not pass the borders of this land. Now tell us where he is; for I much desired to speak with him again. But I cannot see him from afar, unless he comes within the fences of Lothlórien; a grey mist is about him, and the ways of his feet and of his mind are hidden from me.”
I take that statement to apply in general, rather than to just that time while Gandalf and the Balrog were going at it. Presumably, if Galadriel had been able to sense Gandalf’s mind she could also have sensed the minds of Saruman, the other Istari, Sauron, and Fred the Balrog. Saruman’s betrayal would have been laid bare long before Gandalf’s imprisonment in Orthanc. Similarly, Sauron could not have hidden as the Necromancer and the identity of Durin’s Bane would have been known.
I’d suppose that the Ainur had more than enough power to mask their minds and actions from even the highest of Elvenkind. If/when communication was desired, it would be the Ainur who dropped the vail.
So how did Galadriel know to dispatch Gwaihir? I think there’s plenty of room for interpretation. Had JRRT felt the need to be explicit he would have been. In this matter (as in many others we discuss/debate) he felt it sufficient to allow our own imaginations to close the gaps. Not only does it engage the reader, but it reduces word-count.
I think Galadriel would have learned of Gandalf’s need because it was communicated to her. She said the Mirror could, “show things unbidden,” which suggests that it was not entirely within her control. Whether the information came as a dream or via the Mirror seems unimportant to me. What’s key is that once Gandalf was returned to the living he would need assistance from those in the material world. Does it really matter whether it was Gandalf, the Valar, or Ilúvatar who sent the message?
While the eyes of Elves are keen, Gandalf’s description of the battle seems to make clear that the clouds and storm hid he and the Balrog from view. He said, “…there was none to see…” Perhaps Galadriel was the exception to that statement, but that could have been hinted at, eg., “…none but the most far-seeing to see…” My sense has always been that Galadriel and the Elves were aware of the storm and she certainly could have suspected Gandalf was still alive and kicking, but until he was sent back I believe Galadriel had no sure knowledge.
Illuvatar sent Gandalf back to complete his task but he sent him into a situation from which he could not have succeeded without help, since he was stranded on a mountaintop.
Makes sense to me that Illuvatar would also arrange for help to be sent to him. Mirror or dream or just enough of a hunch for Galadriel to make arrangements.
I’m wondering if the Elven Rings played any part. Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf presumably each knew that the others bore Rings. Maybe the three Rings could communicate somehow, even if only at the level of “My bearer needs assistance”. However, that’s probably Uzi territory!