10 great female characters from The Lord of the Rings

Galadriel, the Lady of Lothlórien

If Éowyn is the salt of the earth, Galadriel is the stars in the sky. She is distant and mysterious and beautiful and strong, particularly as seen through Frodo’s eyes in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo never learns half of Galadriel’s backstory; all he knows is that she is someone never to be messed with.

But Galadriel has an extensive backstory, one I wager we’ll see a lot of in The Rings of Power, where she’s played by Morfydd Clark. Galadriel was born thousands of years ago in Valinor, the blessed country the elves travel to when they sail into the West. But she, along with many of her brethren, decided to leave Valinor when a dark god named Morgoth stole precious jewels called Silmarils and fled to Middle-earth. Galadriel survived the fall of Morgoth at the end of the First Age and witnessed the remaking of the land.

The Rings of Power is set during the Second Age, so we’ll pick up with Galadriel then. In this age, Morgoth’s servant Sauron returns and tries to pass himself off as a heavenly being named Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. Some of the elves are fooled and accept Annatar’s help in crafting Rings of Power, but Galadriel is immediately distrustful of him. Much later, she’ll also nominate Gandalf to lead the White Counsel over Saruman, proving herself an excellent judge of character all around.

We know other snatches of what Galadriel is up to in the Second Age, but the producers will have to make up a lot of it. Expect the show to take some of the sheen off the character; this younger Galadriel will be more of an active participant in the big events of the age.