The indomitable Lothlórien

[BlackCaptain]

Umm... Of Lothlorien they were...

 

[BlackCaptain]

And I know that Lindon was futher west. What I meant to say was Rivendell would be the last standing of the Elven kingdoms west of the Misty's. Like Ithrynluin said, Sauron would have attaked Lindon first to insure no elves tried to leave ME.

 

[Tar-Elenion]

Originally posted by BlackCaptain
Umm... Of Lothlorien they were...

"Celeborn and Galadriel returned to Lórien, and were welcomed by the people. There they dwelt while the Third Age lasted, but they took no title of King or Queen; for they said that they were only guardians of this small but fair realm, the last eastward outpost of the Elves."
UT, History of Galdriel and Celeborn

When reviewing a possible script for a film treatment of LotR in which the screenwriter wrote:
"'A splendid sight. It is the home of Galadriel. . . an Elvenqueen.'"
JRRT responded:
"(She is not in fact one.)"

 

[Ithrynluin]

Originally posted by Tar-Elenion

Galadriel and Celeborn were not Queen and King.

This is purely a matter of semantics. They were called "Lord and Lady", which is basically the same thing. They were rulers of Lórien.

 

[Tar-Elenion]

Originally posted by BlackCaptain
And I know that Lindon was futher west. What I meant to say was Rivendell would be the last standing of the Elven kingdoms west of the Misty's. Like Ithrynluin said, Sauron would have attaked Lindon first to insure no elves tried to leave ME.

Or perhaps as Gandalf suggests, the power in Rivendell was great enough to preserve it until all else fell.

"'Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of the Firstborn. He is an Elf-lord of a house of princes. Indeed there is a power in Rivendell to withstand the might of Mordor, for a while: and elsewhere other powers still dwell. There is power, too, of another kind in the Shire. But all such places will soon become islands under siege, if things go on as they are going. The Dark Lord is putting forth all his strength."
FotR, Many Meetings

 

[Tar-Elenion]

Originally posted by ithrynluin
This is purely a matter of semantics. They were called "Lord and Lady", which is basically the same thing. They were rulers of Lórien.

Semantics perhaps, but important enough to JRRT to draw an explicit distinction when he had more firmly decided on their History w/ Lorien.

 

[BlackCaptain]

When I say King and Queen, I mean rulers. I just assumed that it wouldnt matter. Kings and Queens are rulers of realms, like Celeborn and Galadriel. Precise pronouns i guess.

 

[elfgirl]

Has everyone failed to think that it may not JUST be the ring, may not JUST be Galadriel, may not JUST be the forest or JUST the elves inhabiting it, yet all of the above? Has anyone thought that all of them could play a part, with a equal amount of strength, stability, and raw power?That it could be a combination of all of them that makes Lothlorien so powerful?

 

[BlackCaptain]

Well there was never any denying the valor of a ton of High Elves in the best gaurded forrest in ME. But iv'e always thought that Galadriel had a sort of, mini Girdle of Galadriel (as opposed to the Girdle of Melien) around Lorien. Mabey that's why the Fellowship was forced to be blindfolded. So they couldn't find the way to navigate through the Girdle. Ive always thought of Lorien as 'magicaly' gaurded somehow.

I know that all of these valiant elves would play a big role in the protection of Lorien, but Lorien was also assaulted 3 times in the WotR. The Elves strength would play a part in gaurding the realm, but we're debating if something bigger were to be gaurding Lorien. 'Unless Sauron himself came', er something like that, means that this power in Lorien was very large, and would have to be something more than just the valor of Elves. We're trying to find out what that 'something more' would be.

 

[krash8765]

Lorien also was very large, as said in the atlas of middle-earth it was 50 miles in diameter, and thus u can assume it had a pretty large population of elves also including most of the noldor remaining in Middle-earth. This would of greatly contributed to the defence of lothlorien.
I have a question. How could rivendell be the last kingdom to fall? Its location was strategic but it had a flaw. It was in a valley! Could not the enemy circle the valley and rain fire on it from above with siege engines and arrows. It does not seem like a hard place to conquer except for the high elves that were there and elrond. I just can't see how it could be defended against a large army of mordor of maybe 20,000. They could fight on higher land but what then when they were defeated?