"There long the golden leaves have grown?"

[Margaret Shirley]

Hi. I was singing Galadriel's song of Eldamar(from FOTR)
and I noticed two odd things about it. One, can Galadriel really bring things alive with her voice( I know it's an ability some have in ME but I don't think Galadriel does), and two she says that"there long the golden leaves have grown, upon the branching years". This can only be referring to Laurelin and she was destroyed while G. was alive so G. would know not to sing this. Is this a mistake on Chris Tolkien's part? Did something different happen originally? Or is it a continuity mistake of JRRT? Or is it possible G. was referring to a different golden tree? Anyway, I know that's a lot of questions. I wasn't sure whether to put this in LOTR or Sil so sorry if it's in the wrong place.

 

[Starbrow]

Maybe she was singing about the Mallorn trees in Lothlorion.

 

[Elthir]

Since the tree in the song grew in Eldamar it doesn't seem to be a reference to Laurelin, whose leaves were young green with edges of shining gold, although I don't think song or poetry needs to be so technical in any case.

Some think the detail is symbolic, comparing a growing golden tree to the coming "winter" of Lothlorien in the song.

The Elves of Tirion loved Telperion but maybe those awesome golden haired Finarfinians desired something to remind them of Laurelin too. To my mind, song appears connected to the magic of the Elves and "gods", and Galadriel was quite a powerful, learned Elf.

As an external note, Galadriel does not appear in the Silmarillion as it existed in the mid to later 1930s. I'm not saying we have an error here, but she only arose during the writing of The Lord of the Rings and was worked into the tales of the Elder Days when Tolkien went back to his Silmarillion.

By the way, kudos on calling Laurelin "she". The golden tree is feminine, the silver masculine, like Tolkien's Sun and Moon.

 

[Azrubêl]

By the way, kudos on calling Laurelin "she". The golden tree is feminine, the silver masculine, like Tolkien's Sun and Moon.

Ah I had forgotten that. What is the reason again?

 

[Elthir]

I don't really know, I just assume Tolkien is following the Germanic model of Sun and Moon (compared to Roman and Greek for example) with respect to gender, so the Two Trees follow.

My guess is that certain names reflect gender as well, noting Telperion and Tilion,
and Culúrien (Laurelin) and Arien.