Galadriel’s Ring-Quest

“What ring?” asked Morwen.  “I sold my rings to feed my people.  Nothing ever fit for a great Elf queen.”

Galadriel smiled.  “Dear queen, your tragic ancestress was an elf-friend.  Would you withhold what I can use, and you cannot?”

“I have only this gift from Celebrimbor.  Surely his to give?”

From her girdle she drew forth the sparkling necklace of amber and ruby – the last precious thing from her old life.  Her hope for a new and peaceful realm.

Galadriel looked appalled.  “Not even his best work to gift mortals.  Nothing I’d want.”  She glanced sternly at the dwarf who stood proudly beside her.  “Were you mistaken, Durin?”

“Rings of Power call to each other.  Deep Elves are as crafty as dwarves.”  He took the necklace, fingered it, then smiled.  With a deft twist he split one amber stone into two.  The blob within was revealed as a tiny ring.  This he dropped into Galadriel’s outstretched palm, where it suddenly grew to match her fingers.

“Silly woman!  You carried the best of the Elven rings.  But Sauron’s servants could not spy out what you did not know.  Now it is mine.”

Durin gave the necklace back to Morwen.  “We set her up in a kingdom now? My people will build her a fortress-city on the Great River.”

“Yes, yes” answered Galadriel, eyes fixed on the Ring of Power.  Its white gem caught the sunlight, and the light was on her alone.

Copyright ©Gwydion M.  Williams

Background
This would have happen in the Second Age – the same ground that Amazon’s series will take place in.  Morwen was the name of a tragic woman in the First Age, and used by at least two women in Tolkien’s telling of the Third Age, including the mother of Theoden.  You would expect many more.
Lord of the Rings suggests a friendly hand-over by the elven smiths to the best of the elves, but Cirdan decides that Gandalf should have his. But the relationship between Galadriel and the elven smith Celebrimbor was re-thought several times by Tolkien: see The History of Galadriel and Celeborn in Unfinished Tales.  Galadriel was invented only after Tolkien wrote The Council of Elrond in almost its present form. He then added her to the tales of the First Age, but revised it to make her less of a rebel against the Valar. There is no ‘correct’ version, so I made my own.