Everything seems different when seen through the eyes of love. It is as if the whole world is made new and yet . . .

I have shown her Menegroth, every inch of which I have known and even helped to create. But it is as if I have never even seen these caves before when seeing them through the wonder of her eyes. Having been a student of Aulë the Vala, she perceives details that I, a son of the forest, have never before noticed. Outside, the play of the fountains in the gardens and the song of the trees in the forest seem so different with her at my side. The flowers bloom in brighter colors for her presence among them.

Yet my lady is still proud and arrogant. The Noldor may have come in our hour of greatest need and rescued the elves of Beleriand from the onslaught of Melkor, but that does not make them better than us. They may have seen the holy light of the Two Trees and dwelt at the feet of the Valar, but that does not give them the right to proclaim themselves “Calaquendi” and denounce us as “Moriquendi”.

She ignores our craftsmen in favor of the tutelage of our Queen Melian the Maia. It is as if mere elves are too inferior for her to deign to spend her time learning from them; she who is used to the teaching of the Valar themselves and now must content herself with the mere presence of a Maia.

I have observed in court that the princess wears me like an adornment upon her arm as if I am a piece of finery to compliment her exquisite dresses and her lush hair. I seem to be an expensive silver ornament which she has added to her collection of jewels.

But that is not who I am and that is not what I am! I am respected as a leader and a high counselor to my kinsman King Thingol. I am a noble lord among the greatest of the Sindar, the mightiest elves of Middle-earth who stayed behind out of courage, loyalty, and love when the other kindreds of elves passed on over the sea.

But she is a Noldorin regal, infused with royal blood of the Teleri and the Vanyar as well. Yet in spite of her most noble lineage and her high learning, she is so dangerously naive. This princess who would rule lands of her own, knows nothing of the harsh reality of living in a land forsaken by the Valar, where evil things creep about, kept at bay only by the blood, the swords, and the slender bows of these “dark elves” which she shuns. She has much to learn if she is to survive here, my Galadriel.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Calaquendi – elves of light
Moriquendi – elves of darkness