3 days to the release of
Return of the King!
Old fool! Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!
Lord of the Nazgul
Bonus Fact--The Elessar:
In the Fellowship of the Ring, after giving Aragorn a new sheath for Anduril, Galadriel asks him if there is anything else he desires of her. He answers that while she has "long held in keeping the only treasure that I seek", it is not hers to give. (He refers to Arwen; she spent part of her life with her father in Rivendell, and part of it with her grandmother in Lothlorien.) Galadriel replies "Yet maybe this will lighten your heart, for it was left in my care to be given to you, should you pass through this land." And she shows him "a great stone of clear green, set in a silver brooch that was wrought in the likeness of an eagle with outstretched wings". She continues that she gave the brooch to her daughter, Celebrian, who in turn gave it to her daughter, Arwen, and that at Arwen's request she now passes it on to Aragorn, that he might "take the name that was foretold for [him], Elessar, the Elfstone of the house of Elendil." Sure enough, when he gets to Gondor, people start spontaniously calling him Elessar because of the brooch he wears.
(In the movie, this brooch set with a great green stone seems to have been replaced by the necklace that Arwen gives directly to Aragorn in Rivendell. I don't mind the way they've used the stone in the story, but I do miss the green stone, in the silver setting shaped like an eagle.)
In "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", in the Unfinished Tales, there is a "very rough manuscript" by JRR Tolkien, called "The Elessar", which sheds light on the history of the stone Galadriel gives Aragorn on behalf of her granddaughter. Here I will attempt to paraphrase it as best I can:
During the First Age, in the hidden city of Gondolin, there was a jewel-smith named Enerdhil, "the greatest of that craft among the Noldor after the death of Feanor [who crafted the Silmarils]." He loved green growing things, and decided to make a jewel that captured the light of the sun as through green leaves, and the power of the jewel was such that the bearer of it could heal hurts and preserve youth. Enerdhil gave the stone to Idril, daughter of King Turgon of Gondolin, and she in turn gave it to her son Earendil. It is certain that he wore it when he went to Valinor, and after that he was sent to sail the heavens as a star.
Tolkien continues: "In ages after there was again an Elessar, and of this two things are said, though which is true only those Wise could say who are now gone." Version one says that the same stone made by Enerdhil was returned to Middle Earth "by the grace of the Valar": Yavanna gave the stone to Olorin (aka Gandalf) when he was sent back to Middle Earth to aid men and elves in the struggle against Sauron. Gandalf met with Galadriel, and she said "I grieve in Middle Earth, for leaves fall and flowers fade; and my heart yearns, remembering trees and grass that do not die." And Gandalf gives her the stone, the Elessar, that she might use it to preserve beauty in Middle Earth. But Gandalf says that eventually she must pass on the stone "for one shall come who is to receive it, and his name shall be that of the stone: Elessar he shall be called."
In the other version, Galadriel came to Celebrimbor in Hollin (he was the smith who made the Three elven rings) and spoke of her grief at the fading of things around her (much as she did in the previous paragraph to Gandalf). He had been a smith in Gondolin also, and he decided to make a stone like the Elessar of old, and it was his greatest work after the Three rings. It was "more subtle and clear" than the original stone, "yet its light had less power". Galadriel was able to use it for many years in Lothlorien, but after Celebrimbor sent one of the Three to her, she decided she did not need it any longer, "and she gave it to Celebrian her daughter, and so it came to Arwen and to Aragorn who was called Elessar.
(Sources: The Fellowship of the Rings, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" from the Unfinished Tales)
8:32:20 AM 
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