Galadhrim

The Galadhrim, the Tree-people, were the Elves of Lothlórien, the fair golden wood that lay between the Misty Mountains and the river Anduin in the heart of Middle-earth. Their name signifies the people of the trees, for they dwelt not in houses upon the ground but in flets, or talans, high among the boughs of the great mallorn trees -- silver-barked giants with golden leaves that did not fall until spring, found nowhere else in Middle-earth.

The Galadhrim were chiefly Silvan Elves, of the woodland kindred, though they were ruled and ennobled by lords of the higher Elven houses. Among them the Common Speech was little used, and they kept to their own tongue, a dialect of Silvan speech; few of them had dealings with outsiders, and they looked on strangers with suspicion in the latter days.

Realm and Rule

Lothlórien was governed by the Lady Galadriel and her husband Celeborn. Galadriel bore one of the Three Elven Rings, Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, and by its power she preserved Lórien as a land seemingly untouched by time and decay -- a living memory of the Elder Days. Within its borders no shadow lay, and the works of Sauron could not easily reach. The chief city of the Galadhrim was Caras Galadhon, the great mound crowned with mallorns and lit with countless lamps.

History

The Galadhrim played their part in the War of the Ring. They sheltered the Fellowship of the Ring after the loss of Gandalf in Moria, and there Galadriel gave the company her counsel and her gifts. The warden Haldir guided the travelers and later led an Elven company that came to the aid of Rohan at the Hornburg in some tellings. When Sauron's forces assailed Lórien from Dol Guldur, the Galadhrim threw back the assaults and, after his fall, cast down the dark tower itself.

Significance

With the destruction of the One Ring and the fading of the Three, the power that preserved Lothlórien waned. Galadriel passed over the Sea into the West, and the Galadhrim diminished, their golden wood emptying as the Age of Men came on. They stand as one of the last and fairest remnants of the Elder Days, a beauty that could not endure into the world that followed.