Eucatastrophe
Tolkien apparently invented the term, eucatastrophe. Here is part of what he said about it:

The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels -- peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: "mythical" in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-stories," 71-72.

Each of his narratives, like those of many others, contains at least one eucatastrophe. In The Hobbit, the eagles come when the orcs (goblins, in this book) have almost defeated the elves, dwarves and men. Although, as Tolkien put it:

. . . before all was won the Battle of Five Armies was fought, and Thorin was slain, and many deeds of renown were done, the matter would scarcely have concerned later history, or earned more than a note in the long annals of the Third Age, but for an 'accident' by the way. . . . Bilbo was lost for a while in the . . . mountains, and there, as he groped in vain in the dark, he put his hand on a ring, lying on the floor of a tunnel. He put it in his pocket. It seemed then like mere luck. (Fellowship, p. 21.)

In other words, the real eucatastrophe wasn't the defeat of the orcs, but the finding of the ring. Says Gandalf to Frodo: "I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you were meant to have it." (Fellowship, p. 65)

The eucatastrophe at the end of the First Age was that Morgoth was overthrown by the army of the Valar, who came to Middle-Earth in answer to the plea of Eärendil, at the end of the First Age, at a time when Morgoth, in pride, thought he had become invincible. (Silmarillion, Chapter 24)

During the Second Age, most of the Númenóreans, who had been the noblest of men, in pride, tempted by Sauron, attempted to set foot on the lands of the Valar. At this time, the Valar themselves gave up their guardianship, and called upon Ilúvatar for help, and the world was changed--no longer flat, for one thing. A eucatastrophe again. The few remaining Númenóreans, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anarion, fled from the island of Númenór, which sunk, and set up kingdoms in Middle-Earth. But this was not a final eucatastrophe--Sauron had not been destroyed.

It was during the Second Age that Sauron made the nine Rings for men, and seven for dwarves, and Celebrimbor made the three rings for elves. Sauron made the One Ring, concentrating his power in it, and made war on elves, men and dwarves. At the end of the Second Age, Elendil and Gil-Galad, high king of the elves in Middle-Earth, went to war against Sauron. Both of them were killed, but Sauron's ring was cut from his hand, and he lost most of his power. It took millennia for him to rise to even part of his former power.

The eucatastrophe at the End of the Third Age was the destruction of the One Ring by Frodo, Sam and Gollum, and the final destruction of Sauron.

Languages

As the writer of Tolkien's obituary put it:
It was at this period [sometime after 1911, while in residence at Exeter College, Oxford] that he first [became] . . . busily engaged on the invention of the "Elvish language." This was no ordinary gibberish but a really possible tongue with consistent roots, sound laws, and inflexions, into which he poured all his imaginative and philological powers; and strange as the exercise may seem it was undoubtedly the source of that unparalleled richness and concreteness which later distinguished him from all other philologists. He had been inside language. He had not gone far with his invention before he discovered that every language presupposes a mythology; and at once began to fill in the mythology presupposed by Elvish. "Professor J. R. R. Tolkien: Creator of Hobbits and inventor of a new mythology," The Times, London, 3 September 1973. Reprinted in J. R. R.  Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam, Mary Salu and Robert T. Farrell, editors. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979, pp. 11-15. Quote is from pp. 12-13.

As an academic who studied medieval languages as a profession, it is not surprising that Tolkien used languages as an important part of his sub-creation. Every elf, and many of the humans, are given more than one name, in more than one language. There are bits of several languages, even some samples of the written characters used, in the trilogy. The inscription on the ring is in the black speech, a language developed by Sauron for his servants to use. Nearly every species, and every separate population of each species, seems to have developed its own language. There is an appendix, at the end of the trilogy, on the languages and peoples of that time, which is not completely unprecedented in fantastic literature. There is another one on the characters used in writing, which, as far as I know, is without precedent in fiction.

As a non-linguist, I am amazed by Tolkien's invention of several kinds of written characters. One kind in particular, the Fëanorian letters, is particularly remarkable. "This script was not in origin an 'alphabet,' that is, a haphazard series of letters, each with an independent value of its own, recited in a traditional order that has no reference either to their shapes or to their functions." (Return, p. 397) Tolkien went on for a few pages, explaining the theory of this set of symbols, which he wants us to suppose that Fëanor produced in a logical manner, consistent with the way people (and elves) make sounds.

Anyone interested can find material on the Fëanorian letters by searching the Internet. (Google differentiates between "Fëanorian letters" and "Feanorian letters." If you are interested in this topic, I suggest copying the word from this document for a Google search. This avoids having to insert the ë symbol.) There are computer fonts, based on these characters, available.

Fëanor was the most talented of the elves in Tolkien's world. More on him below. For more on Tolkien and languages, consult the book by Shippey mentioned in the first section. I have not seen it, but have read that The Lost Road and Other Writings (The History of Middle-Earth - Volume 5. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), one of the 12 books of Tolkien's manuscripts edited by his son, Christopher, includes a great deal of Tolkien's work on Elvish languages.

Fëanor, Galadriel, and the Silmarils
The central story of Tolkien's sub-creation, at least until the time of the rings, is the story of the Silmarils.

The elves, who were immortal, barring accident or violence, first appeared in what would become Middle-Earth. The Valar found them, and persuaded some of them to come into the West, to the realm of the Valar. Those who did so were known as the Noldor, and were led by Finwë, Olwë and Elwë. Finwë was considered the first High King of the elves. Finwë had three sons, Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin. Galadriel was the daughter of Finarfin, hence Fëanor's niece. (The best web pages on the history of Galadriel are here and here.)

Fëanor had a mind that was ever busy, ever creative. Beside the creation of the letters named after him, mentioned above, he made the Palantíri. His crowning achievement was the three Silmarils. These jewels captured the light of the two trees of Valinor, the main source of light in the world at that time. (The sun and moon had not yet appeared, but there were stars.) But Fëanor became so enamored of his own creation that it was easy for Morgoth, then still in the realm of the Valar, as one of them, to lead Fëanor astray through them. Morgoth also sowed seeds of jealousy between the sons of Finwë, and they became proud and haughty. (Not so haughty as Morgoth, who plotted to destroy the elves, and to do great evil to the Valar.)

Shippey believes that Fëanor's restless creativeness represents Tolkien's creativeness (pp. 239-240).

Tolkien wrote that Fëanor's character was deeply influenced by the death of his mother, Míriel. In the Blessed Realm, at least, the elves could lay down their lives for a while, then could take them up again. Míriel did not choose to return for a long time, even as elves count time, and eventually Fëanor's father was given permission to marry again. This embittered Fëanor, already a proud and haughty individual. Another reason for his bitterness, or at least for contention between Fëanor and other elves, was pronunciation. This may seem surprising, but shouldn't be. Tolkien, himself, was much concerned with language, and so was Fëanor. ("The Shibboleth of Fëanor," in The Peoples of Middle-Earth, Christopher Tolkien, editor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.)

Fëanor kept the Silmarils locked up, except when he wore them himself. Morgoth, with Ungoliant, the great spider spirit, came to the realm of the Valar by stealth, and destroyed the two trees. They also killed Finwë, and took the Silmarils back to Middle-Earth. However, before this murder was known, the Valar asked Fëanor for the use of the Silmarils, the only way to revive the two trees. Fëanor, who had been previously punished by the Valar for a prideful act, refused. (See above on the importance of pride)

Fëanor was a master of words, and his tongue had great power over hearts when he would use it; and that night he made a speech before the Noldor which they ever remembered. (Silmarillion, 82.)

He urged the elves who followed Finwë, his father, the Noldor, to leave the realm of the Valar and return to Middle-Earth, because the Valar could not protect their own realm, and because they were trying to hold the elves from their destiny. Then Fëanor swore that he would contest anyone who took a Silmaril into their possession, regardless of the consequences, and his seven sons joined him in that oath. Galadriel, the granddaughter of Olwë, did not swear the terrible oath of the house of Fëanor, but she decided that she wanted to return to Middle-Earth and establish a realm of her own. She eventually established Lothlorien, with her consort, Celeborn.

Tolkien wrote:

So it came to pass that when the light of Valinor failed, for ever as the Noldor thought, [Galadriel] joined the rebellion against the Valar who commanded them to stay; and once she had set foot upon that road of exile, she would not relent . . . Her pride was unwilling to return, a defeated suppliant for pardon; but now she burned with desire to follow Fëanor with her anger to whatever lands he might come, and to thwart him in all ways that she could. Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar for all who had fought against him, and remained in Middle-earth. It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown and she rejected it, and passing the last test departed from Middle-earth forever. (The Peoples of Middle-Earth, p. 338. In Peoples , but not in all of his works, Tolkien put a symbol over the N at the beginning of the word, Noldor. I have been unable to do so in this web page.)

(Galadriel's speech, rejecting the One Ring, is below.)

Fëanor and his followers needed ships to return to Middle-Earth. They came to the people of Olwë, who had made wonderful ships, "the fairest vessels that ever sailed the sea," (Silmarillion, 90.) and took them by force, killing many of Olwë's people. Fëanor had the ships burned. Galadriel fought against him, but sailed to Middle-Earth, as did Fëanor and many other elves, after the battle was over. Downing suggests that the reason Galadriel sailed may have been partly because she was disillusioned that the Valar were unable to protect the Two Trees.

Purtill writes (p. 158) that Tolkien:

"often gives us characters faced with basically the same problem and shows one handling the problem in the right way, the other in the wrong way . . . Insofar as it can be said that characters from two different stories (though with the same underlying mythology) are contrasted, I think that Galadriel is the intended contrast character to Fëanor; her rejection of the Ring contrasts with his refusal to give up the Silmarils.

The Noldor and the other peoples of Middle-Earth then endured long years of hostility from Morgoth and his followers. Many elves, including Fëanor and his seven sons, were killed. Eventually Beren, a human hero, and Luthien, daughter of Elwë, took a Silmaril from the iron crown of Morgoth. Idril Celebrindal, great-granddaughter of Finwë through his second son, Fingolfin, married Tuor, another human hero. Their son Eärendil, who married Elwing, granddaughter of Beren and Luthien, took a Silmaril to the realm of the Valar and asked for their help in overthrowing Morgoth, which was the eucatastrophe at the end of the First Age. Eärendil, who was the father of Elrond and Elros, and, hence, Aragorn's distant ancestor, was placed in the heavens with his ship, and the Silmaril became a star.

For more on Fëanor, see "It's All in the Family: The Elweans and Ingweans," by Michael Martinez. (Also published as Chapter 3 of Martinez' Understanding Middle Earth: Essays on Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Poughkeepsie, NY: ViviSphere, 2003, pp. 47-79.) Here's a web site on Galadriel.

Galadriel was Arwen's grandmother, through Elrond's wife, Celebrian, the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn. She was born during the First Age. At the end of the Third Age (by which time she would have been well over 6,000 years old--Bob Downing says "about 7500." To quote from a letter, written April 25, 1954, by Tolkien: "Galadriel is old, or older than Shelob. She is the last remaining of the Great among the High Elves." Henry Gee, in The Science of Middle-Earth (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2004, p. 169) puts her age at 8440 by the time of the events at the beginning of The Return of the King. Humphrey Carpenter, editor, assisted by Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981) p. 180. Michael Martinez says that she rejected Sauron, in disguise as one of the Maiar, or lesser blessed spirits from Valinor, because she did not remember any such Maia. This statement by Martinez is also on page 276 of his book, referred to in the previous paragraph.) as she foresaw, with the destruction of the One Ring, the power of the rings of the elves diminished, and most or all of the remaining High Elves decided that Middle-Earth was no longer for them. Galadriel, with Elrond, Gandalf, Frodo, Bilbo and others, returned to the realm of the Valar (Return, 310).

Tolkien wrote that the name, Galadriel,

 . . . is an invention of my own. It is in Sindarin [one of the elvish languages] form and means 'Maiden crowned with gleaming hair.' It is a secondary name given to her in her far past because she had long hair which glistened like gold but was also shot with silver. She was then of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats. (Letters, p. 428)

Clearly, Tolkien envisioned Galadriel as having great power. He also saw her as being less accessible to mortals than, say, Elrond. The Fellowship experienced both of these aspects of her character. As Paul H. Kocher puts it:

Very different is Lorien, "the heart of Elvendom on earth," as Aragorn calls it. That is all perpendicular, all elvish. Strangers are not welcome there. The population consists wholly of Silvan elves living not in houses but on platforms in the tops of huge mallorn trees, which grow nowhere else in Middle-earth. Indeed, all the vegetation, from the flowers of elanor and niphredil in the grass to the tree walls enclosing the city of the Galadrim is unique. So, especially, is "the power and the light that held all the land in its sway," perceived by Frodo. Later he comes to understand that the whole enchanted region is created by the power of Galadriel focused through the elf ring Nenya, which she is wearing: "The power of the Lady is on it . . . where Galadriel wields the Elven-ring."  p. 94. Kocher is quoting from Fellowship. I'm not sure that all the plants are unique.

Martinez, in his Understanding Middle Earth, says that "The Rings of Power were created to hold back Time, or to delay its effects," implying that it wasn't just Galadriel that exerted power on Lorien. (p. 375) He also says that Galadriel may have used the power of the ring to attract other elves to Lorien. (p. 376)

One passage that supports Martinez in his belief about holding back time is the following:

Frodo felt that he was in a timeless land that did not fade or change or fall into forgetfulness. When he had gone and passed into the outer world, still Frodo the wanderer from the Shire would walk there, upon the grass among elanor and niphredil in fair Lothlórien. (Fellowship, p. 365-6.)

Aragorn said, to Boromir: "'Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel!' . . . 'You know not what you say. There is in her and in this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then let him beware! . . .'" (Fellowship, p. 373)

Here is Frodo's initial perception of the the land of Lórien:

It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured for ever. He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of  there was no stain. (Fellowship, p. 365.)

Both the absence of evil and the holding back of the effects of time, both because of Galadriel, are evident in this passage.

Here's another, illustrating the innate goodness of Lórien, under Galadriel and Celeborn, the strange time in that land, and the power of Galadriel, who knows that Gandalf needs to be rescued, orders his rescue, counsels him, and helps him assume his final form. (Possibly helped in some of this by Celeborn):

'"Do not let me fall! I gasped, for I felt life in me again. "Bear me to Lothlórien!"
'"That indeed is the command of the Lady Galadriel who sent me to look for you," he answered.
'Thus it was that I came to Caras Galadon and found you but lately gone. I tarried there in the ageless time of that land where days bring healing not decay. Healing I found, and I was clothed in white. Counsel I gave and counsel took. Thence by strange roads I came, and messages I bring to some of you. . . .' (Gandalf, speaking of his rescue by the eagle, Gwaihir, to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli.) Two Towers, p. 106.

Tolkien doesn't indicate exactly how and when Galadriel put off the pride engendered in so many of the Noldor, apparently including her, by Fëanor, but there are hints.

In Morgoth's Ring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993, Christopher Tolkien, editor) Tolkien wrote about Galadriel's reaction to Fëanor's prideful speech:

. . . Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled her heart, and she yearned to see the wide untrodden lands and to rule there a realm maybe at her own will. For youngest of the House of Finwë she came into the world west of the Sea, and knew yet naught of the unguarded lands. (pp. 112-113) (Christopher Tolkien, in a note on p. 125, comments on the passage quoted, saying that this statement "is strange, because all the progeny of Finwë were born in Aman.)

Perhaps she already saw the error of Fëanor's ways. If not, the battle with the people of Olwë showed her the error. By the time the Noldor reached Middle-Earth, Galadriel was not with Fëanor and his followers.

Christopher Tolkien quotes a marginal note of his father, J. R. R. Tolkien: "Finrod and Galadriel (whose husband was of the Teleri) fought against Fëanor in defence of Alqualondë." On this see the very late note (1973) of my father's concerning Galadriel's conduct at the time of the rebellion of the Noldor in Unfinished Tales, pp. 231-2: "In Fëanor's revolt that followed the Darkening of Valinor Galadriel had no part: indeed she with Celeborn fought heroically in defense of Alqualondë against the assault of the Noldor . . ." (Morgoth's Ring, p. 128, emphasis in original.)

Galadriel spent a long time in the realm of Elwë, also named Thingol, and especially with his wife, Melian, who was a Maia, one of the blessed spirits subordinate to the Valar. Perhaps during this time her heart was turned from the prideful ideas of Fëanor. It was also inspired again by the idea of protecting a realm by enchantment, as Melian did for Thingol's land, although Tolkien also wrote that "she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be hers to order as she would without tutelage," before she ever left the Blessed Realm (Peoples of Middle-Earth, p. 337.) Perhaps her experience with Melian softened her desire to order her own realm independent of the Valar. By the time that Celebrimbor made the three elven rings, she received one of them, and she rejected the One Ring that Frodo carried, when Frodo offered it to her. (See quote below)

Christopher Tolkien, the son of the author of the trilogy and The Hobbit, has been his father's posthumous editor. His first great work was The Silmarillion. Subsequently, he has edited several volumes of his father's writings, showing how Tolkien's conceptions of Middle-Earth changed over the years. In Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth (first US edition Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980) he writes:

There is no part of the history of Middle-Earth more full of problems than the story of Galadriel and Celeborn, and it must be admitted that there are severe inconsistencies 'embedded in the traditions'; or, to look at the matter from another point of view, that the role and importance of Galadriel only emerged slowly, and that her story underwent continued refashionings. (p. 228)

The younger Tolkien writes that his father, in a letter in 1967, includes Galadriel as among "chief actors in the rebellion" against the Valar. (p.229) But, in a manuscript written shortly before his death, the elder Tolkien wrote that Galadriel, ". . . far from joining in Fëanor's revolt she was in every way opposed to him." (pp. 231-232). (See also "Celeborn Unplugged," by Michael Martinez)

Stratford Caldecott in his The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2005) perhaps the best brief (151 pp.) book on Tolkien, agrees with the younger Tolkien, and, on pages 53-56. As the editor of the senior Tolkien's works, and an author who quotes from his most relevant passages, they make it clear that J. R. R. Tolkien's view of Galadriel changed with time. Caldecott discusses this in light of Tolkien's Catholic faith. He thinks that Galadriel, and, especially, Elbereth (who doesn't appear personally in the trilogy) play the role of Mary, mother of Christ, in Tolkien's work.

Christopher Tolkien also documents changes in the way his father, the great subcreator, envisioned the lineage of Celeborn, Celebrimbor, and other elves, probably in relation to the changing status of Galadriel. It seems that Galadriel, who was a leader of the elves, defied Sauron, and rejected the power that the One Ring might have brought her, became one of the central characters in Tolkien's thinking. Indeed she was. She called the White Council, her realm protected the Fellowship after Gandalf fell, and then she sent them on their way to completing its task. Downing says that she also did two very important things that are not obvious from a reading of the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings. He says that she advised Celebrimbor to send the three rings away from Eregion. He sent them to her, to Elrond, and to Cirdan, who gave his to Gandalf. She also protected the first ride of the Rohirrim--not the one in Return--to the defense of Gondor. Perhaps I misspoke above when I said that it is the setting and plot that are so fascinating about his work. It is, certainly, also the characters. Tolkien himself was clearly fascinated for decades with some of his own characters.

More on Galadriel
The Christianity Today Online web pages include a weekly movie review column. That column has said that several Christian movie critics have applauded Jackson's first two films for the depiction of such choices. These films, and the books, have indeed shown this. Bilbo chooses to give up the ring to Frodo, although it is a difficult choice. Gandalf and Galadriel both choose not to take the ring as their own. Here is Galadriel's speech to Frodo and Sam:

"And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night!" . . . She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illumined her alone and left all else dark. . . . Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a simple elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.
"I pass the test," she said. "I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel." Fellowship, p. 381.

This dialog is changed little, if at all, in the movie. Dickerson writes of this episode, in Following Gandalf, that "Galadriel summarizes the point . . . that moral victory is the most important victory; that it is better to suffer a military defeat and a loss of everything than to suffer a moral defeat; better to 'cast all away rather than to submit to Sauron.'" (p. 81)

In her "Mara and Galadriel: MacDonald’s and Tolkien’s Vehicles for Spiritual Truth," (Mara is a character in George MacDonald's Phantastes, a nineteenth-century work of fantasy which C. S. Lewis said influenced him. It is certainly still worth reading, and, I believe, still in print.) Betsy Matthews says:

. . . characters such as Mara and Galadriel hold such magnetism. Certainly, neither is the central character . . . but each . . . provides a very clear picture of God, a picture made clearer because they are female. Among the many characteristics these women share, they are beautiful, able to instill fear into others, know the suffering the future holds, and are compassionate. Mara and Galadriel are strikingly biblical in ways the traditional fairy tale "God-figures" (often the fairy godmothers) are not. This picture of God is not one merely of God the Father, but is a composite picture of the Trinity.

One of the most remarkable facets of God portrayed through these characters is the clear picture of Jesus as the suffering servant and the suffering to which his followers are called. . . . These women suffer great sorrow and witness evil, yet remain pure and hopeful, thus pointing to the hope Jesus had on earth and God’s children have during their earthly sufferings as they anticipate their future glorification.

Tolkien wrote that Galadriel was not a stand-in for Mary:

I think it is true that I owe much of this character to Christian and Catholic teaching about Mary, but actually Galadriel was a penitent; in her youth a leader in the rebellion against the Valar (the angelic guardians). At the end of the First Age she proudly refused forgiveness or permission to return. She was pardoned because of her resistance to the final and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself. (Letters, p. 407)

Stanford Caldecott disagrees with Tolkien, or my interpretation of Tolkien, on this matter. He thinks, and presents evidence that Galadriel, and, more so, Elbereth, are Mary-figures in Tolkien's work. He does not suppose that she started that way, during the long gestation of Tolkien's products, but that he gradually came to change her from a close follower of Fëanor to one in serious disagreement with him. (The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind of the Lord of the Rings. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2005, p. 53-55.)

Galadriel played a central role in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, although a role mostly in the background, rather than on-stage. It was she who summoned the White Council, (over 400 years before Bilbo was born, according to the chronology in Return) with the idea of uniting the opposition to Sauron. She wanted Gandalf to be the leader of this Council. (Fellowship, p. 372) When Gandalf was overthrown by the Balrog (like him, a Maia, but one who had rejected good) the remaining Fellowship rested and were renewed in Lothlorien, which realm was an expression of Galadriel's power. Galadriel showed Frodo and Sam something of the importance of the choice they had made, to take the One Ring to the fire and destroy it. Galadriel warned Boromir of the spiritual peril that he was in. Galadriel won Gimli, the representative of the Dwarves, to friendship and appreciation for the elves, and it was during their time in Lothlorien that Gimli and Legolas, representative of the elves in the Fellowship, became such great friends. She gave gifts to the fellowship. Frodo's was a small vessel, or phial, containing the light of Eärendil's star. (Fellowship, p. 393)

Frodo used the star-glass when in the lair of Shelob, the great spider, and called upon Galadriel, probably as a war-cry of sorts. (Towers, pp. 329-330) Sam also used the star-glass (Frodo gave it to him while he was cutting spider-webs with his sword, with both hands.) When Sam thought Frodo was dead, and almost gave in to despair, he also called on Galadriel, and on Elbereth, the Queen of the Valar, and used the light-emitting phial to defeat the spider. (Towers, pp. 337-339) As Dickerson points out, Galadriel clearly had faith in a higher power, and communicated that to the Fellowship during their stay in Lothlorien. (Following Gandalf, p. 198.) That glass, Galadriel's great gift to the ring-bearer, was taken on the ship that bore Galadriel, Gandalf, Elrond, Bilbo, Frodo and others to the Blessed Realm, was the last sight Sam had of Frodo. (Return, p. 310)

Galadriel gave other gifts in Lothlorien. One of these was to Gimli, the dwarf. Caldecott discusses that gift:

Her parting gift to Gimli is highly significant. He asks for a single hair from her head, which he intends to enshrine within imperishable crystal. In the elder days Fëanor had asked the same, and been refused three times, for her tresses were famed for seeming to contain the light of the Two Trees. . . . Now she gives Gimli three hairs, one for each of the ancient refusals, which were bound up with so much grief for the Elves. Galadriel's gift heals the long rift between her people and the Dwarves. It implies that she now repents of any part her pride may have played in the long tragedy. ( The Power of the Ring, p. 54.)

Galadriel is perhaps the most intriguing character in Tolkien's writing, and I agree with Matthews that she is not the typical fairy godmother. She may provide a clearer picture of God than, say, Elrond. However, I'm not sure that Matthews has read, or understood, as much Tolkien as she might have. As the previous section indicates, Galadriel was not all, or always, goodness and light, and she made at least one choice against the good, and for pride. But, then, Mary, Christ's earthly mother, was born to a sinful race, and, according to most Protestants, was a sinner herself, like the rest of us, although redeemed. Perhaps Matthews is right about Galadriel. As Matthews says, she does exhibit hope, in spite of whatever her past may have been, and gives hope to the Fellowship as they part from the realm she shares with Celeborn. Surely Frodo and Sam would have failed to achieve their quest without the light she gave them, without its message of hope.

Tolkien wrote of Galadriel, after describing her desire to rule without oversight:

Yet deeper still there dwelt in her the noble and generous spirit . . . of the Vanyar, and a reverence for the Valar that she could not forget. From her earliest years she had a marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her good will from none save only Fëanor. In him she perceived a darkness that she hated and feared, though she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own. (Peoples of Middle-earth, pp. 337-8)