Songs for an Elf Queen

[bnewman]

As a songwriter, there are some subjects that I keep coming back to over and over again. One character for whom I have written a large number of songs over the years is Galadriel. There's just something about her — dignity, power, grace, kindness, an air of mystery... yeah, I totally have a crush on her. And I finally wrote a song about that, but first, a tour of my other Galadriel songs, some old, some new:

Why I Want to Go (mp3) explores Galadriel's reasons for (and feelings about) leaving Valinor. She doesn't share in her uncle Fëanor's oath of vengeance, but there's a world out there to explore and she wants to see it.

Galadriel to Sam (mp3) is my interpretation of what might have passed between Galadriel and Samwise during her wordless testing of the members of the Fellowship. Like many of my songs, it plays on similarities, in this case between Galadriel's testing of Sam (and the rest of the Fellowship) and the choice offered to Galadriel (and the other Elves) by the Valar at the end of the First Age, whether or not to return to the Undying Lands.

Requiem for a Golden Wood is a parody and response to TJ Burnside Clapp's "Lullaby for a Weary World". The original song's love and pity for a suffering world are touching, but there's also something very troubling about the sentiment "I wish the power to stop it all could rest within my hands". (Why should we trust the singer with that power?) I'm not the first to write a response to "Lullaby" along these lines (madfilkentist has written one that is quite chilling). Mine places that line in the context of the debate within Galadriel's mind after Frodo offers her the Ring, and concludes as she concludes, with the decision to "diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel".

The Lady's Mirror (mp3) is a parody of Stan Rogers' "Lies", also in part inspired by mrgoodwraith's "Lies and Fairy Tales", which is about a very different enchantress queen and her magic mirror. Here I set out simply to capture the feeling of the moment when Galadriel invites Frodo to look in the Mirror, although the song did grow a thesis: the Mirror does not deceive, but it takes wisdom to use it effectively.

Galadriel! (mp3) is the song where I admit that I have a crush on the Lady of Lorien. Naturally, it's a parody of another song about having a crush on an elf, quadrivium's "Legolas!". I can't imitate her piano stylings, but I did brush up my blues shuffle and hopefully did some justice to the tune.

Finally, no discussion of Galadriel songs would be complete without mention of my favorite one by the Grateful Dead, "Ripple". I doubt that Robert Hunter had her in mind when he wrote it (although you never know), but in my head, this song is sung by Galadriel to Frodo. Here's my interpretation:

If my words did glow... (Elvish music is an enchantment)
Would you hear my voice... (Can you listen through the enchantment to what I'm actually saying?)

It's a hand-me-down... (the Ring)
the thoughts are broken (In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen...)
Perhaps they're better left unsung... (Let us speak no more of it)

Ripple in still water... (the Mirror)

Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty... (Now it is time to drink the cup of farewell)
Let it be known, there is a fountain... (the Mirror again)

There is a road... between the dawn and the dark of night (the road to Mordor)
And if you go, no one may follow... (in spite of his companions, only Frodo bears the burden of the Ring)

You who choose to lead must follow (Frodo must follow Gollum)
But if you fall, you fall alone... (as before, Frodo must bear the burden and temptation of the Ring alone)
If I knew the way, I would take you home (into the West)