5. Something about a character you wish you were related to
Galadriel, and Celeborn, but mainly Galadriel if I have to pick one.
I've never really gotten along well with my family, immediate or extended, especially my mom, and I envy Celebrían because I wish my parents were Galadriel and Celeborn, omg.
I feel like this almost isn't even as headcanon as just extremely regular canon. But then there are lots of people who apparently think Galadriel wouldn't have been a good mother, so, I don't know…
Galadriel's Tolkien's favorite child, he just kept rewriting her from being strong and smart and powerful until she was more strong and smart and powerful and flawless. Nenya wasn't the most powerful, oh wait yes it was. Galadriel rebelled against the Valar with Fëanor, errr nah she just ran away with Celeborn but she totally opposed Fëanor always.
I don't imagine Galadriel thought a lot about being a mother during the First Age. Firstly, she was still super ambitious about wanting to rule so I think that was her main focus, and secondly, elves don't have children during times of war or strife, and I think Galadriel would have feared to bring a child into a world with Melkor still a threat as he was.
I think Galadriel and Celeborn love Celebrían and prize her nearly to an obsessive level of needing to protect her, like Thingol/Melian and Lúthien.
Celeborn and Galadriel both watched their kin slowly die off during the First Age and were left with essentially no one but each other (not that most of Celeborn's family is mentioned much,) so I think when Celebrían came along, she was hope for them, for moving on and enjoying life anew. (And then imagine how terrible it was when that hope was taken away after the Redhorn Pass, when she was going to visit them and they probably completely blamed themselves both for inviting her then and for not noticing the building dangers in Middle-earth and protecting her better and oh look I'm crying again.) Anyway, so I think she was completely spoiled by both of them and neither could deny her absolutely anything. She could get away with murder or a fourth kinslaying if she wanted. Though they still raised her well; she was their daughter after all, as wise as Celeborn, as kind and ethereal as Galadriel.
I think Galadriel and Celebrían were extremely close, especially as she got older and more started to happen in Middle-earth. I'm sure they both had close friends we just hear nothing about from Tolkien, but I think they would have been very close, if not always around each other.
Just two, mostly random, Galadriel and Celebrían ficlets.
First one's fluff, second one less.
"Nana!" Celebrían exclaimed excitedly, running at her mother while she walked in the gardens.
"Hello Celebrían." Galadriel turned and smiled happily at her.
"Ooh careful!" She reprimanded gently as Celebrían tread on trail of the long dress her mother wore.
"Sorry!" She gasped, and Galadriel swept her into her arms.
"How was your day today, meleth?" Galadriel asked, kissing her daughter's cheek before setting her down again and taking her hand to continue walking.
"Good." Celebrían avoided her mother's eyes. On the best of days, Galadriel could see when she wasn't telling the truth. Today, with Celebrían apparently hardly trying, certainly.
"And your lessons?" Galadriel raised her eyebrows.
"Hmm." Celebrían answered, still looking away.
Galadriel bit back her smile, and then bent down seriously. "Celebrían?"
Celebrían made a face and still gave no answer.
"I heard from your tutors that you have been skipping your history lessons to play in the gardens." Galadriel said sternly.
"Not to play!" Celebrían protested. "I was reading. And I was reading history."
"Celebrían, that is not acceptable and you know that."
"I know." She bowed her head.
"This is not the first time we have had this conversation, but it will be the last, yes?"
Celebrían murmured something unintelligible.
"Yes?" Galadriel repeated.
"Yes." Celebrían said softly, still avoiding her mother's gaze.
"Mean it?" Galadriel tilted her daughter's chin upwards.
"I mean it." Celebrían said solemnly.
"Good girl." Galadriel kissed her brow and straightened.
"Do you know why you must learn history?"
"Because that's what good princesses do?"
Galadriel laughed, her laughter ringing throughout the garden.
"Well yes, but not quite."
"Because you lived through so much of it?" Celebrían asked slyly.
Galadriel raised an eyebrow, meaning to look threatening, but Celebrían didn't even bat an eye and she eventually laughed. "No. It is because one day you may rule a realm of your own, and the best way to move forward in the future is to not repeat the mistakes of the past."
Celebrían looked thoughtful for a moment.
"But what if I just marry someone who knows a lot about history? Then I won't have to worry about it!"
"Do you think I would ever just let your Ada make all the decisions without learning about them myself, or he me?"
"No." She answered. "All right, I will learn history."
"Good." Galadriel squeezed her hand. "Now you will make up the lesson you missed today."
They moved to the nearest bench, and Galadriel asked Celebrían if she knew what she was supposed to be learning.
"Family trees." Celebrían groaned, understandably, and Galadriel hid her laugh.
"Let's start with ours. Who was the first High King of the Noldor?"
"Finwë."
"Good, and his children?"
"Feanor, Fingolfin, Findis, Irimë, and Finarfin." She recited easily.
"And their children?"
"The children of Finarfin were: Finrod, Orodreth, Aegnor, Angrod, and you. The children of Fingolfin are: Fingon, Turgon, Aredhel, and…" Celebrían scrunched up her face, trying to remember.
"Argon." Galadriel finished. "And Fëanor's sons?"
"Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, Amrod, and Amras."
"Very good!" So Celebrían at least learned well when she did go to lessons. "You know their Sindarin names, do you know all of their Quenyan names?"
Celebían made a face. "That was what I missed."
Galadriel taught her the names and how to pronounce them, gently correcting her mistakes, until Celebrían could easily recite not only the Noldor family trees, but also those of the Vanyar and the Teleri in Valinor.
"Nana, how do you remember all this?" Celebrían groaned when Galadriel told her she had learned enough for today.
"I lived with them all, Celebrían." Galadriel reminded her with a smile.
"Even the sons of Fëanor? But they were bad?" Celebrían asked.
"They were not always." Galadriel looked far away. "They were decent people once, but they were proud and determined, and it led to their fate and made them do terrible things." Celebrían was too young to know the extent of those terrible things, there was a reason young elflings spent longer studying family trees than the depths of events certain members of those family trees had caused.
"If they started out good, does that mean anyone who is good could go bad?"
Galadriel shook her head, at Celebrían's worried expression.
"No one goes truly bad as long as they still have good things to hold on to." She answered. "I have you and
your Adar, and our people, and you have us. It would be a lot harder for any of us to turn to darkness, I promise. You need not worry."
"What about Melkor? He was always bad. And orcs are, too."
"Yes, but Melkor is a Vala and it is more complicated than with Fëanor's house. And as far as orcs, they were created from evil; they can be nothing else. Elves are created good, and to become evil things have to break that good."
"Can evil things become good?"
"Yes, I suppose they can." Galadriel answered, not highlighting the fact that Manwë had once mistakenly believed that and unleashed Melkor on the world again.
"Don't ever turn evil, Nana."
"I promise." Galadriel leaned down to kiss her cheek. "I promise."
~*~*~
There had been no news of Celeborn, or little of anything else, that reached Lórien from Imladris, where Celeborn was last rumored to have been.
Lord Elrond, they knew, had established a stronghold named Imladris, and so that was where Celebrían and Galadriel were headed, hoping to find Celeborn or at the very least positive news of his whereabouts.
With them was a sizable company of Elves from Lórien, a small guard, members of the higher courts, and some who did not wish to be parted from their Lord and Ladies, wishing to remain with them rather than in Lórien without them.
Still, Galadriel and Celebrían had both been parted from many of their close friends who stayed behind.
"Tea?" Celebrían slipped into the tent that she she shared with her mother with two mugs of steaming tea.
Galadriel didn't answer, but forced a smile at her entrance, and Celebrían settled down beside her.
"We will find him." She told her mother firmly. She knew her mother's fear over losing Celeborn was strengthened by the pain she still felt over losing her brothers and being so far separated from her own parents; Galadriel could not stand to lose Celeborn or Celebrían, too.
"He may not even be at Imladris anymore; I cannot sense him at all… We have hardly ever been so far apart that I could not. I do hope, at least, I would still know if he were…" She shook her head and accepted the tea, if just to not have to complete her sentence to Celebrían, unable voice her fear that Celeborn may be dead.
"He isn't." Celebrían said, just as firmly as before. "Adar? If there is any hope left for anyone, you know he is still alive and well, and as strong as ever."
"Perhaps." Galadriel gave her a tiny smile.
"We will find him." She repeated, thinking back to when they had said farewell to Celeborn, which seemed so long ago; when he had stayed in Erigion when they left for Lorien.
"Be careful, stay-"
"If you are going to try to tell me to stay "safe and out of trouble," you might as well not even bother." Celebrían had laughed.
"I shall leave that pleasure to your mother, then." Celeborn grinned. "Be well, Brí."
"Namárië, Ada." Celebrían had embraced him fiercely, then left to prepare to leave and to let her parents say their farewells.
Suddenly she became aware of Galadriel following her thoughts, with tears in her eyes.
"I do miss him." Celebrían murmured.
"I know." Galadriel wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer, and leaned her cheek against Celebrían's hair. "You are right, we will find him soon."
Celebrían just laughed.
"I would be a lot more comforted if I knew you were not just repeating my words back to me because you think that they're helpful to say."
"It would be easier to comfort you if you were not as good at reading truths as I am!" Galadriel laughed, too.
"If only I were as wise as Adar and I could think of something useful to say." Celebrían answered.
"You are." Galadriel sighed. "Perhaps there is simply no comfort to words, until we find him."
"Then let's rest." Celebrían stood, pulling her mother up too. "The faster we travel tomorrow, the closer we are."
~*~*~