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Water, fire and shadow

Water, fire and shadow (part one)

a high quality scene by scene image compilation is here



Galadriel seems to float into view. The blue background emphasises the watery, dreamy scene and Galadriel’s arms are held back like wings giving her progress an etheric, angelic quality.


Galadriel’s stillness and coolness is in contrast to the struggle about to be endured by Frodo. The Lady seems composed and held in a white light. The light signals a radiant spirituality and inner stillness. Galadriel is so composed that her stillness sems past of the architecture. Galadriel is as still as the column supporting the mirror. Galadriel is fully a part of the scene whilst Frodo seems an interloper. It appears that Galadriel is the architect of the unfolding drama.

Galadriel is not wearing her crown emphasising the directness of her challenge to Frodo. The crown of Galadriel has a golden spiral as it’s centrepiece, a reference to the power of Galadriel. Though she has left her crown Galadriel is still marked by the mystic spiral. Many tumbling, spiral forms pick out the hair of the lady. The spiral symbolises the hidden powers of the lady have not been left behind.

Galadriel is aligned with water. Throughout the lady is framed by the tumbling water set behind her. Again the falling water spirals downwards picking up the spirals in Galadriel’s hair. Galadriel stands in sacred space. This contrasts with the battle Frodo will undertake with the fiery eye when he looks into the mirror.



The two players in the drama stand in separated space. The dividing line in the composition is the mirror. From her space Galadriel will hold the light whilst in his Frodo will stay in the dark. This emphasises that it is Galadriel that is primary, she is running the drama and the hero must follow her dictates.

The surrounding space seems to envelop Frodo, enclosing him to the point of even being threatening.

Galadriel is a waterbearer. Light here is a bearer of light. This spiritual light is an instrument of vision. In Fellowship when light and water combine, a vision or inner insight is usually at hand.

This image establishes that what will be seen in the mirror is a reflection of the inner condition of the viewer. Whatever is in the soul the mirror will reflect.

This image may be prophetic but it is also the reflection of the inner state of the hero. There is a dark shadow cast into the hobbit and he sees this aspect of himself as a dark shadow cast onto his homeland.



The landscape of Hobbiton resembles an eye. The shadow of the Eye of the Dark Lord has been cast deep into the home of Frodo. There is a shadow within the hero and a darkness cast over what he loves most. Frodo is living in a shadowland.


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