The Role of Women in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

In The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, not many women are displayed with active roles; although they are present, it is evident that males are the focal point of the novel. Tolkien was born into the time where women did not have many rights. In Lord of the Rings, many of the women are not described in much detail. So my theory is, when he was making the women characters, he did not put a lot of descriptions so that it looked like his idea of a perfect women. If there is more information, more flaws will be found about the characters. Tolkien wanted his women characters to be close to perfect.Sarwen is an elf queen of the reunited kingdom because she married Aragon who was the king. She lost everything when people left for Rivendale. She stayed with Aragon. Aragon was a human. She helped reunite elf and humans in friendship and love. She is hiding behind the shadow of Aragon because nobody thinks of her as a being important, she represented the women of that time. Women didn't have a power or a say. But she accepted her role behind the scenes, even if she did most of the work. It didn't matter that she was queen of the Reunited Kingdom. She was just a lowly female Elf. She has character traits that some of the men don't have. For example, she is generous because she gave up her seat to Frodo when they head West. She is also loyal because she stays with Aragon even when she had to give up her Dad. The Lady Galadriel was considered the wisest of the Elves. She has 1 of the 3 rings of power, so she is psychic. She uses this to read Sauron´s mind. Galadriel knows a lot about the Ring and its power so Frodo begins to confide in Galadriel and she becomes a mentor for him. When Frodo looks into the Galadriel's mirror, he sees the eye of Sauron. Once he sees Sauron, the Ring starts to get heavier until he almost falls, but Galadriel saves him. When Frodo is sure he can trust her, he offers her the Ring. She is also able to control one of the lesser three rings, so he knows that she can control some of her crazy impulses.

She shows she is not power hungry and is very wise when she turns down this offer of the ring. She knows that once you put on the ring, that all the evil inside you gets drawn out. Showing her generosity she helps weave the cloaks for the Fellowship. She houses them and helps them prepare on their way forward, to help them she gives them all gifts. One gift is special in particular, the one she gave Gimli. When he asks for a lock of her hair, she cuts out three saying, “your hands should flow with gold, and yet over you gold should have no dominion.” (Tolkien 376)Goldberry is nymph who is very connected to nature, in fact she can call rain. This is very important because she is married to Tom Bombadil, who is the keeper of the woods. Tom finds the Hobbits after he rescues them from Old Man Willow. When they come into her house, she says ¨Fear nothing! For tonight you are under the roof of Tom Bombadil.¨ (Tolkien 123) She sings them to sleep and wakes them up with her very beautiful voice. She helped to clean the Hobbits and reinvigorate them for their Journey. It never says where Goldberry is from, but Tom found her by the river. All three women in Lord of the Rings display compassion, loyalty, empathy, power, and kindness. This was Tolkien's description of a perfect women.