Lady of Lothlórien

The long history of Galadriel's association with the land of Lothlórien dated back into the Second Age. Though the details are obscure, it seems that she was staying there at the time of the forging of the Three Rings. Indeed, she received her Ring Nenya directly from its maker Celebrimbor, who dwelt in Eregion across the Misty Mountains from Lothlórien. At that time Galadriel did not rule the forest land; it was held by the father of Amroth, who is variously named as Amdír or Malgalad. Indeed, during this period the name Lothlórien had not yet been devised, and the land was known as Lórinand.

Before the end of the Second Age, Galadriel departed from Lórinand. Over the long years that followed, its ruler was slain in the Battle of Dagorland during the War of the Last Alliance, and his son Amroth was lost at sea long afterward, in III 1981. At this time the land was left without a ruler, but Galadriel saw that it formed a bulwark against the danger of Dol Guldur across Anduin, and did not wish to see it left leaderless. To ensure that its people were able to face the Shadow of Mirkwood, she took up the rule there herself, and thus became the Lady of Lothlórien.

It was Galadriel who planted the golden trees known as mellyrn in the land, for which it would later become famed as the Golden Wood. With her husband Celeborn, she defended the land against the threat of the Necromancer to the east, and the brooding danger of Durin's Bane in Moria to the west. With the aid of her Ring Nenya, she was able to protect the land through the next thousand years, until the Fall of Sauron in the War of the Ring.

With the destruction of Sauron's One Ring, the power of the Three Rings of the Elves also failed. Galadriel had long yearned to return to her ancient home in the West, and after the War of the Ring this was permitted. The Lady of Lothlórien thus abandoned the Golden Wood of Lórien and took ship at the Grey Havens, sailing back to the Blessed Realm where she had been born millennia beforehand.