So we’re discussing the Elven Gate chapter in the DOS Chapter of the Week discussion on the Hobbit movie board here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...forum_view_collapsed; and there are mixed opinions on whether the bit with Gandalf and Galadriel is telepathy or a remembered conversation, so I thought I’d see what people think. What say you? I think it’s a remembered conversation from the White Council scene, with some extra content that we didn’t see.
...but I voted 'Memory' because I'm a devotee of Occam's Razor (when there are multiple possibilities, pick the simplest).
Of course, Galadriel's observations to Elrond in RotK movie are similar. There is no doubt that they are capable of telepathy, so it could have been either.
His reaction at the end of the conversation
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seemed to indicate that she was there, and then suddenly was not there. Memories can be powerful, even evoking a sense of presence; but then, as I understand it, getting inside someone's head even more so.
A third possibility is that she was actually there, but then vanished. Or maybe she projected herself there somehow, as in astral projection? Finally they may have met on the spiritual plane, and his reaction was due to his suddenly finding himself back on the material plane?
Elizabeth is correct, the scene is deliberately ambiguous. What I took away from it is that Galadriel's presence is powerful, whether she is on one's mind or there in the flesh.
Something they had discussed privately in Rivendell (which is exactly how she looks) as a what-if possibility that the sight of the Eye graffiti triggered.
If you look closely behind her, it's clear she's standing in the pavilion where the white council took place. You can see the green vines as well as one of the light stone carved pillars behind her that look just like the White Council dome
Also, it's pretty obvious that she is not in Lorien at this point for the same reason
(This post was edited by Cirashala on Jun 29 2014, 5:47am)
Tolkien tells us they could do this in "Many Partings":
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Often long after the hobbits were wrapped in sleep, [Elrond, Celeborn, Galadriel, and Gandalf] would sit together under the stars, recalling the ages that were gone and all their joys and labours in the world, or holding council, concerning the days to come. If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands. For they did not move or speak with mouth, looking from mind to mind; and only their shining eyes stirred and kindled as their thoughts went to and fro.
After Sauron was revealed, I assume they didn't dare use telepathy long-distance, just as they hid the Rings, but this particular conversation between Gandalf and Galadriel happened before that.
It HAD to be some kind of telepathic conversation, not a memory, because the conversation itself was different. In AUJ she said "You are right to help Thorin Oakenshield, but I fear this quest has set in motion things we do not understand." Then in DOS she said "Beware the Necormancer, he is not what he seems," which she DIDN'T say in AUJ, and then she tells him to go to the tombs. She DIDN'T tell Gandalf to go to the tombs in AUJ, she told him to help Thorin, so this was a total change of plan based on the new information. Besides, she has displayed her telepathic ability many times, including FoTR. Yeah, it's some long-distance telepathy, but it's also Gandalf. And he told Radagast to deliver the message in order to get him to leave Dol Goldur - possibly Galadriel already knows and is on her way, we only have to wait another 5 months to find out!