In The Fellowship of the Ring, there is a scene in which Frodo offers the One Ring to Galadriel. For a moment, Galadriel is cast in a dark glow and we are meant to see a glimpse of a path untaken. This is one of the few times in the book where Frodo freely offers the Ring to another. It's also the time when the potential recipient is most tempted, and the potential combination most deadly. It is all too short a scene, and I have always felt that much more was going on than Tolkien outwardly let on. Whenever I read the scene or see it played out on film I am captured by such a flight of fancy: what if Galadriel had taken the One Ring?

So for the past 2 years or so I've been writing this little piece of fiction on and off. It's by no means finished: general editing needs to be done, there's at least one more chapter that should be added near the end, and some of the continuity and pacing in the last chapter is sloppy at best. Nevertheless, the time has come where I'd like to share it with people and get some feedback. Numerous hours were spent reading over sections of Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion, and Tolkien's Unfinished Tales to figure out what motivates Galadriel and provide tight continuity to Tolkien's original works. This is not Tolkien, it's Middle Earth turned on it's head; a Middle Earth that was not meant to be. Minor characters become main characters, and main characters... well, you'll see.

I suppose that it's literally the Mirror of Galadriel. Here is Altarial: Queen of the Night.