Lothlórien

Scholars have noted that Lothlórien represents variously an Earthly Paradise; an Elfland where time is different, reflecting the traditions of European folklore; and a land of light striving biblically with the darkness of evil.

Galadriel made contact with an existing Nandorin realm, Lindórinand, in what became Lothlórien,[T 1] and planted there the golden mallorn trees which Gil-galad had received as a gift from Tar-Aldarion.

In the Third Age, Amroth, the former Lord of Lothlórien, went to the south of Middle-earth with his beloved Nimrodel, but drowned in the Bay of Belfalas after she went missing in the Ered Nimrais and never returned.

The main part of the realm was the triangular region between the converging rivers Silverlode and Anduin, called the Naith (Sindarin for "spearhead")[T 11] by the Elves or the Gore or Angle in the Common Speech.

The city was "some ten miles" from the point where the rivers Silverlode (Sindarin: Celebrant) and Anduin met,[T 12] close to the eastern border of the realm.

[b] Stairways of ladders were built around the main trees, and at night the city was lit by "many lamps" – "green and gold and silver".

The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher writes that Galadriel perceives Sauron with Lothlórien's light, "but cannot be pierced by it in return".

[8] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that to get there, the Fellowship first wash off the stains of ordinary life by wading the River Nimrodel.

[10] The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that the Fellowship debated how much time had passed while they were there, Sam Gamgee recalling that the moon was waning just before they arrived, and was new when they left, though they all felt they had only been there for a few days.

[10] Flieger however writes that there is a definite contradiction between Frodo's position, that there is an actual difference in time between Lothlórien and everywhere else, and Legolas's, that it is a matter of perception.

That is not, writes Flieger, the end of the matter, as she feels that Aragorn reintroduces the dilemma when he says that the moon carried on changing "in the world outside": this suggests once again that Lothlórien had its own laws of nature, as in a fairy tale.

The young Tolkien and his fiancée Edith Bratt visited Warwick; in 1915 he wrote a celebration of Warwickshire, Kortirion Among the Trees.

Garth suggests that the central green hill of Cerin Amroth in Lothlórien recalls the grassy Motte of Warwick Castle, known as Ethelfleda's Mound and the happy time he spent there in his youth.

[13] Lothlórien's appearance in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was based on the artwork of the conceptual designer Alan Lee.

[15] In The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, Lorien was a region introduced to the game in March 2009, which allows players to visit Caras Galadhon and other places, and complete quests from the elves.