"The Demon" by Mikhail Lermontov, and parallels with Sauron x Galadriel
This idea was pitched to me by @leto97, and now I can't get it out of my head. Because the parallels are, indeed, mindblowing. And to a degree that might suggest the show writers actually took inspiration from this to write Galadriel and Sauronâs story in âRings of Powerâ. Can this poem offer some predictions for Season 3, or Season 4?
This poem, "The Demon", is by a Russian poet and is considered a masterpiece of European Romantic poetry, tells of a Demon who falls in love with â and attempts to seduce â a Georgian princess, Tamara. Can he be redeemed by love? Will Heaven even allow it?
The somber Demon [Sauron], banished from the heights,
Soared aimlessly above the sinful earth,
And memories of better days gone by
Kept crowding countlessly before his eyes â
Those days when he, secure in lightâs abode,
Shone radiant, a cherub free from stain;
When incandescent comets, shooting past,
Would pause and lovingly reciprocate
His hailing smile of fond benevolence;
Those days when, through the timeless mists of space,
Desiring knowledge, he would keenly track
Nomadic caravans of shining stars
Strewn out by God across the dark expanse;
Those days when he believed â when he still loved!
Divine Creationâs fortunate first-born! [Mairon, the Maia of AulĂ«]
He knew no spiteful enmity, no doubt,
Nor was his mind yet menaced by the thought
Of barren ages in an endless trainâŠ
So much, so much was his, that all of it
He hadnât strength enough to recollect!
Long since expelled from Heaven, he now roamed
The desert of this world, without repose;
One age after another passed for him
Just as the minutes pass for humankind:
In an unending and unchanging stream.
And in dominion oâer this paltry earth,
He sowed great evil â but without delight. [corrupted by Melkor/Morgoth]
For nowhere did this artistry of his
Meet with resistance in the hearts of men â
And he grew tired of evilâs tedium.
2. First Meeting with the Princess
A great and lofty house, a sprawling court, [the raft]
Did grizzled old Gudal decree be built.
Much toil and many tears did that house cost [shipwreck]
The long-enduring slaves who raised its walls.
From dawn, its shadow creeps across the slopes
Of mountains âround the rock whereon it looms;
And in that rock a staircase has been hewn,
Descending from a turret to the stream;
And down those stairs â a glimmer, now and then â
A figure hurries, in a cloak of white:
It is the princess â young Tamara [Galadriel] â who
Descends to the Aragvi with her pail. [ship to Valinor]
Indeed: the Demon saw her. In a flash
Some agitation inexplicable
Arose within him, not to be denied;
The silent desolation of his soul
Was filled now by a glad, salvific sound â
And once again he knew the sanctity
Of love, of all thatâs good and beautiful!
Long, long did he now linger to admireThe precious spectacle â and long-dead dreamsOf his past glory, like an endless chain.Of star strung after star strung after starProcessed before his eyes as he looked on.
And, shackled by some great but unseen force,
He grew acquainted with a newfound pain:
For sentiment began to speak within
Him â in his long-abandoned native tongue.
Were all these signs but preludes of rebirth? [redemption]
His menaced heart sought refuge in his mind,
And scoured it for shrewd and sneering words â
But no! Forgetting was forbidden him
By God. Indeed, he wished not to forget!
Down at the river raging far below â
Here every step was fraught with threat of death!
Great cliffs loomed to the left â and, to the right,
The fatal torrent roared, tempestuous. [tempest at sea]
It had grown late. Upon the snowy peak
The blush burned out. An evening mist arose...
And so the caravan picked up its pace.
3. The Dead Groom [Husband]
But on this day a great feast is at hand;
The zurna sounds as wine begins to flow.
Soon old Gudal [Finarfin] will see his daughter wed;
He bade the whole clan gather for the feast.
There, on the roof, with carpets rich bespread,
The young bride sits among her friends, and laughs;
With carefree games and songs her wedding eve
Goes by. And evening falls: from distant peaks
The half-disc of the sun still spills its rays;
The revelers, now clapping rhythmically,
Burst out in song, and watch the lovely bride
Take up her tambourine and start to dance.
Behold, how with her hand so delicate
She twirls the tambourine above her head â
One moment fluttering just like a bird,
The next she sinks, alights â and, looking round,
Her moist eyes glimmer softly from beneath
[...]
This was the last time she would ever dance.
She well imagined what the future held â
Alas! â for Gudalâs heir and only child [Galadriel is Finarfin's only daughter, and only surviving child],
For one as used to freedom as was she:
The woeful station of a wife enslaved;
A homeland, new and as of yet unknown,
And equally unknown [Doriath, Middle-earth] â her husbandâs kin [Celeborn, prince of Doriath]
So, now and then, a surreptitious doubt
Obscured the smiling features of her face;
And yet her every movement, as she danced,
Was so full of expression and of grace,
Of effortless and sweet simplicitiy,
Galadriel: Celeborn was his name. We met in a glade of flowers. I was dancing and he saw me there.
Theo: You were dancing?
Galadriel: The war seemed so very far away then. When he went to it, I chided him. His armor didn't fit properly. I called him a silver clam. I never saw him again after that.
Rings of Power, "The Eye", 1x07
In drops of water glistening like pearls,
Upon a body beautiful as hers!
Nor has the hand of any mortal man
Been blessed to dance across a loverâs brow
And unbraid hair as sumptuous as this.
No! Never, since the loss of paradise â [the light of the lost Two Trees of Valinor shines on Galadriel's hair]
I swear it! â had a flower such as she
Spread wide its petals âneath the southern sun.
For lo, the Demon, clever in deceit,
Did rile his fancy with a guileful dream,
And in his mind, concealed by darkest night,
His lips caressed the lips of his new bride.
âCry not, dear child, cry not â you cry in vain!
Your precious tears will not, like living dew,
Fall vivifying on that voiceless corpse:
Their water will but blur your brilliant gaze,
Their fire will but burn your virgin cheeks!
Your groom is far away; he will not see
The grief you bear, nor will he know its worth;
The fleshless gaze of his transfigured eyes
Is now caressed by Heavenâs blessed light;
His ears now hear the songs of ParadiseâŠ
What are the trifling dreams of earthly life,
The moans, the tears of some unhappy girl,
To one who knows undying happiness?
No, no, my dear! A mortal beingâs death â
My earthbound angel, please believe my words! â
Could never, ever be deserving of
A single moment of your precious grief!
[Sauron sees Galadriel's grief, and asks for her forgiveness]
5. The Demon Reveals Itself
Tamara - Who are you? Oh, how dire the words you speak!
Did heaven send you to me, or did hell?
What do you want?âŠ
The Demon - How beautiful you are!
Tamara - No, tell me who you are! Give answer, now..!
The Demon: I am the one whose voice you heard before
Amidst the silence of the midnight hour â
The one whose thoughts were whispered to your soul,
And whose unending sadness you discerned.
I am the one whose form you saw in dreams;
I am the one whose very gaze kills hope;
I am that wretched one whom no one loves;
I am the scourge of all my earthbound slaves;
I am the king of knowledge â freedom, too;
The enemy of heaven, natureâs bane.
And now, behold â I fall upon your feet,
And bring to you â you, whom I so admire â
A quiet prayer of neverending love,
I bring to you the first pain I have felt,
The first tears I have shed upon this earth.
Oh! Hear me â only out of pity! â For
You must know: you could, with but a tender word,
Restore me unto heaven, unto good;
And, in the sacred mantle of your love
Once clothed, I would in love arise anew,
A newborn angel, newly radiant.
Oh! Only hear me out, I pray you, please! â
I am your slave â And now declare my love!
The moment when I first set eyes on you,
I first began to secretly despise
My immortality, my evil might;
Despite myself, I first came to desire
The incomplete and earthly joys of men;
It pained me not to live the life you know â
And how I dreaded life apart from you!
Thus in my bloodless heart a sudden ray
Of light has broken forth, to shine, to live â
While all my sorrow, deep in that old wound,
Keeps stirring, like a serpent long asleep.
What is eternity, without you there?
What good, the boundlessness of my domain?
Theyâre nothing, save for empty, ringing words,
A sprawling church â with no divinity!
Tamara: Begone, O clever spirit! Leave me be,
And speak no more! I cannot trust you, friend!
O Lord, Creator, hear me!⊠What is this?
I cannot pray!⊠My poor deluded mind
Is by some deadly venom overcome!
Your words would doom me to the fires of Hell,
Your words are fire and poison, nothing more...
[Sauron reveals himself to Galadriel]
6. The Demon Temptation (he asks the Princess to help him achieve redemption)
There is an ocean vast, ethereal,
Where without rudders, without masts or sails,
Drift effortlessly, through eternal mists,
The graceful choirs of luminaries bright;
Across the boundlessness of heavenâs fields
Roam sinuous and sheep-like flocks of clouds
Intangible, and leaving not a trace;
The hour of parting, or reunionâs hour
Means neither joy nor misery to them;
For they no longing for the future know,
Nor do they feel regret about the past.
You too, my dear, need only think of them
On days of harrowing adversity;
Be too, like them, without a single care,
Without concern for any earthly thing!
[Sauron tempt Galadriel into joining him]
7. The Demon torments the Princess
As soon as night, its somber shroud outspread,
Obscures the towering Caucasian peaks,
And the entire world below, bewitched
By some enchanted word, falls still,
And nothing moves, save for some withered grass
Stirred by the wind that steals along a cliff
And soon inspires a bird that shelters there
To spread its wings and flutter in the dark,
[Galadriel is tormented by visions of Sauron, via Nenya]
For surely you have noticed: day by day
Iâm wilting, victim of some poison vile!
A clever spirit surely torments me
With some dark dream that I cannot resist;
Iâm lost, my end is near â take pity, please!
[Tamara tells her kin she's being tormented by a "clever spirit" and needs to escape it = Galadriel tells the same to Elrond]
8. The Demon visits the Princess
While far below, beneath the vineyard vines,
Insatiably imbibing heavenâs dew,
A flower spreads its petals in the night â
As soon, I tell you, as the golden moon
Ascends the sky in silence oâer the peaks,
To steal a loving glance at you, my dear...
Itâs then that Iâll come flying to your side,
And linger with you till the morning star,
And waft delightful dreams of purest gold
Upon the silken lashes of your eyes...â
[Sauron comes for Galadriel, at last, in Season 2]
And then the wondrous voice withdrew from her,
And, word by word, its music died away;
Now startled, she jumps up and looks around...
A painful longing, inexpressible,
Now seized her breast; and nothing, next to this,
Was any sadness, fear, or ecstasy:
Her every passion seethed within her heart;
It was as if her soul had burst its chains,
And flames were coursing through her every vein â
[Sauron stabs Galadriel with Morgoth's crown]
And that same voice, so gloriously new,
Seemed still to resonate from ear to ear.
Near morning, at long last, a longed-for sleep
Sank down and shut her weary, reddened eyes;
But sleep too stirred her disconcerted thoughts
With some uncannily prophetic dream:
A visitor had come from far away,
And, radiant with rays of unseen suns,
He stood there, gently bowed above her bed;
He stood there â and his loving gaze beheld
Her with such sadness, with such tenderness â
And with, it seemed, compassion most profound.
This was no angel sent there from on high;
No guardian ordained for her by God;
No halo spun from iridescent rays
Adorned the locks that ringed that handsome face.
Nor yet was this some awful fiend of Hell,
Enduring torment for his many sins â
No, no! He looked like lucid evening â
Not night, not day â not dark, not light!
8. The Princess choses "death" to resist the Demon
Give up your child, bereft of sanity,
To the most holy conventâs certain care,
Wherein our Lord and Savior all sustains;
Before His Face Iâll pour my every tear.
No smiles, no joys are left me in this worldâŠ
Like relics shrouded in serenity,
May I too find the shelter of a cell â
As of a tomb â long, long before my timeâŠâ
[Galadriel jumps to her death to escape Sauron]
9. The Princess is sent to a Sanctuary by her kin, to protect her from the Demon
So, to a monastery far away [future Rivendell]Her kinfolk [Elves] sorrowfully sent the girl,And there in modest clothes, from sackcloth sewn,
She humbly wrapped her ever youthful breast.
9. In spite of her prayers, the Demon's temptation and her desire for him still endure on her heart
But still, beneath her nunâs attire â just as
It had beneath a dress of patterned gold â
That same illicit, sinful fantasy
Kept beating in her heart, unfadingly.
Before the altar, in the candlelight;
Amidst her solemn, sacred songs of praise;
Amidst her prayers, the same familiar voice
Would oft assail her ears with tempting words.
Along the gloomy templeâs mighty vault,
A shape she seemed to know would sometimes glide,
Without a noise, with no trace left behind,
Through clouds of incense rising weightlessly.
He shone there, silent, like a star, and lured
Her, called to her... Where would he have her go?
What happens next in the poem? Hypothetical predictions for Season 3?
1. The Demon lingers around the sanctuary
In the poem, the Demon goes to the monastery to claim the princess. At first, he hesitates and does not dare to enter, and âviolate their blessed sanctityâ:Â
A shroud ethereal of evening mist
In darkness clothes the sleeping Georgian hills.
True to his custom, in the still of night,
The Demon flew about the cloister walls.
But for a long, long while he didnât dare
To violate their blessed sanctity.
Indeed â if for a moment â he seemed poised
To cast aside his merciless intent.
There, lost in thought beside that lofty wall,
He paced about â and where his footsteps fell,
The leaves would tremble in the windless shade.
Again he lifts his gaze: again he stares
Into her window, where the lamp still shines: [the sun still shines?]
Long has she waited, waited for someone!
And then, amidst the all-embracing quiet,
Some graceful fingers strum the chonguri,
And suddenly a lovely song resounds;
Its notes drift forth, and play without respite,
As measuredly as tear falls after tear.
So tender, so exquisite was the song
That it might well have come here from on high,
Composed in heaven for this sinful earth!
How like an angelâs voice â an angel who
Desired to see some long-lost friend below,
And secretly descended from the clouds
To sing to that dear friend of days gone by
To lend some sweetness to their suffering...
And thus loveâs ache, loveâs longing restlessness,
First pierced the Demonâs heart â and, knowing now
The fear that love entails, he wished to flee,
To flee â and yet his wings refused to move!
What miracle is this? A heavy tear
Falls from his faded eyes â falls to the ground â
And to this very day, outside that cell,
Beneath that window, one can see a stone
Burned straight through by a tear as hot as fire â
By an infernal and inhuman tear!
2. The Demon's love for the Princess is too strong for him to stay away
Eventually, the Demon decides to enter the sanctuary, and confess his love for her:Â
He enters now â his heart prepared to love,
His soul no longer shutting out the good,
Believing that a long-awaited life â
A new life â a new day â was now to dawn.
The vague anxiety of boundless hope,
The fear that lurks in mute uncertainty â
These unfamiliar feelings filled his soul,
These feelings known to all who have known love.
Alas, they did but augur things to come!
3. The Demon fights a God's messenger to get to the Princess (and wins)
When the Demon enters the sanctuary, he discovers a "agent of God" is there, protecting the princessâs soul against him:
He enters, looks â and looming there, beholds
Godâs messenger, the guardian angel who
Stood watch above that sinner beautiful,
His brow bathed in a pure celestial light,
His smile impassive, and his shining wings
Protecting her from her soulâs enemy;
And suddenly a ray of Heavenâs light
Shone forth and smote the Demonâs unclean eyes;
Where words of love might have caressed his ears,
An onerous reproach now thundered forth:
âO restless spirit, full of wickedness,
Who called you here in midnightâs tranquil dark?
There are none in this place who worship you;
Nor has the breath of evil breeched these walls.
Dare not transgress, dare not in sin draw near
To one I hold in love and sanctity.
I bid you speak: who summoned you?â
To this,
The evil spirit glowered in reply,
His gaze now burning red with jealousy;
And in his demonâs soul again was stirred
That age-old poison â hatred of the good.
âSheâs mine!â he bellowed, with abysmal might.
âAbandon her, for I have laid my claim â
While you, her guardian, have come too late,
And you are not to judge her, or judge me.
Upon her heart, replete with sinful pride,
I have already set my awful seal;
Thereâs nothing sacred here for you to save;
Here, I am master now; here I now love!â
The Angel, overcome, with eyes downcast,
Looked one last time upon the wretched girl,
And slowly, beating high his shining wings,
He rose, and plunged into a sea of light.
4. The Demon confesses his eternal love for the Princess
Coming out victorious of his fight against this âAngel of Lightâ, the Demon eventually gets to the princess, and confesses his eternal love for her:Â
Tamara - So why, why do you now profess your love?
The Demon - Why do I love you, lovely girl? Alas,
I do not know myself! I only know
That, full of newfound life, from my vile brow
Iâve finally removed my crown of thorns,
And cast it â all that was â into the dust.
My heaven and my hell are in your eyes;
I love you with an otherworldly fire;
I love you in a way you cannot love:
With all the ecstasy, with all the force
Of thoughts immortal, and immortal dreams.
For since the world began, deep in my soul,
Your captivating image was engraved;
Long did that image drift, beyond my reach,
Through the eternal etherâs wilderness;
Long, long disquieting my every thought,
The sweet name you now bear did sound to me;
And in those days of bliss, in paradise,
You were the only blessing that I lacked.
Oh, if, poor girl, you could but understand
What neverending anguish I have known!
[...]
5. The Princess is conflicted: she loves the Demon but wants to be on God's side
The princess still resists the Demon, and accuses him for stealing her peace, and tormenting her, but sheâs conflicted because sheâs in love and wants the Demon in her heart:
Tamara - Hush, hush, someone might hear us!
The Demon - Weâre alone.
Tamara - But God sees all!
The Demon - He will not deign to look: He has eyes but for Heaven â not for earth!
Tamara - And what of punishment? The fires of Hell?
The Demon - What of them? You will share their flame with me!
Tamara - Be who you may, my uninvited friend â
Youâve robbed me of my peace forever... Yet â
Poor sufferer! â I cannot help but hear
Your tale of sorrow with a secret joy.Â
But what awaits me if your feelingâs feigned?
Or what if you, concealing some deceit...
Have mercy, please! What love do I deserve?
Of what good is my wretched soul to you?
Could I mean any more to God above
Than all the girls who did not draw your eye?
Alas, they too are good, and beautiful,
Their chaste sheets too, like those on this nunâs bed,
Were never crumpled by a mortal hand...
No! You must swear a sacred oath to me...
You must tell me â for you can see my tears;
You can discern this sinful womanâs dreams!
How could you help but strike fear in my soul?
But still â you understand, you know all things,
And surely you will show me charity!
So, swear to me... That, from this moment forth,
You do renounce all things acquired in vice â
Or can it really be that there remain
No oaths or promises you will not break?
6. The Demons promises to abandon his evil pursuits, if he can have the Princess' soul, for them to be together
Then, the Demon makes the ultimate love confession, in which he swears to abandon all of his evil pursuits for her, and take her to heaven, where they can be together:
The Demon - I swear to you now â by creationâs dawn,
I swear to you now â by its final day,
I swear by evilâs base ignominy,
And by the triumph of eternal truth,
And by the bitter torment of defeat,
And by the short-lived dream of victory;
And by the hope of seeing you again,
By separation menacing anew.
I swear to you now by the spirit hosts,
And by the fate of demons in my thrall,
And by the swords of angels passionless â
Those ever-watchful enemies of mine;
I swear to you by Heaven and by Hell,
By all thatâs holy on this earth â by you:
I swear to you now by your final glance,
And by the first tear that you ever shed,
And by the breath of your unspiteful lips,
By every ringlet of your silken locks;
I swear to you by bliss, by suffering â
And more than all of this: I swear by love.
I now renounce my lust for cold revenge;
I now renounce my every prideful thought;
From this day forth, false words of flattery
I will not pour, like poison, in menâs ears;
My inmost wish is to be reconciled
With God. I want to love, I want to pray,
I want now to believe â believe in good.
With this repentful tear, Iâll wipe away â
Upon a brow now worthy of your love â
The ashen traces left by Heavenâs fire;
And may this world, in placid ignorance,
Live on, and prosper â Iâll not interfere!
Believe me, lovely girl! I am the first
To understand you, and to know your worth.
In choosing you as my most sacred prize,
I choose to lay my power at your feet.
But for an instant of your gift of love,
I offer you all of eternity.
Have faith, Tamara, in my constancy,
My greatness both in evil and in love â
For I, the etherâs freedom-loving son,
Will transport you to realms above the stars,
And you will be the empress of the sky,
My sole companion, and my only love;
And there â without regret, without concern â
Youâll soon regard this earth for what it is:
A place where no true joy is to be found,
Nor any beauty that is long of life;
A place of naught but sin and sinâs reward;
A place where only petty passion dwells,
A place thatâs home to no one capable
Of hating â or of loving â without fear.
Or do you truly not know what it is â
The momentary love of humankind?
The youthful agitation of the blood?
But as the days race by, the blood grows cold!
Do lovers long endure when forced apart?
Who can resist the lure of novelty?
Who can withstand the boredom, the fatigue
Of indefatigable fantasy?
No! Not for you, my love, are all these things!
Nor yet has cruel Fate ordained for you
To waste away in these repressive walls,
A slave to othersâ jealous crudity,
Amidst the meager-spirited and cold,
Amidst false friends and outright enemies,
Amidst your anxious fears and fruitless hopes,
Amidst your empty and oppressive toil!
No! Woefully, behind these lofty walls,
Youâll not live on, your passionâs flame snuffed out,
Amidst orisons, equally removed
From the divine and from humanity.
No, no, my lovely creature: You were meant
For an entirely different kind of life;
A different sort of suffering awaits,
As do the depths of other, unknown joys.
Abandon all your previous desires,
And leave this wretched world unto its fate â
And in exchange, Iâll open up for you
Proud knowledgeâs unplumbable abyss;
A host of spirits, bound to me in thrall,
Iâll cast before your feet, to serve your whim;
To you, my beautiful, my love, Iâll give
Maidservants magical and light as air;
And for your head, from off an eastern star
Iâll wrest a brilliant crown of purest gold;
Iâll rob some flowers of their midnight dew,
And set them in that crown like precious pearls;
Iâll steal some crimson from the setting sun,
And wrap it tenderly about your waist;
Iâll saturate the very air you breathe
With breath of flowers fragrant and pristine;
And every minute Iâll caress your ears
With wondrous notes of otherworldly strings;
Iâll raise exquisite mansions; you will dwell
In halls from turquoise and from amber wrought;
Iâll swim down to the bottom of the sea,
Iâll soar beyond the heavensâ highest clouds;
Iâll give you all, all that the earth can give â
Just love me!..
7. The Demon kisses the Princess, and takes her soul
The Demon kisses the princess and she dies.
And with that, he dared to touch
His lips, aflame with an infernal fire,
To hers, which trembled as they met his kiss.
Her pious supplications had been met
By words filled with the power to seduce;
A mighty gaze now looked into her eyes,
And scorched her. In the darkness of the night,
He shone forth, looming high above her now,
A deadly blade â yet irresistible.
Alas! The evil spirit did prevail!
The deadly venom of the Demonâs kiss
In but an instant pierced her fragile breast.
A terrible and torment-laded cry
Now rent the silence of that tranquil night.
That cry held everything: both love and pain,
Both accusation and one final plea,
A last farewell, pronounced in hopelessness â
A farewell to her still-young earthly life
8. The God's messenger returns to fight the Demon for the Princess' soul.
The Demon has the princess's soul, now. But the "Angel of Light" returns to fight him. And the princess, seeing the Demon's true form, is now terrified of him, and sides with her guardian angel, instead.
Amidst a blue, ethereal expanse
A holy angel sent by God above
Flew onward, borne aloft by wings of gold,
And bearing, in his merciful embrace,
A sinful soul far from the world below.
And with his mild and blessed words of hope
He drove away the soulâs remaining doubts,
And with his tears of love he washed from it
All trace of misdeed, and of suffering.
And from afar, the songs of paradise
Already reached their ears â when suddenly,
Abruptly cutting off the path ahead,
A hellish spirit rose from the abyss,
As savage as a roaring whirlwindâs rage,
Yet shining like a bolt of lightning bright â
And proudly, in his mad audacity,
He bellowed at the angel: âShe is mine!â
And, holding back its terror with a prayer,
Tamaraâs sinful but repentant soul
Pressed close against its guardian angelâs chest â
For its eternal future was at stake.
Again the Demon loomed before her â but,
Dear God, could she have recognized him now?
For how malicious had his eyes become!
And how corrupted by the deathly blight
Of enmity that never, ever ends!
And how sepulchral was the blast of cold
That issued from that dead, unmoving face!
âBegone, O somber spirit of despair!â
Godâs mighty angel thundered in response.
âYou were allowed to triumph for a time,
But now the time has come for God to judge,
And in His judgment He is merciful;
The days of tribulation now are past;
As from her earthly robe of sinful flesh,
She has at last been freed from evilâs chains.
Know this: long have we here awaited her!
For hers was one of those souls so designed
To live a life that lasts but for a flash,
A life of torment unendurable,
A life of unattainable delight:
From finest ether the Creator wove
The living fabric of these precious souls;
They were not fashioned for the world below,
For was the world below devised for them!
This weary soul has paid a cruel price
For all the doubts it harbored while on earth...
Above all, though, it suffered, and it loved â
And Heavenâs gates stand open now â for love!â
And with forbidding eyes the angel looked
Once more upon the Demon come to tempt,
And, with a joyous wingbeat rising high,
He plunged into the radiance of heaven.
The vanquished Demon could do naught but curse
His dreams long-cherished â his demented dreams!
For once again he found himself alone â
Alone, alone in all the universe â
Without a hope â without a hope of love!
Could this, actually, play out in "Rings of Power"?
Sauron (in spiritual form or through visions, illusions or dreams) lingers around Rivendell (or Lindon), looming over Galadriel, calling for her (or something of that sort);Â
The Elves would somehow realize this; and Gandalf comes into the picture to help (heâs a âAngel of Lightâ and a âagent of Godâ, literally, as Maia of ManwĂ«);Â
Eventually, Sauron arrives, in the flesh, to take the Three Elven rings of power and claim Galadriel as his;Â
He fights with Gandalf (the guardian over Galadriel), and wins;Â
He gets to Galadriel: he wants to take her to the Unseen world, where they can be together;
Galadriel succumbs to Sauron/darkness, at last, and he takes her spirit to the Unseen world, where she sees his true form (like Mirdania in 2x04), for the first time, and realises just how evil and corrupted he truly is (no chance of redemption);
Gandalf arrives to fight Sauron in the Unseen world (because he's also from that realm, and has the power to do this), and wins.
Galadriel realises her mistake, and terrified of Sauron's true form, sides with Gandalf/The Light.
By having Galadriel taken away from him, Sauron sinks into the depths of despair and suffering, and fully embraces pure evil as the new âDark Lordâ (forges the One ring?), and in Season 4, we would see him doing the most diabolical stuff yet, in NĂșmenor (human sacrifices in worship of Morgoth to piss off the Valar).