In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Galadriel, and her fellow elves, take up a large part of screen time. As she embarks on a mission to destroy Sauron and avenge her fallen brother, she and her company stumble across signs that the dark lord is still out there. However, battered and bruised, her company abandons the mission and, left with no other choice, they return to their Middle-earth home of Lindon.
However, this technically isn’t the true home of the elvish race. That honor goes to Valinor, otherwise known as the Undying Lands. As a reward for their bravery, High King Gil-galad grants Galadriel and co. permission to return to Valinor, away from Middle-earth. But what is Valinor? What does it mean for Galadriel, and can anyone visit?
What is Valinor in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?’ Is it Heaven?
Yes, elves in Tolkien’s universe are immortal which certainly gives them heavenly abilities. And, towards the end of the premiere episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, we see the horizon part as Galadriel approaches, which blinding, golden light beaming through. Looks like any version of Heaven we’ve seen.
However, no, Valinor is not Middle-earth’s version of Heaven. It is the realm of the Valar, who are essentially God-like beings, but not the God (Eru Ilúvatar). They can hang out there in utopian bliss, along with any ring-bearers (note the ending of Return of the King).
Valinor used to exist as a physical place, on the content of Aman, in the world, until Sauron essentially convinced Ar-Pharazôn, the last king of Númenor, to invade Valinor in a futile attempt to absorb immortality for the human race (something which was never going to work). Those in Valinor called upon the help of Eru Ilúvatar, who came and basically plucked Valinor straight out of its roots and shoved it into space. Gods, eh?
Can anyone go to Valinor?
Valinor is the land of the immortal, or undying, so regular mortals cannot visit there and simply live forever. In fact, the living conditions there would likely make their lives much shorter. However, we see Frodo and co. in The Return of the King visit Valinor, but they were given explicit permission to do so as a reward for…all they just went through.
The only reason Galadriel rejects Valinor at the final second is that she’s still determined to avenge her brother. If she remains in Valinor, she’ll have an extended life without any closure. That doesn’t sound great to me, does it sound great to you?
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.