有些胜利以自己的衰落为代价
摧毁魔戒会击败 Sauron，也会使精灵三戒失去力量。Lothlórien 得救以后，仍会褪色；精灵只能西渡，或者逐渐变成被人遗忘的林野居民。
Galadriel 面临的选择因此很难。夺取魔戒，她可以保住自己的世界，却会成为新的 Dark Lord；拒绝它，胜利也会使她的世界消失。世间好物不坚牢 写的是一般的无常，这里的失去更具体。她选择了胜利，也接受自己的时代随之结束。
这和 皮洛士式的胜利 有一处差别。皮洛士付出的代价太高，本可以换一种赢法；Galadriel 面对的代价却无法从胜利中剥离。魔戒一旦被毁，维持 Lothlórien 的力量也会一起消退。
He suspects, but he does not know – not yet. Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten. And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair! I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.’ J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Links to this note
- The Fellowship of the Ring
精灵这一边有另一组时间。不变的人会看着整个世界迅速老去，摧毁魔戒也意味着 Lothlórien 失去力量，有些胜利以自己的衰落为代价。他们口中的工艺被其他种族统称为 magic，见 别人称为魔法的，也许只是另一种族的日常技艺。