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Sauron Make Mordor Great Again Amazon

Written By Friday, April 22, 2022 Add Comment Edit

Amazon has washed a pretty good job tossing up tantalizing nuggets about their upcoming v-flavor Lord of the Rings series. First it was those varying maps of differing time periods. Then there were some casting announcements with a batch of unfamiliar faces (always a good matter, if yous ask me). More recently we saw the "teaser" video announcing the title of the thing: The Rings of Power.

Then on February tertiary, they dropped twenty-three character "posters" depicting hands (some make clean, some grimy, some in between), lots of clothes, armor, assorted trappings, weapons, and even some beards. And, of course… rings. These images offer a slew of new details to consider—merely mostly for us to speculate about and approximate at. And obviously for us all to talk about, because publicity is a affair. Nervous as I am about the whole venture, I'thou even so happy to see glimpses of some actual Númenóreans, aka the Dúnedain, aka the Sea-kings of Westernesse, aka Aragorn's ancestors…

So let'southward dig into some of this.

…Only permit's also not go crazy, either. There are few hard facts here, and it's impossible to map every particular to established Tolkien lore. Which means a lot of it is fabricated for new stories. Showtime, we still don't exactly know what rights Amazon has acquired from the Tolkien Manor. How much of The Silmarillion tin they even refer to? The whole of the Akallabêth, the Downfall of Númenor? We've got so few solid clues near what the testify is up to. Most of information technology can only be conjectured nigh. And so let'southward do that! Nerdily and vehemently.

Accept this wonderfully bedraggled and apple tree-wielding, wool-clad chap with a grey beard and a apprehensive bearing. (Click the Twitter link to see the full poster epitome.)

My book-aligned geek-brain wants to say this is some beggar or wise soothsayer among the not-Númenórean Men of Eriador in the 2d Age. That'due south what I desire it to be. What I'm afraid it will be is a wizard—that is, one of the Istari, coming onto the scene manner as well early on. (In Tolkien's books, the wizards arrive on Center-earth one thousand years into the Third Historic period, specifically to oppose the returning shadow of Sauron after the loss of his One Ring.)

And it is the Second Age this show is primarily concerned with. We know this. All the Rings of Power—the Three, the Vii, the 9, and finally the One—are going to be the crux of this tale and they start to pop up 1,500 years into the Second Historic period. Put another way, the Rings of Power are made roughly 1,941 years before Isildur cuts the I Ring from Sauron's "dead" paw. Of course, Amazon might muck effectually with Tolkien's timeline—I'll be super impressed if they don't—merely for now I'd like to pretend they will be faithful to the timeline. So let'southward take a look out the major events marked in The Tale of Years from Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings and see what they're supposed to be working with.

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Ane important book paradigm is the fact that Sauron's identity, or even his existence as a threat at all, remains unknown for hundreds of years later the defeat of his boss, Morgoth, which is what wrapped up the Showtime Age. Sure, Sauron was a known foe long before—especially in the Beren and Lúthien story—but for all intents and purposes, he's long gone. Gil-galad, the last High Rex of the Noldor, does eventually sense that "a new shadow arises in the East," but he has no idea who or what information technology is. Sauron's been lying low, totally off-grid.

Now, I'chiliad guessing the serial won't begin after the forging of said rings—they'll want to show them beingness made—then it needs to become underway somewhere before the year 1500. Númenor is already a meaning power at this signal and it has non however fallen under the shadow of evil. Ostensibly the Body of water-kings will starting time off the show as a forcefulness of good. How better to appreciate and milk shake our heads at their eventual corruption and fall? They're a kingdom of Men graced by the Valar with long (but non immortal) life, whose stature, skill, and technology are superior in skill to their mortal cousins on Middle-globe.

All correct, and then the Rings of Ability get underway in the realm of Eregion around 1500, so Sauron finishes the One in 1600, and that'due south his big reveal: when the fair guise of Annatar is lifted and the Elves become aware of Sauron. And because his ring scheme fails he's pissed and starts gearing upwards for war. Still Sauron himself doesn't become to Númenor and start prepping it for its downfall until the year 3,262. That's a HUGE gap of time.

Does Amazon programme on somehow cramming the ring-forging events together with the fall of Númenor? I promise not. Those ii things can't really happen at the aforementioned fourth dimension. They're separated by more than a millennium. Just I can well imagine Amazon compressing the timeline. Which I'm not wild virtually. But I go it.

Anyway, let'south become dorsum to some of these posters.

Apple tree Dude could be just about anyone. Tom Bombadil, for all nosotros know. But permit'south say he'due south a wizard. Like Radagast or one of the Blue wizards? And then either Amazon is (one) dragging Third Age events into the 2d or (ii) establishing the basic concept of wizards early and quite apart from the Istari. That is, making it a vocation of its ain singled-out from the divine agents sent by the Valar. Is that do-able? Just with some fudging. I get the sense that Amazon wants to be able to throw effectually the word "wizard" to rope in more people familiar only with Peter Jackson's films.

In Unfinished Tales, the beginning line of the "Istari" chapter is:

Sorcerer is a translation of Quenya istar (Sindarin ithron): ane of the members of an 'order' (as they called it), claiming to possess, and exhibiting, eminent noesis of the history and nature of the World.

Rather than making the word synonymous with the Istari who came in the Third Age (Gandalf, Saruman, etc.), they could but exist trying to plant wizard as a nomenclature for worldly sages. Consider the style hobbits regard Gandalf in Bilbo's youth; he'due south known every bit a "wandering magician," which implies some thought of wizards in general. The sort of old men who tell wonderful tales at parties and give enchanted diamond studs to the Old Took. Who bring fireworks. Who whisk otherwise sensible hobbits off onto adventures.

And look, anything nosotros run into as anachronistic could exist explained as being part of a framing story, be it wizards or hobbits. Mayhap the setup is a hobbit and a magician in the early Fourth Age discussing the events of the Second? And so so the testify could freely toggle back and forth through time as it pleases. Wouldn't it exist neat if the frame story was a grouping of hobbits (Harfoots, Fallohides, and Stoors) visiting Rivendell and discussing the by with some lingering Elven loremaster (why non Celeborn, who stays in that location later Galadriel has sailed West)? Past this point, Gondor and Arnor accept been restored by King Elessar.

So who else practice we meet in these posters? Many speculations abound on social media, and there are some insights I don't want to take any credit for. So let'due south just await at but a few. Such as Spikey over here.

If this isn't Sauron, it'south certain meant to invoke the aesthetics of Mordor. If information technology is the Dark Lord, it'd need to be either pre-Annatar Sauron or post-Rings Sauron; the whole time he's in his Groucho Marx-mustache-and-glasses mode, adopting his Annatar persona, he is off-white-seeming and wise and super charismatic. Curious aside: I'm hundred-to-one that Amazon would incorporate annihilation from The Nature of Middle-world into their evidence, but in that book we larn that while he was "cozening" the Elves as Annatar, Sauron couldn't simultaneously exert his authority over all the Orcs. Which is why, once he'south unmasked, it takes him ninety years to get ready for war.

This dark-armored, sword-wielding individual might as well be a Ringwraith, maybe the Witch-king himself. Just the Nazgûl aren't supposed to show upwards until more than than five hundred years later on Sauron wages war with the Elves. Of course, this could be a red herring. Whether Spikey is Sauron or non, i of the other poster characters could besides be him as Annatar. Like Goldy Frocks over here.

I mean, probably non. That's more likely a Númenórean king, like Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, or just an ostentatious Elf-lord (that doesn't feel quite right, just you never know), what with all those shiny rings. Elves do like shiny things, peculiarly the Noldor. Speaking of rings, while we're seeing how popular rings are among some Second Historic period races, not as well many of the ones we come across in these posters are candidates for bodily Rings of Power, since the xvi Rings of Ability each bore its own gemstones. Unless some of the rings nosotros're seeing here are the mere "essays in the craft before it was full-grown," every bit Tolkien put it.

I think Amazon just wants to put the idea of rings in our heads.

But not all the rings shown hither are fancy. In fact, we come across quite a range of social classes represented: fine robes and armor, homespun cloth, well-worn cloaks, vocational trappings, and even weapons. A tool of agriculture in the hands of ane who could be a peasant or noble; state folk with their difficult-won fruits; mariners or explorers with practical gear; a lordly hand holding the Sceptre of rulership of Númenor; a red-robed figure belongings a scroll (Elrond? Celebrimbor?); a scarlet-dressed woman with a book; a white blossom held in lord's day-browned hands.

At present this is surely a red-bearded Dwarf king, or at least a weaponsmith.

This could exist Durin Two or III, the king of Khazad-dûm. Remember, these are the "happier times" when the Elves and Dwarves got along and set upwardly doors with like shooting fish in a barrel-to-remember friendly passwords. Some have translated the runes on that hammer as "Awake, sleeping stone." Notation the gold dust on his easily, which we see on some others' fingers too. Is that symbolic for the works of the Dwarves and the animalism for golden that the Seven Rings given to them by Sauron will stir in their hearts, or is it merely the byproduct of their craft?

This one's unfamiliar jewelry and gilt robes could propose Dwarves or the Haradrim. Her skin is dark, but she doesn't look like an enemy, which is encouraging. Harad is a land and culture ripe for exploration! Her shirt has a kind of bristles-like flowing pattern, doesn't information technology? Which has me thinking of Dwarves again. If they were beingness faithful, Amazon would exist sure to give any female Dwarves beards, too. From The Peoples of Center-earth:

nor indeed can their womenkind be discerned by those of other race, exist it in feature or in gait or in vocalization, nor in any wise salve this: that they go not to state of war, and seldom relieve at direst need result from their deep bowers and halls.

Simply if this is a lady of Harad, what is her vocation? Like all mortal Men, the Haradrim are not inherently evil, but when the Númenóreans go from friends to oppressors, they start demanding tribute from Harad, too. Which does them no favors in the long run, because Sauron somewhen pulls the strings in Harad and turns them against the northerners and Bounding main-kings. But it would exist delightful to run across peaceful trade between the Haradrim and the people of Númenor and Eriador, at least for a while.

And then what are nosotros to practise with Horseblade here?

The horsey pommel and scarlet armor is obviously going to make us think of Rohan. Just there is no Rohan in the Second Age, nor even its predecessor Calenardhon, nor even the Éothéod people where they came from. At that place were Northmen up in the valley northward and west of Mirkwood/Greenwood even in the Second Age, and certain, they were horsemen, just they'd have had little or no contact with anything going on in Eriador—only the mountain-dwelling house Dwarves (who they traded with) and the Orcs (who they fought). So information technology's a stretch to bring anything even vaguely Rohirric into the Rings of Power story.

However, Númenóreans were superior horsemen every bit well, and then this could just exist a red herring. Look at that fishy calibration mail. Sea-kings…

Still, in 1 of the maps Amazon teased in 2019, the land of Calenardhon is included. That's the wide green land in which Eorl the Young would ride to Gondor's help and constitute Rohan. That's a Third Historic period event, mind you. So what the heck are they doing? Telescoping frontwards and backward in time? That could explain this range of cultures across different periods of time. Information technology is a puzzle.

Now information technology's fourth dimension to talk about the two behemothic trees in the room.

This could be Galadriel, admittedly. Though she's never called out as a warrior specifically, in some ways I feel like all the Noldor accept to fight to last this long. Those dwelling in Centre-globe in the Second Age are just a remnant of the whole. The residuum were slain or sailed West. Moreover, Galadriel is tough and able-bodied as heck. In Unfinished Tales, we're told "she was strong of body, listen, and will, a friction match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their youth."

But fifty-fifty if this poster turns out to depict only Elf Warrior #four, this person is almost certainly a Noldorin Elf of Eregion or Lindon. It is the Noldor who looked upon the Two Copse of Valinor and the first ones who would piece of work that retentivity and admiration into their weaponry. (In the pommel of this Elven dagger, we conspicuously see represented Telperion the Silver and Laurelin the Golden.) At that place are going to be wars with Sauron that lay waste to Eregion, and so this Elf is poised to exist just virtually anyone involved. Though, if we're sticking to the text, past the fourth dimension the Rings of Power are forged, Galadriel and Celeborn have already settled into Lórinand on the east side of the Misty Mountains (futurity Lothlórien).

So who is Woodsy McArcher here?

I hateful, a Silvan Elf maybe… but probably not. The bearded face in the leafy bark armor feels a flake more Mannish to me. If you look at the Second Historic period (and topmost) map in the ones Amazon has presented, you'll see regions in southern Eriador called Minhiriath and Enedhwaith. Notice they're heavily forested? They won't stay that mode. When the Númenóreans go from lordly advisors to demanders of tribute, they practice a lot of tree-cutting to make their ships and plow their havens into fortresses, beginning effectually the twelvemonth 1800. And then this archer would well exist ane of the hunters of that land fighting against the deforestation. Say, is that barky face meant to be Entish in inspiration?

Or not. This guy might just be a Númenórean with a penchant for woodsy armor. Red herrings, I tell y'all!

Nosotros should probably also address the little people.

Some are calling this one a hobbit, and I tin't gainsay it. If this is Sir Lenny Henry's Harfoot, who according to the actor is part of "the early days of the Shire," then information technology seems about likely that hobbits will be part of the primary story after all, non simply part of a frame device. All fine, merely how would the doings of such a people non upstage futurity hobbits or become office of recorded history? If they can really pull it off with those conditions, I'm all for it.

And then, Ropey the Man.

This could be Aldarion (from the story "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife" in Unfinished Tales), who'll eventually get Tar-Aldarion, sixth king of Númenor, if they make up one's mind to start well before Sauron starts his band-based pyramid scheme. Before he takes the Sceptre, Aldarion goes sailing and exploring with his plucky Guild of Venturers. Information technology'south a rich story to mine from, but I'1000 non certain how information technology would tie in with the smiths of Eregion and so early. In the span of history, Aldarion is particularly credited with helping to build up the naval force that crucially comes to the aid of the beleaguered Elves in their state of war with Sauron.

One of the virtually evocative images is this i, which of class makes most people think of the broken sword Narsil.

But information technology can't be Narsil. Amazon doesn't have to match Jackson'south version of that sword, no, but this hilt has villainy written all over it. It doesn't and then much wait broken (as when Elendil fell on it when he was himself slain) as it looks melted, burned, or scorched. This seems more than similar a weapon of Mordor (or Angband), and the mitt that holds it here belongs either to some hapless shepherd who found it or a future Nazgûl in awe of its power. Just a estimate.

Now this next 1 sure seems both Númenórean and royal.

There are three Sceptre-bearing queens of Númenor that Amazon could work with (of the twenty-5 total monarchs), though the spouses of the kings could all be considered. Tar-Míriel, the wife (and, um, cousin) of the villainous concluding king, Ar-Pharazôn, should have been the fourth ruling queen but was denied her rightful role by her asshole of a husband. Nevertheless, this doesn't seem like her. And what does the white flower signify? Nimloth, the White Tree from whose fruit a bulb is transported to Middle-earth? Now, if the woman represented in this affiche is of the royal house of Númenor, these brown-skinned hands are descended from Elros, blood brother of Elrond and son of Eärendil the Mariner.

And that's one affair I really like—the range of skin colors shown throughout these posters. It feels correct. Seriously, I want Middle-earth to look existent, lived in by disparate cultures, and Tolkien didn't get too descriptive with nigh of his characters. At that place is room for everyone. I only hope ethnicities are used consistently with their origins in the text, where he did specify—for example, the Harfoot hobbits are "browner of peel," per Tolkien himself in the "Concerning Hobbits" prologue of The Lord of the Rings, while the Fallohides are "fairer of skin." If they follow such guidelines where they appear and stretch a bit further in the unwritten lore, that'due south good enough for me. The Edain, the Men who became the Númenóreans, were comprised of several tribes of Men (the Houses of Bëor, Haleth, and Hador, and even some of the Drúedain), so there'due south no reason they should all be uniformly viscid, either. I'd be disappointed if they were. Now, should there be some blonds among the descendants of Hador the Gold-haired? Aye, totally, but from start to finish, Númenor'south history spans well over three thousand years. Plenty of time for genetics to practice its matter.

Just anyway, this is all just speculation. We're merely getting started. Similar a lot of Tolkien fans, I'1000 trying to be cautiously optimistic. I'm a book fan first, but I'1000 not a volume purist when it comes to adaptation. Amazon is going to do a lot of inventing in The Rings of Power, but while the thousands of years of the Second Age are largely untold by Tolkien himself, in that location is a all the same a rich framework to build on. I hope they employ it with respect.

If y'all'd like to hear farther discussion and informed speculation that far exceeds mine, yous could do much worse than the Who Are These People? video streams (there are already two) from Signum Academy, led by the Tolkien Professor, Dr. Corey Olsen. Information technology walks through all of these posters and addresses every detail. I haven't even finished watching them myself…

In the meantime, what are your thoughts?

And one final annotation: If yous're unfamiliar with the Second Age and oasis't read The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales, consider my overviews of the Second and Third Ages from the Silmarillion Primer:

  • Grace Under Force per unit area: The Rising of Númenor
  • A Farewell to Kings: The Fall of Númenor
  • Twenty Rings, Seven Stones, and Heart-world's New Dark Lord
  • The Misappropriation of the Rings (and the Third Age)

Jeff LaSala can't go out Middle-earth well plenty alone, and is responsible for The Silmarillion Primer, the Deep Delvings series, and a few other assorted manufactures. Tolkien nerdom aside, Jeff wrote a Scribe Award–nominated D&D novel, produced some cyberpunk stories, and works in production for Macmillan and Tor Books. He is sometimes on Twitter.

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Source: https://www.tor.com/2022/02/08/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-speculating-on-what-we-know-so-far/

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