TV Review: Rings of Power Episode 1-2

I wasn’t really aware of The Lord of the Rings and J.R.R. Tolkien until Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy began in 2001, when I was in 6th grade. I may have peripherally heard of the author and series before, but I certainly didn’t know what the story was about. I was completely enchanted with The Fellowship of the Ring, and so I started reading the trilogy at the beginning of 7th grade, in preparation for The Two Towers coming out that December in 2002. And thus I read this well-known and well-beloved series exactly twenty years ago. I was so determined to read them that the heft of my one-volume edition didn’t deter me in the slightest. It felt like my first grown-up book, decidedly more mature and carrying a sense of gravitas that I had never encountered before, and yet had enough whimsy to keep a hormonal pre-teen interested. I think that is the true power of the world that Tolkien created- it is vast and vibrant enough to have a little bit of something for everyone. And the creators of the new show The Rings of Power, are making that vastness even more spectacular by making sure that we’re seeing Tolkien’s incredible characters portrayed with a more diverse cast than ever before seen in a Middle Earth depiction.

There are obviously racist fanboys who can’t stand having prominent non-white characters in what they think should be a white-washed world, but their cries of too much “wokeness” fall on deaf ears. It is so lovely to see the blended Harfoot and Dwarf families, and a super hot BIPOC Elf, if you don’t mind my saying so (Hello there, Ismael Cruz Cordova). There are currently only two episodes of the show out, but in the next one we should be meeting Queen Regent Miriel, who looks perfectly regal indeed in the promo shots. And concerning the types of characters, I’m really glad that the series isn’t focusing on only Men or Elves, but will also include Harfoots (similar to Hobbits), Dwarves, and most likely at least one Wizard! There’s much speculation on the identity of The Stranger played by Daniel Weyman, but the internet consensus is generally that he is probably a Wizard. This is mostly corroborated by the information that Wizards came to Middle Earth in the Second Age, according to The Peoples of Middle-earth by Christopher Tolkien. The story goes that the Wizards, or Istari, were five Maiar spirits sent to fight Sauron around the time of the creation of the One Ring. We are already familiar with Gandalf and Saruman, so The Stranger could be one of the Blue Wizards, Alatar or Pallando, or even Radagast- who is known for his affinity for plants and animals. For now, The Stranger mostly seems to be trying to figure out where he is.

Another character that may catch you googling for his history is Prince Durin IV, and we also briefly see his father King Durin III. If you don’t want to dig too deep into the creation of Middle Earth, it is more than enough to know that Durin I was the very first Dwarf in existence, and so his lineage called Durin’s Folk were highly respected all throughout Dwarven history. There were eventually seven Dwarf Kings named Durin in his line, with Durins II-VI all believed to be reincarnations of Durin I. Notable descendants include Thorin II “Oakenshield”, the King and leader of the Dwarf group in The Hobbit, who goes to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. And our beloved Gimli from The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not in the royal line, but is a descendant of Durin as well. Durin’s Folk first lived in Khazad-dum, also known as Moria, until they were driven out in the Third Age by a Balrog, which is when they settled in the Lonely Mountain. So in The Rings of Power, the dwarves are still comfortably living in Khazad-dum, and will continue to do so for a few hundred years. When we get to the time of The Hobbit, the dwarves were driven out of the Lonely Mountain when Thorin II was a boy, and reclaimed during the events of that book. Much later in Middle Earth history, Durin VII eventually reclaims Khazad-dum as well.

The Elf Celebrimbor that we meet in The Rings of Power is crucial to the creation of the rings that the show is named for. We see in Episode 2 that Celebrimbor is planning to build a new forge and Elrond suggests that he asks the Dwarves for help in its construction. That forge will eventually be used to craft the 19 lesser Rings of Power. There were forged nine rings for Men and seven rings for Dwarves by some of Celebrimbor’s co-forgers, and Celebrimbor himself made the three rings for Elves. The One Ring was made by Sauron himself at Mount Doom and held power over all of the other 19 rings, unbeknownst to the forgers at the time of their creation. We are definitely getting a Season 2, and it’s possible that Amazon made a commitment for five seasons in a deal with the Tolkien Estate. If we do get five seasons, then I would imagine that we won’t see the creation of the Rings of Power until Season 2 at the earliest, and then see the effects that they cause after they are sent out to various people in power. I suspect that Season 1 will mostly focus on the construction of the forge and the friendship that Celebrimbor thus builds with the nearby Dwarves of Khazad-dum. As a side note, Celebrimbor is the Elf that made the second Elfstone (called Elessar) for Galadriel, which she first gives to her daughter and later gives to Aragorn in the books. Peter Jackson’s trilogy revised the story by renaming it the Evenstar and it was given to Aragorn by Arwen. I didn’t realize until doing this research that Galadriel is Arwen’s grandmother through Arwen’s mother.

It's important to note that the show The Rings of Power is going to condense large parts of Middle Earth’s history for simplicity’s sake. The reign of Morgoth and then Sauron take place over thousands of years, and there’s a 100-year gap between the 19 Rings of Power being finished and the One Ring being created. But for the purposes of a show, they obviously can’t narratively follow the official timeline without constantly swapping out characters (except for the Elves of course, being immortal), which would drive down viewer interest since we wouldn’t have enough time to really get to know the characters. The show is mostly focused on the Second Age, but everything we’ve seen of Galadriel so far technically took place in the First Age many hundreds of years earlier. If you’re interested in becoming a niche Middle Earth expert, it is certainly incredibly fascinating and there’s plenty of literature to delve into. But for the purposes of this show, I don’t think we need to worry about those details. It’s hard for us to conceive of the thousands of years that Elves live, so condensing their best-known actions makes a lot of sense. It makes me think of The Rings of Power as a Middle Earth History for Dummies, showing us the greatest hits and not worrying about the gritty details. And talking about Galadriel, I’m interested to see if we will meet her (soon-to-be) husband Celeborn in this season. There are three actors on the cast list that we’ll be meeting in Episode 3 that aren’t credited with names yet, all men, so it could be one of them. I’m going to throw my hat in the ring and say that Joseph Mawle could be playing Celeborn.

I definitely had the most desire to google Middle Earth history in reference to Elvish and Dwarf history specifically, since their lineages tend to have the most far-reaching effects on Middle Earth history. So it feels unencumbered and simply fun to watch the scenes with the Harfoots who just want to live at peace with the earth. No need for titles or family trees, just come on in and eat some berries and get your toes dirty. I hope their presence in the series continues to lighten the mood and load that the other races are bringing in. I’m also very invested in the budding relationship between Arondir and Bronwyn, and I hope the events of Episode 2 don’t spell doom for that potential romance. I’m interested in meeting another group of Men in Episode 3, namely Queen Regent Miriel and Isildur- whose name you should recognize from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as he’s the one to cut off Sauron’s finger with the One Ring attached. And with three as yet un-named characters also coming up in the next episode, it should be very thrilling indeed! We have six more episodes in the series left to watch, with one releasing at a time on Fridays on Prime. I like this more traditional one episode at a time release rather than all at once, as it gives us time to savor (and research!) between each installment. Happy Rings Fridays!