The long-awaited The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series has arrived, bringing with it familiar settings, fresh metaphors of light and dark, and, of course, Hobbits.
Oops, I meant to say Harfoots.
First Episode: “Shadow of the Past”
Elven kids frolic in the scenery of Valinor as the program begins with a voiceover.
Galadriel (Amelie Child-Villiers), a little child, folds a paper boat and places it in the stream. However, another youngster rocks the boat till it sank. After attacking him, Finrod, her older brother, restrains Galadriel (Will Fletcher). Finrod counsels Galadriel to look up for light rather than down at the blackness of the water as they discuss why boats float. When Galadriel inquires about how to distinguish between genuine light and light reflected on the night, her brother whispers the solution in her ear.
The voiceover recounts how as Morgoth gains control, darkness and death will come to the elves. The elves depart from Valinor in order to go to Middle-earth to fight Morgoth and Sauron. When Finrod is killed, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) takes up his promise to track down and kill Sauron.
Galadriel leads a group of armored elves over a frozen landscape.
According to one soldier, they should turn around and return home because Sauron has been vanquished. They find evidence of orcs whose dead bodies have been deformed by odd magics, as well as an icy citadel. On an anvil, Galadriel finds the Sauron symbol.
After repelling a snow troll, other elves claim the sign might be very old and decline to pursue Galadriel any further.
Through the bush, two men hike. After they go, Harfoots start to emerge from the surrounding area, exposing a full hidden encampment. Children are led by Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) far from home in search of fruit, but they turn back when she discovers wolf signs. Later, her mother cautions her that whereas elves, men, and dwarves have good cause to defend their possessions, Harfoots thrive by remaining unnoticed.
A messenger is dispatched to Lindon to inform Elrond (Robert Aramayo) that Galadriel has arrived. As they discuss her achievements, he informs her that by continuing her search for Sauron, she defied the High King. High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) says that the time of war is finished and that the troops will be sent home to Valinor as a reward for their valor during a ceremony to honor Galadriel and the other warriors.
While on patrol, Elven watchman Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) stops by a settlement in the Southlands. He stays beside a well with Bronwyn, a human healer (Nazanin Boniadi).
After that, his fellow watchman reprimands him and cautions him against falling in love with an elf or a human. When they get back to the Watchtower, they learn that the elves have left the area and that the High King has declared peace.
When Galadriel and Elrond visit a memorial to the slain elves, Galadriel confesses that she is unsure of her identity after losing her soldier persona. She warns Elrond that the war she has witnessed would make her melodies in Valinor laughable. She is informed by Elrond that she can only find healing in the land of the undying.
When Arondir visits Bronwyn, a farmer with a sick cow interrupts their conversation.
Arondir decides to travel with Bronwyn to the east to check where the cow has been grazing after discovering that the cow’s teat secretes a dark liquid. While back in town, Bronwyn’s son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) shows his friend an evil-looking sword hilt he found buried in a barn. They talk about how the locals used to be ardent supporters of Morgoth. A town that has been completely destroyed by fire is what Arondir and Bronwyn find.
Elrond acknowledges that Galadriel is troubling him, and the High King assures him that his efforts to persuade her to return to Valinor were successful. Galadriel’s efforts might have fueled the flames of the very evil she was attempting to put out, according to Gil-galad. Elrond inquires as to if the King still believes that Sauron is present, but is assured that he need not be concerned since he will be tasked with assisting Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), an elven artisan and smith whom Elrond greatly admires.
The soldiers’ armor and weapons are taken off and placed aside as Galadriel and them stand on a ship’s deck. While the others start singing, the clouds part to reveal a brilliant golden light, but Galadriel is unmoved. She recalls asking her brother how to distinguish between real light and light that is reflected off of the dark, and she hears him reply that sometimes you have to touch the dark first. She abruptly pulls away and dives into the water after leaving the ship. The golden light briefly turns flaming crimson as the clouds begin to gather once more.
A comet is passing overhead as Gil-Galad finds a sick leaf on the ground. Nori Brandyfoot rushes outside to investigate after hearing a crash not far from where the Harfoots live. She notices a naked, lifeless person in the center of the burning hole.
Second Episode: “Adrift”
Nori is observing the man who is unresponsive from the edge of the pit (Daniel Weyman). She is astonished when her friend Poppy (Megan Richards) shows up and tells her to go. The man awakens when Nori touches him and begins to rant at her in a weird language that has bizarre effects on the environment. He freezes as she keeps his eyes before falling again. While disputing about the stranger’s origins and precise nature, the females steal a wheelbarrow and use it to transfer him. As she places the man in a hiding place, Nori informs Poppy that she has a strong sense that she was destined to find and aid the man.
In their exploration of the abandoned town, Arondir and Bronwyn discover a tunnel with one end that leads to Bronwyn’s house. While he follows the tunnel to discover where it leads, Arondir pushes Bronwyn to go back home and tell her people. Later, Arondir is captured after running into orcs in the tunnel.
Celibrimbor informs Elrond of his desire to create a unique new tower forge.
Elrond suggests contacting his friend, the dwarven prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), as the High King won’t provide him with enough laborers to complete the task. Elrond tries to enter Khazad-dûm but is told that Durin doesn’t want to see him when they arrive there.
Elrond enters alone after using an old ritual. He is led into a room where Prince Durin describes the nature of the test Elrond has issued: a competition to split more rocks than one’s rival. Elrond will receive a boon if he triumphs. He will be banished from all Dwarven kingdoms if he loses.
Poppy discovers her visitor awake and making odd patterns in the ground. He starts speaking in the odd language that permeates the area once more, but then he stops and appears to recognize her. She makes a vain attempt to introduce herself and extends a food offer. Poppy arrives to pick her up because Nori’s father is hurt back in the village. Nori holds herself accountable for being away while her father was injured.
Galadriel comes upon a group of travelers on a raft after a wyrm sank their ship. The beast shows up when they are questioning her. Galadriel is forced off the raft as Charlie Vickers, another passenger, splits himself from the group and flees while his friends are slain. He provides her water and assists her in boarding his raft. Galadriel discovers that her friend was driven from his Southlands home by orcs. She demands that he fill her in on everything before taking her there.
Elrond becomes weary throughout the rock splitting trial and finally concedes. When he asks Durin to accompany him outside, he finds out that Durin is upset with Elrond for missing so many significant events in Durin’s life during his 20-year absence. Elrond expresses regret and requests that Durin’s wife also accept his apologies. He is welcomed by Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete), who extends an invitation to dinner.
Durin consents to consider Elrond’s suggestion. After that, Prince Durin discusses Elrond’s plan with his father, King Durin III (Peter Mullan). As he shows his son something in a chest, Durin III expresses his mistrust of the elves’ intentions.
When Bronwyn gets home, her house has been looted, and there is a sizable hole in the floor. Theo tells her to leave as he comes out of a cabinet. Theo and Bronwyn are successful in fending off the orc by stabbing it numerous times before strangling it as it emerges from the hole. The head is severed by Bronwyn, who then displays it to the villagers as evidence that they are in danger. Theo examines the shattered sword hilt while he’s packing his bag. His hand has been sliced, and blood trickles from the wound onto the weapon, which starts to regenerate. When Theo hears his mother beckoning, he steps outside to join the other villagers in leaving.
Nori visits the stranger with Poppy and expresses her regret for being unable to assist him. When the stranger spoke to the fireflies, they form a pattern and show Nori a constellation of stars. She acknowledges that he is asking to go in this direction and informs him that she knows where to find the stars because all the fireflies have died.
Galadriel fastens herself to the raft’s mast as a storm rages around it. She is abruptly knocked over the side and into the water when lightning strikes the mast. In the end, the man jumps in to save her. On the raft, Galadriel is lying with her partner in the sunlight.
She comes to after losing it, looks up to see someone on a ship watching over them, and then passes out once more.
Commentary
The Rings of Power was not produced by Peter Jackson, and there is no official connection between the television series and the movie franchise. Nevertheless, it is clear that Jackson’s films, notably his unique style of pacing and terror, have influenced these episodes’ visual language. There are also a lot of extended close-ups of eyes, especially Elrond, Nori, and Comet Man’s, which are definitely inspired by Jackson.
But when Comet Man holds the fireflies in his hands and whispers to them, using them to speak to Nori, we learn more about his identity in another, more entertaining nod to the Jackson movies. After all, whispering to insects is a Gandalf movie technique.
Given how deeply ingrained the Lord of the Rings movies are in our cultural memory and how much they influenced the direction of future fantasy films, some analogies are obviously unavoidable. In fact, The Rings of Power was filmed in New Zealand (such a beautiful country); Middle-earth itself cannot be reproduced.
The show does, however, have a few visual quirks that help it stand out in a lovely way.
A special highlight was the memorial trees, which were carved to depict the slain Elven soldiers, as well as Galadriel and her companions’ knightly armor, which brought to mind holy knighthood and medieval quests.
Additionally, the show finds opportunities to introduce some of Middle-civilizations earth’s in fresh and intriguing ways. Princess Disa describes to Elrond how her people sing to the rock, and the rock responds with a song that instructs them on where and how to dig, as well as where not to. The way the dwarves labor with stone is similar to how the elves sing to and communicate with the trees. In a tragic manner, it also portends the demise of Khazad-dûm; it seems as if the dwarves forgot the song and dug to deep and awakened the Balrog.
Like most first episodes, this one also has a little trouble finding its right fit or path, but by the second one it has found it.
I am very eager and very ready to see what else the series has in store.
Are any of you a fan of the Lord of the Rings?
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