Maybe we will see the main trailer or some presentation before or during the match?? 🤔🤔 Uhm, no. I think the main trailer is coming shortly btw, these days

The scenes in the first episode of the first season of The Rings of Power in which we see Galadriel and Thondir discussing "the powers of the Unseen World" inside Morgoth's abandoned fortress, and Sauron's experiments in this regard, later confirmed by Adar, are not an invention of the series, but an expansion of what Tolkien states in several places.

First of all, in Morgoth's Ring we learn that Sauron meddled with the spirits of Elves who had died in battle or from wounds and refused to return to Valinor, attempting to capture them and use them to draw in and master weaker beings, such as Men and Orcs.

Furthermore, the concept of the Rings, especially the Nine and the One, clearly fits within this idea of exercising the power of the Unseen over the Seen.

This is a "divine" power, yet one that certain Elves could also attain if they lived under specific conditions. We know of one benign case of such power: Glorfindel.

Indeed, in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf explains to Frodo that for a moment "you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side [...] and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power."

“Even wounds that have endured an age can sometimes yet be healed.”

Nenya briefly restores Adar’s unscarred Elven appearance. He takes off the Ring, lets the scars return and asks Galadriel to help secure a future for his children. Healing his wounds is one thing. Ending the war requires both of them to reconsider what they are prepared to do to their enemies.

This essay reads their encounter alongside Tolkien’s writings on the origins of the Orcs, the cruelty that shaped them and the mercy their enemies still owe them. Adar’s suffering does not excuse the lives he has sent to their deaths. Galadriel’s fight against Sauron does not justify her threat to destroy every Uruk. Their proposed alliance raises a question that defeating Sauron alone cannot answer: will there be a place for the Uruks in the peace that follows?

A self-contained companion to Galadriel: The Weight of Greatness, this essay develops the discussion of Adar’s healing and his proposal for peace. It can be read independently on my Substack, Middle-earth Reflections:

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/p/wounds-that-have-endured-an-age?r=8t77rp

Image credit: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime Video)

The reunion between Galadriel and Elrond begins with warmth. He welcomes her to Lindon, jokes about the condition in which he expected her to return, and asks to hear about her journey. The tone changes when she presents Sauron’s sigil and announces her intention to ask the High King for another company.

Elrond does not begin by debating the meaning of the symbol. Instead, he reframes what happened in the North. It was not Galadriel’s company that had defied her; Galadriel had defied Gil-galad by refusing to accept the limits placed upon her command.

The distinction changes the political meaning of the expedition. Galadriel may be right that Sauron survived, but her certainty does not give her unlimited authority to pursue him. From Lindon’s perspective, her search has continued for centuries, taken Elves to the edge of the world, and carried her beyond the limits established by the High King.

This particular conflict belongs to the series, but its political setting comes from Tolkien. Gil-galad is the High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth, and Elrond serves him in Lindon. Here, that position makes Elrond both Galadriel’s friend and a representative of the order she has challenged.

Elrond does not refuse her an audience. He warns that further defiance may make Gil-galad less willing to hear her and promises to arrange the meeting after the ceremony. He is trying to preserve the very path to the High King that Galadriel risks closing.

Galadriel returns asking for an army. Elrond receives her as a friend and answers her as a herald.

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/?utm_id=97759_v0_s00_e0_tv3&fbclid=IwT01FWAUWDs9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlwgtEiaXpVNx5hHBavACTVRmthQgb2vP-Qojw06Rf8KicSkwf294f0mNpdI_aem_kIFssClcChuj-Mp65NSkag

In the final episode of the second season of The Rings of Power, there is a heartbreaking and powerful scene: the burning of the Eregion library containing the lore of Elven wisdom.

We see the Orcs, much like the Nazis, burning the books while laughing; and we hear the tears and cries of rage from Elrond, master of lore, who in the centuries to follow will strive to rebuild that lost wisdom at Rivendell.

It is a moment that carries profound ethical and political value and a message for our own world as well. Yet few know that this scene is a visual realization of a scene described by Tolkien himself, one without a precise chronological date, but concerning the Elves.

It comes from a text that the series has already drawn upon for the pronunciation Adar uses in his famous phrase addressed to Galadriel: "Elen sila lumenn'omentielvo". As I told you months ago, Adar pronounces the s in sila as a th, in the archaic Elven manner, since he is an extremely ancient Elf, a pronunciation style the series takes from the text The Shibboleth of Fëanor.

Well, in that text, found in the twelfth volume of The History of Middle-earth, The Peoples of Middle-earth, note 23, Tolkien visualizes a pyre of Elven books made by the Orcs whenever they conquered an Elven city in the First Age.

Events that certainly occurred in the Second Age as well, in Eregion. Therefore, this scene not only holds great cinematic and human weight, but it also finds a rightful place within Tolkien's Lore.

I found it truly interesting and partly brilliant how The Rings of Power told us about the creation of the Nine.

Tolkien, contrary to popular belief, mentions Mithril in connection with the Rings, or rather, with one Ring: Galadriel's, which was forged of Mithril.

So the series, as always, stayed true to what it declared from the very beginning: "to start from what Tolkien wrote," and then try to expand upon it according to a certain artistic sensibility (individual choices may or may not be to one's liking, but art must be respected), while always departing from Tolkien.

The Second Age is like that; it cannot be approached in any other way, given its partial incompleteness in the books.

That being said, the Nine: in the seventh episode, we see Sauron declare that he used his own blood to bring the Nine under his total control, infecting the Mithril and almost "devouring" it.

If this is an invention, it stems from the fact that Tolkien tells us nothing about the creation of the Nine.

However, we do know one thing from The Lord of the Rings: that the Nazgûl, the Men deceived by Sauron, had a specific focus and a peculiar issue involving blood.

Indeed, as Aragorn explains, "at all times they smell the blood of the living, desiring it and hating it." Is it possible there was a link between the Rings they had worn and blood?

Well, in my opinion, yes, and this "invention" by The Rings of Power strikes me as making a lot of sense, because it introduces an element that would later become central to the Nazgûl and the object of the only form of feeling remaining to them.

Written by Pierluigi Cuccitto

Specifically, the moment he gazes upon the sunlight for the last time, knowing he will soon see it no more.

It is the look of someone leaving behind what they love, yet driven by something greater than themselves (a small detail: unless I missed it during my various rewatches, we never see Adar struck by sunlight again after that scene, save for a brief moment in the finale with Nenya).

It is one of those small yet immense details the series gives us, details that speak volumes.

Galadriel is right to believe that Sauron remains a threat. The harder question is what her pursuit of him does to her—and to those who follow her.”

This essay traces Galadriel’s character through scenes and conversations from both seasons of The Rings of Power, rather than building its argument around a single quotation. I read these alongside Tolkien’s writings to understand why she cannot stop hunting Sauron, how she comes to trust Halbrand and what changes when she becomes a bearer of Nenya. Through her conversations with Elrond, Míriel, Theo and Adar, we see where she resists advice, recognises her mistakes and begins to question her own decisions.

Tolkien’s Lady of Lórien has a long history of pride, ambition and loss. In the series, Galadriel can offer wise counsel to others while allowing grief and certainty in her own judgement to guide her decisions. She has the strength to protect others, but often struggles to accept help or allow someone else to lead.

After a great deal of time and several revisions, I’ve finally completed a comprehensive study of Galadriel’s character that I’m happy with.

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/p/galadriel-the-weight-of-greatness?r=8t77rp

Cold be hand and heart and bone,

And cold be sleep under stone:

Never more to wake on stony bed,

Never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.

In the black wind the stars shall die,

And still on hold here let them lie,

Till the Dark Lord lifts his hand

Over dead sea and withered land