The scene above is not an original idea, but is imitative of an essay on fantasy writing that is almost fifty years old.

In 1973, Ursula K. Le Guin published From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, in which she argued for the importance of style in writing, and especially in the writing of high fantasy. Elfland is the name she used—following Lord Dunsany—for what Tolkien called Faerie: it is Middle-earth, Prydain, and many other locales; as for Poughkeepsie, she offered a comparison to national parks.  As these became more popular tourist venues, more people would travel to these parks, fully equipped with enough modern conveniences that they never really go anywhere.   They can feel at home, “just as if they were back in Poughkeepsie.”

She lamented that at the time of her writing, too many new fantasy writers were building the equivalents of trailer parks with drive-in movies.  “But the point about Elfland is that you are not at home there.  It’s not Poughkeepsie.  It’s different.”  If anything, in this post-Dungeons-and-Dragons and post-video-game world, things have not improved.

She then offered a passage from a then-recent fantasy novel—the sort with twentieth-century people wearing 14th-century clothes and doing magic—and then, by only changing a few names and locations, showed that the same passage would be just as familiar in a modern political thriller, similar to our opening scene above.

“Now, I submit that something has gone wrong. The book from which I first quoted is not fantasy, for all its equipment of heroes and wizards. If it was fantasy, I couldn’t have pulled the dirty trick on it by changing four words. You can’t clip Pegasus’ wings that easily—not if he has wings.”

From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin’s argument is that, in fantasy writing, style is not merely an ingredient of a book, something added on, but it is the book.  “If you remove the style, all you have left is a synopsis of the plot.”   In a cinematic drama¹, of course, there is more than verbal style at play.  The visual arts—sets, costumes, location photography, props, music, and so on—are very important stylistic components.  Still, in another sense they are just illustrations that support, but cannot replace the style of the words.   “Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative,” as Pooh-bah said. 

If the script is good, it should be just as good as a radio drama, perhaps with some well-written narration to replace those illustrations.  I will refer to “the reader” in this article; this may be considered shorthand for “the reader or audience.”

Tolkien himself had much to say about the craft of transporting the reader to Faerie in his important essay On Fairy-stories.  He proposed that any good story (of any genre) must be capable of creating actual belief in the world it creates, not merely suspension of disbelief:

What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful “sub-creator.” He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is “true”: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.  The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.

On Fairy-stories, J.R.R. Tolkien

He then discussed Fantasy, the creation of images of a world unlike ours, with things that cannot be found in our world at all.  He gave an example, saying that the fantastic device of language lets us say things like, “the green sun,” but that:

To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible, commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft.

On Fairy-stories, J.R.R. Tolkien

But what is the realm of Elfland, and why does it take such extraordinary artistry to bring a reader into that world?  Tolkien tells us:

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveler who would report them.

On Fairy-stories, J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien portrayed this idea in his poem The Sea-bell and in his last book, Smith of Wootton Major; do read these.   Le Guin said much the same thing but takes it a step further:

It is a different approach to reality, an alternative technique for apprehending and coping with existence. It is not antirational but pararational; not realistic, but surrealistic, superrealistic, a heightening of reality. In Freud’s terminology, it employs primary, not secondary process thinking. It employs archetypes, which, Jung warned us, are dangerous things. Dragons are more dangerous, and a good deal commoner, than bears. Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a real wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe. And their guides, the writers of fantasy, should take their responsibilities seriously.

From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, Ursula K. Le Guin

Thus, if we are to avoid leaving the reader in the Primary World, the language itself, that “fantastic device”, must act as the cicerone for this dream journey.  Le Guin gave examples of appropriate prose: from Eddison‘s The Worm Ouroboros with its carefully-crafted Elizabethan prose; Kenneth Morris, with his less ornate but still mannered dialogue in Book of the Three Dragons; and Tolkien. 

“Who can tell?” said Aragorn, “But we will put it to the test one day.” 
“May the day not be too long delayed,” said Boromir. “For though I do not ask for aid, we need it. It would comfort us to know that others fought also with all the means that they have.” 
“Then be comforted,” said Elrond.

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

It is important to notice that Tolkien does not use especially archaic speech here.  Le Guin described the speech as, “a less extraordinary English; or rather an English extraordinary for its simple timelessness…it is the language of men of character.”  She did not argue for archaic speech, but for speech that is appropriate to the subject matter, and indicative of the character of the speakers, who should not think like accountants and video-gamers.

Tolkien had much to say on this link between language, thought, and character.  In a letter to Hugh Brogan (Letter #171, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien) he responded to that reader’s criticisms of the archaic narration in The Two Towers, which Brogan had described as “tushery”.

This letter is worth reading in its entirety, but Tolkien addressed “tushery” as the “bogus ‘medieval’ stuff with … expletives, such as tush, pish, zounds, marry, and the like,” and observes that real archaic English is more concise than “our slack and often frivolous idiom”. 

In doing so, he examined the specific case of Théoden’s conversation with Gandalf (“Nay, Gandalf! You do not know your own skill in healing” et seq.).

First pointing out that it is actually “moderated or watered archaism” compared to a more authentically antique diction (“Nay, thou n’wost not thine own skill in healing,”²), he then added that even though much of the speech could be translated to a modern idiom, “Not at all my dear Gandalf…” the thought that ends it , “Thus shall I sleep better,” would not translate well to the modern idiom because a king who speaks in a modern idiom would simply not think in terms of sleeping quietly in his grave.

We see a similar disconnect in the Rings of Power speech with which we began.

Lords of Elfland do not think of expanding work-forces and project deadlines, and for them to speak of such matters is a disunity of language and character.   The spell has broken, and the art has failed: we are back in Poughkeepsie.  There are many examples of modernisms that have crept into the dialogue: hobbits who say, “Okay,” “It means, like, what we do,” and, “That’s not who we are.”  Númenoreans who say, “Nah,” and, “Míriel has her up for tea?”  Elves who say “conflicted”. Dwarves who say, “Yeah.” Even grade-school grammatical errors, “Your people have no king, for you are him,” (a sentence that was walking along just fine before it fell on its face at the last word). 

There are almost too many examples to count, and they pop up at random in the midst of more timeless speech.  Some are more jarring than others—especially the name-calling like “Elf-lover!”—but none of them belong in a tale of the fantastic, except perhaps as Orc-talk. 

Overcompensating for modernism is, of course, an equally dangerous trap.  Le Guin and Tolkien both objected to “tushery” and pseudo-archaic speech.  Imitating the elevated register of dialogue from Tolkien’s writing is perilous. 

Le Guin noted that young fantasy writers sense that their language must distance the tale from the ordinary, but don’t know how to do it, fumbling with “thee” and “thou” and overusing words like “mayhap”.  To their credit, the writers of The Rings of Power, do not fall into this trap. 

Instead, however, these Elves too frequently lapse into High Aphorism.  “It is said the wine of victory is sweetest for those in whose bitter trials it has fermented.”  You have to read that twice to figure out what it is saying.  “Most wounds to our bodies heal of their own accord, so, it is their labor instead to render hidden truths as works of beauty. For beauty has great power to heal the soul.”  All right, if you say so; but it doesn’t sound helpful for a broken leg. And of course:

Do you know why a ship floats and a stone cannot? Because the stone sees only downward. The darkness of the water is vast and irresistible. The ship feels the darkness as well, striving moment by moment to master her and pull her under. But the ship has a secret.  For unlike the stone, her gaze is not downward but up. Fixed upon the light that guides her, whispering of grander things than darkness ever knew.

The Rings of Power, Amazon Studios

Not only is this pretentious and sententious (if lovely), but it forgets that the Noldor know more about the natural world, about the forces of gravity and buoyancy and density and displacement, than we do.  Their “magic” comes from this deeper understanding.  Instead of knowledge (which is what the word Noldor means!) we get fortune-cookie philosophy that sounds like we just need better-trained stones. 

Compare:

‘Are these magic cloaks?’ asked Pippin, looking at them with wonder.

‘I do not know what you mean by that,’ answered the leader of the Elves. ‘They are fair garments, and the web is good, for it was made in this land. They are Elvish robes certainly, if that is what you mean. Leaf and branch, water and stone: they have the hue and beauty of all these things under the twilight of Lórien that we love; for we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make. Yet they are garments, not armour, and they will not turn shaft or blade.’

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

There is a fine line between elegant speech and pretentiousness.  The Rings of Power stumbles across that line too often; and perhaps without knowing exactly why, we are jerked back to the Primary World, because we know, somehow, that Elves don’t really talk like that.

Such considerations, of course, apply to any genre, such as real-world historical stories—at least, those taking place in a setting in which fairly modern English is spoken. 

If I were writing a novel or screenplay taking place at, say, a New England boys’ prep school in 1905, I would not only have to take into account things like clothing, music, technology, or the rules for football, but I would have to give the boys speech appropriate to the time, with usages like “kick” for “complain”, “bully” for approval, or, “You make me tired!” for disapproval.  And I would also have to assiduously avoid letting the boys say anachronistic things like, “epic”, “iconic”, “I’m still processing this”,  “cool”, or…  “That’s not who we are.”

If I were particularly careful, I would research then-new usages like, “Okay,” “Yeah,” or “Wow,” before putting them into the mouths of my characters. 

It takes real work to get such things right.  Without that work, even a non-specialist reader might sense that something is off-pitch, without knowing why, and will not believe in the story.

But such a story is not required to transport us to Elfland; only to (historical) Poughkeepsie.  Elfland is a far more perilous realm, with deeper delights and dangers for both the reader and writer.  Surely, then, a well-paid script editor can be employed to apply at least as meticulous a reading to the dialogue of a drama taking place in such a well-known and well-loved corner of Elfland as Middle-earth?

FOOTNOTES

[1]: It is not at all clear that there is any longer a useful distinction between “movies” and “television” and “streaming” in such discussions.

[2]: Incidentally, this is very similar to the writing of early fantasist William Morris.

Editor’s note:

In the above essay, Staffer Ostadan references a number of key early fantasists whose works pre-date and influenced Tolkien. Some of these works now exist freely in the Public Domain. Interested readers who might care to explore these works further can find and enjoy them as free downloads on Project Gutenburg.

• E.R. Eddission: The Worm Ouroboros. First published 1922.
• Lord Dunsany: The King of Elfland’s Daughter. First published 1924.
• William Morris: The House of the Wolflings. First published 1889.

Kenneth Morris’s Book of the Three Dragons was published in 1930 and is not yet available in the Public Domain. Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series was published between 1964 and 1968. Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay From Elfland to Poughkeepsie seems to be available through Amazon in limited quantities, but it is very expensive.

Posted in:

• Amazon TV series
• Green Books
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Other Tolkien books
• The Lord of the Rings
• The Rings of Power
• Tolkien
• Tolkien's Writing

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Ringquisition — our little segment that takes a slice of The Rings of Power and puts it under the microscope — returns. One this occasion yours truly (Staffer Demosthenes) and TORn Discord Moderator DrNosy turn the lens on the goings-on of the Noldor in the opening two episodes of The Rings of Power.

Editor’s note: this is an edited summary of a live discussion hosted last weekend on our Discord.

Is there truly no evil in the beginning?

DrNosy muses…

Let’s consider Galadriel’s statement that opens the series and its context.

`Nothing is evil in the beginning. And there was time when the world was so young there had not yet been a sunrise. But even then there was light.`

Galadriel, The Rings of Power: S1.E1

A few key observations upon this theme:

A young Galadriel sets sail to an origami Swan Boat in Valinor. This opening scene foreshadows the journey of the Elves from Aman (Valinor) to Middle-earth in the Swan Boats of the Teleri, which were subsequently destroyed.

Even in paradise (Valinor), there is discord amongst the children (the innocent) — is there truly no evil in the beginning? This concept is an undercurrent in Tolkienian writings. Arda had been marred by evil (by the actions of Melkor, also named Morgoth (‘Black Foe of the World’) after Manwë cursed him) even before the awakening of the Children of Illuvatar.

The strife among the Elven children is a reminder that ‘evil’ is an inherent aspect of the Children. Therefore, Illuvatar’s decree of the fate of Men and Elves (the acceptance of death and facing the judgment of Mandos) is a personal and spiritual decision made by nearly every character in Arda. (Of the Beginning of Days, The Silmarillion)

Another place this appears is in her dialogue with Elrond:

And in the West, do you think my fate would be better? Where song would mock the cries of battle in my ears? You say I have won victory over all the horrors of Middle-earth. Yet you would leave them alive in me? To take with me? Undying, unchanging, unbreaking, into the land of winterless spring?

Galadriel, The Rings of Power: S1.E1

This dialogue implies that if Galadriel returns to the Far West, the evil within her will live on forever. Yet I feel this dialogue is a slight oversimplification in light of Tolkien’s texts. Specifically:

• Death was a concept that existed from before the arrival of the Children of Illuvatar. The Elves are immortal, but this does not mean they are eternal beings (`Of the Beginning of Days`, The Silmarillion).
• Fading, for the Elves, is a process that occurs slowly in Aman, and rapidly in Middle-earth (‘Difficulties in Chronology’, The Nature of Middle-earth). The purpose of the Elven rings (`artificer`) was to slow the effects of fading on Middle-earth.
• Galadriel, as a bearer of such a ring, is protector of Lothlórien and her continued presence on Middle-earth also meant her inability to accept death and accumulate power to help resist the fading.
• With this perspective, it is interesting to read these words from The Fellowship of the Ring: ‘I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.’ (The Mirror of Galadriel’, The Lord of the Rings).

Why does Finrod make a vow to pursue Sauron?

Demosthenes explores…

In The Silmarillion, Finrod does make an oath — and remember that oaths are not lightly sworn in the “Tolkienverse”! — but it’s an oath to Barahir. Barahir, of course, saves him from an evil fate during The Battle of Sudden Flame.

Thus Felagund escaped, and returned to his deep fortress of Nargothrond; but he swore an oath of abiding friendship and aid in every need to Barahir and all his kin, and in token of his vow he gave to Barahir his ring. Barahir was now by right lord of the house of Bëor, and he returned to Dorthonion; but most of his people fled from their homes and took refuge in the fastness of Hithlum.

Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin, The Silmarillion

In the Episode 1 prologue, Galadriel’s voice-over tells us that “My brother vowed to seek [Sauron] out and destroy him.” The conflation of dialogue and visuals suggests that’s what we’re seeing in this particular flashback. That — despite superficial appearances — it’s not the Oath of Feanor made in Tirion (as Finrod takes no part in that). Instead, it’s something else; somewhere else.

What might fit is a rough adaptation of Finrod making good on his promise to Barahir. Yet, frankly, this is still not a vow to pursue Sauron. Not even close!

Felagund seeing that he was forsaken took from his head the silver crown of Nargothrond and cast it at his feet, saying: ‘Your oaths of faith to me you may break, but I must hold my bond. Yet if there be any on whom the shadow of out curse has not yet fallen, I should find at least a few to follow me, and should not go hence as a beggar that is thrust from the gates.’ There were ten that stood by him; and the chief of them, who was named Edrahil, stooping lifted the crown and asked that it be given to a steward until Felagund’s return. ‘for you remain my king, and theirs,’ he said, ‘whatever betide.’

Of Beren and Luthien, The Silmarillion

The other point of contention around this whole vows affair, I think, is the choice of the showrunners for Galadriel to take it up. I would ask: is our book-driven understanding that she is the sort of person to take oaths? I think that this suggests no:

Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart…

Of the Flight of the Noldor, The Silmarillion

Is Galadriel deceiving us by saying it’s a vow? Is she deceiving herself? Is she reliable on this point? I think that Halbrand says something very interesting — and, potentially, very insightful, on the matter:

If you want to murder orcs to settle a score, that’s your affair. But don’t dress it up as heroism.

Halbrand, The Rings of Power: S1.E2.

A simple vendetta isn’t an oath in Middle-earth.

Why did the showrunners make Galadriel Commander of the Northern Armies?

Demosthenes observes…

There’s an interesting section of the History of Galadriel and Celeborn that outlines one scenario for Galadriel’s story. Simply titled “Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn”, it describes how they “did not go West at the Downfall of Melkor, but crossed Ered Lindon… into Eriador … and for a while dwelt in the country about Lake Nenuial (Evendim, north of the Shire)”.

Galadriel as Commander of the Northern Armies, might be an instance of the showrunners cribbing from that concept. She doesn’t merely lead the army (comprised, seemingly, of nine fellow-Noldor). Instead, she serves as a protector for that entire northern area of Eriador. Of course, it also serves as natural way to push her north into Forodwaith on the great Sauron-hunt. It’s her patch; she’s taking care of it.

It also provides an opportunity to evoke a short, but gripping, scene from The Silmarillion (I ask that readers excuse my rather inferior screencap).

We’re crossing the grinding ice. In miniature. I think that’s pretty neat. (Aside: Nasmith is underappreciated as a Tolkien artist.)

The crossing of the Grinding Ice by the Noldor was a rough trip! But The Silmarillion also dispenses with this arduous journey in little more than a paragraph.

The fire of their hearts was young, and led by Fingolfin and his sons, and by Finrod and Galadriel, they dared to pass into the bitterest North; and finding no other way they endured at last the terror of the Helcaraxë and the cruel hills of ice. Few of the deeds of the Noldor thereafter surpassed that desperate crossing in hardihood or woe. There Elenwë the wife of Turgon was lost, and many others perished also…

Of the Flight of the Noldor, The Silmarillion

Galadriel’s journey’s end-point in The Rings of Power is undoubtedly less hospitable than that of the crossing of the Grinding Ice. But at least she has a map to point the way this time!

And it’s bloody cold! Why? Utumno’s ruins are basically here (probably under the ice-bay of Forochel though there is plenty of debate on that matter) and they continue to exert a localised chilling effect on the climate.

Finally, that mountainous location from the trailer — it’s not Thangorodrim after all. It’s just an evil Disney castle. Bit of a disappointment — who wouldn’t have wanted to see a visualisation of The War of Wrath?

What did the elves (other than Galadriel) think had actually happened to Sauron?

Demosthenes ponders the matter…

This is a key point, since the conflict about the fate of Sauron drives the story.

Galadriel believes he’s alive, out there and doing nefarious things. She states in Episode 1: “Evil does not sleep, Elrond. It waits.” That’s a definite crib from The New Shadow, by the way.

‘Deep indeed run the roots of Evil,’ said Borlas, ‘and the black sap is strong in them. . That tree will never be slain. Let men hew it as often as they may, it will thrust up shoots again as soon as they turn aside…’

The New Shadow, The History of Middle-earth

In fact, the attitude of Borlas is more or less Galadriel’s! That is, unceasing vigilance is required.

On the other hand, Elrond’s opinion is much more lackadaisical in The Rings of Power. He states that “The evil is gone”. This continues to puzzle me on a couple of counts.

Does he mean he believes Sauron is dead? That’s possible in the sense that a Maia can be completely and irrevocably severed from any physical form and unable to assume a bodily shape any longer. We see this both with Sauron and Saruman at the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings.

To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

The Scouring of the Shire, The Lord of the Rings

It seems likely that this was the fate of the Balrogs that Glorfindel and Ecthelion slew at the Fall of Gondolin.

Returning to The Rings of Power, if that had happened to Sauron you would think that such an event would be both marked and known? Or could it just be lost in the general chaos of the War of Wrath? I guess at least one Balrog escaped, so… perhaps.

Once the mark on the anvil at the Evil Disney Castle proves Sauron escaped and still exists in this, the Second Age, they (Elrond and Gil-galad) ought to be rethinking their assumptions. Elrond kinda pushes it with Gil-galad: “Then the shadow she sought… You believe it does exist?” But he also seems unwilling to be truly forceful about it!

What are the Elves up to?

DrNosy analyses…

Elrond: `Galadriel was so certain her search should continue.`

Gil-galad: `We foresaw that if it had, she might have inadvertently kept alive the very evil she sought to defeat. For the same wind that seeks to blow out a fire may also cause its spread.`

Elrond: `Then the shadow she sought, you believe it does exist.`

Gil-galad: `Set your mind at peace about it. What you did was right. For Galadriel and for Middle-earth.`

Elrond: `It is hard to see what is right. When friendship and duty are mingled.`

Gil-galad: `Such is the burden of those who lead and those who would seek to. Galadriel sails to the sunset. You and I must look to the new sunrise. To that end, are you acquainted with the work of Lord Celebrimbor?`

Elrond: `The greatest of the Elven-smiths, of course. I’ve admired his artistry since I was a child. Why do you ask?`

Gil-galad: `He is about to embark on a new project. One of singular importance. And we’ve decided that you will be working with him. But I’ll allow you to explain the details, Lord Celebrimbor.`

Reading into Gil-galad’s use of “we”, it appears that political decisions in Lindon often involves Gil-galad and a council of other Elven Lords of the realms. We are introduced to Lord Celebrimbor of Eregion. We are yet to be introduced to the other Elven Lords, most notably Círdan of the Grey Havens, Celeborn of Lothlórien (lore: Amdir/Amroth for Lorien), and Elvenking Thranduil of Mirkwood (lore: Oropher as King of the Woodland Realm).

Gil-galad is likely using “we” as a royal we’ but it doesn’t negate the point of an Elven council.

Gil-galad and the Council had determined that Galadriel’s concerns were accurate. Elrond is obviously unaware of the Council’s plans. It could be that the Council has determined that the solution isn’t pursuing an invisible enemy to banish evil.

Instead, it might involve the work of `artificers`, a concept that Arondir explains.

`Most wounds to our bodies heal of their own accord, so, it is their labor instead to render hidden truths as works of beauty. For beauty has great power to heal the soul.`

Arondir, The Rings of Power: S1.E1

Tolkien mentions the term ‘artificer’ in a letter to Milton Waldman.

But the chief artificer of the Elves (Fëanor) had imprisoned the Light of Valinor in the three supreme jewels, the Silmarilli, before the Trees were sullied or slain.

Letter #131, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Considering this show is about the Second Age, Celebrimbor, the greatest artificer of that Age, will play a significant role in the creation of the titular Rings of Power. It seems, therefore, that the tactic of pursuing war and battle with the enemy isn’t one that’s viable. Especially since Galadriel has now returned empty-handed from the last known stronghold of Sauron.

Consequently, the Elves are more interested in returning to their old ways of smithing and fashioning objects that create great beauty and help slow-down the effects of death and fading on Middle-earth itself. While the pursuit and creation of powerful objects imbue deathlessness into the world around them, it is simply that much evil can also result from things that have a `good root` (Letter #131).

We shall see what is ahead in future episodes.

Our chat participants

DrNosy is a scientist (physical science), scholar, and Tolkien enthusiast. Her primary interests lie in review and analysis of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She is an active contributor and Moderator on TheOneRing.net Discord where she also hosts live open-forum panel discussions on The Rings of Power, The Silmarillion,  and a variety of Tolkien-related topics. You can reach her on Twitter.

Staffer Demosthenes has been involved with TheOneRing.net since 2001, serving first as an Associate News Editor, then as Chief News Editor during the making of the Hobbit films. Now he focuses on features and analysis. The opinions in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net and other staff.

Posted in:

• Amazon TV series
• Green Books
• LotR on Prime
• The Rings of Power

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The OST for Season 1 of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power features work from composers Bear McCreary and Howard Shore.

While McCreary has crafted Season One’s score, Shore’s contribution to the show is the title theme. Shore has won three Academy Awards for his music for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit feature film trilogies. McCreary is an Emmy and BAFTA winner for his music scores on Outlander and God of War.

In this new segment, two of our Discord regulars, Reading Room Moderator DrNosy and composer Mike T, debate the show’s title theme and whether it is ‘musically’ suited to the score of The Rings of Power.

About our chat participants

DrNosy is a scientist (physical science), scholar, and Tolkien enthusiast. Her primary interests lie in review and analysis of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She is an active contributor and Reading Room Moderator on TheOneRing.net Discord where she also hosts live open-forum panel discussions on The Rings of Power, The Silmarillion,  and a variety of Tolkien-related topics. You can reach her on Twitter.

Mike T is a composer and near-lifelong Tolkien aficionado. After obsessively relying on TORn for spoiler reports during the early 2000s, and pursuing a musical life in large part due to the experience of hearing Howard Shore’s scores in darkened theaters dozens of times, he is delighted to find himself back amongst the TORn community for this new journey through Middle-Earth. You can listen to his music at https://michaeltrapasso.bandcamp.com and reach out to him on Twitter.

Editor’s Note: we reported in September last year that McCreary was being brought onboard to work with Shore on scoring the series. It was rumored at the time that Shore didn’t “necessarily want to compose the whole series”.  We now know that Shore and McCreary ended up composing the music separately.

Posted in:

• Amazon TV series
• Bear McCreary
• Howard Shore
• LotR on Prime
• Music
• soundtrack
• The Rings of Power

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TORn Tuesday’s co-host Justin flew around the world — at his own expense — to experience the first showings of Prime Video’s huge The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power with fellow fans in NYC and London. Now having seen it twice, after years of the most spoileriffic leaks, here is his review of the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime.

Back in 2002, I sat down in a theater full of fellow Ringers at midnight as an unknown jovial British man with a deep voice walked out to introduce The Two Towers. Andy Serkis had come at the invite of TheOneRing.net to opening night. Nobody knew who he was other than the IMDb credit and 3 seconds of trailer time — and this guy looked & sounded nothing like Gollum. There was also a lot of chatter leading up to the release of The Two Towers that book lovers were terrified of — that the elves had been reassigned from the books to honor the last alliance at Helm’s Deep (ruining Tolkien’s greatest battlefield reunion in The Return of the King). Leaked set pics showed Arwen fighting at Helm’s deep. Jar Jar Binks all-CGI characterization had “ruined” Star Wars, and all-CGI Gollum was ready to ruin Tolkien. 

The lights dimmed. The screen showed the familiar landscapes. Then the camera dived INTO the mountain to replay one of the greatest scenes of Fellowship (natch, film history). Oh great, I thought, another film that does “when we last left our heroes” recap. And then the camera follows Gandalf as he falls into battle with Durin’s Bane, as an epic choral music laments their fall into the great chasm. I lept out of my seat! I couldn’t believe a movie had just shown me things I had never seen before, never expected, and a style of storytelling I didn’t think possible. The Two Towers changed my movie going life, and it is still my favorite of the trilogy.

My Rings of Power take after seeing the pilot episodes twice and really diving into the visual details:

Prime Video’s The Rings of Power brings back that feeling of discovery. It changes what television is capable of. It redefines multi-storyline TV. It completely immerses you in Middle-earth from the start, and delivers an incredible storytelling experience that stays true to the tone of Tolkien while necessarily charting a new path. 

The Rings of Power finally delivers on Gimli’s promise to the Fellowship that his kin would provide a warm welcome in Moria. We finally see dwarven culture at its pinnacle — a fully realized society that is well-fed, well-worked, and well-machined. These dwarves will feel familiar to Hobbit trilogy fans, with great-looking, practical makeup FX (allegedly supported by Weta Workshop), but it’s the characterizations that really take this culture beyond the comedy of the movies. Fans of deep lore will rewatch the dwarven scenes to spot the many Easter eggs of items lost to time in the books.

All the other lands and races are equally fully realized, even the orc culture. We are all aware of the amount of effort needed to accomplish creative at this level thanks to Peter Jackson’s Appendices. It’s obvious hundreds of top creative talent are collaborating on this show. There is a visible sense of pride in the work from all the details both visual and narratively. This is a billion dollar TV show and it shows. It takes that much support to realize Tolkien’s vast imagination — which is larger in the Second Age than the Third Age seen in the films. The Second Age just has more of everything. More societies. More cities. More arid lands. More areas to explore. More destruction. My biggest fear now is that future seasons of The Rings of Power may not get the same generous budget, knowing what enormous cataclysms are to come.

Writing on the show is peak television at its pinnacle. Prime has assembled an all-star fellowship of writers from the best shows on TV — Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Hannibal, Game of Thrones, and more. Absolutely no characters from the vast collective on this show feel cardboard, short changed, nor one-dimensional. Everyone quickly has motivations created and their place in society established. TV has never seen a character break as bad as Sauron, the lord of all the rings, and the pilot episodes set up the stakes for Middle-earth.

J.A Bayona was absolutely the right director to establish the look and feel of this show. From his water work with The Impossible to the dark tones of Penny Dreadful, Bayona captures the existential dread that Middle-earth may not know is coming. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are living our collective fan dream overseeing this massive project. Their imaginations are reaching for the same great heights that JRR Tolkien famously attempted, yet still under the guardrails and guidelines he established. Tolkien envisioned filmmakers expanding his Legendarium with his “other minds and hands, wielding paint and music & drama” and these guys are up to the task. Having chatted with them many times over the last six months it’s clear that these other and hands are the right ones to continuing shaping the history of Middle-earth.

Fans may forget that Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings was full of no-name actors. It was Orlando Bloom’s first work, Billy Boyd’s first movie, and the biggest job for the hundreds of longtime kiwi actors. Rings of Power continues that tradition of unveiling top talent on the global stage. These folks are future stars. All the recent discourse of how they look and talk — also things fans also complained about in 2001 — is put to rest the minute the show starts. There is no wink at the camera or in-your-face notice me going on. These performances live in Middle-earth, period. Tolkien’s source text allow for a very expansive visual canon which the filmmakers are developing with the highest of standards. All the fears fans have of this “looking like television” are proven invalid. Better than other space and superhero TV shows, this is Middle-earth looking exactly like it should: the proper continuation of a $6 billion franchise and most-awarded film series of all time. 

Even if it’s not a continuation. We have covered the rights situation numerous times over the last 4 years on this site and on YouTube. Testament to loyalty to JRR Tolkien is the involvement of Simon Tolkien (the current elder family stateman) in the production of the show, and no less that 11 living Tolkien relatives showing up to the London premiere. It’s a privilege to have Royd Tolkien a longtime friend of TORn, but to have his family there at The Rings of Power premiere unlocked a feeling I didn’t know this franchise needed: full support of the sub-creator’s legacy, and a proper continuation of his life’s work. There’s a trust in the show there, now, that I didn’t know was missing.

I’m looking forward to the many debates fans will have, and we will have at TheOneRing.net, over the choices made by the filmmakers. I’m reminded of the TORn staff that walked out of The Two Towers theatrical opening, disgusted that Frodo and Sam were at Osgiliath with an unrecognizable Faramir. My favorite film of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings has its detractors and I respect their perspectives, and The Rings Of Power will undoubtedly generate similar debates that can only strengthen our love of Middle-earth. Maybe we should bring back RINGER REVIEWS so all us fans can share our assessment of each of the 50 episodes to come.

As I walked out of that first screening, and now a second one in London, my one word review of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power two-part pilot remains:

PERFECTION.
No Notes.

Huge thanks to all the teams at Prime Video that have supported the fans throughout this journey of creation, for inviting hundreds of fans to these free screenings around the world, for all the support at Comic-Con and DragonCon, and for all the friendly (sometimes intense) conversations as we shared the excitement for this show. Fans are happy to be seen, and will be very happy with the finished product.

Tune in every Tuesday at 8pm ET for TORn Tuesday LIVE with Clifford & Justin, and chat anytime on the TORn Discord at https://discord.gg/theonering

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Have you wondered what a supercut of all the trailer, teaser and ad spot footage that Amazon Studios has released for The Rings of Power would look like?

Wonder no more!

TORn Discord (you should totally come and join us) members WheatBix and DrNosy have been busily slicing and dicing up all the footage and reassembling into a chronological order order based on spy reports, rumours and a bit of theory-crafting and dramatic flair.

Although these clips are sequenced by fans, we believe that they contain significant spoilers. We have arranged footage released by Amazon Studios in a sequence that we believe reflects how season 01 of how The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will unravel.

They’re not kidding about potential spoilers. This super-cut includes all footage available up until August 20, 2022.

Disclaimer: Amazon Studios and their subsidiaries own all footage and audio.

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In 1967, Tolkien began writing a letter to his son, Michael, where he shared his perspectives on cultivating faith. Tolkien likened the character of faithfulness (‘loyalty’) to that of a full-grown tree — a living organism that must be tended to by its keepers (Letter 306).

While the reasons for this letter may be forever lost to time, the excerpt reveals a fundamental notion in Tolkien’s mind: The symbolism of great faithfulness with the thriving health of trees. 

There is no resemblance between the ‘mustard-seed’ and the full-grown tree. For those living in the days of its branching growth the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is pan of its life, and the history of a divine thing is sacred. The wise may know that it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree.

Very good: but in husbandry the authorities, the keepers of the Tree, must look after it, according to such wisdom as they possess, prune it, remove cankers, rid it of parasites, and so forth. […] But they will certainly do harm, if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth of the plant when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils.

The other motive […] aggiornamento: bringing up to date: that has its own grave dangers, as has been apparent throughout history. 

Letter #306, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

In my previous article, we discussed clues from the trailer and images of Amazon’s The Rings of Power that directly led us to identifying Sauron’s haunting presence on Middle-earth. Here, I will discuss how The Rings of Power might be using trees to illustrate the shrinking faith of the Númenoreans (Men) and the Noldor (Elves).

We begin in the island nation of Númenor. The Númenoreans are Men descended from the line of Elros, brother of Elrond. The line of the Kings of Numenor going back to Lúthien, daughter of the Sindarin King Thingol and Melian the Maiar. Of Lúthien’s descendants, Tolkien writes that ‘her line shall never fail’ (A Knife in the Dark, The Fellowship of the Ring). 

In the King’s Court at Armenelos, Númenor’s capital, a white tree blooms: Nimloth the fair (Nimloth is Sindarin for ‘White Blossom’). Descended from a tree made in the likeness of Telperion for the Noldor of Tirion  (Galathilion, the’White Tree’ of Yavanna, The Silmarillion), Nimloth was gifted as a seedling by the Eldar of Tol Eressëa in Aman. Her white petals gleam with the setting Sun and her scent fills the air of King’s court. Nimloth is the symbol of friendship between Men and Elves. (Cite.) A sign of the Númenor’s faithfulness to Eru and her Elven heritage.

The Númenoreans retained the dedications and order, but altered the fourth day to Aldëa (Orgaladh) with reference to the White Tree only, of which Nimloth that grew in the King’s Court in Númenóreans [my emphasis] was believed to be a descendant.

Appendix D, The Lord of the Rings

The significance of the blooming white tree is not lost to readers of Tolkien. Soon after arriving in Gondor, Aragorn discovers the sapling borne from the fruit of Nimloth. The discovery astonishes Aragorn, but Gandalf recalls the significance of the sapling:

Verily this is a sapling of the line of Nimloth the fair; and that was a seedling of Galathilion, and that a fruit of Telperion of many names, Eldest of Trees. Who shall say how it comes here in the appointed hour? But this is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake.

The Steward and the King, The Return of the King

In Gandalf’s words, we see the link between preservation and renewal. The line of Telperion preserved from the days of the Two Trees, and the promise of renewal to its former glory. 

But, alas, our first sight of Nimloth in The Rings of Power is a solemn one. Unlike the  sapling of Gondor emerging from the snow, we instead witness the opposite, the beginning stages of a fully-grown white tree beginning to wither.

Nimloth is weeping.

Her blossoms scatter onto the royal courts as Queen Regent Míriel and her advisor Pharazôn pause to make note of the moment. Míriel’s face flushes with unmistakable desperation.

Is this then the first of many signs and warnings of Númenor’s descent to her watery grave? As steward-keeper of Nimloth (Faith), is Míriel’s faith in Eru and Númenor’s alliance with the Elves starting to crumble?

From what we are seeing, Nimloth is shedding her crown; Númenor is dying.

Mortality is, of course, a theme central to Tolkien’s works. Endings are inscribed to the life and stories of every creature on Middle-earth. It is this ill-fate that Tolkien has termed “fading” that the immortal Elves seek to halt. As Tolkien writes of the Second Age in a letter to Milton Waldman: 

All through the twilight of the Second Age the Shadow is growing in the East of Middle-earth, spreading its sway more and more over Men — who multiply as the Elves begin to fade.

Letter #131, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Following the destruction of the Two Trees, their great Elf-king Finwë’s death at the hands of Morgoth, the theft of the Silmarils, and in defiance of Eru and the Valar, the arrival and lingering presence of the Noldor (tribe of Elves descended from Finwë) on Middle-earth resulted in their inevitable decline as a people. Yet, the hubris, ingenuity, and might of the Noldor also meant they were a great force to be reckoned with.

They are the chief artificers of devices (“rings”) that halt fading in the Second and Third Age.

In The Rings of Power, the fading of the Noldor is discreetly translated through the Tolkienian metaphor of suffering trees. Given their presence on Middle-earth is consequential to their continued defiance to the Valar, the Noldor’s faltering faith is represented in their inability to keep their beloved Mallorn trees (plural Mellyrn) from fading.

We are quite familiar with the description of the Mallorn Tree from several Tolkien texts (Letter to Minchin (1956), The Fellowship of The Ring, Unfinished Tales). It is prominently described as having a single smooth bark (“pillar”) of grey silver whose leaves turn to pale gold in the autumn, which carpeted the forest floor through spring and summer.

Its bark was silver and smooth, and its boughs somewhat upswept after the manner of the beech; but it never grew save with a single trunk. Its leaves, like those of the beech but greater, were pale green above and beneath were silver, glistering in the sun; in the autumn they did not fall, but turned to pale gold.

In the spring it bore golden blossom in clusters like a cherry, which bloomed on during the summer; and as soon as the flowers opened the leaves fell, so that through spring and summer a grove of malinorni was carpeted and roofed with gold, but its pillars were of grey silver. Its fruit was a nut with a silver shale.

A Description of the Island of Númenor, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

Unlike the description of the Mallorn  given by Tolkien, we instead witness a dark, crudely shaped, and twisted bark of a large, and what we presume is an ancient Mallorn Tree. 

From stills and footage, we can construct a working hypothesis that the Noldor are experimenting with planting a Mellyrn forest in Lindon. As Gil-galad and Elrond commune among the trees at night, our eyes are drawn to the sharp contrast of the younger Mellyrn (right) and the dark,  brooding, and ancient Mallorn (left). It appears that the ancient Mallorn is fading, albeit gradually. What may have begun as a silver pillar for a bark has gradually twisted unto itself; stopping the Mallorn from growing to its magnitudinous heights. Her golden leaves also appear to be much darker compared to the younger ones.

Further evidence for this hypothesis is the telltale presence of a Mallorn sapling in Khazad-dûm. While we cannot confirm why a sapling might be growing in the deep underground caverns of Moria, it is curious that the Elves as keepers of the Mallorn sought the Moria Dwarves as collaborators in testing the  possible thriving conditions for Mellyrn.

A simpler explanation might be that the Mallorn sapling was grown from a seed gifted to the Moria Dwarves in lieu of friendship. A possible callback to Galadriel gifting Samwise Gamgee a single Mallorn nut that was consequently planted in the Shire.

Even so, the fading of the Mallorn will be an ongoing leitmotif that will marshal the Noldor into seeking and creating the Rings of Power as a means to halt the Fading of the Elves and their realms.

Extra

The Mallorn of Lothlórien. 

About the author: DrNosy is a scientist (physical science), scholar, and Tolkien enthusiast. Her primary interests lie in review and analysis of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She is an active contributor and Reading Room Moderator on TheOneRing.net Discord where she also hosts live open-forum panel discussions on The Rings of Power, The Silmarillion,  and a variety of Tolkien-related topics. You can reach her on Twitter.

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