What happened during Tolkien's Second Age of Middle-earth that has led the creative
minds at Amazon to explore this era during their Lord of the Rings series? Let's dive
into this little-discussed saga.
A "second" age implies that there was a "first" age that came before it, and Tolkien's First
Age is the primary subject of his book The Silmarillion.
The book focuses on the adventures and tragedies of the elves in their epic wars with the Dark
Lord Morgoth. After centuries of bloodshed, Morgoth is finally defeated in the earth-shattering
War of Wrath. The event is action-packed, with tons of dragons, eagles, orcs, elves,
men, and even a bunch of balrogs, and other supernatural creatures to boot. When all is
said and done, the survivors on both sides flee.
Most of the elves head west to the same heavenly land that Frodo and Bilbo sail toward at the
end of The Return of the King. However, a few of the elves, along with the men, dwarves,
and any surviving baddies, head further into Middle-Earth, which is where the Second Age
picks up. While Amazon won't be exploring the First Age, there's no doubt that it will
be an important backdrop as the show unfolds.
The Second Age begins with a bunch of refugees looking for new homes, and while there are
too many stories of settling here and kingdom-building there to explain them all in detail, a few
of these new settlements are worth noting.
First is Mithlond, a port settled by elves in the first year of the Second Age. The harbor
is located on the northwestern shores of the continent and it becomes Middle-Earth's primary
connection to the forgotten west. Fans of the films will recognize Mithlond by its more
commonly known title of the Grey Havens, the same spot where Frodo and Bilbo eventually
head out to sea in ring-bearing retirement.
"I think I'm quite ready for another adventure."
Almost 1700 years after the Grey Havens is built, the Elvish stronghold Rivendell is
founded by everyone's favorite counselor, Elrond. This time the settling takes place
by necessity, after Elrond has a nasty run-in with Sauron. Also known as Imladris and the
Last Homely House East of the Sea, Rivendell will stand as one of the chief bastions of
protection for the Free People of Middle-Earth throughout the rest of the Second and Third
ages, and it will go on to feature prominently in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit stories.
One of the first casting leaks for Amazon's series was Morfydd Clark, who was slated to
play a younger version of the Elven lady Galadriel. This brings up the intriguing question of
what Galadriel was up to several thousand years before she shows Frodo her mirror and
spazzes out when he offers her the One Ring.
"All shall love me and despair!"
She may look young, but Galadriel is one of the oldest beings in all of Middle-earth.
By the time of the Second Age, she's already thousands of years old and married to her
husband, Celeborn. The lord and lady bounce around, living with various Elvish communities
throughout the entire Second Age.
While the specifics of their story can get a bit confusing, eventually, they cross the
Misty Mountains and relocate to Lothlorien, but not as its rulers. The elvish power couple
continues to have a heavy influence on the affairs of the age, and Galadriel is eventually
given her own elven ring, which she uses to keep her new home safe and prosperous. At
some point, she also gives birth to their daughter Celebrían, who becomes the wife
of Elrond and the mother of Arwen. While Galadriel and Celeborn's time to truly shine won't come
until the Third Age, there's no doubt they're some of the primary movers and shakers of
the Second Age as well.
So far we've talked a lot about Elvish events, but the Second Age is actually mostly focused
on the affairs of Men. While Men had been around for quite a while by this point, there's
one kingdom in particular that really defines the Second Age: the island nation of Númenor.
After the destructive War of Wrath, the Valar, the guardian spirits of Middle-earth, raise
a giant, star-shaped island out of the ocean as a gift to the Men who fought against Morgoth.
The island and the nation that eventually settles on it come to define the Second Age.
The first Men to settle on the island are led by their king Elros, the brother of Elrond.
Due to some very convoluted family history, the two brothers and their children are given
the choice to live out their lives as either immortal elves or mortal men. While Elrond
becomes an immortal elvish lord, Elros becomes the first very mortal king of Númenor, where
he rules for a little over four hundred years. Throughout the Second Age, the island nation
remains a force to be reckoned with and a central part of Tolkien's narrative.
At the end of the First Age, the Dark Lord Morgoth is permanently banished from Middle-Earth.
However, many of his servants survive, including the balrog that fights Gandalf in Moria...and
Sauron. The evil spirit that would eventually become the Lord of the Rings was the second
in command under the Dark Lord during the First Age, and after Morgoth is banished,
Sauron himself becomes the Dark Lord.
Stepping into the power vacuum left by his master, Sauron becomes the main enemy of the
entire Second and Third Ages. Roughly a thousand years into the Second Age, he establishes
Mordor as his chief base of operations and begins making plans.
"One does not simply walk into Mordor."
But we're not talking about Sauron the flaming eyeball here, nor about the towering dude
in black armor. At this point in history, Sauron still looks pretty good. Rather than
attacking his elvish enemies, the Dark Lord capitalizes on his still-attractive physical
form, calls himself Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, and begins pretending to offer his friendship
to any elves that would listen to him this side of the Misty Mountains.
Sauron as Annatar spends the next few centuries worming his way into the affections of the
elves of Middle-Earth. While a few of the elvish lords, like Elrond and Galadriel, don't
trust him, most of the rest of the elves do.
One group of elves, the same one that lives near the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm, becomes particularly
enchanted by the Dark Lord in disguise. They're led by a fellow named Celebrimbor, and they're
famous for being incredible craftsmen. With Annatar's help, they begin to learn how to
forge rings of power.
It's at this point that Sauron secretly forges the One Ring. He pours a ton of his power
into the ring in order to use it to control the other rings. When he puts the One Ring
on, though, the elves instantly realize that they've been duped and take their rings off
in order to avoid his domination. Angry at the fact that his ring gave him away before
he was ready, Sauron prepares to subdue the elves the old-fashioned way, with a war.
Once Sauron's real intentions are revealed, he demands the other rings of power, claiming
that the elves never would have been able to make them without his help, which is technically
true, with the exception of the three elven rings. Of course, feeling betrayed, the elves
refuse to hand over any of their powerful jewelry.
With his pretext for war in hand, Sauron attacks the Free People of Middle-Earth in a bloody
war that lasts for several years and nearly leads to the villain's total domination of
the bulk of the continent. Initially, Celebrimbor and his people are destroyed, the Dwarves
retreat to Moria, and Elrond flees north to found Rivendell. The Dark Lord also captures
the seven rings that eventually would go to the Dwarves, and the nine rings that would
eventually be given to the Black Riders. Critically, the three elven rings remain hidden.
Just as Sauron is preparing to do a victory lap through Middle-earth, the Númenorians
suddenly arrive, sending the Dark Lord scampering back to Mordor with little more than a bodyguard.
This saves the elves, men, and dwarves from total destruction. Over the next several centuries,
the Númenorians and Sauron continue to build up their strength and jockey for power in
Middle-earth.
Sauron spends the next millennia rebuilding his strength. He completes his tower of Barad-dûr,
the one where he resides later as a flaming eye, distributes the rings of power, and sets
up the Black Riders as his terrifying new servants. He continues to dominate practically
everything in sight with the crucial exception of the elven kingdoms he failed to conquer
and a few strong but scattered settlements of the Númenorians along the coast of Middle-Earth.
Eventually, Sauron declares that he is the King of Men, a move that is insulting to the
very manly, certainly unconquered Númenorians. The Númenorian king Ar-Pharazôn the Golden
invades Middle-earth with such a resplendent army that Sauron's minions abandon him without
a fight.
At this point, Sauron, who still looks like the attractive Annatar, willingly surrenders
to the Númenorians and becomes their hostage. This may come across as a cowardly move on
the surface, but it ultimately spells doom for the Númenorians. They bring the Dark
Lord back to their island nation, and it doesn't take long before the prisoner begins working
his bewitchments on the king himself.
Once in a position of power, Sauron begins convincing the king's subjects to worship
Morgoth, complete with human sacrifices.
Sauron ultimately convinces the king of Númenor to attack the Valar in their land far to the
West in a delusional attempt to gain immortality. This is clearly an issue, and it becomes one
of the rare cases in Middle-earth history when the supreme God, Eru Ilúvatar, himself
comes down to intervene.
Eru destroys the rebellious king's armada of ships and sinks the insurgent island in
an Atlantis-like catastrophe. Interestingly, it's at this point in Tolkien's mythology
that the Earth is literally reshaped from a flat plain to a round sphere. Sauron himself
is caught in the chaos and, while his spirit survives and heads back to Middle-earth, his
body is destroyed.
The Second Age narrative tends to revolve mostly around Elves, Men, and their ongoing
wars with Sauron. However, it's also one of the most prosperous eras in all of Dwarven
history. The primary Dwarven city in Middle-earth at this time is Khazad-dûm. At this point,
though, there isn't a balrog haunting the mines yet, and the subterranean city is alive
with Dwarven life and activity. In addition, the city becomes even more rich and famous
after many talented Dwarves from the eastern Dwarven mansions flee west at the end of the
First Age.
During the Second Age, the Dwarves strike up a particularly friendly relationship with
a neighboring group of Elves that live right next to their western gates.
"Speak, friend, and enter."
These are the same Elves that end up making the Great Rings of Power that the One Ring
is designed to control, and the two highly skilled races get along swimmingly for a long
time.
Eventually, when this kingdom of Elves is attacked by Sauron, the Dwarves will try to
help their friends. Unfortunately, they come too little and too late and end up retreating
and locking themselves up in Khazad-dûm, where they stay out of most of the rest of
the major events of the age.
The last two and a half centuries of the Second Age focus on the founding of two important
kingdoms, one of which any Lord of the Rings fan should recognize. We're talking about
Arnor and Gondor, two kingdoms founded by a group of faithful Númenorians who rejected
Sauron's silver-tongued lies and survived the destruction of their home by sailing away
before the catastrophic chaos erupted.
When they arrive in Middle-earth, they join forces with the Elves and settle down to a
new life. These are the same people that build, among many other things, Saruman's tower of
Orthanc, the city of Minas Tirith, and the tower at Weathertop.
They also bring with them the White Tree that can be seen in The Return of the King as well
as the Palantiri, the shiny seeing stones that Saruman uses to chat with Sauron.
Everything looks hunky-dory for the two new kingdoms...until Sauron shows up in Middle-earth
again.
"I see you."
When they realize that Sauron has returned to Mordor, the exiled Númenorians name the
fiery mountain in his land Mount Doom, yes, that Mount Doom. Not long after this, Sauron
begins attacking his enemies yet again, and the elves, men, dwarves, and all other free
peoples in Middle-Earth join together to form the Last Alliance.
The initial sequence in The Fellowship of the Ring centers on this Last Alliance, showing
the war in which Sauron is destroyed, the ring is cut from his finger, and Isildur tragically
refuses to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom.
"Destroy it!"
"No."
"Isildur!"
These moments at the beginning of the monumental Jackson trilogy mark the end of the Second
Age. Not only does the era dovetail neatly with the existing cinematic source material,
but it leaves a massive helping of epic stories for the folks at Amazon to dig into.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.