Star-crossed love between an Elf and a Human, a wizard-like stranger, and a world-destroying oath.
"The Rings of Power" is filled with subtle details only true fans will recognize.
Spoilers ahead!
It doesn't take long for subtle references to start showing up in "The Rings of Power."
In fact, there's one that appears during the show's prologue.
As Galadriel narrates about her fallen brother, Finrod Felagund, we see his corpse lying on a
table under a cloth. His arms are out, and his flesh is scarred with numerous wounds.
The video highlights one of these cuts specifically: the mark that Sauron puts on him.
Sauron's brand isn't canon. In the source material, the Dark Lord doesn't go around
burning a sign into people's flesh. But he does leave quite a few marks on the heroic Finrod.
In "The Silmarillion," Finrod helps the heroes Beren and Lúthien in their quest to reclaim one of
the titular hallowed jewels called the Silmarils. In the process, he and his companions are captured
by Sauron. The villain, who isn't the Dark Lord yet, kills off the group one at a time using
werewolves. As one of the werewolves makes for Beren, Finrod uses all of his power to defeat it,
though his wounds were mortal. Those scratches aren't from a scrape in battle.
They're not from swords or spears or arrows. Those are bona fide dying werewolf wounds.
Another Easter egg tucked into the early moments of "The Rings of Power"
appears when several Elves draw their swords together in quick succession.
For fans familiar with Tolkien's lore, the scene immediately brings to mind the famous
Oath of Fëanor from "The Silmarillion." Galadriel's brother Finrod is amongst them,
which is out of place considering the source material, but otherwise everything lines up.
The event, while skimmed over in the prologue of the show, is a watershed moment in Middle-earth
history. The oath is taken by the famous Elvish character Fëanor and his seven sons.
It's an irrevocable oath that leads to a lot of tragedy. And if it is the Oath of Fëanor
then Finrod shouldn't be there. But the setting and actions, however briefly they're depicted,
seems to be a direct nod toward the oath that is so critical to the stories that follow.
"The Rings of Power" doesn't have access to "The Silmarillion," which is probably why its prologue
is so quick and non-specific. It skims over many of the major events that take place in that book.
Some are easy to spot, like the Oath of Fëanor. Others seem to be a murky mash-up of multiple
events presented at the same time, including a series of battles and violent conflicts.
These start with a shot of a dragon throwing a giant eagle to the ground in a blaze of fire.
This is an event that could have only happened during the Earth-shattering,
age-ending War of Wrath right before "The Rings of Power" starts. That's the battle where Morgoth,
the first Dark Lord, is finally defeated.
When Galadriel picks up a helmet and puts it into a gigantic pile of other helmets, the scene calls
another battle to mind. One of the most tragic events of the First Age of Middle-earth history is
called the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. After the battle, which goes badly for the army of Elves,
a giant mountain of bodies is created called the Hill of the Slain. While it isn't quite
the same thing as a bunch of helmets, the feel of Galadriel's sorrowful experience
in the aftermath of the unnamed battlefield seems to hint at that famously tragic event.
In Peter Jackson's extended edition of "The Fellowship of the Ring"
Galadriel sails a swan boat in Lothlórien. In "The Rings of Power," we see Galadriel
sailing to Valinor in a boat with a similar bird-like prow. In the opening scene of the show,
a young Galadriel also makes a paper boat that doesn't just
float, it sails. And as it does so, its wings, neck, and head pop up in glorious fashion.
Without going too overboard on details, one group of Elves that lives in Valinor is called
the Teleri. They mostly dwell in a place called Alqualondë,
which loosely translates to "the Haven of the Swans." "The Silmarillion" explains
that the Teleri ships were made to look like swans with golden beaks and eyes.
Much later in the book, it explains how the Elves visited the island nation of Númenor, too, saying,
"And thence at times the Firstborn still would come
sailing to Númenor in oarless boats, as white birds flying from the sunset."
From the get-go, bird-shaped boats, and especially swan-shaped boats,
are a trademark of Elvish maritime activity.
When Galadriel and her company set sail for Valinor in the first episode of "The Rings of
Power," they arrive at a foggy, rainy sea. As the clouds roll back, it slowly reveals a glorious,
blinding light, which all of the Elves but Galadriel willingly enter into.
This isn't necessarily how the process of Elves leaving Middle-earth looks in the books,
but there's a lot left open to interpretation. As far as small
details are concerned, there's one specific aspect that is worth calling out.
Twice in "The Lord of the Rings," Frodo experiences arriving in the Blessed Realm.
In the books, the first time is in a dream in "The Fellowship of the Ring."
The second time is when he sails there at the end of "The Return
of the King." The book describes Frodo's experience beautifully:
"And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil,
the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back,
and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise."
We may not see Valinor in the scene from "The Rings of Power," but
we do see a gray rain curtain, and it rolls back as they approach.
When we first meet the Harfoots in "The Rings of Power," they're running circles around a couple
of wary hunters. The Little People lay low and avoid being seen without any issues. As the Big
Folk move along, one of the Harfoots blows a whistle of sorts to signal the coast is clear.
This moment might bring another incident to mind, a time when Théoden, King of Rohan,
has a conversation with a couple of Hobbits in Isengard in "The Two Towers." Merry, Pippin,
and Théoden all bond over the fact that their ancestors came from the same area of the world,
an area close to where the Harfoots currently live when "the Rings of Power" begins.
In the discussion, Théoden mentions that the Halflings in the apocryphal stories have some
interesting skill sets. He adds that they can vanish in a twinkling. In addition, he says,
"They can change their voices to resemble the piping of birds."
While that is clearly an exaggeration, it would appear that the "Rings of
Power" writers may be hinting at how that legend came about.
The Harfoots of "The Rings of Power" and the Hobbits of later stories
may be distantly related. But there are a lot of differences that set them apart,
not the least of which is the fact that one group lives a wandering,
nomadic lifestyle, and the other settle in undisturbed, domesticated comfort.
Even so, some of the throughlines are already visible, even when the setting is so different.
Harfoots are already shown with a very healthy appetite for good food. When Nori leads a group
of youngsters to a berry patch, their affinity for food is on full display.
Interestingly, the scene also offers a parallel to the last pages of "The Return of the King."
In that book, Tolkien explains in the aftermath of the War of the Ring,
the Shire thrives once Sauron is defeated. The text says,
"The fruit was so plentiful that young hobbits very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream;
and later they sat on the lawns under the plum-trees and ate, until they had made
piles of stones like small pyramids or the heaped skulls of a conqueror, and then they moved on."
In the first episode of "The Rings of Power," there's a point when Marigold
Brandyfoot has a serious talk with Nori about her adventurous behavior.
The Halfling mother breaks down how the world works for the younger, less experienced Nori.
"Elves have forests to protect. Dwarves their mines. Men their fields of grain."
She continues that the trees have to worry about the soil beneath them. But she says,
"We Harfoots are free from the worries of the wide world."
It leaves Nori squirming but doesn't put a dent in her desire for adventure. But it also may be
the first time in the series that Tolkien's Ents enter the conversation. The Ents are referred to
at different times as the Shepherds of the Trees. In "The Silmarillion," the Ents are
explicitly made as a way to guard trees against other creatures that may want to harm them. The
presence of Ents in "The Rings of Power" is established later in the episode. They make a
quick cameo when the meteor streaks overhead and three Ents are shown moving amongst the trees.
When Galadriel returns home from her long pursuit of Sauron,
the High King Gil-galad is convinced to welcome her as a hero. Despite her rebellious disregard
of his orders, the king puts on a celebration to rival the likes of Bilbo's 111th birthday party.
As the Elves party in Lindon, the sky lights up with fireworks that
take on many different shapes. Some swirl, while others look like flowers.
One even takes on the distinct shape of a butterfly and flaps its wings.
"The Fellowship of the Ring" describes Gandalf's fireworks at Bilbo's party by
saying they included singing bird sounds, trees losing their leaves,
eagles, sailing ships, and much more. It also has the line,
"There were fountains of butterflies that flew glittering into the trees."
Of course, the question of who's better at the craft of making fireworks
is something that would have to be solved with a head-to-head contest
between the wizard and the Elves. But alas, it's a competition we'll never get to see.
After Galadriel discovers that she's going to be shipped back home to Valinor,
she retreats to a peaceful area of the Lindon forests where Elrond finds her,
and the two characters proceed to have a long talk. As they chat, they're surrounded
by a string of very Elvish-looking lamps and a series of statues carved right into living trees.
One of these statues depicts Galadriel's brother Finrod,
who is a First Age hero, but several others appear as well. We're willing to guess that
at least one is the human First Age hero Túrin Turambar. There are plenty of candidates for
who the others could be, but there's one statue whose identity is without question.
At one point, the camera flashes past a living wooden statue of a woman with long,
flowing hair and a shaggy dog in front of her. There's no doubt that this is an image of the
immortal maiden Lúthien and the dog Huan. Lúthien is one of the iconic heroines of Tolkien's world.
She was inspired by the author's wife and Lúthien's name was even put on her
gravestone. She's known for her hair and also happens to be Elrond's great-grandmother.
The dog, Huan, is also the greatest wolfhound in Middle-earth history. He talks multiple times and
even defeats Sauron in a duel.
When The Stranger crash lands near the Harfoots, Nori and Poppy try to take care of him. This ends
up being more difficult than it seems because the fellow initially acts like a child.
He can't even talk and doesn't know how to take care of himself.
For those who know Tolkien, this seems to point very heavily toward The Stranger
being a Wizard. Apart from the fact that he's supernaturally powerful,
the whole infantile start to his Middle-earth tenure points to his Wizarding origins.
In the book "Unfinished Tales," Tolkien's son Christopher brought
together most of his father's notes about the Wizards or
"Istari" as they're called in Elvish. In that collection of facts, it says,
"For it is said in deed that being embodied the Istari had need to learn
much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm
was to them a vision from afar off, for which they yearned exceedingly."
If The Stranger is a Wizard, it would make sense that after his arrival he would need
to relearn some basic things, like talking and eating. Add onto that the fact that he
knows a few things, like constellations, who is The Stranger from "The Rings of Power?"
As Nori and Poppy wrangle their mysterious, powerful friend,
they slowly gain clues about who he is. By the end of the second episode,
he manages to communicate by using fireflies to form the shape of a constellation in the sky.
Nori gets excited when she realizes that he wants to find a similar shape of actual stars.
During this scene, there's also a small Easter egg that calls back to Peter Jackson's films.
When Ian McKellen's Gandalf is trapped on top of Isengard,
he catches a moth and whispers a message to it in unintelligible language. The
Stranger talks to the fireflies in a very similar manner in "The Rings of Power."
This could signal a direct connection between the characters. Could the Stranger be Gandalf?
It could also simply be a magical behavior that they're both displaying.
This could be meant to showcase how both characters are Wizards, or
at least have a similar spiritual power that enables them to talk directly to animals.
Whatever the answer, the way The Stranger chats up the fireflies looks so similar to Gandalf's
discussion with the moth, it's difficult to think it's anything less than a direct Easter egg.
When Elrond arrives in Eregion in the second episode of "The Rings of Power,"
he hits things off with Lord Celebrimbor, whose craftsmanship he's greatly admired from afar. As
they get to know one another, they talk about a crafting hammer on display in Celebrimbor's
workshop. It's not just any hammer. It used to belong to the master Elven craftsman Fëanor.
While the show makes that fact clear, the quiet context left out of the
dialogue is that Celebrimbor likely has the hammer because he's Fëanor's grandson.
The little details don't stop there. As the conversation carries on,
the two Elves look at plans to build a giant, overheated new addition to Celebrimbor's workshop.
The Elven master craftsman says that he wants to build a tower that could hold the most powerful
forge ever constructed in Middle-earth. One that would burn as hot as a dragon's tongue.
The subtle reference brings to mind a line from "The Fellowship of the Ring" where Gandalf says,
"It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power,
but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough."
The reference to a forge as hot as a dragon's tongue is a fitting description,
because chances are, Celebrimbor has plans to use his new forge to create the Rings of Power.
When Elrond and Celebrimbor head over to Khazad-dûm to recruit the help of the Dwarves,
the Lord of Eregion informs his companion that he's always admired the Dwarves and
wonders if he'll be able to see them at work in their forges. Elrond sets some rather lofty
expectations in response, pointing out that he thinks they'll do a lot more than that.
He launches into a description of Dwarven hospitality that includes blaring Ram's horns,
tables full of salted pork, and lots and lots of malt beer.
If the depiction sounds familiar, it's because Gimli talks about the same kind of Dwarven welcome
thousands of years later during "The Lord of the Rings." In "The Fellowship of the Ring," as Frodo
and company enter Moria, Gimli warns Legolas to prepare for the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves,
adding what the Elf should expect to find waiting for him.
"Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone."
Tying these references together creates some continuity between
the two distinctly different versions of Middle-earth. Both may be their own
adaptations, but when it comes to Dwarven hospitality, everyone's on the same page.
The Dwarves have an interesting creation story. Unlike Men and Elves who are created by the
God-like supreme being Ilúvatar, Dwarves are initially formed by the angelic being
Aulë. Though he makes them, Aulë can't give his Dwarves sentient life. That's
something that only Ilúvatar can do, and he eventually gets around to it. Even so,
the Dwarves always have a special affinity for Aulë, and it shows in "The Rings of Power."
In the rock-breaking scene, Durin IV references his semi-maker when he describes the event
as "The Dwarven test of endurance fashioned by Aulë himself." Later on,
when Durin and Elrond are arguing, Disa expresses her disapproval by referencing Aulë's beard.
For most viewers, it's a random and odd name. For Tolkien fans, it's a clear and well-placed
reference to the greatest being in all of Dwarven culture and history.
It's also worth pointing out that the full Dwarven face masks worn by many of the guards
of Khazad-dûm get their inspiration from "The Silmarillion." At one point,
the Dwarves take on a bunch of dragons, which
they can do because of their hideous but nearly indestructible masks. It's a one-off reference,
and it's fun to see the famous headgear translated into the garb of Durin's guards.
When we first meet Arondir in the Southlands of Middle-earth, he's visiting a town of Men
with a fellow Elven warden. While there, he interacts with the Human woman Bronwyn
and it's clear that the two are in love. As they leave, Arondir and his fellow Elf verbally spar.
Eventually, the talk turns more serious, and Arondir's companion says,
"My point is this. Only twice in known history has a pairing between Elves and Humans
even been attempted. And on each occasion, it ended in tragedy. It ended in death."
The reference is to two distinct pairings. The first is the mortal man Beren and the immortal
Lúthien. They get hitched and end up dying ... twice. The other pair is the Man Tuor
and the Elf-maiden Idril. While they have a happier ending,
their tale is also filled with some epic and tragic events.