A world filled with reverent statues, convoluted family trees, and mischievous halflings.
Episode 3 of "The Rings of Power" has more of Tolkien's lore at work than you may have recognized.
Anyone who's watched Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is familiar with
the epic scene in "The Return of the King" where Pippin lights the beacons of Gondor.
The little Halfling scales a watchtower and tosses a flame onto a pile of brushwood without
the guards seeing him.
This sets off a string of similar fire-bound watchtowers, which send a visual message to
King Théoden in Rohan that Gondor calls for aid.
The scene is also mirrored in the opening chapter of "The Return of the King" book,
although in this case, Pippin observes the lit beacons from afar rather than lighting
them himself.
"The beacons of Minas Tirith!
The beacons are lit!
Gondor calls for aid!"
In either case, the opportunity to light some beacons is too good to miss, and it should
come as no surprise that "The Rings of Power" found its own way to sneak some lit beacons
into its adaptation.
In Episode 3, when Galadriel and Halbrand arrive in Númenor on Elendil's ship, they
pass a watchtower out at sea.
As they look up, lo and behold, a beacon is burning.
In this case, it's likely a lighthouse beacon designed for ships, but the callback to Peter
Jackson's films is difficult to miss.
The Elves aren't the only ones with special statues.
While Lindon is littered with gorgeous wooden carvings, Númenor has a lot of its own sculptures,
mostly chiseled right into stone.
In Episode 3, as Elendil's ship sails down the narrow waterway that leads into the heart
of his home island, viewers can see giant statues of heads perched along the route.
Full-blown forms are also shown, including a gigantic statue just as the ship arrives
at the main port.
This last statue was a central point of speculation for months after it first showed up in the
show's original Super Bowl ad in early 2022.
Guesses as to the statue's identity spanned the gamut.
Númenor has a lot of kings and queens after all.
But there are a couple of details that make one regal figure the clear frontrunner.
First, there's a giant statue of a bird next to the humanoid figure.
Second, if you look closely, there appears to be a small item bound to the figure's forehead.
This indicates that we're looking at a statue of Eärendil, one of Tolkien's most important
Middle-earth heroes.
His wife is Elwing, who is turned into a bird at one point.
He's also the father of Elrond and his twin brother Elros, who is the first king of Númenor.
And the relic on his forehead?
Eärendil ends up sailing through the heavens on his ship with one of the shining jewels,
the Silmarils, on his brow.
When Isildur first shows up, it's early in Episode 3 when we see the young cadet preparing
for the sea trials with his shipmates.
When the exercise is completed, they sail to shore and stand, facing the water, while
the drill sergeant blows on a horn and pays homage to the massive body of water before him.
"The sea is always right!"
The Easter egg here is tucked into the drill sergeant's accessories, specifically, his
shell-shaped musical instrument.
The choice of a shell isn't just a fun way to show off the Númenórean penchant for
sea travel.
It's a detail that connects right back to one of the most important beings in all of
Middle-earth: Ulmo.
Ulmo is one of the Valar, the angelic beings who function as guardians of Middle-earth.
Ulmo is called the Lord of Waters, and his power extends throughout all of the oceans,
seas, and tributaries of the world.
And what does a being as epic as Ulmo, the Lord of Waters use to get some attention?
Why giant sea shells, of course.
"The Silmarillion" says that, at times, Ulmo will come to Middle-earth and
"there make music upon his great horns, the Ulumúri, that are wrought of white shell;
and those to whom that music comes hear it ever after in their hearts, and longing for
the sea never leaves them again."
When we arrive in Númenor in Episode 3, there are a lot of sights to take in all at once.
One of these is a stunningly vibrant tree with white petals.
The concept of a white tree isn't new to Tolkien fans, even casual viewers of the films.
In Peter Jackson's "The Return of the King," a white tree can be seen in the center of
a court in Minas Tirith, except this time, we're looking at a corpse, not a thriving,
living organism.
The two images aren't just similar, either.
They're actually related.
That's right, the dead White Tree of Gondor can trace its roots back to its ancestor seen
in Númenor in "The Rings of Power."
The Númenórean iteration of the arboreal wonder is called Nimloth, and it's brought
to Númenor by the Elves as a gift from Valinor.
Eventually, Isildur takes a fruit of Nimloth with him to Middle-earth, where he plants
it in Minas Ithil.
When that fortress is captured and becomes the headquarters of the Nazgûl, the tree
is destroyed, but one of its fruits survives and is planted in Minas Tirith.
In "The Rings of Power," Númenor is led by Queen Regent Míriel when Galadriel and Halbrand
first arrive.
In Episode 3, Míriel talks to Elendil about the struggle that her people have with trusting Elves.
"Though elves have been unwelcome on our shores since the reign of my grandfather's great-grandfather."
This feels like an eloquently written throwaway line meant to emphasize how serious it is
that Elendil brought an Elf back to Númenor, but as with all things Tolkien, things go
much deeper than that.
The author traced the entire line of Númenórean kings in his writings, which means we can
take a quick stroll back up the family tree to see who Míriel's "grandfather's great-grandfather
is," and it turns out that it's a not-so-nice fellow named Ar-Adûnakhôr.
In the book "Unfinished Tales," Tolkien explains that
"In this reign the Elven-tongues were no longer used, nor permitted to be taught, but were
maintained in secret by the Faithful; and the ships from Eressëa came seldom and secretly
to the west shores of Númenor thereafter."
When Míriel specifically highlights that her great-great-great grandfather started
the antipathy toward the Elves, it isn't a line that the writers created out of whole cloth.
It's a deliberate reference to a grumpy Númenórean king who ruled long before the "Rings of Power"
story ever starts.
When Galadriel visits the Western regions of Númenor with Elendil, the pair of travelers
visit the Hall of Lore, a library and depository of information that Elros, the first king
of Númenor, himself created.
While the actual hall is made up for the show, Elros is very much a Tolkien original.
He's the brother of Elrond and a character that comes from a very complicated family
tree that includes Elves, Men, and even the angelic Maiar.
While Elrond chooses the immortal life of an Elf, though, Elros opts for the mortality
of being a Man.
Along with choosing the mystery of the gift of death, Elros also becomes a mighty king
who founds Númenor and lives for five centuries.
By the time of "The Rings of Power," Elros has been gone for a long while, even as his
twin brother still serves as Gil-galad's herald back in Lindon.
This leads to an interesting line when Galadriel and Elendil look at a tapestry of the twin
brothers in the Hall of Lore.
Galadriel confirms that she knew Elros, but makes an interesting statement.
"But I was always closer with his brother."
For savvy viewers, this is a quiet connection to Galadriel's already established friendship
with Elrond.
But it goes even deeper.
In the source material, Elrond eventually marries Galadriel's daughter, and the two
will go on to serve on the White Council and generally resist Sauron side by side over
the millennia.
To say she's closer to Elrond is an understatement.
Early in Season 1, the Harfoot leader Sadoc Burrows tells an endlessly inquisitive Nori
Brandyfoot that the stars are strange.
The foreboding words materialize in the form of the Stranger, who crash lands from the
sky right near the Harfoot community.
Nori takes the Stranger under her tiny yet formidable wing and, in Episode 3, it comes
out that she's been helping the odd super-powered giant.
In the fallout, Sadoc faces off against Nori, reprimanding her in front of the entire clan.
At one point, Nori's father Largo chimes in, pointing out that the whole situation is extraordinary
before asking if he'd ever seen beings falling from the stars.
Sadoc has an interesting response.
"I've heard of beings that were turned into stars, but never the other way around."
The reference to beings becoming stars feels random, but once again, it could be a quiet
Easter egg pointing to Tolkien's famous sailor of the firmament, Eärendil.
The hero ends his epic First Age career by having a shining Silmaril bound to his forehead
before his ship sails off into the heavens over Middle-earth, in effect, turning him
into a star.
The thought that a random Harfoot leader in an isolated community would somehow know about
Eärendil seems unlikely, but the line could still be left behind for those to find it
who can.
Nori knows she isn't special
Toward the end of Episode 3, we see Nori's mother, Marigold, confront her about her actions
with the Stranger, asking if she thinks it's destiny and that she's somehow special.
The little Harfoot's response is telling.
"I know I'm not special.
I know I'm just one little Harfoot in a grand, wide world."
For fans of Tolkien's canon, the line echoes another spoken by Gandalf at the end of "The Hobbit."
On the last page of that book, Gandalf and some of the Dwarves come back to visit their
burglar friend in the Shire.
Bilbo expresses surprise that so many things they hoped to happen had come true, at which
point the Grey Wizard interjects,
"And why should not they prove true?
Surely you don't disbelieve the prophesies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself?"
Gandalf goes on to highlight the larger purpose behind Bilbo's story, saying,
"You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by
mere luck, just for your sole benefit?
You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite
a little fellow in a wide world, after all."
This concept of a higher purpose runs throughout Tolkien's stories, and it's cool to see the
larger theme reflected in Nori's small-yet-significant story.
When Galadriel visits Halbrand in prison, the center of the room is filled with a giant
statue of a blue, mermaid-looking female figure positioned as if she's swimming.
It's an odd sight in a jail, but it may be there to help calm the occupants in their cells.
Why?
Because it looks an awful lot like the Maia Uinen, an angelic being known for bringing
peace and calm to turbulent waters.
Uinen is married to the violent Maia Ossë, who has a reputation for causing storms at sea.
"The Silmarillion" describes Uinen as the counterpoint to her spouse, adding,
"[Ossë's] spouse is Uinen, the Lady of the Seas, whose hair lies spread through all waters
under sky.
All creatures she loves that live in the salt streams, and all weeds that grow there; to
her mariners cry, for she can lay calm upon the waves, restraining the wildness of Ossë."
The flattering description ends with the line,
"The Númenóreans lived long in her protection, and held her in reverence equal to the Valar."
While it could just be a random statue, the fact that she's loved by the Men of Númenor
and even details like the seaweed in her hair seem to reinforce the idea that we're looking
at an Easter egg visualization of the Lady of the Seas.