Fantasy Advent Day 1: Why you should try Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Happy December! From now until December 25, we will have one article per day on a fantasy topic. There will be some nods to Harry Potter and his friends, since amazing things tend to happen over the Christmas holidays for them, but there is a much wider world where fantasy is concerned and we will pay attention to parts of it. First up is the television series inspired by the books "translated" by a philogist who wrote about a hobbit.

One ring to rule them all

Amazon Prime began airing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in September 2022, but the discussion dated back long before then. From cassting to crew hires to what source material they had the rights to, everyone wanted to weigh in on why this was or was not what J.R.R. Tokien, This August saw the show return for a second season and while it is definitely a matter of heated debate, there are many people who defend it.

Skip ahead a bit if you know all this, but I want to give a primer for newcomers: Tolkien first rose to prominence with the 1937 publication of The Hobbit, but director Peter Jackson took his three-volume The Lord of the Rings epic to screen and understandably, there was a huge response. THe films drew in new fans and veterans alike and the last installment swept the Academy Awards for which it was nominated.

A "Prequel" is not exactly the right word for The Silmarillion. Published after the author's death, it is the story of the world in which all of these adventures take place, from the moment creation was sung into existence to the end of the War of the Ring. That last event ushered in the Fourth Age,

The Rings of Power begins in the dawn of the world, but is primarily set in the Second Age. Thousands of years will pass before we come to the stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, but the thing that ends the Second Age is the Last Alliance that marches on the stronghold of the Dark Lord. As the series opens, the Dark Lord is in hiding, the elves declare days of peace, and the man who will someday defeat the Dark Lord is a youth trying to find his place in the world. Almost nothing is as it becomes in the stories of the Third Age.

A turning point in his career

I am writing this as someone who has enjoyed these two seasons. We know that Lord Elrond was the herald of King Gil-Galad at the Last Alliance, but the mighty elf-lord is someone who serves his king well while being dismissed by some of his race. Galadriel will someday be known to inhabit "the heart of elvendom on earth" but now she quests to find Sauron who murdered her brother. Instead of hobbits who live in "a hole in the ground," we have the nomadic Harfoots who are described as the forerunners of the hobbits. Dwarves perform mighty works of craftsmanship and mining. Most of all, we see magic at work in the world, but it is often unchained or unidentified and that has a great deal to do with the absence of the wizards.

There is effective storytelling in the unanswered questions we have. The show's creators only had permission to use sources outside of The Silmarillion and the character arcs they have crafted in the absence of concrete information is compelling. We see the mistakes made by all races on Middle-Earth when divided and self-serving, whether the elves who want to deny a continued threat or the people of Numenor who are slow to come to the aid of a besieged people. Galaddriel takes all season to recognize her blind spots and that itself is fascinating as it allows her to grow into the woman we admire many years later.

The show is still in its early stages. The ceators have hoped for five seasons and we at least know that three have been greenlit. The second season saw Sauron obtain great power and influence, but his opponents are growing in wisdom and there is so much more to see accomplished before Gil-Galad and Elrond fight at Mount Doom and Isildur, son of the king, takes up his father's sword.

I am deeply invested in how we get there. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power can be found streaming on Amazon Prime video.