You shall not pass … unless you’ve watched the latest episode of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” that is. This article contains major spoilers.
The Second Age of Middle-earth is one that is left purposely vague by Tolkien. As horrific as the Third Age was, it paled in comparison to the string of catastrophes that characterized the Second Age, a dark time of which few records survive. The lack of extensive accounts written by J.R.R. Tolkien means that the showrunners of Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power” have a lot of freedom when it comes to filling in the blanks in the story they’re telling.
The majority of the changes have been for the better, being faithful to the whimsical parts of the source material by finally bringing Tom Bombadil to the screen, and also allowing audiences to see things that Tolkien implied but didn’t include in the books, like possible alliances with orcs.
When it comes to the titular rings, “Rings of Power” is playing fast and loose with what audiences may think they know about the creation of Sauron’s greatest weapons, while arriving at the same end point anyway. Just take the latest episode and the big reveal about the Nine Rings (for mortal men doomed to die) and how it explains why exactly their bearers turned into the Nazgûl. It turns out that, while elf smith Celebrimbor thought he was forging those rings the same way he did the Seven and the Three, he wasn’t actually using mithril like he thought. Instead, Sauron the Deceiver, disguised as Annatar the Charismatic Handsome Devil (or the Lord of Gifts, if you will), reveals that Celebrimbor was actually using a bit of the Dark Lord’s own blood in the creation of the rings.
This helps explain why the Nine rings for Men have a much stronger connection to Sauron than the other rings, and why its bearers become wraiths:Â Their power is directly and unequivocally connected to Sauron’s. They can’t resist his power and never had any hope to, as the rings force them to be in thrall to the Dark Lord.
The power of the Rings is tied to their intention
This small detail helps sell the idea of why different rings affect their bearers differently. The Three rings for the Elves are meant to be completely free of Sauron’s influence, the Dwarves are resistant to his will (but not their own greed), while the Nine rings for Men turn their wearers into monsters. It was already teased that only the Nine tapped into the powers of the unseen world, foreshadowing the Ringwraiths being tethered to that realm, but the reveal that Sauron’s blood is an ingredient in the rings for Men recontextualizes the entire season.
It’s now clear that the conditions and intentions under which the rings were forged affect the abilities of the rings themselves. Though Sauron supervised the Three, he did not touch them, so they are pure, with the power to heal and to slow natural decay. They were made with pure intentions of saving the Elves, so those rings’ powers are about purification. In contrast, the rings of Dwarves were made with the touch of Sauron, and his evil intentions. What’s more, as he explained to Celebrimbor, the two had deception and greed in their hearts when forging the rings, as Celebrimbor lied to the elf High King Gil-galad about continuing his work, and his pride and greed in becoming a celebrated smith impacted the making of the Seven. This is why they don’t necessarily make the Dwarves slaves of Sauron, but the rings nevertheless exacerbate their greed and pride.
The rings of Men, however, were made directly with Sauron’s own blood, forever binding them to him and his will; as Adar said in season 1, “only blood can bind.” Additionally, Celebrimbor made them under duress as a prisoner of Sauron — as a slave to his plan, even. This reflects how the Nine turn into Nazgûl, wraiths condemned to become slaves to Sauron’s will for all eternity.Â
Interestingly, this reality directly refutes what CÃrdan said in the first episode about separating the art from the artist, and a work being free of its maker’s intention. We now know that Sauron and Celebrimbor’s intentions did make their way into the rings themselves and the power they exert on their bearers — and Men drew the short end of the stick.
“The Rings of Power” is now streaming on Prime Video.
