Editor’s Note: This article contains minor spoilers for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ three-episode premiere.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has many characters familiar to fans of The Lord of the Rings. Between the immortal Elves, Istari Wizards, and unkillable Sauron (Charlie Vickers), Middle-earth offers plenty of characters able to appear in both the Second and Third Ages, despite the many years in between. The Prime Video series makes the most out of these connections, with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) playing vital roles and leaving the audience guessing if the mysterious Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is, in fact, the beloved wizard Gandalf. However, these characters are only a fraction of things that carry over from the more familiar Middle-earth story. Rings of Power uses places like Kazad-dûm and items like the Elven Rings of Power to intertwine their story with the one fans know so well. And as the show returned for Season 2, they added another connection to the list.
In Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 3, “The Eagle and the Sceptre,” a new creature shows up: one of the dreaded giant spiders. Though the name is not mentioned directly, the series shows her to be none other than Shelob, the dreaded beast who will one day fight Samwise Gamgee. A few thousand years younger and not as large as she will become, Shelob isn’t quite so threatening, but she’s still a formidable creature who likes to eat living things. Shelob’s appearance in Rings of Power is brief, but it serves as an Easter egg for fans of the film trilogy, as her fight with Isildur (Maxim Baldry) mirrors her fight with Sam.
What Is Shelob’s Role in ‘Rings of Power’?
The scene between Shelob and Isildur is a fast-paced fight, only lasting a few minutes. Season 1 left Isildur lost in the destruction of the Southlands that created Mordor, but in his first appearance in Season 2, the presumed dead Númenórean wakes up in the Black Forest caught in a spider web. The area is covered in spider webs, creating a creepy environment with blood dripping from creatures in webs and smaller spiders crawling around. Yet, it is not as labyrinthine as Shelob’s eventual lair in the pass of Cirith Ungol, which she has many years to fill with her traps. With the help of his loyal horse, Berek, Isildur manages to break free of the webs, waking up an Orc in the process. As Isildur and the Orc fight, Shelob emerges, crushing the Orc’s head before turning on Isildur. Though she puts up a good fight, Isildur escapes by stabbing Shelob in the eye, forcing her to retreat. He rides Berek out of the cave, and the spider cannot keep up.
Though many giant spiders exist in Middle-earth, the series confirms this as Shelob through specific details. The first hint is her choice to play with her food. Rather than killing Isildur and the Orc upon finding them, Shelob keeps both alive until they try to escape. Second, the show suggests it is Shelob through her location. While Bilbo encounters giant spiders in Mirkwood in The Hobbit, Isildur’s confrontation happens in the recently formed Mordor, putting them in the same area Shelob lived in during the Third Age. And the injury Isildur gives her reflects an old wound Shelob has. Of course, this connection is helped by the fact that Baldry confirmed Shelob’s role before the premiere when talking to GamesRadar.
How Does ‘Rings of Power’s Shelob Fit Tolkien’s Backstory
J. R. R. Tolkien is known to have detailed backstories for every element of his world, including languages, histories, and cultures, but Shelob is an exception. Though she plays a notable role in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien never explored Shelob’s past in great depth. Yet, he did write that she is the greatest offspring of the primordial spider, Ungoliant, and was born in the Elder Days, establishing that she was terrorizing Middle-earth long before Rings of Power‘s story. Tolkien also wrote that she came to Mordor during the Second Age, creating her lair in the Mountains of Shadow long before Sauron claimed Mordor or built Barad-dûr, meaning she is in the right spot in Rings of Power.
Shelob serves only herself. However, Sauron allows her to stay, considering her a good guard. Though he uses her to his advantage, Shelob is not his ally. Still, everything Tolkien wrote about her makes it clear that Shelob was a danger to anyone unfortunate enough to cross her path. She is known to feed on her own young and anyone who wanders by, preferring Men or Elves (though she will settle for Orcs when nothing else is close). She immobilizes her prey with her sting, keeping them alive and killing them slowly before she eats, which can be seen in her Rings of Power appearance.
Shelob Connects ‘Rings of Power’ to Peter Jackson’s Films
Though the Prime Video series has a different continuity, Shelob’s scene contains an Easter egg for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not only is the character the same spider who appears in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but the two fights against Shelob are tied together by her weakness: her eyes. Baldry spoke to TechRadar about his fight with Shelob, saying, “I immediately watched the fight with Sam [to seek inspiration], and there are some cool parallels between that sequence and our show.”
Sam (Sean Astin) encounters Shelob when he nears Mordor after Gollum (Andy Serkis) has deceived Frodo (Elijah Wood). Initially believing the spider killed his friend, Sam plans to finish the quest, but he learns the truth and faces Shelob with Sting and a vial of the light of Gil-Orestel, the Star of Eärendil. He injures Shelob by stabbing her in the eye, just like Isildur in Rings of Power, but the connection goes a step further. In a clever detail, Baldry confirms that Rings of Power specifically chose to have Isildur target an eye that Shelob cannot see out of in Jackson’s film. Tolkien mentioned that she had several injuries, and Jackson’s films showed several of her eyes to be wounded, so having Isildur stab one that Jackson showed to be wounded is “a nice parallel,” as Baldry puts it. Of course, this does not give any substantial connection to the two continuities, but it is a fun detail for fans.
Season 2 of The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Thursdays.
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