Earlier this week there was a bit of news out of Amazon around their upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series and so far the news has been met with a resounding meh from the casual fans out there. Our own Joseph Jammer Medina covered the initial story and you can catch it in the related section below. However, for the Tolkienites out there (like me), this is the biggest and most exciting news I’ve heard all year thus far. This is HUGE, people.
For a start despite all our wishes, most fans had predicted that the new show would center around the adventures of a young Aragorn. In fact, the only thing anyone was certain of was that the content would be set in the Third Age of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, because as far as we knew the Tolkien estate had never allowed anyone to get the rights to any of the content from prequel book The Silmarillion. This book covers primarily the First Age of Middle-Earth, but also features the events (less fleshed out) of the Second Age also.
RELATED: Will Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings Chronicle The Fall Of Númenor?
The idea of a show set in the Third Age filled me with apathy, the adventures of young Aragorn with dismay, but the Second Age? Well, this show just became my most anticipated piece of entertainment on the horizon. (Outside of Game of Thrones Season 8 and Avengers: Endgame). Amazon has indeed confirmed that this series will take place in the Second Age, though as we shall see, that leaves a very big window to play in.
So what does all this mean?
Ok, while I cannot completely fill you in on all the story points here (you’ll have to read The Silmarillion for that), I will try and explain my excitement.
The Primer
The Second Age begins following the War of Wrath, the final defeat of Morgoth, the original Dark Lord of whom Sauron was but a lieutenant. After hundreds of years of despair, the Valar (Demi Gods) ride in to save the Elves and the few houses of Man loyal to the Elves from utter ruin and cast Morgoth out of Arda (the world).
As a reward, the faithful houses of Men are gifted a new set of lands West of Middle-Earth and in sight of the Blessed Realm of the Immortals, this land is called Numenor or in the common tongue Westernesse. Their King is Elros, the brother of Elrond the Elven. These twin brothers were both given a choice no one else had been at that point. As the descendants of a cross between Man, Elves and Maiar (sub-Demi Gods), both brothers were allowed to choose whether to live as Man or Elf. Elrond chose the Elven path and Elros chose to be mortal. Elros was named King of Numenor and those that followed in his bloodline had especially long and healthy mortal lives, even those Numenorean’s who were not directly descended from Elros had expanded lives compared to the normal lifespan of mortal Men.
The Second Age is dominated by two Empires, that of Numenor in the West and of Mordor in the East as ruled by Sauron who is a Maiar and an extremely powerful one at that. The Second Age ends many, many hundreds of years later with The Last Alliance of Men and Elves as seen in the opening prologue of The Lord of the Rings movie.
What Will The TV Series Be About?
Well, obviously we cannot tell you that for certain, but we can make an educated guess. There are two periods within this Second Age that are the most ripe for a TV show, but one of them is at the early stages of the Second Age and one is the finale at the end, which admittedly covers a long period of time, for us mortals anyway.
The Forging of the Rings of Power.
Early in the Second Age, Sauron had said he was repentant of his actions in the First Age and feigned both shame and desire to make amends. at this point Sauron was not a terrible blackened shape covered in armor, nor was he a flaming eye. Sauron was able to appear as fair to look upon as any Elf, perhaps even more so as Sauron was of the same order as Gandalf yet not restricted as Gandalf and Saruman were.
Sauron offered help and knowledge to the Elves and whilst some rejected him, like High King Gil-Galad and Lord Elrond, others welcomed him with open arms. Thus Sauron helped the Elves to create the Rings of Power, which I am sure you have heard of? Seven were made for the Dwarves and Nine for Men. Then Celebrimbor made the Three for the Elves and whilst Sauron’s craft was used, he had no part in their making. In secret Sauron or Annatar as the Elves knew him made the One Ring to rule all others. As Sauron first used the One Ring he was perceived by the Elves who removed and refused to use the Three.
In his anger, Sauron made war upon the Elves of Middle-Earth and would have been successful if it were not for the intervention of the Numenorean’s who unbeknownst to Sauron had become more advanced and powerful than he could have imagined. Sauron was defeated and retreated back to Mordor to ponder his next move. For many hundreds of years, Sauron remained hemmed in and the Numenorean’s grew in strength and influence. Initially, Numenor was like a kind parent nation, helping those less fortunate and keeping them from being overrun and dominated by Sauron.
To be honest, nothing major happened for a long time, but the whole time Sauron had the One Ring on him and had corrupted nine Kings of Men using the One Ring. Numenor instead grew strong but also they grew cruel and began to dominate the people of Middle-Earth as rulers rather than as kind overlords.
The Fall Of Numenor
The second most prominent point for a story around the Second age is the rather lengthy fall of Numenor.
It would take too long to summarise this properly, (I tried and it was way too long), so I’ll make it very vague and brief.
Sauron attacks again and a cruel and immensely powerful Numenorean king decides to show him who is boss. Sauron is so blown away by the strength of them he surrenders there and then, even with the One Ring upon his finger.
Sauron is taken prisoner back to Numenor where he uses his greater powers and knowledge to work his way up to high priest of Numenor and chief advisor to the King. He convinces the people to abandon their own history and worship Morgoth with human sacrifices.
Eventually, he convinces Numenor to make war upon the Valar and the Elves of the Blessed Realm where he assures them they will become immortal. Sauron knows this is pure folly and has done this simply to see Numenor defeated and no longer a problem for him.
The Valar get on the phone to Eru (God) and he intervenes and reshapes all of Arda into a globe instead of a flat world. He removes the Blessed Realm outside of Earth and destroys all of Numenor in a great wave. This cataclysm was not forseen by Sauron and he too perishes, but he is an immortal angelic spirit and is still wearing the One Ring. His body is destroyed and can no longer look fair again, but his power remains and he wages war anew.
Some faithful Numenorean’s are saved and sent back to Middle-Earth where they create the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Events then move towards the Last Alliance when Sauron has the One Ring cut from his hand and of course, this is the beginning of the story to The Lord of the Rings and the Third Age where casual fans are most familiar.
Yes, that was actually both vague and brief believe it or not. If someone asked me to pick any period from Tolkien’s work to make a TV show out of, this is the one I would have chosen.
Which One And Why?
Well, for me the more exciting, adult and interesting of these choices is The Fall of Numenor. The content could be told over several seasons and could even touch on some of the events from the forging of the Rings as flashback. This would be far closer to Game of Thrones than perhaps the Tolkien tales you may be used to. Though, can I be greedy and hope they do both with a gap of several hundred years between seasons?
More Importantly… Either of these periods would give us the opportunity to see Sauron played by a real actor with minimal makeup or CGI. How cool would it be to have someone play a cunning and super powerful Sauron as he appeared in a fair guise? That’s exciting for me.
My worries are twofold.
One, that they will instead begin their story after Gondor and Arnor already exist and Sauron will once again be a vague threat in the East that is growing. However, if Numenor still exists as the post from Amazon indicates, then I should not be worried by this, as the timelines don’t work.
Two, that Tolkien really didn’t flesh out this work in great detail other than the very main plot points. So while I admire Amazon for taking this risk, it is a risk, because you have less Tolkien to work with. That’s a hell of a challenge for any writing team and I hope they are up to the task.
What do you think of Amazon’s show being set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth? Has my Excitement and passion rubbed off on you yet? Share your own thoughts and ideas with us in the usual place below.
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