I’m tentatively excited for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the TV show currently being developed by Amazon. As TheGamer&🌃rsquo;s resident Lord of the Rings nerd (although news editor Lu-Hai Liang also vies for this title) I can’t wait to see more from Middle-earth on the small screen, but as a fan of Tolkien’s writing I’m cautious with my optimism.
I’m a big fan of the Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens movies. I know this statement will already put me down in the eyes of Tolkien purists, but I have an unhealthy dose of nostalgia associated with them as they were my first entry into the world of fantasy, let alone Tolkien. I rewatch the movies at least three or four times a year, applying various directorial commentaries to keep things fresh, and will dive into the trilogy’s eꦇxhaustive special features on a regular basis.
As for the books, I try to reread them every year, but le𓃲t’s face it, we all get waylaid sometimes. But🌠 I’ve probably read and/or listened to the trilogy upwards of five times now, and read The Silmarillion twice. Sure, it’s not as much as some people, but I like to think I have a thorough understanding of the work.
All this is to say that, I acknowledge that the film trilogy made some compromises with the lore. However, I also understand that Fran Walsh tried her best to keep things as close to Tolkien’s text as possible, and some compromise needs to be made when adapting a 1,000+ page novel into three (admittedly long) films. Some things just don’t work! Tom Bombadil would have been boring! I know he’s an important character, but his chapter would💎 not translate well to the big screen.
That compromise is precisely why the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power should be about Galadriel’s hair - the trailer has already put us in good stead, and I want Amazon to double down on its commitment to the Princess of the Noldor. Most Rings fans are familiar with the story at this point, but I’ll double back for those not in the know. Galadriel is an elf born in Valinor, and it was said that “the light of the Two Trees had been snared in he🐎r tresses.” Tresses is a fancy word for long hair. The Two Trees are those big fuckers on the Amazon poster, and gave out all light in the First Age - there was no sun or anything that a normal planet would have. They were eventually destroyed by Ungoliant, but that doesn’t matter right now.
These trees are responsible for the events of the First Age, which covers most of the events of The Silmꦉarillion. The other character you need to know is Feanor, who trapped the light of𒀰 the trees in three gems called the Silmarils. Morgoth - that’s Sauron’s boss - steals these and sets events of biblical proportion in motion. And while all this is going on, Feanor asks Galadriel for one of her glorious tresses (as we established earlier - a lock of her hair). In fact, he asks three times and is denied each time. That’s what makes it so special when she gives Gimli - a dwarf, no less - three strands of her hair in Lothlorien millennia later.
Now that we've covered that abridged and borderline blasphemous retelling of the First Age, I’ll explain why Galadriel’s hair is important for a TV series about the Second Age. Firstly, we know that Amazon is focusing the series on Galadriel and her siblings. We also know that Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age are sparse at best - in my copy of The Silmarillion, they take up just 29 pages - so there’s a lot of room to create new stories without overwriting or retconning Tolkien’s stories.
All of this makes Galadriel the perfect main charaꦺcter. Her prologue opening the Jackson and Boyens trilogy is iconic, and mirroring that to open the TV show would instantly get movie fans on board and introduce them to a character they know, thousands of years before they met her. It sets the time period and the tone, and although Morfydd Clark has big, Cate Blanchett-sized shoes to fill, she deserves to lead this series for a new era of Tolkien fans. The trailer we’ve all seen by now does just this and it works perfectly accompanied by Howard Shore’s stunning orchestra, and I don’t want them to back down now.
But why her hair? Firstly, it&🏅rsquo;s stunning. Like, just look at it for a minute, whether that’s Blanchett’s incredible locks or one of the countless illustrations - Alan𝓀 Lee’s take on the Mirror of Galadriel is a personal favourite. And secondly, her hair plays such an important role in the First and Third Ages that it should also in the Second. With the initial promotion of the series, it seems we will be getting some First Age action as well - remember that those trees in the poster were destroyed by Shelob’s mam, Ungoliant, by the Second Age? It seems likely that the series will begin with the end of the First Age to set up the events of the Second, in which case the Simarils will play a key part in the opening episodes. If the Silmarils are important, so is Galadriel’s golden hair which arguably gave Feanor the idea to create them. Plus, it’ll be an opportunity for the TV series to make a Gimli reference, which I resent but seems to be the only way modern adaptations can attempt humour, so I’ll inevitably have to live with it.
The events of the Second Age mostly follow the plight of the men of Numenor, but the Elves and their war against Sauron is also important, and the characters confirmed for the series so far suggest that Amazon will restate their importance as the Rings of Power are created and the Elves are subsequently forced to do battle with the forces of evil. Celebrimbor will undoubtedly appear, and Galadriel&r🦹squo;s son-in-law Elrond will likely begin the building of Imladris - that’s Rivendell to you common folk.
In a perfect world, the series would follow these events with few addition𓃲s. But we don’t live in a perfect world, so I’m going to hope that the TV series will follow the events of the Second Age slowly, and not rush through the canonical story in order to get to fresh, new, Amazon additions. I hope Elrond doesn’t become a main character for a few series and the unre🌺st of Sauron rising to power is slow and uncomfortable. But most of all, I want another Galadriel monologue as we open on shots of the Two Trees and her beautiful hair.