Rings of Power, “Eldest” Reveals Distance Between Goodness and Safety
There is wisdom and goodness in old things, but it is not always safe.
Quick spoiler-free thoughts
The Rings of Power continues to find the balance in season two between television and Tolkien. Quickening the pace leads to deviations from the lore of the books but creates a more compelling TV narrative. Adding more obscure references to Tolkien’s creation can entice Middle-earth fans but can distract other viewers or make aspects seem throw-in.
Some small issues remain but episode four, “Eldest,” is a highlight of the entire run of the show and overall a great hour of television. Maintaining the stunning scenery, mixing in horror elements, deepening some strong characters, and correcting the weaknesses of other characters demonstrates the heights The Rings of Power can reach.
Spoilers for The Rings of Power episode 4, “Eldest”
After his initial meeting with Tom Bombadil, the Stranger is pulled into an angry tree. To borrow from J.R.R. Tolkien’s friend C.S. Lewis, Tom Bombadil isn’t safe, but he is good—much like many ancient things in Middle-earth. In “Eldest,” many characters find wisdom, if not safety, as they confront the ancient past.
Looking for Nori and Poppy after his uncontrollable storm blew them away, the Stranger finds instead Tom Bombadil. A beloved character in Middle-earth, Bombadil is frequently avoided by Tolkien adapters, including Peter Jackson. He is, as he says, “a wanderer, not a warrior,” which makes him hard to place in a cinematic narrative structure.
Bombadil gives much-needed wisdom and knowledge to the Stranger, who’s not yet ready to wield his staff. But he’s also not the first wizard to sit by Tom Bombadil’s fire. The “Dark Wizard” came before seeking to control magic but now he’s controlling much of Rhûn and searching for Sauron. “If these two flames combine into one,” Bombadil says, “there will be no end to burnin’ until all Middle-earth is ashes.” He tells the Stranger his task is to face both.
While the Stranger is having honey by Tom Bombadil’s fire, Nori and Poppy throw themselves down a cliff like Chris Farley to avoid the trackers.1 They stumble into Merimac, another halfling. Instead of wandering Harfoots, he is from a village of Stoors.
The village leader Gundable wants to throw Nori and Poppy out until she hears the leader of the Harfoots was named Sadoc Burrows. An ancient cave drawing and story of the Stoors tells about a “Rorimas Burrows” who left with a caravan to find a place with cold streams and soft hills, the “Sûzat.”2 Poppy’s wandering song was meant to be the map for them to come back and lead everyone to this new home. Again, there is wisdom in the old stories, but it doesn’t always lead to safety.
Similarly, Arondir, Isildur, the Southlanders, and the Wildmen encounter old and dangerous entities. In their hunt for Theo, Arondir reveals Estrid has the brand of Adar. He wants to use her to help him and Isildur find the Wildmen. Isildur and Arondir are pulled into quicksand (confirming all my childhood fears), but it’s actually some giant worm monster. Estrid saves them but she doesn’t believe she will ever be forgiven and welcomed in by the Southlanders.
Before they can finish the conversation, an Ent and Ent-wife arrive seeking retribution for all the trees that have been killed.3 Arondir asks for their forgiveness. Winterbloom replies, “Forgiveness takes an age. Rain washing clear the long memory of soil. New bark, covering old scars.”
But an army of orcs is carving a new scar across the face of Middle Earth,4 Arondir pledges to track them down. He’s not the first elf to encounter Adar and his army, however.
Elrond and Galadriel assemble a team of elves for their trip to Eregion and Celebrimbor.5 The other elves feel like a mix between kids watching their parents argue during a road trip and unnamed soldiers in a movie who are clearly going to die. A bridge has been destroyed forcing them to choose between going north and adding two weeks to their trip or going south through the Tyrn Gorthad or the Barrow-downs. Galadriel warns them not to go south, sounding an awful lot like Gandalf warning the Fellowship not to go through Moria.
In the obviously haunted forest, they find what’s left of the first group sent to warn Eregion to warn Celebrimbor. They were killed by the Barrow-wights, old kings and lords buried there. The elves discover their weapons are useless until Elrond remembers the lore, which says they can only be put to rest by the weapons the men were buried with. To defeat ancient evil, you need wisdom just as ancient.
The action in this sequence was fun and the Barrow-wights were initially extremely creepy, but this was a moment when the new faster pacing of the show didn’t work as well. Because Elrond quickly realized the trick and the battle only lasted a few moments, this felt more like an excuse to use a creature from Tolkien’s works that people may recognize. A prologued fight where the elves discover something specifically because of this encounter would make this an even stronger scene.
But just as they are nearing Eregion, they discover Adar’s army is marching there as well. One of the elves is struck by a stray arrow fired by orcs, but Galadriel heals him with the ring. She gives Elrond the ring6 and tells the rest of them to ride back to Lindon to inform the High King.
One elf is impressed saying, “She sacrificed herself to save us all.” But Elrond says, “She did it to save the ring.” Galadriel takes down a dozen or so orcs, before she is pulled down and looks up into the face of Adar.7
For Tolkien (and Lewis), there is wisdom and goodness in old things, but it is not always (or even often) safe. Still, safety is not the point or the goal in life; goodness is. A good life may lead to safety, but most often only for others. Frodo saves the Shire and all of Middle-earth, but he can’t enjoy it himself. Watching The Rings of Power, we, like the characters, are challenged to evaluate our own goals. What do we want most: goodness or safety?
Last season, we tracked who Sauron would be. This season we have a couple of other questions that allow us to play the guessing game. We still don’t know who the Stranger is, so let’s decide who he’s going to be. We do know that nine from the race of men will become Ringwraiths, so let’s pick nine human characters we’ve met so far to fill out that roster.
Who is the Stranger?
Gandalf — Last week, the Stranger, Nori, and Poppy were searching for his “gand,” another word for staff. This week, the Gundable asks if he is a “grand elf.” With all of the emphasis on finding his name, I worry that if it’s not Gandalf, viewers will feel misled.
Blue Wizard — This is my preference. Tolkien wrote about two Blue Wizards going into the East. One version of the story is that they fell to evil and founded cults. Another version is that they helped defeat Sauron through their work against the evil forces in the East. The Stranger and the Evil Wizard could bring in both versions.
Radagast — I suppose there is always the chance that it could be the other named good wizard from The Lord of the Rings, but I think this would be even more disappointing than having him be a Blue Wizard.
Waldreg the White — Just to keep the bit going from last season … since we never saw Waldreg die on screen, we can hold out hope that he could be resurrected like Gandalf and return as a good wizard.
Naming the Nazgûl
Theo — Seriously, Theo has to be one, right? Plus, Arondir called him a “lord.”
Theo’s dad — Also, they can’t keep bringing him up without revealing?
Kemen — Most punchable face means likely to be a Ringwraith.
Pharazôn — I don’t think it’s him based on the lore, but some Nazgûl were from Númenor.
Eärien — Having Isildur’s sister be a Ringwraith would add even more family drama.
Brânk — One way to get rid of your skin disease would be to stop having skin.
Dark Wizard — Maybe he’s a human sorcerer pretending to be a wizard, but would he have been able to fool Tom Bombadil?
Estrid — She’s already taken the mark.
Estrid’s fiancé — To quote Gollum, “You don’t have any friends. Nobody likes you.”
Who do you think the Stranger is? Do you have any Ringwraith theories? The comments are open for everyone.
I can’t help but hear Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, especially when they start talking about their masks.
Sûzat or Suza is another name for the Shire. Eventually, one of these Harfoots or Stoors will find this place their looking for.
This includes a great callback to season one where Arondir was forced by the orcs to cut down a tree. He has to admit to Winterbloom, the ent-wife, that he has “touched axe to wooded life.”
I love the touches of the map and the transitions between map and live-action.
Clearly, Sauron’s evil is stretching across Middle-earth. We are obviously meant to be wary of those wearing rings, but I can’t help but think Elrond is being influenced as well. He is right to worry about the effects of the rings, but the dismissive way he treats Galadriel and anyone who disagrees with him makes me think he’s suffering from the effects of evil as well.
It’s always a good sign when a ring wearer can voluntarily give their ring to someone else.
His brief greeting is full of Tolkien lore and potential hints of future plot lines. He says, “The stars shine at the hour of our meeting” in Quenya. Tolkien wrote to his son that he wrote his Middle-earth stories because he wanted a situation where that phrase would be a common greeting. Frodo uses it to greet an elf from Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring. Also, Adar calls Galadriel “Alatáriel,” which is the name given to her by her husband Celebron. He went to war and she believes he is dead. Perhaps, Adar captured him and that is how he knows to use that name for Galadriel. Or the showrunners just wanted to use another name for Galadriel to show off their Tolkien knowledge.