The Celebrimbor plot of Rings of Power is a film adaptation of a myth, not a book

Three episodes into the second season, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power feels more comfortable just acting weird than the first time.

(Editorial note: This piece will contain spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (up to and including season 2 episode 3.)

Sauron is resurrected via goo-worm form. A community of elves gathers to watch a falling leaf. Instead of giving a speech, their leader sings a song. Elrond jumps off a multi-story waterfall and we don’t spend time wondering how he survived. He’s an elf, that’s how elves live Doingand it is certain that he is doing well.

Season 1 started off strong with Galadriel’s understated, impulsive decision to turn away from Valinor’s unexplained godhood and simply swim across an entire ocean solo without preparationbut that moment stands out the most because of how unique it was. Season 2 is already much more comfortable with inexplicability. And it has to be, because while The Lord of the Ring is Tolkien who writes the story in a novelistic tone that Rings of Power wants to tell is Tolkien writing in mythological tone. And perhaps the best example of that shift in these first three episodes is a big moment with the elf smith Celebrimbor.

As Polygon’s Tolkien expert, I’ve struggled with how best to frame this shift in expectations, even to my own colleagues. “Wait, what do the Rings of Power even do?” they ask, and I try to explain that it’s a bit like asking what the Golden Fleece does. How was Sauron able to fool so many wise and powerful people so successfully and repeatedly, for so long? You might as well ask why the Norse gods depended on Loki to fix so many things if he was so untrustworthy. These are the Loki Being Untrustworthy stories.

And when Celebrimbor, an Elven-smith who seeks to be more than a “Scion of Fëanor,” is visited by a messenger claiming to be from the gods, and calling himself Annatar, the Lord of Gifts? Well, even though he knows Sauron is out there somewhere, and he hasn’t heard what’s happened to his other rings, and he’s been cut off from the High King’s wise counsel… yes, he’ll take that for granted. For this is a Messenger of the Gods kind of story.

But here’s another way to look at the tone of a novel versus the tone of a myth: swearing oaths. If Rings of Power was a novelistic sort of story, it would seem rather naive of Adar to trust this random human named Halbrand not to betray him, just because he had solemnly sworn not to. People lie. Especially when it costs them their lives! It would also seem petty and trivial that Sauron (née Halbrand) had cleverly arranged the words of his oath to swear his fealty to “the lord of Mordor,” and not specifically to Adar.

But there is much careful discussion of oaths in Tolkien’s work. The Lord of the Ring. Elrond makes it very clear that none of Frodo’s companions have sworn to go further with him than they feel led to, and then argues heatedly with Gimli when the dwarf suggests that they should bound by their word. Frodo demands that Gollum swear on the One Ring to secure his loyalty. The spirits of the Army of the Dead linger, having sworn an oath not yet fulfilled, and they can find no rest. No matter how mundane the speaker, the words of a sworn promise bend the forces of fate The Lord of the Ring in subtle and obvious ways.

But in The SilmarillionTolkien’s legendarium, from which the events of Rings of Power are drawn, there is no subtlety to it at all. If you break The Silmarillion aside from the central story from which the rest flows, it’s just a story about how bad it gets (and it gets very bad) when hasty oaths and immortal oath-swearers come together. And the central oath-swearing sin of the Silmarillion comes from the line of Celebrimbor, the master smith of Eregion—from his grandfather and all of his grandfather’s sons. Rings of Power can’t talk about it because Fëanor’s deal really worked out in The Silmarillionand not in the material the producers have the rights to edit, but Celebrimbor’s ambition is not just about surpassing his famous ancestor in forging.

In his pursuit of the art of his hands, Fëanor led his kin through cruelties so great that they were cursed by the gods. Celebrimbor was there when his father, uncles, and grandfather swore an oath of vengeance so irrevocable and unwise that it was reviews his own wiki pageFëanor’s Oath ignited a war in Middle-earth that continued for centuries after his own death, eventually costing the lives of every Elf who had taken the oath, until finally the gods themselves intervened to capture Morgoth and close the First Age.

So an angel showing up to help Celebrimbor fulfill his crafting ambition, implying that his work is blessed by the gods, is, to say the least, a very big fucking turnaround for our man. course He is inclined to believe it to be true.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power can’t go into detail here as it’s an attempt to Silmarillon story in which only that which is mentioned in passing during the text is used The Lord of the Ringor in a short summary in the appendices of The Return of the King. So it makes me happy to see the show have the confidence to just… not talk about it. This isn’t a novel, it’s mythology, and mythology runs on vibrations. Zeus appearing as a lovesick swan to Helen of Troy’s hatched-from-an-egg father? Sure. Sauron revealing a fiery, godlike form in a forge, sealing the deal for the creation of more Rings of Power? Absolutely.

Come on Middle Earth. Let’s get weird and vibe.

The first three episodes of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 are now streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.