The masked riders of Rings of Power play with a messy Tolkien legacy
In other words, Rings of Power goes to Rhûn, the collective name for all areas east of the main locations of Tolkien’s epic. And in the first three episodes of season 2 we already get a glimpse into the mysteries of Rhûn and the origins of last season’s strangest antagonists.
(Editorial note: This piece contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2.)
Episode 2, “Where the Stars Are Strange,” formally begins with the introduction of Rhûn and its people—or at least those who live closest to the more familiar regions of Middle-earth.
First up are a pair of horse-riding “trackers,” whose fearsome metal masks and desert-ready garb are definitely reminiscent of the Easterling soldiers depicted in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Easterling” was Tolkien’s term for any people living east of Mordor, so technically all people in Rhûn, regardless of how they dress, are Easterlings.
After setting up shop in Mordor in the Second Age, Sauron pushed his empire east when he could not push west, finding conquest in that direction much easier, with no Elven strongholds and fewer wizards to stop him. Tolkien’s texts describe the Easterlings as having lived so long under Sauron’s rule that they could not help but turn to evil, even after his overthrow—one of the more overtly xenophobic and orientalist aspects of the author’s work.
Rings of Power Season 2 is set before Sauron ever came to dominate their lands, but it seems these Easterlings have another devious sorcerer in their midst: the Dark Wizard, as he’s called in the credits, played by Ciarán Hinds. The leader of the Easterling group offers the Wizard a trade: he will capture the mysterious Istar (the Stranger) who roams Western Rhûn, and the Wizard will cure the “curse on our flesh.”
What is this curse? Unclear! It is an idea that seems to be unique to Rings of Power.
Who is the Dark Wizard? Also unclear. What we can say is that he seems to be in charge of the mysterious figures in white robes who were looking for the Stranger in season 1. He certainly looks like a classic Tolkien wizard, but he doesn’t talk about the Istari (an Elvish word for “wizards”) as if he were one of them. Whether that’s because he isn’t one, or because he wants everyone to think He is not one, we have yet to see. What else can we say about him? Well, the name of his stronghold is Caras Gaer. “Caras” is an old Elvish word that probably means “fortress”, while “gaer” means “fear”. So we know he is good at branding.
Is this guy really a wizard? If he is, is he one we know of, like Saruman or one of the Blue Wizards? If he isn’t… then what’s his problem? And what does this mean for the future of these Easterling trackers and their curse? That’s for the rest of Rings of Power to show us, as it grapples with Rhûn, an area of Tolkien’s canon that is both open to interpretation and could use some modern recontextualization.