Did The Rings Of Power Tease The Creation Of Gondor?
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is doing a lot of things as a prequel. It is adding context to events and lines of dialogue from the original trilogy, it is giving us a fascinating story about doom, hope, and tragedy, it is showing us how important elements of Middle-earth came to be.
Because of the spread out timeline of events, and because of the many changes Peter Jackson's movies already made to the canon, "The Rings of Power" is changing the mythology in order to adapt it to its own world. Take the origin of Mordor and Mount Doom, which is changed somewhat for the show, but is given an extra layer of tragedy and pain that connects to both the story and the characters that will one day rise up against the dark lord Sauron, or how the new origin of mithril connects to the elves and makes the fall of Khazad-dûm more tragic.
If last week's episode showed us the origin of Amon Amarth, also known as Mount Doom, then this week's episode may have planted the first seeds of an equally important location on Middle-earth, Gondor.
This post contains spoilers for "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
An important location
With the Southlands completely ruined and turned to ash, "The Rings of Power" captures the horrors of war that Tolkien conveyed in his writing, but the movies didn't fully portray. Indeed, this is an episode full of sorrow and loss, as we see the Númenóreans return home, and Galadriel set to return to Lindon to seek aid among her kin. But what about the Southlanders who just lost their home? Well, Bronwyn suggests they head to a Númenórean colony by the Anduin river, a settlement called Pelargir.
What could be an innocent name drop for a random town that can give the Southlanders refuge can actually have huge consequences for the show and for the future of Middle-earth. That is because Pelargir is a major location in the legendarium, one of the earliest Númenóreans settlements in Middle-earth, and the great port of Gondor.
Gondor, if you remember, is the prominent human kingdom to the immediate west of Mordor. This is the kingdom that was home to the great city of Minas Tirith and its white tree, the realm Aragorn will rule over one day. At this time, of course, that place does not exist, but we may be watching its very early days.
That is because in the books, Gondor was founded by two brothers of Númenor, one is called Anárion, whom we have heard of but not seen yet. The other brother is none other than Isildur, son of Elendil.
A new home
In the legendarium, Isildur and Anárion founded Gondor after the fall of Númenor, with the brothers taking refuge among the colonies in Middle-earth, to then form their kingdom. Because of how much "Rings of Power" is changing things, while keeping the general essence of the events, if is entirely possible we'll see Gondor play out earlier than in the books.
Now that Isildur is left for dead and abandoned in the Southlands as his kin departs Middle-earth for Númenor, and with how long that journey should take, he will likely have to find other men to take refuge with. Given he is a high born Númenórean with a thirst for revenge against the orcs, we could see Isildur rally up the people of Pelargir and nearby settlements and make sure the orcs stay in their place and don't invade other places, eventually creating a kingdom to watch over the rest of Middle-earth. In any case, there is still a lot of good for Isildur to do before he becomes the absolute idiot we know him to be.
"Rings of Power" is streaming on Prime Video.