The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Oct 2, 2022

Powerful and wise, eloquent and mysterious, Galadriel is one of the characters that define the essence of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself, in a letter he sent to Ruth Austin on January 25, 1971, describes what lies behind this fascinating figure: «I believe that this character owes much to the Christian and Catholic teaching about Mary and the presentation of Mary. her image, but in reality Galadriel was a penitent: in her youth, a leader in the rebellion against the Valar (the angelic guardians). In the late First Age, he proudly refused pardon or permission to return. She was forgiven for her resistance to the ultimate and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself."

In the television series The Rings of Power, developed for Amazon Prime Video by showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay, Galadriel is part of a choral story. However, it is she who carries the most weight in an argument that is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth. That is, long before the events narrated in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings took place.

When assessing the attachment or infidelity of this series to the universe created by Tolkien, it is interesting to consider how the scripts were written. Redoing what was narrated by Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies would not have made sense, and so Amazon encouraged its writers to explore new territory. In order to recreate the Second Age, they focused on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and other scattered materials, but always under the watchful eye of Tolkien's heirs, with the right of veto and authorized to protect the copyright of the rest of the writer's bibliography.

Payne and McKay made it clear in a recent interview with Vanity Fair: "We only have the rights to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the Appendices, and The Hobbit," Payne notes. "And that's it. We do not own the rights to The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of the other books. (…) There is a version of everything we need about the Second Age in the books that we have the right to adapt”.

That Amazon bought these adaptation rights for 250 million dollars gives an idea of ​​the greatness of that world that Payne and McKay propose to us. Greatness that translates into a fabulous artistic direction, never seen on television, and a staging where the smallest detail is not lacking.

However, the expectation raised by the series has a clear drawback. Did anyone really believe that, at a time marked by polarization at all levels, The Rings of Power was going to escape controversy? Trailers and cast interviews made us fear the worst: a Tolkien pastiche conditioned by woke ideology. Perhaps knowingly, Amazon's proposed marketing campaign set social media on fire. The sacralization of Tolkien and the political bias of each other made the two sides in conflict take opposite positions before the first chapter was released.

But if one has read Tolkien with some restraint, and not as if he were an evangelist, they will see that the series - although some of the actors suggest otherwise - is not, by any means, a wake-up statement. It neither intends to indoctrinate nor is it excited by ideological proclamations. The fact that there is ethnic diversity in the cast is not important (It seems that we have forgotten Tony Cox in Willow or Marlon Wayans and Kristen Wilson in Dungeons and Dragons). As for the power of female figures, I refer to Tolkien himself and the admirable women who appear in his works.

Ultimately, the enormous hostility that has been unleashed in this case obviously benefits those who live convinced that only barbarism exists on the other side of the ring.

The first two chapters, splendidly directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, are spectacular, both for what we are shown on screen ‒the setting, the art direction, the make-up, the costumes…‒ and for the narrative fluidity with which the plot arc is chained.

It is true that some plots are more interesting than others, but that imbalance is difficult to assess without seeing the final development of the entire series.

Another concern of viewers who are more committed to Tolkien's work is the balance between original content and canonical content (that is, devised by the writer). It is significant that this concern is not manifested with the same intensity in other cases, especially if we take into account that the vast majority of Hollywood cinema is based on novels and plays.

From my point of view, The Rings of Power is respectful of Tolkien, and everything he invents seems more considerate of Middle-earth than certain humorous and digital outpourings of Peter Jackson in The Hobbit. Of course, if one dwells on the accuracy of the maps or the variations of the chronology, there will be an opportunity to amend the story to the writers. But this will not stop being a waste of exercise. Especially since Tolkien, a great prose writer, constantly modified his own creation.

Sometimes, the most demanding purism only serves to demonstrate that those who exercise it have a good memory and an unchanging sense of what writing should be. We forget that this would prevent us from giving value to the infinite (and rigorously unfaithful) adaptations of classics such as Cervantes or Shakespeare.

In other words: if the literary canon were not shattered when it passes through the audiovisual filter, we would not be able to enjoy a good part of the cinema made up to now, precisely because it is a free reinvention and not a carbon copy.

In general, the cast reaches a very solid level, especially Morfydd Clark (Galadriel), Robert Aramayo (Elrond), Owain Arthur (Durin), Ismael Cruz Cordova (Arondir), and Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor). It is possible that part of the public feels disappointed by the unforeseen evolution of some of them. It goes without saying that this has always been part of the audiovisual experience, especially when the stalls compare a film with the book that inspired it.

Perhaps in a few years, a less biased and controversial assessment will be possible. Meanwhile, The rings of power show, among other things, the magnificent level of Spanish professionals. And it is that, let us not forget, Bayona travels to Middle Earth in the company of the executive producer Belén Atienza, the director of photography Óscar Faura, the editors Jaume Martí and Bernat Vilaplana, the conceptual artists Pablo Domínguez and Roberto Fernández Castro, the specialist in makeup effects Pepe Mora and the character and creature designer Daniel Carrasco.

Have you seen The Rings of Power? What did you think? Let me know in the comments.

See you tomorrow.