McKay and Payne also told us that, “even Sauron in his own twisted way thinks he’s healing Middle-earth,” but we can hear from Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) voiceover that she certainly does not agree. She explains how Sauron “seeks to rule [Middle-earth] not only through conquest, but by bending the minds of all its peoples to his own.” And of course, the way he plans to do that is by using the titular Rings of Power…
New Rings and Ringbearers
We see some gorgeous close-up shots of the Three Rings for the Elven Kings in this trailer and we see their three Ringbearers showing them off – Galadriel wearing Nenya (the white one), Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) wearing Vilya (the blue one) and new character for season 2, Círdan the shipwright (Ben Daniels) wearing Narya (the red one). Interestingly, Elrond, who by the time of The Lord of the Rings will be wearing one of these himself, seems to be very anti-Ring here, even accusing the Ringbearers of becoming Sauron’s “collaborators” and having a serious conversation about destroying them.
This is quite a difference from the books, in which the three Elven Rings were made last – not first, as in the TV series – and were specifically created to combat Sauron and his influence over the other Rings of Power. Galadriel clearly sees the Ring as a positive force, claiming it is “guiding” her. It will be interesting to see where this thread goes.
Speaking of the other Rings, we are definitely going to be seeing some more Rings of Power this season. According to Tolkien’s lore, the Seven Rings for the Dwarf-lords and the Nine Rings for Mortal Men were forged by Sauron and Celebrimbor working together. Celebrimbor did not know who Annatar really was, and was tricked into helping him, before eventually realizing he had been deceived and forging the Three Elven Rings to counter the One Ring Sauron was forging alone. In the show, the Three Rings have already been forged by Celebrimbor with some helpful advice from Sauron (because apparently using an alloy hadn’t occurred to the Elves’ master smith before), but presumably Sauron will trick Celebrimbor in some way, using this new guise of Annatar, to get him to help make the sixteen Rings that are given to Dwarves and Men.
At one point Prince Durin tells his father, King Durin, “take off the ring” which pretty strongly implies that we will see the seven rings for the Dwarf-lords forged and handed out to seven Dwarves (see what Tolkien did there?!), including King Durin, and that for some reason his son does not like it. This line is followed with a shot of the king whacking his son over the head and knocking him down some stairs, demonstrating both superhero-like strength and villain-level anger, so that might be why.
At another point in the trailer, we see Elrond and a small group in a dark wood, facing off against some very spooky-looking creatures with glowing blue eyes. These could be the Nine Mortal Ringbearers, the Nazgûl or Black Riders, who eventually fade from normal human sight all together and have to wear black robes to give themselves shape. However, if it is them, they have deteriorated rather quickly, so it might not be the Nine after all – another possibility is that these are barrow-wights, revenants who guard their barrow-tombs, and who have for some reason hopped out of said tombs to go and harass Elrond and company.