When does The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power play? The new Amazon series has chosen a very specific era in the history of Middle-earth. This article gives you an overview of the most important cornerstones and the calculation of time of the fantasy universe conceived by JRR Tolkien.
Before we get into the details, here’s the nitty gritty: The Rings of Power takes place in Second Age of Middle-earth and thus at least 3000 years before the events of the Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The adventures of Bilbo and Frodo take place in the Third Age, which ends with the War of the Ring.
The Lord of the Rings: The 5 Ages of Middle-earth
Overall, the world of Middle-earth is divided into five ages. That’s the beginning ages before days. The most important event is the creation of Arda by the deity Eru Ilúvatar. Concretely, it went as follows: Ilúvatar created the Ainur through his thoughts and taught them three musical themes.
You can watch the trailer for The Rings of Power here:
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – S01 Teaser Trailer 3 (German) HD
From these themes Ea emerged, which corresponds to the solar system of the Tolkien cosmos. 14 Ainur have formed the planet Arda as so-called Valar, which, among other things, with the Middle-earth continent attends. What at first seemed like paradise was corrupted by the deceitful Melkor. The Valar themselves spread across the continent of Aman, whither the Elves later sail into the Immortal Lands (Valinor).
All Middle-earth ages at a glance:
The Age Before Days is divided into two further ages, namely the Age of Lights and the Age of Trees. Since neither the sun nor the moon existed, calculations were made in tree years. These related to the two luminous trees, Laurelin and Telperion, created by the Valie Yavanna. Previously, in the Age of Luminance, time was measured in Valer ages.
The greatest shift in the Middle-earth calendar occurred with the destruction of the two trees. What remained were two fruits that were transformed into the sun and the moon, so that from then on the passing of time was counted in solar years. Now we are in First Age, where people come to life. They join the Elves, who have already spread in the Age of Trees.
The first age of the sun lasts 590 years and is dominated by one name in particular: Morgoth. It is about the evil Melkor, who wants to subjugate Middle-earth, but encounters resistance from the Elves and Men. In the end, he can be defeated with the help of the Valar, marking the beginning of the Second Age heralds.
The Rings of Power changed the Second Age
This is where the action of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power begins. The Second Age covers a total of 3441 years and is as that Age of the Númenóreans known. The Númenóreans (later also called Dúnedain) come from the human elven allies and live on the island of Númenor, which is located west of Middle-earth.
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The island was given to the Númenóreans in thanks for their support in the fight against Morgoth. But it doesn’t take long for one to appear new evil power raises: Sauron. Initially, however, he is not recognizable as the dark lord we see him as in the prologue of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
While Sauron builds the fortress of Barad-dûr in Mordor, he directs it Forging the Rings of Power in the ways (9 for the humans, 7 for the dwarves and 3 for the elves). In addition, he forges the master ring for himself and begins to destroy Middle-earth, which sooner or later also leads him to the gates of Númenor.
Over several millennia we experience the fall of a thriving empire. The Lord of the Rings series waits along at this point a big change on: The Second Age is condensed into a much smaller period of time. Co-showrunner John D. Payne explained the decision to Vanity Fair as follows:
When you look at [die Vorgaben von Tolkien] hold, you tell a story in which yours human characters die each season, because you jump 200 years in time, and then you don’t meet your really big, important canon characters until season four. There are bound to be some fans who expect us to do a documentary about Middle-earth, but we’re going to tell a story that combines all of those things.
So the Rings of Power moves with you significantly larger steps towards Númenor’s decline than reading Tolkien would suggest. The story of the series, which will have a total of 5 seasons, is completely planned. “We know what the last shot looks like”reveals Payne in an interview with Empire .
The end of all things on the Lord of the Rings timeline
It’s entirely possible that the setting Payne mentions is directly related to the Third Age which is very familiar to us from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films. At the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King we even experience the transition to Fourth Agewhose fate is uncertain after the defeat of Sauron and the beginning of Aragorn’s reign.
However, in Tolkien’s record there is one event that transcends the Fourth Age: Dagor Dagorath. In the battle of all battles, the ultimate victory over evil is to be won, which is what End of the story of Arda would mark. When, where and how the battle will take place is unclear.
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What Middle-earth events do you want to see in the Lord of the Rings series?