This article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is inventing original material to answer many of the questions raised by its source material, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. With the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the show is also drawing on the wider legendarium, clearly accessing one-off rights to individual aspects of the texts. For those familiar with Tolkien’s lore, The Rings of Power season 2 was an often mind-boggling adaptation, journeying into the creative minds of showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

While some of season 2’s inventions had Tolkienites pulling their hair out in frustration, some were gloriously satisfying and well-received by many. Regardless, showrunners constantly demonstrated knowledge and love of Tolkien’s work with Easter eggs, callbacks, and tie-ins. This confirms that the show’s inventions were not made without serious consideration of the books. Whether to embellish canon thoughtfully or make its internal timing work, Rings of Power’s Second Age solved many Tolkien mysteries.

10Rings Of Power Confirms How Many Elves Morgoth Turned Into Orcs

Moriondor Are Confirmed In The Rings Of Power

In The Rings of Power season 2, episode 1, the original character Adar told Sauron that Morgoth turned 13 Elves into the first Orcs. These first Orcs came to be known as the Moriondor, as explained by Galadriel in season 1 when she had Adar bound and was interrogating him. It was never quite clear in The Lord of the Rings exactly how Morgoth started the race of Orcs, despite the topic being mysteriously broached many times.

Tolkienian Age
Event Marking The Start
Years
Total Length In Solar Years

Before time
Indeterminate
Indeterminate
Indeterminate

Days before Days
The Ainur entered Eä
1 – 3,500 Valian Years
33,537

Pre-First Age Years of the Trees (Y.T.)
Yavanna created the Two Trees
Y.T. 1 – 1050
10,061

First Age (F.A.)
Elves awoke in Cuiviénen
Y.T. 1050 – Y.T. 1500, F.A. 1 – 590
4,902

Second Age (S.A.)
The War of Wrath ended
S.A. 1 – 3441
3,441

Third Age (T.A.)
The Last Alliance defeated Sauron
T.A. 1 – 3021
3,021

In accordance with this mystery, the legendarium never confirmed exactly how many Elves Morgoth turned into the first Orcs. The Silmarillion stated that Morgoth corrupted some of the Elves after they had awakened in Cuiviénen in the First Age. Those Elves that disappeared were never seen again, according to the lore of Lord of the Rings‘ Elvish Eldar that was expressed in The Silmarillion.

9Where Gandalf Got His Staff In The Lord Of The Rings

Rings Of Power Shows The Origins Of Gandalf’s Staff

The Rings of Power’s Stranger was actually Gandalf, as season 2 finally confirmed in its last episode, and he found his magical staff in Rhûn. High fantasy pioneer J.R.R. Tolkien never did divulge exactly where Gandalf found his staff, how he got it, or how it was made. It wasn’t clear, in fact, whether it was found or made. Rings of Power took delight in exploring these unanswered questions.

Before he even knew his name, Gandalf found his staff ready-made in the eastern land of Rhûn. Tom Bombadil had made it abundantly clear, beforehand, that the Stranger would simply know when he found his staff. Tom also clarified that the staff chose the Wizard, calling back the famous Harry Potter concept of the wand choosing the Wizard. Gandalf’s natural-looking and simple staff resembled the one created by Peter Jackson for his movies, allowing for a certain amount of continuity between both franchises.

8Why Celebrimbor & Sauron Made Specifically Nine Rings For Men

The Rings Of Power Clarifies The Forging Process

The Rings of Power season 2 dived deep into Sauron’s full plan to forge the Rings of Power with Celebrimbor, offering a subtle explanation as to why nine rings were needed for the race of Men. The show was always particular on its idea of balance, offering that three rings were needed for Elves in order to balance out the opposition created by having two. Building on this, the show presented a certain balance in forging the Nine.

Elven-ring
Name
Gem
First Owner
Last Owner

Vilya
The Ring of Air
Sapphire
Gil-galad
Elrond

Narya
The Ring of Fire
Ruby
Círdan
Gandalf

Nenya
The Ring of Water
Adamant
Galadriel
Galadriel

Sauron had successfully persuaded Celebrimbor to start forging nine rings of Men, despite honestly telling him that High King Gil-galad wouldn’t be best pleased about it if he knew. Celebrimbor wrote a letter lying to the King, telling him he was shutting down the forge, which Sauron falsely discouraged while being internally gleeful. Sauron used Celebrimbor’s lie as his false explanation as to why the Dwarves’ rings may have been challenged creatively or spiritually. The Nine were then forged to outweigh the flaws of the Seven and treble the benefits of the three Elven-rings.

7When The Entwives Disappear In The Lord Of The Rings

Rings Of Power Explores Entwives

One of The Lord of the Rings’ biggest mysteries is what happened to the lost Entwives, which The Rings of Power tackles. An Entwife appeared triumphantly to the Elf Arondir and Theo in the show. Both original characters experienced the wrath of the giant tree, but Arondir was able to earn her trust. The show did not explain what happened to make the Entwives disappear in time for the Third Age. Kemen, another original character in Rings of Power, mentioned toward the end of season 2 that he wanted lots of trees to be cut down for timber in and around the coastal settlement of Pelargir.

Second Age Event
Second Age Year

Sauron began construction on Barad-dûr
1000

Sauron befriended the Elves of Eregion as Annatar
1200

Rings of Power were forged
1500

The Three great Elven Rings were forged
1590

The One Ring was forged, Barad-dûr was completed, Sauron openly proclaimed himself
1600

Sauron began to prepare to invade Eriador
1605

The War of the Elves and Sauron began
1693

Sauron invaded Eriador
1695

Sauron sacked Eregion and killed Celebrimbor. Rivendell was founded. The Dwarves assailed Sauron. Khazad-dûm closed.
1697

Sauron overran Eriador
1699

Númenóreans defeated Sauron
1700

Sauron was driven from Eriador and fled to Mordor. First White Council held
1701

Ar-Pharazôn seized the scepter
3255

Sauron became Pharazôn’s prisoner in Númenor
3262

Númenor fell
3319

This could hint that it was ruthless Númenórean expansion killing the Entwives. It was assumed by many after reading The Lord of the Rings that the dubious accolade of killing the Entwives fell to Sauron. But in the show’s logic, it may not be so. Regardless, the show posited that Entwives were still around in the Second Age, suggesting that they only disappeared sometime between S.A. 1700 (rough time of the Siege of Eregion) and T.A. 3018 (time of the Fellowship’s mission).

6How Morgoth Turned Elves Into Orcs

Rings Of Power Confirms Orc Origins

The Rings of Power exploded the mystery of Orc origins in The Lord of the Rings. As well as explaining that Morgoth chose 13 Elves to be turned into Orcs, Adar dished out the detail on how those Elves were transformed. In season 2’s first episode, Adar told Halbrand the story of his transfiguration from Elf into Orc. He explained that he was promised power by Morgoth, and was granted it by being led to a “dark and nameless peak.” Morgoth’s promise to Adar was one of family, tragically.

Perhaps the starvation was needed to make Adar want to drink such a potion willingly, and perhaps his willingness was a key ingredient in the ritual.

In a poetically grotesque twist, Morgoth put Adar through a “new birth” himself on the mountain, where he was bound and starved before Sauron appeared. Bringing “blood red” wine that spoke of some kind of blood magic, Sauron poisoned Adar, who drank the wine gratefully. Perhaps the starvation was needed to make Adar want to drink such a potion willingly, and perhaps his willingness was a key ingredient in the ritual. Either way, Adar made it clear that he was never the same again.

5The Rings Of Power Teases The Origin Of The Shire

Harfoots And Stoors Both Feature In Rings Of Power

The Rings of Power started outlining its fabricated origin story of the Shire and the Hobbit race. Harfoots and Stoors were confirmed by Tolkien to exist but no named characters were provided, making The Rings of Power’s Harfoots and Stoors a big swing, although their relevance became increasingly clear in season 2. Originally supposed to provide some humor and human interest in the story, in the same way that Hobbits provided it in Lord of the Rings, the Harfoots actually seemed to illustrate Hobbit history in the show.

Nori adventured into Rhûn with the Stranger and bumped into the Stoor community. Hobbits were composed of three different pre-Hobbit races in lore – the Harfoots, the Stoors, and the Fallohides. Harfoot Poppy’s romance with Stoor Merrimac implied that Nori and Poppy’s encounter with the Stoors could have triggered one of the first instances of interbreeding among pre-Hobbit tribes. What’s more, the Stoors’ Smials made it inevitable that Nori would bring this idea with her when she went back West, implying that Nori may establish the Shire.

4Rings Of Power Confirms How Sauron Regenerates

Sauron Was Reborn On Rings Of Power

Sauron was brutally betrayed and stabbed to death by Adar and his Orcs in The Rings of Power season 2’s opening flashback, necessitating him to regenerate graphically. The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion made it clear that Sauron was reborn after being killed many times, as an immortal Ainur spirit-being. But neither text demonstrated Sauron’s magical process.

Sauron made himself a new body slowly in both books, so it was obviously a painstaking task. The books also described Sauron as dark and silent while he rebuilt himself, implying that he was certainly not at full power at first, either incapacitated or vulnerable. The Rings of Power showed Sauron’s tenacious spirit reanimating his black blood after the murder, slowly becoming thicker and more lively until he could catch prey and grow.

3How Gandalf Got His Name

Gandalf Utters His Name For The First Time In Rings Of Power

The Rings of Power season 2 showed Gandalf speaking his own name aloud for the first time, which was a special moment, by any standard. Hearing the Stoors say “Grand-Elf” over and over again gradually inspired him, and eventually he sat down in Tom Bombadil’s house and said that he had realized that he would be called Gandalf in the years to come. In the books, Gandalf was a Mannish name based on the phrase “the Elf of the Wand.“

In a thoroughly Tolkienian spiritual paradox, Gandalf got his name from the Stoors, and at the same time, he had always had his name, and the Stoors were just reminding him of it.

The show explained how Gandalf’s name got from “Elf of the Wand” to “Gandalf,” suggesting “Wand-Elf” and “Grand-Elf” as the two in-between stages of his name before it settled into its final iteration. It seemed that the Stoors’ use of the term “Grand-Elf” eventually triggered a foresight in Gandalf, whereby he perceived that this was the name that was meant to be. In a thoroughly Tolkienian spiritual paradox, Gandalf got his name from the Stoors, and at the same time, he had always had his name, and the Stoors were just reminding him of it.

2Why Sauron Has Such A Strong Grip On The Ringwraiths

Rings Of Power Showed Celebrimbor Making The Nine

The Rings of Power finally showed the forging of all of the Rings of Power, and it offered an intriguing explanation for why the Nine were so powerful. Sauron had cut his hand with a knife, and the following episode explained why. Sauron bled into a glass vial, which he enchanted and gave to Celebrimbor. Sauron told Celebrimbor it contained mithril, which the enchantment visually validated. Celebrimbor, as advised by Sauron, added this enchanted blood into the nine Rings for Men.

…the Nine each contained a part of Sauron himself.

The Nine contained Sauron’s blood. Sauron’s blood was seen in his shapeshifting process to be much the same matter as his whole being before it had settled on a form. Therefore, the Nine each contained a part of Sauron himself. This kind of blood magic resonated with Adar’s comment that only blood could bind in season 1, and with the “blood red” potion that created Orcs. It also gave weight to the total control Sauron had over the Ringwraiths, who each had one of the nine rings, in Lord of the Rings.

1The Rings Of Power Hints At What Tom Bombadil’s True Purpose Is

Tom Bombadil Has A Specific Goal In Rings Of Power

Tom Bombadil’s true purpose was gloriously unclear in The Lord of the Rings, but The Rings of Power decided to turn this on its head. Although still unclear, in the show, what Tom Bombadil is or where he comes from, the show’s character has certain goals and motivations. Tom loved nature in The Lord of the Rings and existed mostly to protect and maintain his realm, the Old Forest, alongside his wife. In the show, Tom opposes Sauron, training the Dark Wizard and Gandalf.

Tom represented pacifism, to a certain extent, in Tolkien’s seminal novel. Tom refused to involve himself in the War of the Ring. He did, however, stretch to rescuing the Hobbits from Old Man Willow, and again from the Barrow-wights, and he even proceeded to arm them. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s implication that Tom Bombadil did take sides, and took the good side, wasn’t unfounded, but it certainly opened up one of Lord of the Rings’ biggest mysteries.