“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy” is a incredible adaptation of Tolkien’s Legendarium, one which expands on what’s on the web page, capturing the brutality of struggle in the best way that Tolkien portrayed it, and in addition incorporating the precise model of silliness and whimsy that Tolkien infused into his world. (Season 2 doubles down on this by lastly bringing Tom Bombadill to the display.)
One massive downside the collection cannot actually shake is that it merely has too many characters and storylines. There may be the story of Celebrimbor and Annatar engaged on the rings, Durin IV coping with the corruption of the dwarves’ rings, Galadriel looking for Sauron, the political maneuvering in Númenor, Arondir and Isildur coping with orcs and Entwives, and even The Stranger and the Harfoots on Rhûn.
That final subplot can typically really feel disconnected from the remainder of the present, beginning with the truth that it is not explicitly primarily based on something Tolkien wrote. Given it’s not about rings or Sauron in any respect (no less than not but), at instances it may really feel just like the present simply wanted Hobbit-esque characters as a result of they’re related to “The Lord of the Rings.” Granted, there’s nothing flawed with this, and each time the Harfoots pop up on display, it lights up with pleasure; the strolling track sequence from season 1 stays top-of-the-line scenes in the entire present.
At the very least, that is the way it was till this season, when it turned clear that the Harfoots’ story has a transparent endgame, one which ties to arguably a very powerful location in “The Lord of the Rings.”
The Harfoots are looking for their perpetually residence
In episode 4 this season, Harfoots Nori and Dori are separated from The Stranger and attain a settlement the place they meet the Stoors, a special breed of halfling. Seems, the Harfoots themselves originate from a stoor who left his residence searching for a greater place for his folks to stay than the merciless deserts of Rhûn — an virtually prophesied promised land the place halflings can stay in peace, in holes within the floor. Sadly, that stoor apparently by no means discovered that location, and the Harfoots have been nomads ever since, touring alongside the Anduin river and dropping folks with each migration.
It’s clear by means of that episode’s imagery, after which once more in episode 6 when Nori tells Gundabel that the stoors ought to depart Rhûn and discover a new residence (as Bear McCreary’s rating evokes Howard Shore’s Hobbits theme), that this story goes to finish with the Harfoots founding The Shire.
The books do not actually embody specifics concerning the origins of the Hobbits (versus the detailed origins of Elves, Dwarves, and Males), however we do know that halflings lived across the Anduin River within the Second Age, east of the Misty Mountains and across the space between Rohan and Mordor (which is why Hobbit-speech is similar with Rohirric). Ultimately, the halflings cross the Misty Mountains, presumably escaping from Sauron’s rising energy within the close by forest later often called Mirkwood. Within the books, it is not till the Third Age that the land that turns into The Shire is granted to the Hobbits by the king of Arthedain.
Having the Harfoots’ story tie into the founding of The Shire is the proper approach of constructing this storyline really feel vital to the bigger historical past of Center-earth, and in addition connecting it to “Lord of the Rings.” That is as a result of that story, particularly as tailored within the Peter Jackson motion pictures, makes it clear that The Shire is the very raison d’etre for Frodo and Sam embarking on their quest.
The Stranger’s position within the Harfoots’ story
For Tolkien, The Shire was a vastly essential location, one impressed by reminiscences of his childhood in rural England, a spot that represents the countryside and small cities that have been untouched by world wars — the locations troopers went off to struggle to guard. All through Jackson’s trilogy we hear that the hobbits are embarking on this in all probability suicidal mission so as to shield The Shire and preserve it unspoiled by Sauron’s darkness. And but, additionally it is a location that finally ends up being ravaged by struggle throughout The Scouring of the Shire, as Tolkien argued that struggle modifications everybody concerned, regardless of how distant they’re from the frontlines.
Given how a lot “The Rings of Energy” has included issues from the books that have been deleted by Peter Jackson’s trilogy, it is rather doable that we would see a proto-Shire be attacked, and the Harfoots pressured to understand that their quiet little lives away from the massive people issues cannot stay hidden and completely protected perpetually.
As for what this storyline means for the way forward for the present, it appears very doubtless that we’ll finish the collection with the Harfoots founding The Shire, bringing all three Hobbit clans collectively. What nonetheless stays to be seen is that if The Stranger really is Gandalf – and if he’s, what higher approach of building his relationship with hobbits than having him actually lead the Harfoots to their everlasting residence?
