[Subtitles will have tons of mistakes] What makes The Lord of the Rings so amazing?
In my opinion it's Tolkien's love for detail.
He did not simply wrote a plot, but created a very detailed world for his epic story as
foundation.
A lot of characters have long backstories and family members, with their own backstories,
that sometimes go back thousands of years.
The lore of Lord of the Rings is massive.
The more you know it, the more you see the deep meaning of all those elements in the
story.
Like small gears in a giant clockwork that all work together.
With this the world becomes alive and meaningful and starts fascinating the reader or the viewer.
Ofc besides the books, we also have the films and in an audio visual medium like this video
it helps having them.
I personally like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films esp. the extended cut and
I have a special connection to them.
When I was young I heard a lot about Lord of the Rings, but never came to read it.
It was after seeing the Fellowship of the Ring 16 years ago, that changed this.
And now I'm making far too long lore videos about certain aspects of Tolkien's universe
on Youtube.
My idea for this new format is now to go through the whole Extended Edition of Lord of the
Rings and explain all the little lore details and references from the books' perspective,
many people probably don't know about.
I try not to focus too much on the differences towards the books, of which there are plenty,
but I will mention some of them too.
But I mainly want to explain the lore behind the story.
Ofc I can't do this in one video.
So for today we start with the prologue of The Lords of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring in the Extended Edition.
If the feedback is positive, I shall continue this as an episodic series.
Don't worry I will continue making my more classic lore videos, but I like having the
option to make shorter videos from time to time, because here I can decide when I end
the video, which gives me more flexibility in production.
I hope you like it too.
Before we start a few minor things: Ofc spoiler alert for all books and films.
It also helps if you have seen the films or red the books I guess.
I will most likely overlook a few things or even make a few mistakes.
Feel free to mention it in the comment section.
Maybe I can include it or correct it in the next Episode.
I try to pronounce names - as in all of my lore videos - as Tolkien described it or as
it makes sense, considering a word's origin.
That means a lot of rolled Rs.
I will use the books' lore including those books, the film makers had no access to, due
to right issues.
And finally: some of my interpretations could be a bit stretched at places.
But let's start:
The film starts with a black screen and Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchett, speaks the prologue.
She says some quite interesting things here.
Quote: The world is changed.
I feel it in the water.
I feel it in the earth.
I smell it in the air.
We also have this line in the book.
Here it can be found pretty close to the end and is said by Treebeard as a farewell to
Galadriel and Celeborn.
But let's have a look at the phrase itself.
Earth or Fire, Water and Air are 3 very important elements in the lore of the elves.
The 3 legendary gems called Silmarilli, which are most precious to the elves, got lost and
ended in the sky as a star, in a fiery pit deep inside the earth and in the ocean.
These gems hold the light of the 2 divine Trees of Valinor, that gave light to the world,
before sun and moon were created and were present when the elves awoke the first time.
So you could say those gems represent earth, air and water, the elements of the world.
Also the two divine Trees later got destroyed and all that is left of the light of them
are those gems, the stars, the moon and the sun.
In addition the next introduced element in the prologue, the 3 elven Rings of Power,
are also connected to this.
Because they are called Vilya, the Ring of Air, Narya the Ring of Fire and Nenya the
Ring of Water.
I really like this reference, esp. told from the perspective of an Elf like Galadriel,
who also wears the Ring of Water herself and has seen the Two Trees of Valinor and probably
even the Silmarilli with her own eyes.
So to say she is a contemporary witness.
I think the quote fits really well and sets a nice tone for the prologue.
This also goes hand in hand with the phrase: Much that once was is lost.
For none now live who remember it.
The prologue was interestingly pretty much the last part of the film, that was created,
because it was not decided until the very end, if there will be a prologue at all.
It also had many iterations and they had to carefully cut out many things as you will
see soon, because there are just too many information and names, that would confuse
the viewer.
A problem that I also often have in my lore videos.
And right after this: we see the this scene.
It implies that the 3 elven Rings of Power after their creation were given to those 3
elves, which is not 100% correct.
Sauron taught the Elven Ringmaker Celebrimbor and his guild making those 19 Rings of Power,
with the elves not knowing it was Sauron.
He tricked them with the intend to control and corrupt them with a master ring, that
he would forge later.
But it did not work, when Sauron created the One Ring, the elves were still able to take
the rings off their fingers and knew it was Sauron behind all of this.
These 3 elves got the 3 elven Rings, because Sauron would now attack the Elven Ringmaker
Celebrimbor and his realm Eregion.
The Elf Lord gave the rings away to hide them from Sauron, because they were the most powerful
and they were also created in secret without the Dark Lord in disguise observing
the process.
Sauron still conquered Eregion and killed Celebrimbor, but he did not under torture
reveal, where he hid the 3 Elven Rings, however Sauron got the other 16 or maybe only 15.
I will probably mention Celebrimbor again, when we come to Moria in another video.
However we later learn about Galadriel having one of the 3 Elven Rings of power, but who
who are the other two Elves?
According to the Lord of the Rings book the Ring of Water was given to Galadriel, the
Ring of Air was given to Gil-galad, Highking of the Noldor Elves and the Ring of Fire was
given to Círdan, the shipwright and herald of Gil-galad.
However according to the Unfinished Tales Gil-gald received 2 rings and gave one, Narya
to be precise, to Círdan.
However it makes no real difference in the end.
The other herald of Gil-gald should later receive his ring, The Ring of Air.
He could have also become the next Highking of the Noldor Elves, but he declined – His
name is Elrond.
Galadriel could also have claimed the throne, but declined too.
As we see in the end of the Trilogy, Gandalf wears Narya.
Círdan, the Shipwright, gave his ring to Gandalf, when he arrived in Mithlond, the
elven haven in the west, because as one of the few, Círdan understood the nature of
Gandalf and the other Wizards or at least knew who they were.
He said to Gandalf, that he would need Narya more than him, which is like a prophecy that
became true, because Narya was said to be able to rekindle the hearts of others in dark
times and this describes Gandalf's work in Middle-earth quite well.
What is also interesting, you see Círdan at the beginning of the films and at the end,
same with Galadriel and to some degree Elrond too, which is a nice stylistic device.
In the next scene, we see the seven dwarf lords and their rings.
Who exactly they are, is hard to say, but it's most likely, that they represent the
seven great houses of the dwarves.
One of them must be Durin III, who is from the house of Durin also known as the longbeards.
Interestingly, it is possible, that the dwarves received at least Durin's Ring of Power from
the elves directly and not from Sauron.
But this can for sure be debated.
Thrór and Thráin wore it too, but it never got into Thorin Oakenshield's possession.
Sauron got it back first and Thráin, that's Thorin's father, was the last dwarf to wear
a Ring of Power.
And last "Nine for mortal men doomed to die".
These are nine lords of men.
I assume in the middle is the one who will become the Witchking.
I also assume to his left is Khamûl, the only other Nazgûl, we at least have a name
of.
He is a lord or maybe even a king of the Easterlings and has the highest rank of the Ringwraith
after the Witchking.
But beyond that we don't know anything about his past.
At least 3 of the Ringwraiths were lords of Númenor.
Númenor was an island were Aragorn's ancestors and the Dúnedain, the Westmen, came from.
In this context the ancient kingdom of Númenor was later in its history divided into 2 groups.
Mainly the King's men including the king, who much later even would follow Sauron, and
in contrast the "Faithful", who did not and were still faithful in Aman holding up
the friendship to the elves.
The faithful were also later oppressed and persecuted by the King's Men.
Isildur himself lived on Númenor and was the grandson of the second-last leader of
the Faithful, Amandil.
Isildur's father Elendil would become the last.
Knowing this, it has something special, that 3 of the Nazgûl were also Dúnedain from
Númenor and most likely King's men, who got tricked and corrupted by Sauron during the
Second Age.
The scene where Aragorn helps the Hobbits against the Ringwraith later becomes really
powerful in this context, with Aragorn being a descendent of the Faithful from Númenor.
There is even more to it, but that's for a later video.
And this is all we know about the origins of the Nazgûl.
In this small shot we see Mount Doom.
It was once created by Sauron's master Morgoth during the First Age.
Sauron chose this and Mordor as his dwelling place after his masters defeat at the end
of the First Age in the so called War of Wrath.
What I like about this is, that this volcano is a relic of ancient times, created by the
most evil power in existence.
Mount Doom's dark ashes probably gave Mordor, which means the "Dark Land", it's name.
I think it has something creepy, dark and evil.
Esp considering that the One Ring was forged here.
What powerful entities must be at work here, considering that Sauron not simply forged
a Ring here, but the fate or Doom of the Middle-earth.
This is a lore detail you have to understand.
Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's lore is a lot about fate.
So the power is not necessary only sheer strength or some kind of magic, it's creating something
so unimaginable powerful and terrible, that it actually forges history and events, that
seem to happen by accident, but actually were meant to be, because they are entangled with
the fate created through the existence of this ring.
It's quite hard to explain.
But Bilbo was meant to find the One Ring.
It was his fate.
Tolkien loves the idea of turning something seemingly subtle and meaningless or ordinary,
into something meaningful and world changing on epic scale.
Mythology often works like this.
Let's continue.
The prologue must now take a few shortcuts, because there is a ton of backstory here.
Sauron forged the One Ring Second Age 1600, that's in the middle of the Second Age, but
the Battle of the Last Alliance was at the end of the Second Age so over 1700 years later.
A lot of things happen in this time.
So much that I also must take some shortcuts to explain it, so I leave out some details.
When Sauron betrayed the elves and forged the One Ring he almost conquered all of Middle-earth.
Only when the mentioned very powerful men from Númenor came with huge fleets to help
the elven Highking, Gil-galad, who called them for help, they were able to push Sauron
back, however Sauron was still in a very good position.
After that he tricked Númenor and the island got destroyed – even the shape of the world
was changed.
However Sauron lost his physical form in the process and was never able to take a fair
form again.
This is the short version.
Ofc Sauron can exist without a body and his spirit returned from the now sunken island
of Númenor to back Mordor, where he grew his armies and power again to threaten the
new Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, established by the Faithful survivors of Númenor.
Sauron started to pressured Gondor greatly with his armies.
Seeing this the remaining Noldor elves under High King Gil-galad, the Silvan elves under
Thranduil's father, the dwarves and the men of Arnor under Elendil formed the last Alliance
of Elves and Men and came to help and free Gondor.
From there - together with Gondor - they started to conquer Mordor to defeat Sauron one and
for all.
Pretty much all that North-west Middle-earth had to offer attacked Sauron and his realm,
before he could again regain his full strength.
This scene here is by the way quite interesting.
The land looks a bit like Rohan in the films, but at this time Rohan didn't exist.
But around this area there were huge forest like lands, which extended Fangorn.
The Entwives were active in this region and taught the people who settled there to grow
plants.
However to prevent the armies of the last alliance to marching through there, Sauron
burned down these lands and so they later became known as the Brown Lands.
Here the Entwives got lost.
We don't see forests here but something that resembles Rohan and I think this scene can
be later seen in the second film again.
The brown lands are close to Rohan and we see fire, so this could be a nice little reference
to this, but that is just my very stretched interpretation.
I think this scene always sticks out a bit.
Ofc it's primarily there show Sauron's war efforts and cruelty.
In this scene we also see some armed men.
Probably Easterlings, because Sauron allied a lot with them and they fought on Sauron's
side.
These men also look a bit like the Dunlendings.
The Dead men of Dunharrow, that's the undead army, is related to the Dunlendings and worshipped
Sauron at this time, it's not unlikely that Sauron also had Dunlendings to fight for him.
The Dunlendings were settling in the area of Gondor first, but were driven out by the
Númenoreans, when they wanted to settle there.
So they had all the reason to hate and fight against Gondor.
Then we see a map of the known parts of Middle-earth.
What is interesting here: east of Mordor we can read Mountains of the E. That are the
Mountains of the East.
I assume that are the Orocarni, the Red Moauntains.
It's close to where the elves awoke in ancient times.
Would be interesting to know, why it's on the map.
Another interesting little detail regarding the map: The map is of the late Third Age
not the Second Age as the story, that is told.
E.g.
Minas Tirith was still called Minas Anor at this time, Minas Morgul was still Minas Ithil
and Rohan did not exist for another 2500 years.
But there is a directorial reason for this.
Next we will look at an emblem, we can see in the battle.
We see some well known motives.
Seven five-pointed stars, a crown and a white tree.
This represents the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.
The stars are for the 7 Palantíri, that Elendil and his two sons brought with them from Númenor.
The tree is the white tree in Gondor, descendent of the white tree Nimloth also in Númenor.
I made a video about those white trees if you are interested.
The Crown is the symbol of power for Gondor, but a sceptre or a big star for Arnor, because
there the king wore a jewel on his brow called the Elendilmir and had the Sceptre of Annúminas.
In this scene we see Elrond which is correct, but Círdan from the beginning fought in this
battle as well.
It's also important to note, that also Thranduil and his Silvan Elves were there too.
His father Oropher died before at the Black Gate and so he became king.
But also the dwarves were fighting here.
A little difference is, that the epic main battle was in front of the Black Gate, not
at Mount Doom, and called Battle of Dagorlad.
After the Last Alliance won the Battle of Dagorlad, Sauron retreated to his fortress
Barad-dûr and the Last Alliance besieged it for 7 years.
After those 7 years Sauron came forth and confronted them with his remaining armies
close to Mount Doom.
I think those events fused here together.
What is also interesting is the emblem Elrond wears.
It looks different from his own, but could be the emblem of his king Gil-galad, whose
herald he was.
We can also see it on his shoulder.
At first I thought it was Círdan's emblem, which would be an interesting reference, because
Elrond and Círdan fuse together in the films to some degree.
In a later scene we clearly see the banner of Círdan, which is a nice reference, because
he is a quite important character in the books lore, he is also part of the White Council.
I'm also a bit confused by this banner here.
Maybe it's the emblem of Gil-galad.
Hard to recognize.
I first thought it was the emblem of Finwë, Galadriel's grandfather, but that would make
no sense.
Speaking of the King.
We also see the High-king of the Noldor Elves Gil-galad, who we also saw at the beginning,
holding Vilya, the Ring of Air, one of the 3 elven Rings of Power.
He is also the son of Galadriel's cousin.
We can see his emblem on his armour and him wielding his legendary spear, which was feared
by the enemy and called Aeglos, which means "snow-point" or probably "icicle",
but it was broken in the fight against Sauron.
It's also in the video game Shadow of War as a weapon.
Ofc he did not take Vilya with him.
He couldn't wear it anyway, because Sauron still had the One Ring.
He gave it to Elrond before.
And here I have to explain some differences, because this is depicted differently in the
films.
In the books Sauron fights Gil-galad and Elendil and kills both of them.
When Elendil fell, his sword Narsil broke, but Sauron was thrown down too, so Isldur
could cut of his finger with a shard of his father's sword.
It's also important to note, that Narsil, but also Aeglos were very special weapons.
I would assume a normal sword could not even hurt Sauron at all.
Elendil, Isildur and Anárion, that's Isildur's brother, who died earlier during the Siege,
are also not ordinary men, else they would not have been able to even get close to Sauron's
presence.
They are from a very powerful blood line of Men, Elves and even Ainur, which are those
spirit beings like Gandalf or Sauron.
Also Isildur only cuts of Sauron's finger with the ring, not all of them.
In Lord of the Rings it's even later referenced, that Sauron is missing a finger by Gollum.
Another interesting detail, is the visual design of Sauron.
Actually Sauron is not really described in the books visually, we only have a note of
Tolkien about his size, which is a bit taller than a human, and that he can't take a fair
form after the Fall of Númenor.
So it was horrifying to come close or look at him for most normal beings.
Tolkien made this sketch and it's indicated that Sauron has black "skin" or appearance.
Maybe like a shadow.
However the design with the black armour, a crown-like helmet and a black mace is exactly
that of Sauron's master the first Dark Lord Morgoth, who was banned into the void after
the First Age.
Sauron escaped the defeat of Morgoth and became the new Dark Lord, he so to say took his place
until his master would return, even though it seems Tolkien later distanced himself from
the idea of Morgoth returning.
However Sauron was more like a sorcerer, than a warrior, which is reflected in Tolkien's
sketch, but I think Morgoth appearance is more fitting for a Dark Lord and in context
of this battle.
In this scene Sauron explodes, which was a cool visual effect.
I remember seeing it in the cinema, being impressed in 2001.
What happens here is that Sauron, who is a powerful spirit entity, like an angel, loses
or abandons his body.
His spirit now escapes to the far east, hiding there for about 1000 years.
In some of Tolkien's notes, it is mentioned that the Blue Wizards tried to find his spirit
in the far east, but failed.
As a spirit being he is complete without body, but losing the body and the One Ring weakened
Sauron immensely.
What is also interesting is that the film makers - so to say – use the perspective
of the One Ring from on during the prologue.
However Isldur did not destroy the One Ring and took it as heirloom.
In the Unfinished Tales it is indicated that Isldur wore the One Ring with a necklace.
It is mentioned that Saruman later found the necklace in the river Anduin, but not the
One Ring.
This also breaks down what happens in the so called Disaster of the Gladden Fields,
which actually happened a few years after the war.
What is important to note, is that in the books this ambush is a full battle, that takes
quite some time.
In Isildur's company were also all of his sons except for one.
He was on the way back to Rivendell to unite with his wife and youngest son.
They were ambushed by orcs and fought for days in the Gladden Fields.
Isildur thought about escaping, but did not want to leave until his oldest son b egged
him too.
Isildur asked for forgiveness and fled using the One Ring, which transferred his appearance
to the Unseen Realm, so orcs could not see him.
When he crossed the river, the ring betrayed him, slipping from his finger and disappearing
in the River Anduin.
He could not grab it again and had to reach the other side first.
There orcs panicked seeing him as dark creature with a glowing red eye in the dark coming
out of the water.
The glowing came from the Elendilmir on his brow.
The orcs shot into the dark with poisoned arrows, killed him and fled in panic.
He was never seen again and because of this nobody knew what exactly happened to him.
The 200 men strong company was completely murdered by the orcs except for three, who
miraculously survived to tell parts of the story.
Two of them were sent away early in battle to secure the s hards of Narsil, the other
was stunned in battle but not slain.
Probably Saruman found Isildur's remains much later in this area.
I really like the next.
It hints at so many things happening in the background, that are quite complicated to
explain in detail and in a film you don't have time to explain all of this.
So indeed the ring was forgotten.
People and Sauron later searched for it, but could not find it.
Nobody knew where it was.
And even Isldur's body could not be found.
By accident Déagol stumbled upon it and his friend Sméagol wanted it, which led to him
killing Déagol and becoming Gollum after he was kicked out by his family, because he
started to do mean things with it, like stealing and spying, spreading secrets.
So he was pretty much an outcast with no place to go.
The sun became painful for him and so he found refuge in a dark cave inside the misty mountains,
where he lived for centuries.
And nobody knew and all was forgotten over time.
I really like the next following lines:
Darkness crept back into the forests of the world.
Rumour grew of a shadow in the East.
Whispers of a nameless fear.
If you have seen the Hobbit films or red the books you know, that before Sauron returned
to Mordor, he hid for a very long time in the far east and then went to Dol Guldur,
which is in the east from the Shire's perspective.
Before Sauron hid in Dol Guldur, Mirkwood was known as Greenwood the Great.
Sauron hiding there brought evil over it and so over time it became known as Mirkwood.
It was also for a very long time unknown, what caused the evil there.
The rumours about a Necromancer spread.
I think these lines are referencing exactly this.
But there is more, quote: And the Ring of Power perceived its time has
now come.
What I like about this line a lot is, that it introduces the Ring as more than just a
simple magical ring, but it having a will of its own.
The Ring is waiting and wants to return to his master.
To be precise the Ring is part of Sauron himself – the Ring is also Sauron.
In addition Sauron and Saruman actively searched for the One Ring around the Gladden Fields.
Saruman actively delayed actions of the White Council against Dol Goldur to give Sauron
time to become stronger, so the One Ring would reveal itself to be found by its master.
But instead of Sauron, Saruman would be there and find it first.
I think the wording of this line is very fitting to hint at what is happening in the background
there.
Also in this part we see a young Bilbo Baggings finding the One Ring, which is part of the
Hobbit book.
Showing this is so important, because it is without a doubt the most important event of
the whole Third Age, which is over 3000 years long.
I always get goosebumps seeing this scene, because of its significance in the History
of Middle-earth.
It's so powerful and feels like it happened by accident, but definitely powers able to
forge the fate of the world itself are at work here and Bilbo becomes part of it right
here.
And then we see the map again and the camera zoomes out, which is the reason why it's a
Third Age map.
It gives us a good overview of the epic adventure's places and the world, whose fortune will be
shaped by the events to come.
Thank you for Watching
And this was the prologue of Lord of the Rings in the Extended Edition.
It is quite dense and the film makers had to cut out a lot of information to make it
not too confusing and overwhelming for the viewer.
And I think they have done a great job with it with many interesting details hinted and
referenced.
As always this got almost twice as long as I planned it, but the pilot episode is often
longer.
For future videos I aim for 15 minutes.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If I have missed something or did a mistake, please let me know.
I could include it in the next episode.
Not sure when the next episode will come, it also depends on the feedback, so let me
know in the comments how you liked this.
Speaking of likes, please feel free to like the video if you enjoyed it too.
Commenting and likes help a lot these days on YT.
The next video could be a little analytic Sea of Thieves review.
Lore video wise I'm not sure if I do a normal lore video or, if the feedback and views are
good for this one, make the 2nd episode of this format next.
A Círdan video is on my mind for quite some time now, but I haven't decided yet.
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