Examining the minutiae of Tolkien adaptations has long been a tradition at TheOneRing.net. Staff, message boarders and chatters on our site have regularly picked over scenes and images from the films and this tradition continues with The Rings of Power. Today, however, the discussions take place in multiple arenas all over the internet. Recently, on Twitter, MGCoco* shared an interesting theory about Elrond’s cloak.
Other Tolkien fans loved this theory, with some noting how the cloak is “way more worn than the rest of the clothes” he wears and speculating that we may learn more at a future date.
Others took this theory even further, speculating that Elros may have been buried in his cloak and how Elrond still wears his as a “silent vigil over his brother’s legacy”. They go on to raise an interesting point that the lore never touches on Elrond’s feelings over his twin having chosen mortality and there being no chance of them ever being reunited, not even in the Halls of Mandos.
MGCoco* also noted how Elrond then goes on to watch over the remaining heirs of Elros in Middle-earth, helping to hide the line of Isildur. Other fans stated that:
“It paints a beautiful, if somewhat bittersweet, mental image. Really gives one a sense of the sheer depth of his character too.”
Claiomh Dubh via Twitter
Delving into a closer look of a characters costume, can lead to far more than just an appreciation of a piece of clothing.
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Over on Twitter, Fellowship of the Fans (FOTF) has posted some new rumours about LOTR on Prime’s series that are sure to provoke head-scratching and even more rampant theorising about the composition of the initial two episodes.
Warning: these are, potentially, spoilers. If that’s important to you, what are you even doing here? Run away!
According to Fellowship of the Fans’ sources:
Actor Robert Aramayo was on the production’s dwarven sets and filmed scenes with the dwarves.
Actor Owain Arthur plays an important dwarven character in the same scenes.
The dwarves wear “amazing dragon/dragon scale armour”.
The dwarven king is said to look strikingly similar to Tormund from the HBO Game of Thrones telly series.
Scenes in the first two episodes will show dwarves climbing a mountain, or ravine, and there is an “underground pub set piece”.
However, dwarven sets? Is this cold water being tipped over the Year of the Trees brigade? Regardless, the Valinor image still exists and it seems beyond belief that the production would lead with an image like that purely as fan catnip.
Keep in mind, this is not confirmed, while the Valinor image is most certainly official.
But it may be that that segment is shorter than we want to believe. Maybe it’s a short PJ-style prologue per Fellowship of the Rings. Because dwarves do not belong in Aman (unless it’s in Aulë’s workshop, or your name is Gimli), and the most natural place for dwarves and elves to be seen together is Eregion and Khazad-dûm, during the Second Age.
If it is Second age, the dwarven king is likely to be Durin III. Owain Arthur might be Narvi. Narvi most famously had a close friendship with Celebrimbor, but I wonder whether Celeborn might fit in there somewhere too.
The Lord of the Ringson Prime Twitter account surprised us all today with an official announcement of the upcoming television series’ full cast. Some names we already knew, but many we did not.