Finrod makes sense as he died in Sauron’s captivity, saving Beren from a werewolf. She needs to keep fighting Sauron because of Finrod’s death. I wonder if her need for vengeance would be tempered if she knew Finrod had uniquely been granted resurrection in Valinor and is hanging out with their father Finarfin in Eldamar.
I’m curious about warrior-princess Galadriel as that’s a radical reinvention of her character.
I don’t think it’s that radical. Before gunpowder, monarchs were expected to lead their armies personally.
I notice a scene of her in a snowscape. Perhaps a flashback to her with Fingolfin’s people, crossing the Helcaraxe?
That’s my guess.
Galadriel lived so long, and we know so little about her (relative) youth, I have no problem at all with her being portrayed as a warrior-princess - and the actress looks like she’s up to the challenge.
I don’t have a problem with it either, but as noted earlier, am curious. Other than Luthien and Eowyn, Tolkien didn’t have women taking up arms. One thing the movies and this show have done is give women greater agency, which is an improvement. Looking forward to seeing how it develops. Agreed that the actress playing Galadriel seems up to the part. When Elrond tells her to put down her sword, it’s really out of place for a nephew to say to his aunt who is thousands of years his senior and walked under the light of the Two Trees.
It’s a rank thing - she may be the eldest, but the House of Fingolfin was the senior branch; her younger first cousin once removed Gil-Galad was High King of the Noldor, and Elrond was his heir apparent.
A social agenda? In an adaptation of an explicitly Catholic mythos wherein the driving action of the entire saga is God proving to Satan that he cannot truly rebel against Him?
I for one am shocked and as fey.
Which would also bring this ad for Amazon’s Alexa around full circle:
I agree it looks good, but I wish I had any idea what it was about.
As I understand it, Amazon have no rights to “The Silmarillion” nor anything outside of the three main LOTR books and The Hobbit.
So there is no ready made and perfectly constructed epic tale for them, rather they have snippets and hints on which they can expand.
It is more fan-fiction than anything else and it may be good, though the initial trailers suggest something more sprawling and disjointed than coherent and epic. I should be absolutely the market for this but I just cannot summon up any excitement which is a bit of a worry for a billion-dollar production.
ETA - just thinking that this fills me with the same feeling of foreboding as the “night watch” adaptation that the BBC did a couple of years ago, or even “His Dark Materials”. Glossy, expensive but ultimately empty.
I am happy to start something I have no idea about. I’m hoping they haven’t screwed it up, but Amazon is really hoping so since they spent $500 million just to get this thing on air.
Akallabeth, from the Unfinished Tales, is a perfectly constructed epic tale of the Downfall of Numenor. So apparently this series touches on that – Numenor is a setting and Ar-Pharazon is a character … so how did they get around the rights issue? (Or…god forbid … they’re just using those names and making up their own story)
I believe because a condensed version of the tale appears in the Appendices to LOTR.
ETA: Yes, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers
As Pork_Rind says I guess, but it certainly seems like they are making up stuff out of whole cloth as well.
Early reviews are quite good, though they tend to be when people get a chance to see things early. No one has seen past the first two episodes, either, so we have no idea how it will work out.
Minor Quibble: Elrond was indeed in the House of Fingolfin, as was Turgon, but when Turgon died in the Fall of Gondolin, Gil-Galad became (the last) High King of the Noldor, and he was in House of Finarfin, like Galadriel. Finarfin was Galadriel’s father and Gil-Galad’s paternal great-grandfather.
Some info here that was new to me.
It features a reforged sword and a golden ring, known as Andvaranaut, the final item in a ransom paid by the gods to a man whose son they inadvertently killed after he took the form of an otter.
I was curious on the deatils
Then Regin tells Sigurd a story: His father Hreidmar had three sons: himself, Otr, and Fafnir. Otr was an otter-like fisherman, Fafnir large and fierce, and Regin himself was skilled with ironwork. One day Odin, Loki and Hœnir were fishing and killed Otr in his otter shape, skinned and ate him.
Brian
At this point one must ask “Why doesn’t Amazon have the other rights?” Jeff can buy and sell countries - the cost of a few more items would be insignificant.
Most of the rights for film, stage, and merchandising are held by an organization called “Middle-earth Enterprises,” which used to be owned by the Saul Zaentz Company; just last week, it was announced that a Swedish media company, Embracer Group, is buying Middle-earth Enterprises.
The ability for other companies to create TV shows based on Tolkien’s works is the result of a recent agreement between Warner Brothers and the Tolkien estate; Amazon then won the rights to actually produce the series.
Could Bezos just buy Middle-earth Enterprises and get all of the rights? Of course; the fact that he hasn’t suggests that he doesn’t wish to do so.
Actually are the film rights for Silmarillion et al still held by the Tolkien estate? The heirs may not want to sell even if Jeff and Elon pooled their money.
Brian