Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of the Rings series has been shrouded in mystery since it was announced in 2017. Early rumors said that the show would be centered on a young Aragorn, who was played by Viggo Mortensen in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. But then Amazon created an official Twitter account for the show that seemingly contradicted that.
On February 15, the account tweeted out the first in a series of maps of Middle-earth. It was mostly barren, save some mountain regions and forests, but it did have a few hints that made it clear when the series might be set. As Twitter user @tolkienthot pointed out, the map must be set post-War of Wrath, due to the absence of Beleriand, a northwestern region of Middle-earth that was destroyed and submerged beneath the sea.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, pic.twitter.com/unJj1Bpde1
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) February 15, 2019
That would place the series in either the Second or Third Age, something clarified as the account updated the map each week. Also of note: Each updated map came with a caption about the forging of the rings. In completion, they spell out the verse of the Rings of Power.
Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne;
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them;
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
So will the new series be about the forging of the rings? It’s hard to say, but given the account’s most recent tweet—which looks like a finalized version of the map—we now have confirmation that the island of Númenor exists in the timeline of the new prequel. This is a pretty major detail. First, it means the series is almost definitely set in the Second Age, when Númenor rose and fell. And due to other locations on the map, it seems pretty likely that the show will tell the story of the establishment of Arnor and Gondor.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. #LOTRonPrime pic.twitter.com/7TuQh7gRPD
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) March 7, 2019
For those unfamiliar, Númenor was a mythical island raised from the sea as a gift to Men. It was inhabited by the Dúnedain, a race of man who thrived on the island, making it a place of great culture and thinking. It was destroyed near the end of the Second Age, but many of its people escaped, and went on to forge the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.
So does this have anything to do with Aragorn? Yes! In the Lord of the Rings books, Aragorn is the last of the Dúnedain and therefore the rightful king of Arnor and Gondor. So in a sense, the story will be a prequel tied to Aragorn… but will most likely be about his ancestors, not him.
Of course, all of this is just guesswork for now. We’ll know more when Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series hits the small screen sometime in the next year or two.
Images: New Line Cinema, Amazon