This post contains major spoilers from The Rings of Power season three‘s first four episodes. If you want to avoid them until you watch, you can check out our pre-season coverage instead. Also read our spoiler-free review.
I am that which burns within all things yet still remains unseen. I built the heavens and stars, and all of Middle-earth is cradled within my flame.
Gandalf didn’t just speak to a sentient, floating flame in The Rings of Power season three, episode three. When he spoke with the Secret Fire, he was talking to the creator of the world itself. In the fire, Gandalf spoke to Eru Ilúvatar, the supreme God of Middle-earth. The deity manifested as the part of himself that alone can create life. And he did because he has a mission for Gandalf. It’s just not the one the wizard expected.
What Is the Secret Fire in The Rings of Power?
The Secret Fire, also known as the Flame Imperishable, is what gives everything in Tolkien’s universe (Eä) and the world of Middle-earth (Arda) life. It lives inside all things, including the rabbit that burst into the flame. The Secret Fire is unknowable to all except the one who possesses it. Without the Secret Fire, life is not possible. It’s why, even though Aulë created the dwarves, they were not truly alive until Ilúvatar imbued them with the Flame Imperishable.
Why Did Morgoth Seek the Flame Imperishable?
Morgoth, a member of the Valar (the gods of Eä who are only below Ilúvatar), tried to claim the Secret Fire. The Dark Lord of the First Age did not understand he would never be able to take it because it exists within, and is inherently part of Eru Ilúvatar. It always has been and it always will be, for the Secret Fire is “endless” as Gandalf said on The Rings of Power. That inability to create independent life drove Morgoth to the shadow, which he then spread across the world.
Eru Ilúvatar Wants Gandalf to Remind the Dark Wizard of the Secret Fire Inside of Him
That darkness continues to spread in the Second Age via Morgoth’s most loyal servant, Sauron. But Eru Ilúvatar sent aid to Middle-earth long before Sauron ever thought about crafting the Rings of Power. The gods below the Valar are the Maiar. Ilúvatar sent five of them to protect the world and those who live there. They are the Istari, better known as wizards. One of the five was called Pallando, a blue wizard who killed his fellow Istar in a quest for more power. He became the Dark Wizard and commanded the loyalty of the men of Rhûn, a land he “laid to waste” with his unspeakably evil act.
Gandalf believed his mission was to defeat the Dark Wizard, but after showing the Istar the very cosmos he created, Eru Ilúvatar told him his true purpose. “You were not sent to Middle-earth to defeat him, you were sent to save him,” said the Secret Fire. “Only together can you prevent the armies of Rhûn from joining Sauron. Only together can you save Middle-earth.”
He then told Gandalf to arise as a “Servant of the Secret Fire.”
We don’t know if Gandalf will succeed. We know very little about the Blue Wizards from J.R.R. Tolkien, only that he believed that, much like Saruman in the Third Age, they likely failed. But with the Gaudrim pledging loyalty to Sauron, and with Pallando no longer getting the Ring of Power he wanted to use to restore Rhûn to greatness, Gandalf might be able to reach him.
How Does This Meeting with the Secret Fire Connect to Gandalf’s Balrog Speech?
We do know that no matter what happens with the Dark Wizard, Gandalf will forever be a Servant of the Secret Fire. When he stands before the Balrog thousands of years later, he will tell the beast of Morgoth exactly who he is during one of the most iconic moments in the history of The Lord of the Rings. When he stands on that bridge before the Balrog, telling the monster it cannot pass, Gandalf will say, “I am a servant of the Secret Fire.” Perhaps in that moment, he will think back on this meeting with Eru Ilúvatar.
In that moment, the Secret Fire will also burn inside the Balrog. Just as it burns in every living thing in Middle-earth. And that Flame Imperishable is also the secret to defeating Sauron. Not because it gave Gandalf a mission, though. It’s because he has to remind his fellow Istari, the Dark Wizard, why it also burns inside of him.
Learn More About The Rings of Power
If you’d like to learn more about this Middle-earth adventure, you can pick up The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth and read more about Tolkien’s vision of the time when the show takes place.
The Rings of Power season three is now releasing on Prime Video.
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