The Beginning
God creates a bunch of gods and goddesses. They in turn create the world & everything in it. One of them, Morgoth, is an asshole, and tries to break everything. The rest of the gods and goddesses (known collectively as The Valar) defeat him and lock him up for a while. The Valar create a paradise to live in. There is no sun or moon, so one of the Valar creates two magical trees that give light to paradise.
The Elves
After a while the immortal Elves "wake up". One of the Valar finds them and they (The Valar) decide that for their own protection the Elves should be invited to come live in paradise. Some go, some don't. Elf culture thrives in paradise until the gods decide to let asshole Morgoth out of captivity. An Elf named Fëanor creates three jewels (The Silmarils) that glow with light from the Two magic trees. Morgoth steals the Silmarils, kills Fëanor's dad, destroys the light-giving trees and escapes out of paradise and sets himself up as a "Dark Lord" in Middle Earth.
The First Age
Fëanor leads a large group of Elves out of paradise into Middle Earth to recover the Silmarils. One of the leaders is the family of Galadriel (who we meet in the movies and the series) On the way out he steals some ships from another group of Elves and kills a bunch of them. Then he burns the ships, stranding a rival group of Elves.
Once in Middle Earth, the Elf refugees discover Elves who never migrated to paradise, Dwarves, and Men, some of whom ally with the Elves in the war against Morgoth and his Orcs (who are Orcs? Long story) and evil Men. Lots of people die. Eventually Eärendil, who is descended from both Elves and Men with the help of one of the Silmarils that had been taken from Morgoth (long story), sails his ship to paradise to ask the gods for help. They give it, and an army led by the gods defeats asshole Morgoth. Surviving Elves are invited to come back to paradise. Some go, some don't. One prominent, high ranking Elf who stays is Galadriel. Oh, and a big chunk of the continent of Middle-Earth is submerged under the sea.
Second Age
This is the time period in which The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power takes place. A remnant of the Elves set up a kingdom ruled by King Gil-Galad in the northwest of Middle Earth. There are other Elf kingdoms or cities scattered around. The Men who were loyal to the Elves (the Edain) are given the island of Numenor, halfway between Middle Earth and Paradise (which we will start calling the Undying Lands). Their first king is Elros, the son of the previously mentioned Eärendil. The twin brother of Elros is Elrond, who we are going to see a lot of. (Elrond and Elros, being half Elf and half Man were given the choice of living their lives as either - Elros chose to be mortal, Elrond chose Elven immortality.)
Sauron
During the Second Age Sauron, the right-hand man of Morgoth during the First Age, works toward accumulating power himself. In the books, he disguises himself as Annatar (Lord of Gifts) and works with Celebrimbor, an Elven smith, to create magical rings of power. The Elves think that these rings will be used to preserve what is good in the world, hold off the ravages of time and change, and enhance the natural magical powers of those who use them. Sauron wants to use them via one master ring to dominate Elves, Men and Dwarves. The Elves figure it out and centuries of war ensue.
Numenor
While all that is going on, Numenor starts out as the perfect place for Mortal Men. Eventually though, its kings and people begin to be jealous of the Elves and their immortality and the island kingdom starts to morph into a dictatorship and breaks off contact with the Elves. The last king of Numenor, Ar-Pharazôn, declares war against Sauron and defeats him, bringing him to Numenor as a hostage. Sauron weasels his way into the king's confidence and convinces the king to invade the Undying Lands. In response, God (the original, head God that we haven't heard from since creation) sinks Numenor (think Atlantis). Numenorean survivors escape to establish kingdoms in exile in Middle Earth. They defeat Sauron's army, seemingly kill Sauron and take the One Master Ring and almost immediately lose it.
Third Age
The exile kingdoms thrive for a while, but eventually diminish. At the end of around 3000 years Sauron is back (he's basically a fallen angel, really hard to kill), and it looks like he's going to win until the One master Ring is thrown in the volcano. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tell the story of the last years of the Third Age.
What's Different in "Rings of Power"
There's a lot of room for non-canon storytelling in the Second Age. Galadriel is not portrayed in the books as a military leader, inspired by the death of her brother. In fact, all her brothers and male cousins, as well as her uncle and other assorted kin are killed in the 500 year war in the First Age. It's certainly possible for her to have been a military commander, but it's nowhere stated. There's around 6000 years between the beginnings of the Second Age and her appearance as a wise and magically powerful queen of the forest in The Lord of the Rings, plenty of time for her to change. One thing is certain, there is no evidence that passage to the Undying Lands was given as a reward for service, and especially wasn't forced on anyone. Galadriel specifically decided against returning there and founded Lothlorien with her husband Celeborn. In an unpublished manuscript she, as virtually the only survivor of those who led the exodus from paradise, is banned from returning to the Undying Lands.
There's no mention in any published or unpublished sources of hobbits or of their precursors, the Harfoots. Tolkien spent very little time discussing the origins of hobbits. He does mention that they first came to anyone else's notice in the Third Age and that they descended from three different "tribes", the Fallohides, the Stoors, and the Harfoots. Gollum/Sméagol is said to belong to a group that were "...akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors", which lived around 500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. So the Harfoots could have been around in the Second Age, it's just not stated anywhere.
Nobody magically arrives by meteor in any of the books.
The timeline is very compressed. As I stated earlier, the Second Age last around 3000 years. One review stated that the writers did not want to keep killing off the main human characters, so everything seems to be happening in one generation. The rise and fall of Numenor, for example stretches over the entire age. The forging of the rings by Celebrimbor takes place about halfway through the age, yet he is alive at the same time as Elendil and Pharazôn, who both were around at the end of the Second Age.
The only really ridiculous things I have seen so far are:
- Meteor Man - who arrives via a meteor. We have no idea who he is or if he is someone who appears in Tolkien's published works
- Mithril - in Tolkien's books mithril is a metal that looks like silver and is stronger than steel. It is the strongest and most beautiful metal known. Bilbo's mail shirt is made of this metal. In the series, mithril has magical properties that come from it's supposed connection to a "lost Silmaril". The Elves need mithril (in the show) to avoid either returning to paradise across the sea or "fading".
More to come as I watch more episodes.
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