The State of Middle-earth Coming Into Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The Rings of Power will dive deep into the history of the mythos of the Lord of the Rings. The series is set thousands of years before the books and movies in the Second Age, and has already teased it will go even further back. What was Middle-earth like at the start of the show? We are here to help.

The world had a chronological beginning, but what is known as the "First" Age in Tolkien isn't actually the beginning of time. The first period of time when the days were marked by a sun and moon was named after it. The great lamps of llluin and Ormal, which were created by the Valar in generations prior, were the main sources of light in previous eras of time on Arda.

Some of the fruit and leaves of Telperion were given to the Maiar Arien and Tilion, who used them to create the sun and moon. The First Age of the Sun began. Is nobody's business if lamps and trees are destroyed like that?

Lord of the Rings fans, especially movie fans, are more familiar with Sauron than the Dark Lord. Sauron was not the first to claim that mantle, but he was a lieutenant of the original, the primordial embodiment of evil: Melkor. Melkor rebelled against his creator during the creation process of the known universe, attempting to sow his own ideas for creation into the great song. Melkor decided to set himself against them out of spite after Ainurtracized him for the initial creation of Arda.

It was Melkor all along. In the pre- Age era of Arda, Melkor was an evil thorn in the side of Ainur and he tried to corrupt the elves to his side. He earned himself the title Morgoth, which means "Black Foe of the World", because he stole the powerful gems known as the silmarils.

The First Age is just shy of a thousand years old, but it is in the larger context of the vast swaths of time that make up much of the defined eras of Tolkien's work. The emergence of Men, as well as the return of the Noldor Elves to the region of Arda known as Middle-earth, are some of the key events of the First Age. Much of Beleriand has been consolidated by Morgoth. Morgoth had grander plans to destroy Elves, Men, and Dwarve after defeating the Elves.

The War of Wrath would begin in the final 42 years of the First Age. The mortal races were in danger of being destroyed by Morgoth when Erendil took the voyage to Valinor. The Noldor who had left Valinor to hunt Morgoth was relented to by the Valar. They put together a mighty host alongside the Elves that had chosen to remain in Valinor, and set forth for Beleriand, where Morgoth had amassed all of his forces to try and put a stop to his former allies once and for all.

His forces were no match for the Valar's host. The host smashed Morgoth's orc armies and even though they themselves were nearly beaten back by the dragons, they were able to unite with the remaining Elves and the three tribes of Men. After being captured, Morgoth was tried by the Valar for his crimes, and he was beheaded because he was so bad.

The defeat of Morgoth came at a huge cost. The silmarils were lost forever, and much of Beleriand was completely destroyed. In the books and films, just a fraction of Beleriand's remaining landmass became Middle-earth. The Valar's host was nearly destroyed by the dragons, and much of the Edain was wiped out in the fighting. The Elves were ordered by the Maia to return to their ancestral home in the west, even if some hold on. The Isle of NFA;menor was given to the Edain for their role in the War of Wrath.

Some of Morgoth's forces were still there. Many Balrogs and dragons were slain, but the survivors went into hiding, and the remnants of the orcish hordes were wiped out. Sauron quietly amassed power and planned his ascendancy as the new Dark Lord as one Age ended and another began, much of which, no doubt, we will begin to see when The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power begins on Prime Video September 2.

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