The popular Amazon TV series has finally reached the purpose of its namesake: the creation of the rings of power. Much of the series has been building up to this major event in Middle Earth history, with the pressure from Celebrimbor to build the great forge, the curiosity surrounding the incredible healing properties of the Mithril ore, and the impending arrival of Sauron to corrupt the rings, and shape these great creations into weapons that will later dominate many of the races of the world.

But with the creation of the 3 elven rings, Nenya (Galadriel’s ring of light or air) Narya (the ring that will eventually come to Gandalf as the ring of fire) and Vilya (the ring of water guarded by Elrond), many fans have begun pondering the question: where are the other 17 rings?

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As wonderfully demonstrated by the closing song of the series, which is taken from a poem in Tolkien’s original Fellowship of the Rings book, there are 20 rings in total, including 9 for the race of men, 7 for the dwarven lords, 3 for the elves, and one master ring which Sauron made in secret to rule over all of the others.

Halbrand in Galadriel's head

These rings, across the next thousand years leading up to the stories of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, will twist and corrupt the men into ring-wraiths, bring about the downfall of several formidable dwarven kingdoms, and remain in hiding by the elves who devote their lives to guarding them. But with there currently being no trace of these other jeweled powers in the series, will this be something that is focused on in series 2? Or have they already been made in secret, and are yet to be revealed?

There are 3 directions that the writers could take in terms of the other rings. The first is that they simply haven’t been created yet, and will become a major theme in later series. One of the difficulties with this is that Sauron has a key part in the creation of the other rings, and they are twisted and corrupted by his evil malice, which is why they in turn bring down entire civilizations and cause so much damage.

However, after the big revelation of Sauron being Halbrand, Galadriel is incredibly on her guard and has already warned the others not to treat with the traitor ever again. So if the rings of men, dwarves, and Sauron himself have not yet been forged, how will Sauron get back into Eregion to do so? There is a possibility that he will forge them himself, in the fires of Mount Doom, for Halbrand is shown many times to be a great metal worker, and would be able to do them without Celebrimbor’s aid. Or there is another possibility that Sauron the shape-shifter will take on another disguise, and worm his way back into the elves esteem this way, for example in the form of the elf Annatar as he originally appears in Tolkien’s books.

The second possibility that the writers could explore is that the other 17 rings were made during the time that Galadriel was trapped reeling through her past memories of Valinor and the Sundering Seas. There was obviously some amount of time that passed whilst she was being psychologically manipulated by the dark lord, because Elrond went looking for her, and found her beneath the water of the river where she had fallen.

It would be difficult to know whether Sauron would have been left alone in the forge at any point during Galadriel’s absence, or whether he may have been able to influence Celebrimbor and the team of crafting elves to create the other rings during this time, although the time seems quite brief to have created 17 entire rings, and allowed them to cool and set. However, if this were true, it would create an interesting dynamic for Celebrimbor in the next season, who would be harboring this guilty secret that he had helped Sauron to create the other weapons before the dark lord’s escape.

Halbrand and Celebrimbor

And the third possibility that the writers could choose to explore is that the other rings are never created, all apart from the One which is essential for the rest of the story. The audience knows that the one was created in the fires of Mordor, whereas all the others were created in Eregion with Celebrimbor, so if the Rings of Power takes a different approach and just doesn’t include the other rings in the storyline, the 3 elven rings can stay with Galadriel, Elrond, and eventually Gandalf, the one ring can be forged in series 2 in Mount Doom, and the others can be immaterial and irrelevant.

However, this would be likely to cause an uproar among Tolkien’s most loyal fans, as it would be a major divergence from the original tales, so it will be interesting to see how writers and directors of the Amazon series tackle this interesting dilemma moving forwards.

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