Throughout the first series of Amazon’s Rings of Power, many of the characters have referenced a mysterious place known as the ‘Unseen World.’ This is clearly a dark and mystical realm where much of the magic of Middle Earth is sourced. Audiences can understand this by the quote spoken by Adar, and later eerily repeated by Celebrimbor. Both seek to harness the Unseen World to craft a power “not of the flesh, but over flesh.”

This powerful dimension will be explored in further detail during Season 2 of the show. However, it has also already been explored, at least in passing, in the original Lord of the Rings movies. Although it is never directly mentioned or named in the movies, the shadowy realm that Frodo enters into whenever he puts on the One Ring, is the very same world that Rings of Power has brought to light.

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It is thought that all of the characters, objects, and creatures of Middle Earth that are able to harness magic are, in some way, connected to the Unseen World. This plane of existence is the veil through which ethereal beings are able to interact with the physical world. Its power is thought to be related to the Valar, the god-like beings of Illuvatar’s original creation, who are believed to have shaped the world. It is also tied to the maiar, which include both Sauron and the wizards who first came to Middle Earth around the Second and Third Age. The Rings of Power draw their alluring and sinister abilities through the Unseen World, as do the later victims who are ensnared by them. Such victims include the nine kings of men who become known as ring wraiths. The new series also creates a magical creatures grimoire of a whole host of other beings, like the birds of Valinor, that also potentially tap into enchantment from the Unseen World.

sorcerers as ringwraiths

Very little is known about this world, or where its magical properties truly originate. Perhaps this will be what awaits the heroes in Rhun, the far eastern lands of Middle Earth where the stranger and Nori are set to travel at the end of the first season. The stranger, whose identity is finally confirmed as Gandalf, is headed to Rhun to learn more about his powers and his purpose, and will undoubtedly run into Sauron there if the series follows Tolkien’s lore. It is also likely that despite being defeated and banished in the final episode, the three sorcerers who mistake the stranger for Sauron will also be involved in the next season’s storylines concerning Rhun and the Unseen World.

In the final moment of their defeat the stranger uses the staff to rid these three of their physical bodies. They then turn into ghostly white essences reminiscent of the ring-wraiths in the Lord of the Rings, suggesting that they have been sent to the Unseen World. Although they were defeated, they are not completely dead. Rather, they have been pushed back beyond the veil, where they can still interact with those in the physical world of Middle Earth. This ability can be seen in the later movies in the scene in which the ring-wraiths are still able to stab Frodo on Weathertop. Using the Morgul blade that turns people into wraiths, they almost dras the hobbit into the Unseen World himself.

Celebrimbor (3)

The Unseen World is so named because it can only be seen by those who have access to the space. Such beings include the evil emissaries like Sauron who are able to cross between the realms, or the ring-bearers who are given a window or a portal into this spiritual space. This also isn’t the only sphere in Tolkien's world where another sort of state of being exists. There is also a dream realm that exists behind the eyes of elves that allows them to rest and regain strength whilst also moving around and engaging in the physical space. Another such world is the physical boundary that exists and can be seen opening up when Gil-galad tries to send the elves back to the Undying Lands.

Within Tolkien’s lore, there is a strange crossing of boundaries. Beings within spiritual dimensions are more of an essence or a soul than a solid physical form, but can still interact with people and objects in the physical space. That is also why the rings themselves, created by Celebrimbor but infused with the powers of the Unseen World by Sauron, are able to have such devastating effects over both the body and the mind.

The only real visual representations of the Unseen World have come in the Lord of the Rings films. They have been partially expanded in The Hobbit trilogy when looking at the character of the necromancer, another of Sauron’s early forms before he became the all-seeing eye of Mordor. But the journey to Rhun in Season 2 of Rings of POwer will give writers and directors of the show a chance to bring their own interpretations and depictions to a concept that has otherwise remained ethereal and abstract.

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