And So It Begins

 So, I see they've now announced the name of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien project: THE RINGS OF POWER. As is often the case with Tolkien, names mean a lot, and in this case the official name tells us quite a lot about the show-in-progress. 

Most importantly, it's a Tolkien title (or more accurately a modified Tolkien title), a clipped form of OF THE RINGS OF POWER AND THE THIRD AGE, the fifth of the five constitute parts that make up the 1977 SILMARILLION  (pages 285-304). This fits in well with everything the filmmakers have told us about the project during the long process of making it: particularly that it will be set in the Second Age (= . 285-.294), that it would at some point present Sauron in his 'Lord of Gifts' mode (Annatar, .286), and that Numenor would feature largely in it (.289ff) -- though the greater part of the Numenor story appeared not in OF THE RINGS OF POWER, the fifth part of the SILMARILLION, but in the fourth part: THE AKALLABETH (Silm. 259-282).

The newly released trailer itself is a bit underwhelming, but it's good to see things moving again on this after months of silence. Here's a link to one of many similar announcements that went out today:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jan/19/until-now-audiences-have-only-seen-the-one-ring-details-announced-for-lord-of-the-rings-tv-show 

--John R.

--current reading: LITTLE, BIG (halfway there)