1.02: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Adrift

[Dave]

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Galadriel finds a new ally while Elrond is not welcomed at an old friend's home. Meanwhile, Nori strives to help a stranger, Arondir searches for answers, and Bronwyn warns her people of a threat.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Here, at last, is the promised synopsis. When one comes to write one of these things, it can be surprising how much happens in a single episode. Watching this one originally, I felt that events were slow-moving, but writing it all up, I could hardly believe so much had been said and done in such a short space of time.

The parts written in italics, are my opinions, largely speculations but also questions that I have, so if anyone else has any other guesses about the same things, I, for one, would be interested to read them. Finally, I'm sorry I couldn't include any pictures, but my computer doesn't play videos (I watch the series on our TV, and check the episode as I review it, on my Kindle), so have no way to do screen-grabs of any of the scenes.

(Synopsis, 1.02, Pt. I)

This episode begins with Galadriel treading water in the sea off Valinor, staring at the place where the ship that brought her this far has disappeared. As she turns and starts to swim back the way she came, the sky is growing darker; night is already falling.

Granted that elves have strength and stamina beyond that of Men, just how far does she have to swim, and has she lost her mind to think that she can make it that far? The world is still flat at this point in Tolkien’s history, the continents are different, so we don’t have to figure the distance between the west coast of Europe and the east coast of North America. The distance could in fact be much less. But what I am wondering is: did Tolkien ever explicitly say how far it was between the Grey Havens and Valor? If anyone knows, please share. It would help in evaluating how logical it was for her to make this swim.

We return to Nori Brandyfoot on the rim of the fiery crater made by the falling meteor. At the center of the crater lies an unconscious man—compared to the harfoots, a very large man. Poppy appears on the scene and tries to draw Nori away, but in her struggle to win free of Poppy’s clutching hands Nori stumbles off the edge and rolls all the way to the bottom of the crater. As she crawls toward the unknown man—hereafter to be called The Stranger, as that is how he appears in the credits—she realizes that the burning debris is not hot.

Fire is no doubt meant to make us think of Gandalf—but the elven ring of fire that he later wears has not even been forged yet—and fire without heat reminds us of the cold in Morgoth’s abandoned fortress, where even the very air is so evil that it quenches the heat of the burning torches carried by Galadriel and her elves. Some people are convinced that the Stranger is Sauron, others that he is Gandalf or one of the other wizards. There is obviously meant to be a clue here, but it is an ambiguous one. Gandalf (and I suppose the other wizards, too) is “a servant of the secret fire” as he proclaims in LOTR —book and movie. The “secret fire” is the creative force of Eru Iluvatar. In associating himself with this “flame imperishable”, Gandalf proclaimed himself a servant of God, which makes sense as he is one of the maia, the lesser angelic spirits. Perhaps that holy fire, which is creative rather than destructive, would not burn an innocent like Nori? Since we can’t know the nature of the flames in the crater, it is hard to tell what we are supposed to conclude by their absence of heat.

As Poppy cries out to Nori not to touch the Stranger, the curious Nori continues to creep forward and touch his unconscious face. When he awakes he is confused and at first acts threatening. He gives a wordless roar and flames and rocks rise up into the air and whirl around, then collapse again and the flames briefly wink out. We see a close-up of his face which appears frightened rather than angry. He collapses and loses consciousness again, and the flames begin to burn once more.

Nori and Poppy bicker over what is to be done with him. Poppy is all for leaving him there and walking away; Nori is absolutely set against anything like that. From their conversation we learn that Nori has a history of helping the helpless and the broken. Poppy is not hard-hearted, but she believes she always has to be the sensible one. In the end, though, she gives in. The two girls borrow a cart and two lanterns from the camp, and use the cart to carry the Stranger to a broken and abandoned wagon where they can leave him, safely they hope, for the night.

The cart explains how they were able to move him so far, but how were they strong enough to life him up and put him in the cart? He really is gigantic compared to the two of them, and we should remember that harfoots were the smallest of the hobbit ancestors. Since we haven’t seen them up close to any other beings it is hard to say how small they really are, or how tall the Stranger is, but to me he looks to be more than twice as tall as they are.

They reach the wagon, where they leave him sleeping, hiding him behind a course grey blanket. Poppy, still hoping to convince Nori to abandon the Stranger, insists that he is not Nori’s responsibility, but Nori insists that she was somehow meant to find and help him, that it was no coincidence that the meteor landed so close to the harfoot encampment.

If Nori is right, then perhaps he is Gandalf—or rather Olorin, as he would be at this point in time—who is, of course associated with the halflings. There is also his grey hair and beard, and the fact that when he wakes he will have adopted the gray blanket as a kind of robe. But wait: though this scene is over the episode is not, and there will be further clues, pro and con.

Next we see Bronwyn and Arondir exploring the ruined village by torchlight. The buildings have been shattered, as though by an earthquake, but it was not an earthquake that cleared away any human bodies or human survivors. All that remain are a few carcasses of the villagers’ livestock. Nor was it an earthquake that created the hole the apothecary and the elf find in the floor one of the buildings, for the hole leads to an underground passage clearly excavated by someone—or something. The two split up: Bronwyn to go back to Tirharad to warn her people, Arondir to follow ithe passage and see what he can learn there.

We are whisked away next to Eregion, where Elrond and Celebrimbor are meeting in the master smith’s workshop. There is some pointless conversation over Feanor’s hammer and some invented lore about Morgoth and the Silmarils which don’t, in my opinion, add anything to the story (and probably don’t make much sense at all to those unfamiliar with the history). Celebrimbor bemoans his own lack of accomplishment—Elrond disputes this—and the smith shows Elrond the plans for a great forge in which he hopes to create marvelous things. The catch is that he needs it built by spring—we don’t find out why—and High King Gil-galad can’t provide him with the work force he would need. Elrond suggests that he might look outside their own race for workers.

When we see them next, Celebrimbor and Elrond are approaching Khazad-dum, so now we know what Elrond meant by works of another race. Celebrimbor expresses his admiration for the craftsmen of the dwarves. Elrond mentions that he and Prince Durin IV are old friends; he expects an enthusiastic welcome. When he doesn’t get it, he sends Celebrimbor back to Eregion, and then invokes a dwarven ritual which gains him grudging entrance but a hostile welcome. We get an impressive glimpse of the dwarves underground realm during its glory days. Prince Durin arrives to explain the rite, a test of endurance, which involves breaking massive rocks with hammers, until one of the contestants lacks the strength to break any more. If Elrond loses, he will be banished from dwarven lands ever more; in the unlikely event that he wins, he will be allowed to ask one boon.

Back with the harfoots, Nori visits the Stranger. She startles him at first, causing him to give a mighty roar that rattles the trees. But Nori calms him down, introduces herself, and asks him his name. He misunderstands and repeats her name. She concludes that he doesn’t remember who he is or what he is called (at this point she’s probably right). She’s brought him snails and shows how to extract them from their shells in order to eat them. Again he misunderstands, grabs the sack of snails and begins to shove them into his mouth, shells and all. Meanwhile, at the harfoot camp, Nori’s father, Largo, is talked into helping some of the others to erect a sunshade. Ever obliging, Largo abandons his own work fixing a wheel—he appears to be their wheelwright, and those who asked his assistance are just sitting there doing nothing. The sunshade collapses, Largo slips, and he twists his ankle quite badly. Everyone then stands around questioning whether he and his family will be able to migrate with the others when they leave their present camp in a few days. To be left behind in the wilderness seems a very dangerous situation, but those who asked Largo to help in the first place don’t seem upset at his accident or inclined to assist his family when the time comes, giving us an inkling that the harfoots are perhaps not all sunshine and charm.

When Poppy runs to bring Nori to her father, the Stranger has been using a stick to draw figures in the dirt and on a fallen log, including some lines that look like runes. One of the runes resembles the G rune (only backwards) which Gandalf will use as his signature in The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. Another possible clue? A red herring? All along Nori has been speaking to the Stranger as though he understands her language—which he apparently doesn’t.

I assume it is one of the Mannish languages, since the three halfling tribes are supposedly descended from humans. Maybe ancient Rohirric since they originate in the same part of the world as the Rohirrim? He doesn’t seem to understand, though, and for the first time speaks in what may or may not be his own language. Quenya? The Black Speech? Something else? I read an article … somewhere … that translated his words as something or the other referring to a burning hand, which the article equated with Sauron. But whether this is because the Stranger was sent from afar to challenge Sauron or to join him there is no way of telling—if indeed that is the proper translation in the first place? So another clue to his identity, probably, but again an ambiguous one.

Some people elsewhere on the internet have said that the Stranger breaks his stick at the same moment that the support on the awning breaks and Largo is injured, the inference being some black magic on the part of the Stranger. But having watched this scene multiple times to be sure that I did not mistake what I saw, in fact the support on the awning does not break. The rope being used to raise it frays and breaks, the support falls down—but doesn’t break—and Largo slips and twists his ankle. So far as I can see, though this happens at about the same time as the broken stick it seems coincidental and not magically related. As far as any form of sympathetic magic I ever heard of, a broken stick and a frayed rope have nothing in common, neither does a broken stick and a twisted—not broken—ankle. I think that either the scriptwriters are trying to mislead viewers, or viewers are misleading themselves, so eager as many of us are to be finding and deciphering clues.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Synopsis, 1.02, Part II

We rejoin Galadriel somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Going by the way time has gone by for the other characters, it looks like she has been swimming for a couple of days and nights—maybe with intervals of floating on her back to rest? She’s been at it long enough, anyway, to be looking quite worn down, and when she sees a very makeshift-looking raft, made up of planks and spars from a wreck, and carrying a half dozen survivors of that wreck, she is quite willing to climb aboard. Not all the passengers are in agreement about this, however, nor eager to share their meager supplies—we also hear some conversation in the background that seems to indicate that someone they didn’t like or trust may have been killed or abandoned previously— however, a woman gives her a hand to climb on board, and also a drink of water. Mention is made of “a worm” attacking their ship. When they see by Galadriel’s ears that she is an elf, she is pushed overboard—just when the “worm” appears and rams the raft. We don’t see much of this creature, but I believe it is what Tolkien called a "fish-dragon." One of the men unties his part of the raft so that it floats free from the others, and so manages to avoid the diaster for himself.

I don't actually see what he could have done to help the others, but it does seem pretty callous. Are we supposed to judge him on this, distrust him accordingly? Of course we don't know his history with his shipmates, or what bonds of loyalty—if any—should have bound them. Right now I will just mark him down in my mind as out for himself.

He rows after Galadriel and offers her a place on his much reduced raft. They introduce themselves—he says his name his Halbrand, but offers nothing more in the way of introduction. Galadriel's name, when she tells him, seems to mean nothing to him. The scene ends with the two of them watching each other suspiciously. Not exactly a comfortable state of affairs on such a small raft.

Back at Khazad-dum Elrond loses the rock-breaking contest, and is now banished. He asks Durin if the prince will personally escort him to the exit, and Durin grumpily answers “Gladly.” As they ride the lift toward the exit on the surface, it finally comes out why Durin is so hostile. “You missed my wedding!” Funny, but also sad. It is twenty years since the two of them have seen each other, and during that time Durin has fallen in love, married, and become the father of two children, and his so-called good friend has not been there for any of it. Though time moves differently for the immortal elves than it does for others, Durin is not accepting that as an excuse. Elrond, ever the diplomat—although also looking genuinely moved—congratulates his friend on his wife and the birth of his children, apologizes, and says he would like to apologize to Durin’s family personally. He may be truly sorry for hurting his friend’s feelings, but he’s still a politician.

Durin agrees and takes Elrond to his home, saying,” One apology. No reminiscing about old times. No getting better acquainted. And NO staying for dinner.” But he figures without the warm-hearted reaction of Princess Disa, his wife. Or ... maybe he depends on her to smooth out the quarrel, so that he can keep his pride and his friendship both. Either way, Disa—who obviously has never met Elrond, but easily guesses who he is—welcomes him into her home with a big hug, and an invitation to dinner. Reminiscing and getting better acquainted will soon follow.

Over dinner, Disa explains the dwarvish art of “resonating” which is her particular gift, by which the dwarves learn which places they can safely and profitably delve. Elrond asks how the couple first met, and after a bit of bickering about who liked who first, and how long they courted, the amorous dwarven pair end in a passionate kiss. It is hard to describe exactly what makes them so, but they really are an endearing pair of characters. Durin remains suspicious of Elrond’s motives a while longer. There is is a touching story about a mallorn tree growing, against all odds and the expectations of the other dwarves, in such an unlikely location, but the tree was given as a sapling to Durin by Elrond, and Durin has been tenderly nurturing it all these years. Dinner resumes with the prince grudgingly agreeing to listen to the proposal Elrond brings from his king.

It has been suggested in another thread that the dwarves are dressed to look Scottish in “near kilts,” so I watched the Khazad-dum scenes carefully to determine whether this is so—though my own impression had been otherwise. The females wear dresses or long robes, the males mostly wear long tunics, belted at the waist so that they fall in folds—not pleats—below. Basically, they wear standard medieval full-skirted tunics. Lacking in imagination, perhaps, but no suggestion of any particular form of national dress. Durin’s tunic is different and the skirt could easily be taken for pleated at first glance, but every time he moves it becomes obvious that the bottom half is split vertically into narrow sections, richly decorated with fringe.

Back on the raft, Galadriel wonders aloud what sort of man would abandon his companions to death. Halbrand says that he is the kind who knows how to survive, by not being part of a larger target. They exchange some more snippy dialogue between them, each obviously trying to elicit information from the other by provoking a revealing retort. Galadriel is apparently successful when Hal says that he was driven from his land by orcs, and that his home is ashes now. Galadriel then asks about the medallion he wears around his neck, and where exactkt his homeland lies. After a little more sniping back and forth—she offers her help in winning back his homeland, he says from where he sits she lacks an army, she says “leave the army to me”etc. etc.—he finally responds that he comes from the Southlands.

This conversation is cut off at this interesting moment when they notice dark storm clouds approaching swiftly their way across the water.

Back in the southlands, Bronwyn runs to the tavern to warn her neighbors about what she and Arondir discovered in Hordern. No one takes her seriously; no one is willing to desert their homes just because of an “groundshake” in a village to the east. Meanwhile, waiting her at home is a sulky Theo. He's probably wondering what his mother was doing out all night with the elf, and what his friends will have to say about that. But another reason why he is feeling out of sorts is because for two nights running he’s been kept awake by the sounds of e hyper-active mice moving around under the floor boards. When he hears them again, he reacts with rage, picks up a poker, and begins to beat at the floor until he breaks a hole in the planks. But when he looks through the hole, he discovers that the noises were NOT made by anything so harmless as mice.

Meanwhile, Arondir is crawling along the tunnel in Hordern. At one point he senses that something dangerous is following him. As he crawls faster and faster, he realizes that whatever is behind him is so fearsome that all the rats that live in the tunnel are racing past him in a panic. He comes to a pool, dives in, travels along a submerged passageway, and comes out in an underground chamber. Is he safe? Has he shaken off pursuit? As he backs away from the water, knife in hand, two pairs of dark claws reach out from behind to take hold of him.

Bronwyn runs home from the tavern to check on Theo after her night and morning away. There us no sign of her son, but there is a large hole in the floor, and signs of a struggle throughout her shop. Then Theo opens a door in the wall from a small cupboard where he is hiding and whispers a warning that she should be silent and go. She starts to obey him, and then—she’s a mother after all, and not about to desert her child, even if he is so tall these days that he is half a foot taller than she is—changes her mind and hides in a closet instead. Through a crack in the wall she sees a gruesome-looking orc emerge from the hole in the floor.

She's trying to be careful, but the sight of the orc is so disturbing that she accidentally knocks over a jar in the closet where she is hiding, the orc is alerted, and it comes after her. Theo runs out of his cupboard to defend her. A desperate struggle follows. Two against one doesn't count for much when the one is an orc and the two are a very small woman and a barely teenaged boy, but mother and son attack from two sides at once, stab the orc with various sharp tools scattered throughout the shop, try to throttle it with a piece of rope, impale it on a rusty old blade (it's not giving up easily) … and somehow prevail. We next see Bronwyn dropping the severed head of the orc on the bar in the tavern, and informing her neighbors that those who want to live will join her tomorrow at first light, to travel to the elf tower.

Back at sea Galadriel and Halbrand fight to keep the raft afloat during the fury of the storm. Galadriel ties herself to an upright, but the wind and waves break the spar, sending her unconscious and weighted down toward the bottom of the sea. But Hal goes after her), using the rope that still binds her to the spar as his guide, and cutting her free, using the knife from her belt. By the time they reach the surface, she is conscious once more, and together they climb aboard and collapse on the raft.

Nighttime in Rhovanion finds Nori and Poppy visiting the Stranger. While Nori explains that the harfoot migration begins in a few more days, and she will not be able to help him after that, he notices the lanterns the two girls carry. When Poppy explains that the light comes from fire-flies, the lantern mysteriously begin to shake (well, all right, not so mysteriously), breaks open, and frees the fire-flies. As the shining insects begin to swirl around the two harfoots and the Stranger, some of them land on his hands, where we can see him whispering to them. We can't hear what he says, but we can see the result, as the fire-flies form a figure in the air, one that resembles a constellation. Nori—whose people, after all, migrate according to the seasons and no doubt study the stars for signs of when to go and which paths to follow—recognizes what she is seeing, but is not able to identify the specific constellation. She seems to know, however, that if she did know which constellation it was and where it might appear in the sky, she would also know where the Stranger is going or where he came from. The girls are enchanted by this magical scene—and so was I—until Poppy notices that the fire-flies are all dying.

So again we are given some ambiguous clues. Those who have seen the LOTR movies know somebody who speaks the language of insects, though I think it would be a safe guess that Radagast the Brown does so also—but surely neither Gandalf nor Radagast would sacrifice them this way. Did the Stranger kill them intentionally (a bad sign) or, since he is still unable to master his powers, was it an accident? (He does seem distressed.)

The episode ends with a few quick scenes.

In Khazad-dum, Prince Durin is speaking to his father, telling him that he trusts Elrond. But the King is suspicious of the elves, and thinks they may know about a certain secret something he is keeping inside a box. Is that what brought Elrond to Khazad-dum? he wants to know.


We cut to the southlands, where Theo is packing up the broken sword. It sucks up some blood from an injury on his hand, which causes the black sword to flash with fire, and the shard to grow longer. But he is interrupted by Bronwyn, asking if he is ready to leave. Theo says that he is, hurriedly wraps up the sword, and follows her outdoors. They join a line of their neighbors, which as the camera pulls away proves to be a very long line indeed. It looks like the orc’s head convinced them, so that everyone in the village—probably other villages as well, unless Tirharad is bigger than we think, is joining the journey to the deserted watchtower.


And finally, we return to the raft. The storm has passed. Galadriel and Halbrand lie in exhausted sleep, worn out by their battle with the wind and the waves. A shadow passes over them. Gradually, we become aware that it is the shadow of a man, standing on board a ship which is anchored alongside the raft.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Here, at last, is the promised synopsis. When one comes to write one of these things, it can be surprising how much happens in a single episode. Watching this one originally, I felt that events were slow-moving, but writing it all up, I could hardly believe so much had been said and done in such a short space of time.

Just a few quick remarks.
There is a lot to see and comment on when you are close-watching (and rewatching) scenes. Writing these synopsis like this is a lot of work but in itself also rewarding. You notice more and question more.

Everyone then stands around questioning whether he and his family will be able to migrate with the others when they leave their present camp in a few days. To be left behind in the wilderness seems a very dangerous situation, but those who asked Largo to help in the first place don’t seem upset at his accident or inclined to assist his family when the time comes, giving us an inkling that the harfoots are perhaps not all sunshine and charm.

That was one thing I noticed as well. Their banner may be "Nobody goes off trail and nobody walks alone," but they have no qualms about leaving someone behind who can't catch up, without even trying or attempting to assist their fellow Harfoot.

I think that either the scriptwriters are trying to mislead viewers, or viewers are misleading themselves, so eager as many of us are to be finding and deciphering clues.

It is the editing. It was the same at the end of the previous episode, were the impact of the meteor was aligned via a few short scenes with Galadriel diving overboard. There is no connection (as far as we can discern) but for the editors trying to invoke some sense of suspense.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

. There is no connection (as far as we can discern) but for the editors trying to invoke some sense of suspense.

Good point. It happens a lot in books, too, of course, cutting from the middle of one scene to another that is unrelated, to create or prolong suspense. But here, where so many viewers are so focussed on finding connections—and it can be very satisfying and fun to find them—there can be a tendency to over-analyze everything, and end up seeing what we expect to see rather than what is actually there.