When Does The Rings Of Power Take Place In The Lord Of The Rings Universe?

To anyone who’s seen Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, Cate Blanchett’s performance as the ethereal elf queen Galadriel is vivid and memorable. Though her role is small, she’s one of films’ most iconic characters — so when Amazon announced that Galadriel would be central to the new Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, it wasn’t too surprising. But the first images of Galadriel from the show showed her as a younger woman (played by Morfydd Clark) and wearing full-body armor. Where was the reclusive, forest-dwelling elf queen, and who was this young warrior?

Like many other recent reboots and reimaginings, The Rings of Power isn’t a sequel or a remake; instead, it’s a prequel to Tolkien’s books (and Jackson’s films). Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay adapted the show from supplemental material J.R.R. Tolkien included at the end of The Return of the King, known as the Appendices, which flesh out the history of Middle-earth. Using that source as a launching pad, they’ve traveled back in time to the earlier lives of some familiar characters, while making up others out of whole cloth.

Viewers who aren’t familiar with Tolkien’s more obscure work may find this shift confusing, but that’s nothing that a quick Middle-earth history lesson can’t fix. To find out more about that history and about when the show takes place, read below.

When does The Rings of Power take place?

Tolkien broke down his history of Middle-earth into “Ages.” Each Age concludes with a great battle and defeat of evil. The First Age is more or less ancient history — territory Tolkien covered in The Silmarillion, his book of lore and fables, which includes a myth describing the creation of the world. During this period, an evil force known as Morgoth threw the initially peaceful world into conflict. He was defeated at the conclusion of the First Age, but his servant Sauron remained in Middle-earth. (Amazon doesn’t own the rights to The Silmarillion, so the show isn’t likely to include much from this period, although Tolkien’s Appendices do mention the events briefly.) The Third Age is the period during which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings takes place, which culminates in the ultimate defeat of Sauron, and the destruction of the One Ring.

The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age: a period of around 3,500 years in-between the First and Third Ages, which establishes most of the customs and history of Middle-earth.

What happened during Middle-earth’s Second Age?

Tolkien’s Appendices include a timeline of this period, which covers the early settlements of men in Middle-earth, the foundation of the dwarves’ city at Moria (which features in both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Rings of Power), and Sauron expanding his power over elves and men. During this period, Sauron convinced skilled elven metal-smiths to create the magical rings that give both Tolkien’s books and the Amazon show their titles.

Tolkien’s timeline also indicates that the Second Age features major wars between Sauron’s forces and the elves, the establishment of Sauron’s fortress at Mordor, wars between different factions of men, and even Sauron being taken captive by human forces (a gambit that, unsurprisingly, doesn’t go well). The Second Age ends where Jackson’s films begin: With an epic battle that concludes with Sauron’s temporary defeat. His evil presence is kept alive when the human king Isildur decides to keep the One Ring for himself; eventually, the Ring then makes its way to Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo.

It’s as yet unclear how Payne and McKay plan to approach all this material given that the narrative spans thousands of years: Even with five seasons, that’s a lot of ground to cover. The early episodes of The Rings of Power don’t feature significant time jumps, but perhaps considerable time will pass between seasons. Or maybe the show will compress events. Either way, Tolkien left a tantalizing description in his Appendices: “These were the dark years for Men of Middle-earth,” he writes of the Second Age. “Of events in Middle-earth the records are few and brief, and their dates are often uncertain.” It’s now Payne and McKay’s task to fill in those records and dates with drama and excitement.