The Rings of Power‘s season two finale was chock-full of major events and long-awaited reveals. From the tragic ending of Adar to the epic final moments of King Durin III to the final unveiling of the Stranger’s identity (he’s a classic, folks!), there’s a lot to unpack here. This makes it easy to miss some of the smaller, hidden details that slip by in the big moments. One in particular sets up a major Galadriel moment in The Lord of the Rings.
It came about during Galadriel and Sauron’s epic duel high atop the cliffs overlooking the sacked capital city of Eregion, Ost-in-Edhil. As Galadriel loses the duel, Sauron uses Morgoth’s crown to pin the Commander of the Northern Armies against a stone. As he gloats over her in defeat, he indulges in a brief monologue, saying, “I would have placed a crown upon your head. I would never have rested until all Middle-earth had been brought to its knees to worship the light of its Queen.”
On the surface, this is a callback to season one, where Sauron (in his Halbrand form) spent the majority of the time trying to get Galadriel to join him. She initially rejected his tempting offer of power in the season one finale. At the end of season two, we see that the Dark Lord has accepted that she’ll never join him. He doesn’t seem too torn up about it, but he can’t help making one last remark on the matter.
It turns out that the reference to crowns and worship runs deeper than an internal reference to The Rings of Power narrative, too. It also alludes to one of the Lady of Lórien’s most famous moments in the source material. In The Fellowship of the Ring book, when Frodo offers Galadriel the One Ring after looking into her magical mirror, Galadriel warns him, “In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountains! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”
It’s after this rejection of the One Ring that she talks about passing the test and expresses her willingness to diminish and go into the West, where she’ll remain merely Galadriel. No more and no less.
Sauron’s words in The Rings of Power set the stage for Galadriel’s future tempting showdown with power. They officially establish that she has rejected his offer to work together. And, in the process, has thrown away her chance to be a powerful Middle-earth ruler. While this part of the story has technically been made up for the show, the ongoing temptation of Galadriel to rule and have dominion over others does have its roots in Tolkien’s original writings.
For instance, The Silmarillion explains that when Galadriel leaves the Undying Lands in the West, “she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.” Once in Middle-earth, Galadriel continues to let off these powerful vibes, too. The book Unfinished Tales points out that when Sauron first meets her, “he perceived at once that Galadriel would be his chief adversary and obstacle, and he endeavoured therefor to placate her, bearing her scorn with outward patience and courtesy.”
Interestingly, Tolkien’s son, Christopher, who was organizing his father’s writing for publication, adds the note here: “No explanation is offered in this rapid outline of why Galadriel scorned Sauron, unless she saw through his disguise, or of why, if she did perceive his true nature, she permitted him to remain in Eregion.”
In other words, Tolkien hadn’t fully fleshed out the Sauron and Galadriel storyline. He did know that the Elven Lady was the Dark Lord’s chief enemy and that she was hungry for power (albeit in a healthy context), but there were loose ends in the story that even J.R.R. Tolkien never addressed. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have clearly had a fun time reading between the lines and filling in the gaps to provide the proper background for Galadriel and Sauron’s shared story. And in the process, they even linked Sauron’s line in the season two finale to Galadriel’s later “test of power” in the Mirror of Galadriel scene of The Lord of the Rings. We’re looking forward to seeing how season 3 develops things even further.