‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’: How Gil-galad's hunch about Sauron being vile evil was apt
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Fans' excitement is at an all-time high now. Only a few more days till the global audiences are treated to the glorious world of middle-earth second age in the highly talked about star-studded historical war prequel ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. The first two episodes of the series would be unveiled globally by makers on September 1, 2022, on Amazon Prime Video. While fans might have gotten introduced to characters in the series, not many know how the High King of Noldor, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) did initially have a strong premonition that Sauron is actually a power-hungry evil who wants to corrupt middle-earth.
Based on late author JRR Tolkien’s iconic book ‘The Lord of the Rings and its appendices,’ the series would be taking the fans and viewers deep into the culturally rich world of middle-earth second age where it is set in. Since it focuses more on the middle-earth era, the series is basically re-conceptualized for screens almost thousands of years ago before ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’ films. Before the first two episodes air globally, let us take a look at how Gil-galad’s hunch about Sauron being a menacing evil lord was true.
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According to LOTR Fandom.com, it was in the year 1 of the second age within the middle-earth era that the High King of Noldor, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) created a geographically strong and secure realm called Lindon. He made this kingdom so powerful and secure in order to fight against the enemies. During this time span, Gil-galad’s powerful Kingdom extended eastwards as far as the Misty Mountains. It also included the western parts of Greenwood the Great. Even when most of the Eldar remained in Lindon and in Elrond's refuge of Rivendell.
Gil-galad had a strong alliance with the Men of Westernesse particularly with Tar-Aldarion (the Mariner), The Faithful and Elendil (Lloyd Owen). Gil-galad ruled as High King of the Noldor throughout the Second Age of middle-earth. It was during this time period that Gil-galad was given the seeds of Mellyrn also known as Mallorn trees by Tar-Aldarion who is the King of Numenor. Unfortunately, these seeds wouldn't grow in his land at Lindon. Because of this, Gil-galad gave them to Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) before she left Lindon. Galadriel carried these seeds for a long time and then finally planted them in Lindorinand. When these seeds grew there beautifully, it was renamed ‘Laurelindorenan’ which signified ‘Lorien of Blossom’.
Gil-galad’s strong intuition of Sauron being an evil monster turns true
At some point in the year 1 of middle-earth’s Second Age, it so happened that both Gil-galad and Elrond were approached by a stranger called Annatar (Sauron), who called himself the Lord of Gifts. Even when Annatar’s words and offerings were believable and looked genuine on the outside, Gil-galad got a strong notion that this Annatar was not what he is trying to present himself to be. Trusting his strong feelings against Annatar, Gil-galad ultimately refused to have dealings with him in Lindon. This word got spread across to all Elves that they should not indulge with this stranger for he is not someone to be trusted in any way.
Ultimately we would see in the prequel saga how this turns out to be true since Sauron is actually an evil lord who wanted to take over the entire middle-earth without waging a war. He wanted to achieve this by luring the kingdoms and their people into his nineteen lesser rings which he creates in Eregion. Out of those nineteen rings, three rings are specifically for the Elves. These three Elven 'Rings of Power' had been created by Celebrimbor (Edward Charles) in secret from Sauron because he didn't trust him after knowing his reality. These rings challenged Sauron's power and were invisible to him because of which he could not take over on the Elves.