Exciting news for geeks and nerds, as Amazon Prime this week announced that their long awaited Tolkien TV series will be set in the Second Age of Middle Earth.
That probably doesn't mean much to anybody who hasn't read "The Silmarillion", Tolkien's lesser-known companion to The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. Tolkien's Middle Earth history is divided into three ages. The First Age describes the creation of Middle Earth and its inhabitants by the Valar, a group of deities. The bulk of The Silmarillion is spent describing stories set in the First Age, which largely consists of an epic war between the elves and Melkor, a renegade Valar. The First Age ends with a cataclysmic assault by the remaining Valar against Melkor.
The Second Age is not described in much detail by comparison. Tolkien provides a rough sketch of significant events-- Melkor's apprentice, Sauron rises to take his place as a corrupting influence in Middle Earth. The kingdom of Numenor-- the great race of ancient men whom Aragorn is descended from-- rises in power. The Rings of Power are forged. More warring between the elves and Sauron. The kingdom of Numenor rises, becomes the most powerful force on Middle Earth, and crushes Sauron. Sauron, at the time the most handsome and charming being in Middle Earth, and charms his way into becoming a royal advisor in Numenor. He fuels the pride and hubris of the Numenorean kings, causing them to end their relationship with the elves, and eventually convincing them to sail to the land of the Valar themselves, in search of immortality. This causes the wrath of the gods to be unleashed again. Numenor is utterly destroyed-- literally wiped off the map. The rise and fall of Numenor is detailed in a short portion of The Silmarillion called "The Akallabeth", which is probably the closest thing in Tolkien's work to a religious allegory. The only Numenoreans who survived were those who had left to found the kingdom of Gondor. Sauron's physical form is destroyed along with everything else in Numenor, but his spirit returns to Mount Doom to regain physical form, take up his ring, and plot to destroy Gondor and the elves yet again. The end of the Second Age is shown in the opening scene of The Fellowship Of the Ring movie-- the alliance of Gondor and the elves once again teaming up to beat Sauron.
There is lots of material that could be turned into a series, but Amazon's big reveal was that they posted a Middle Earth map... and then a larger map, and finally a map that showed an unsunken Numenor in the lower left corner. So it seems likely that the rise and fall of Numenor will be a key element of the series they're going to create.
I'm pretty geeked. I'm so glad that they didn't decide to do something shitty like a "Young Aragorn Adventures" or something trying to play off the success of the Peter Jackson movies. Legolas and Gimli driving around Eriador in a van solving mysteries or some dumb
**** like that. Setting their series in the Second Age is a bolder decision showing that they're planning on creating something new rather than trying to ride the coat-tails of the movies.
-k