Rings of Power’s songs, mithril tree myth rewrite a Lord of the Rings origin

Despite its status as a prequel, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerWe still have much to learn from Middle-earth about its history or at least the version of it. While the show’s latest episode covers many different bases, perhaps its most interesting has to do with the history of mithril, a legendary elf, and the Misty Mountains themselves.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 5, “Partings.”]

Episode 5’s glimpse into Middle-earth’s past came during this episode’s conversation between High King Gil-Galad and Elrond. When Elrond refused to reveal information he learned from Durin — thanks to his oath last episode — Gil-Galad asked him to recount The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir

Elrond says the poem depicts a battle between an elf warrior with pure heart and a Balrog of Moria, over the beautiful Misty Mountains tree. The legend states that one of the Silmarils was found in the tree, which is a collection of gems used to fight the war against Morgoth.

The elf lit his lamp into the tree to preserve its purity, and the balrog tried to make it corrupt with its evil and dark. The tree fell victim to lightning during the fight and the essence of the tree sawp into the Misty Mountains, where it formed mithril.

Of course, until Durin and his people discovered the mythical stone below their halls in Khazad-dûm, no one knew for sure that mithril was real, but it seems Gil-Galad had always suspected it, and was holding out hope that it could be mined.

Prince Durín commands a bunch of Dwarves in Amazon’s The Rings of Power.

Photo: Prime Video

Why is mithril important for the Elves? Because of another tree. After explaining the origins of mithril, Gil-Galad shows Elrond over to another tree, one that’s slowly succumbing to corruption. Gil-Galad explains that this is the outer manifestation of an inner truth: Middle-earth’s remaining elves are losing power and their control over the rest of the world. Only infusing the remaining elves with mithril — which contains the power of the Silmarils, which derives from the light of the ancient trees that once grew in Gil-Galad’s homeland — can the elves be whole again.

Amidst all of this lore, it’s probably worth noting that almost all of this is an invention of the show rather than of Tolkien’s original work. Tolkien never provided a concrete origin story for mithril, and it was discovered in mines other than Moria, such as those in Númenor as well. With all these changes, it’s hard to say how mithril may eventually get used in the series, but we do know that it has an important part to play as Rings of PowerIt is important to continue, even after the rings have appeared.

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