Who is Adar from Rings of Power in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings?

The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of PowerFor the duration of the production, one thing was kept secret: Who is the chief antagonist of the Dark Lord Sauron? And in the show’s third episode, We get another character to toss into the pile of Sauron Potentials.

Now, Rings of Power hasn’t out-and-out said this is Sauron — yet. But here’s what weYou can also say.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for episode 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, “Adar.”]

Photo: Matt Grace/Prime Video

From the very first moments of the episode, the name Adar is on characters’ lips. Arondir and a slew of humans and several elves have been captured and press-ganged into digging orc tunnels, and the orcs seem to report to someone called “Adar.” Arondir’s elf buddies even speculate out loud that Adar is another name for Sauron.

In the episode’s final scene, Arondir is dragged before a figure who seems to be Adar, but is shot in a heavy blur that obscures his features. We can only tell that the man is either human or elven, with pale hair and dark eyes.

Adar is who?

We don’t know. It’s just as likely he’s an original character created for Rings of PowerAs Sauron. You can find him at Sauron. The Lord of the Rings, Sauron had intermediaries between himself and orcs on the front lines — generals, captains, Nazgûl, heralds like the Mouth of Sauron — and allies who worked for his aims, like Saruman. Adar might be something like that, an corrupted Southlander.

But yeah, it’s possible that he’s Sauron. At this era in the Second Age, Sauron was building up his first foothold in Mordor, neighbor to the show’s Southlands. At the time, he could take on physical form and use his shapeshifting ability to make himself appear friendly and fair. Annatar claimed to have been an emissary from the gods. He convinced Celebrimbor that he would teach him how to ringcraft and eventually put his little magic on the smaller rings.

Arondir’s companions note that Sauron went by many names, and it could be that in Rings of Power Adar is one. Arondir notes that Adar is an elvish word — it probably means “father” in one of the two elven dialects that Tolkien created, which we know from Tom Bombadil’s elven name, Iarwain Ben-adar, which means “Oldest and Fatherless.”

Adar might be Sauron under another name. It’s possible! The most important thing is that he won’t be revealed as the Dark Lord himself next week is that Arondir’s elf buds already suggested that part out loud. Hell, maybe he’s Tom Bombadil.