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Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 5.
After the Seven, now come the Nine. In "Halls of Stone," the latest episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerSeason 2, Annatar (Charlie Vickers) starts work on Rings of Power for Men, and some sinister things happen in the process. Although Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) continuously refuses to construct the Nine, he sees himself in a tough position after tools inexplicably start flying through the forge and, all of a sudden, the Elven smith Mirdania (Amelia Kenworthy) appears out of thin air. Creepy as it might have been, this scene connects directly to The Lord of the Rings trilogy in equally unsettling ways.
Mirdania Is Transported to the Unseen World Upon Putting on the Ring
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) comes into possession of the One Ring, which can make him invisible. When he puts it on, the world around him becomes darker and shadowy, but it helps him get his job done as the burglar in Thorin Oakenshield's (Richard Armitage) company. Decades later, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, his nephew, Frodo (Elijah Wood) inherits the One Ring, but, when he puts it on for the first time, something different seems to happen. Instead of vanishing from the Nazgûl attacking him, they can still see him, and he can still see them, but they look different, like pale skeleton kings.
What happens to Mirdania in The Rings of Power is the same thing that happens to Bilbo and Frodo. All three of them are transported to the Unseen World when they put on their rings. When Celebrimbor finally manages to stop her from flinging forging tools around, she tells everyone what actually happened to her. She was in a place that looked just like Celebrimbor's forge, but "shrouded in mist and darkness," and she saw something that, at first, made her think it was the forge burning. "It was tall, and its skin was made of flames." This creature went toward her, "reeking of death," as she says, and she could see its eyes, which she describes as "pitiless and eternal."
What she saw is actually Sauron, who is still visible in the Unseen World. She says that "it has been here among us all along," referring to the fact that Annatar is actually Sauron in disguise, but no one knows it. When we start following what is happening, Annatar is standing still, but he probably tried to reach for Mirdania before to get her to take the ring off. Sauron can still see her because of his own connection to the Unseen World. In the confusion that follows, Celebrimbor ends up standing between Mirdania and Annatar, a clever mise-en-scene that Annatar later uses to make her think that Celebrimbor is the fire creature that is coming toward her.
Related
The Unseen World Is a Dimension that Coexists With the Real World
"Halls of Stone" is not the first time the Unseen World is mentioned in The Rings of Power. In the Season 1 episode "Udûn," Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) questions Adar (then played by Joseph Mawle) about Sauron's whereabouts and intentions. The Moriondor tells her that Sauron was trying to create a power capable of acting in both the Seen and Unseen Worlds, a power "not of the flesh, but over flesh." This power is now being revealed as he works with Celebrimbor in the Rings of Power, and Mirdania's case is the first proof of Sauron's success in his design — although Celebrimbor and the Elven smiths know nothing about it.
The Unseen World itself isn't a separate dimension of existence, but rather one that is intertwined with the regular world. Unseen elements are constantly present in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium, but they are not for everybody to be perceived. It depends on someone's nature whether they can, and also on magical objects. For example, in The Silmarillion it is said that some Maiar wandered around Valinor unseen. The Valar, too, as they can choose whether to be seen or unseen. The Rings of Power are among the objects that can give their bearers the ability to walk on both worlds, even if they become invisible in the regular world when putting them on. Some Elves who have lived in Valinor are also said to be able to see within the Unseen, like Glorfindel; he is the Elf who rescues Frodo from the Nazgûl in The Fellowship of the Ring novel (and whom we want in the series, because he is awesome).
Another aspect of the Unseen World is that it is neither good nor evil in essence, just like the regular world. It's Sauron's influence over the rings that makes them transport their bearers to a realm "shrouded in darkness and mist," the so-called Wraith World. This is merely another way to perceive the Unseen World, not a variation of it, and it's directly connected to how these specific rings affect their bearers.
The Nine Rings of Power for Men Are Directly Connected to the Unseen World
There are nineteen Rings of Power in Tolkien's Legendarium, of which sixteen are forged with Sauron's direct involvement. Through the malice he imbues them with, all those rings are supposed to turn their bearers into his servants over time. The Dwarves prove somewhat resistant to the corruption in their seven rings, but it works in the nine Rings of Men. What Mirdania tries on is one of the Nine, when trying to adjust its size.
The Nine are deeply connected to the Unseen World. These rings gradually draw their bearers, all of whom are Humans, into the Unseen World, transforming them into the Ringwraiths known as Nazgûl, who exist almost entirely in this shadowy, invisible realm. They are largely invisible to mortal eyes unless cloaked in physical forms, and their power is particularly strong in the Unseen World. They can interact with the physical world but are more perceptible in the shadowy realm. When Mirdania puts one of these rings on, she is immediately transported to the Unseen World, indicating that the ring is not yet ready. They will be in the next episodes, however, and will eventually find their bearers.
Season 2 of The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Thursdays.
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