‘The Rings of Power’ stays true to Tolkien’s Catholic vision (2024)

When J. R. R. Tolkien first set out to write The Lord of the Rings, he did so without intending for it to be seen in any way as a Catholic or religious book. As revealed in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, he noted to a close confidant, the British Jesuit Robert Murray, that he purposefully “cut out practically all references to anything like ‘religion’” during the construction of his Lord of the Rings universe. Tolkien wanted any “religious element [to be] absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

Indeed, his objection to such elements extended beyond his own work. In response to a 1971 letter from a fan concerning his friend C .S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien stated, “I do not like ‘allegory,’ and least of all religious allegory of this kind. But that is a difference of taste which we both recognized and did not interfere with our friendship.”

Still, Tolkien admitted to Father Murray that ultimately The Lord of the Rings is a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” Catholic themes abound in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: The importance of free will, a striving for humility and caring for the common home are important core concepts within The Lord of the Rings and in Tolkien’s own life. And, of course, a battle between good and evil rages at the very center of the LOTR universe.

But as important as all that might have been to Tolkien, one wonders how adaptations of his work fare when it comes to the implicit Catholicism of the world that he created.

“The Rings of Power,” whose second season is out now on Amazon Prime Video, is the latest adaptation of Tolkien’s world. Set many thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, during Middle-earth’s Second Age, the series focuses on a time notably different from the novels’ Third Age. For one, there are as yet no Hobbits as we know them; they are Harfoots, small nomadic tribes instead of the hearty farmers of The Shire whom we meet in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Neither Mordor nor Gondor exist, and the elves and dwarves are allies and not yet enemies. All of this begins to change by the end of the first season, as groundwork is laid for the Second Age to transform into the Third.

It is amid this time of change that the show starts to take a darker turn, and the second season plunges the show’s characters into harsher trials and temptations.

“Season Two is dealing with a lot of really dark themes. Not everybody makes it out of Season Two alive,” said showrunner Patrick McKay in an interview with America. “There’s a lot of twists and turns and betrayals and temptation.”

The show juggles quite a few plotlines, but one in particular deeply explores the dark themes that McKay referenced: Sauron's. The first season featured a weakened Sauron (Charlie Vickers), the eventual “Lord of the Rings,” taking on human form and attempting to seduce the elven warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) so that they can rule Middle-earth together. Though Galadriel refuses him, it is too late; Sauron has already convinced the legendary elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) to craft for him three rings that will make their wearer more powerful. Galadriel and the other elves are tempted by the power of these rings and swear to use Sauron’s own weapons against him, though the addictive nature of the rings is thus far unknown to them.

This newest season features Sauron’s temptation of Celebrimbor through his guise as Annatar, the Elven Lord of Gifts, as he manipulates the smith to create for him a Master-ring, the “One Ring to rule them all.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Vickers noted that he auditioned for the role by reading from “Richard III” and “Paradise Lost.” He said he felt as if he was “literally auditioning as Satan.”

Interestingly, we very much see Sauron at a low point at the beginning of this new season. Still weak after his orc lieutenant Adar (Sam Hazeldine) staged a coup that resulted in the loss of much of his power, Sauron has been reduced to slinking in the shadows. This season, he plots to take over the newly-formed Mordor and wrest control from Adar in order to properly turn it into a country of vile orcs.

The Milton influence is apparent from the start. McKay and co-showrunner J. D. Payne described it explicitly in a press statement: “Tolkien’s work rightfully finds its peers among the strongest voices in all the English canon—Milton in its scope, Wordsworth in its beauty and Shakespeare in its depth.” That respect for Tolkien’s place in the English literary tradition is paramount to the show’s success; the dialogue in the show is beautiful and is often inspired by a variety of sources.

“If you pulled on any thread in any part of the show, I might throw out a bunch of references [to classical literature],” McKay told America. “It all goes into the stew.”

Dark themes—even if mixed with hope and optimism—abound in the new season, showing McKay’s and Payne’s appreciation for Tolkien’s subtle Catholic allusions in depicting Middle-earth as involved in a cosmic battle between good and evil, damnation and salvation. There is an Atlantis-esque foreboding that faces the island nation of Númenor as it faces mounting pressures against its isolationism. We begin to see greed overtake the dwarves of Khazad-dûm, which will later become known as the Mines of Moria, precipitated by overmining of the precious mineral mithril that threatens to unleash the wrath of a demonic balrog buried deep underground.

Even the most lighthearted of the storylines, featuring Nori the Harfoot (Markella Kavenagh), has its share of dark tidings. After Nori befriends The Stranger, a mysterious wizard (Daniel Weyman) with hazy memories (who will almost certainly turn out to be Gandalf), the pair leaves the safety of the nomadic Harfoots to find out more about his past. Their journey takes them to Rhûn, a harsh desert land that holds ancient secrets that may help in unraveling the mystery of The Stranger. There, they face a struggle to survive the elements.

“They are in a stressed situation,” Weyman said in an interview with America. “They’ve gone around and around in circles. They’ve found the same tree time and time again. They’re running out of food.”

However, it was important to both Weyman and Kavenagh that joy be injected into the proceedings. “Markella and I, and The Stranger and Nori, were on the same wavelength,” Weyman said. “You know, we might have no water but what an amazing situation… it might be the ninth hour of the day [of filming] but how brilliant is it to be out here?”

More than any other of the various plotlines in the show, the Harfoot plot connects the most to Tolkien’s original work set in Middle-earth, his 1937 novel The Hobbit. Much like that book, it features little-folk traveling with a wizard on an adventure, though they often get diverted along the way.

“The focus was on telling a really truthful story,” Kavenagh told America. “Sometimes, in really dark moments in the story, then normally on set we have a lot of fun… we try to keep the atmosphere really light and really joyful.”

This view of the world of The Lord of the Rings certainly comes out in the tone of the series. Unlike other fantasy shows like the “Game of Thrones” prequel “The House of the Dragon,” which is mired in darkness and epic levels of tragedy, “The Rings of Power” genuinely feels like it spans the whole breadth of Middle-earth. It can be fearful and full of despair, but it is always coupled with hope, optimism and momentum toward justice.

“We agree with [Tolkien] as readers and viewers that morality in a universe that has good and evil isn’t just ‘might makes right,’” McKay said. “It’s really apparent in every page of the book and we try to have it in every scene in the show… good and evil is always in the room and we try to keep it that way.”

Tolkien’s Catholicism might not be explicit in the pages of his books, but the themes of his faith most certainly are. It is a testament to the relative accuracy of the showrunners’ dedication to Tolkien’s ethos that these same themes live within “The Rings of Power.”

The first three episodes of the second season of “The Rings of Power” are out now on Amazon Prime Video. The fourth premieres Thursday, Sept. 5.