Fans of Tolkien’s masterful fantasy series The Lord of the Rings have been slowly learning about the new Amazon series with caution. Out of respect for the source material, and of Peter Jackson’s epic live-action trilogy, aficionados of Middle-earth have been rather skeptical towards Amazon’s adaptation, despite its big budget promising nothing but splendor.

The show is set to take place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, long before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings arc. Despite its separation from previously told narratives on the big screen, fans are fearful that it will somehow taint Tolkien's saga. However, Amazon’s first look at the show has won them over for the time being.

Amazon’s First The Lord of the Rings Image

  • The official Twitter account for The Lord of the Rings series confirmed the release date of September 2, 2022, accompanied by a stunning image. Amazon has still to confirm an official title for the series.

Our first look at the show depicts a fantastical landscape in cinema scope, featuring a towering citadel to the left surrounded by mountains and greenery. A cloaked figure clad in white stands in the foreground on top of a grassy embankment, however this character has yet to be identified.

The image’s crucial piece of information lies within its light source. In the far right-hand side of the still, you can easily mistake the sun to be sitting on the horizon. However, if you look closely, you can make out two trees: One containing the main light source, and the other a little fainter in the distance. These trees are known as the Two Trees of Valinor.

The Two Trees of Valinor

Anyone who has read Tolkien’s The Silmarillion will know of its complex mythos of Middle-earth, but newcomers should not be intimidated by its grandeur, for it contains fantastic escapism.

Laurelin (the Golden Tree) and Telperion (the Silver Tree) are known as the Two Trees of Valinor located on the island of Valinor - fans of The Lord of the Rings will also know this place as the Undying Lands, where Frodo, Gandalf, Bilbo and Galadriel departed to at the end of The Return of the King. Both trees were created by the Valar, Tolkien’s Gods, to light the planet Arda.

Manwë is one of the oldest Gods within the Valar, and this could be who we see in Amazon’s image. It is therefore thought that the series will produce a significant prologue to introduce the core of Tolkien’s mythology, which is vital information to understand the history of Valinor.

TwoTreesofValinor

The Lord of the Rings Fandom