Middle-earth is, as Gandalf said in the novels, “taking another shape and growing again” on our screens. The Tolkien fandom has been abuzz since Amazon announced its upcoming Middle-earth TV series. What will it be about? Who will direct and star? What links to the movies will it have? Will any familiar faces return?
So many questions, and yet no one is asking: where will it take us? See, Tolkien wasn’t just a storyteller; he built an entire world for those stories — which the movies only explored a few slices of. It’s high time filmmakers seized the opportunity to show us the rest of it.
Rhûn: The Exotic East
Current speculation suggests the series, or at least its first season, will follow the globe-trotting exploits of a young Aragorn. In his youth, the future King of Gondor visited many distant lands as a wanderer and mercenary — including, in his own words, “the far countries of Rhûn and Harad where the stars are strange”.
These are the easternmost and southernmost lands of Middle-earth, both ancient enemies of Gondor. Rhûn, in particular, is home to a confederation of warlike peoples known as the Easterlings, which the movies portrayed as a highly militarized, Persian/Turkic-inspired warrior race.
From these clues, we might expect Amazon’s Rhûn to be a fantasy pastiche of the Near East, where high walls and bronze-gleaming spires coexist with nomadic tent cities and roaming herds. It would also be awesome to see at last the legendary white oxen of the land, from whose horns Boromir’s great horn was made.
Harad: The Sunburnt South
It’s easier to picture the other far land young Aragorn hiked to. Tolkien divided the southern realm of Harad into Near and Far Harad, describing the former as a desert country “where the sun is bright and terrible,” according to Gollum, and the latter as covered in jungle.
Given Harad’s great size and varied climate, we can well expect Amazon’s vision of the land to be patterned on Africa — specifically the arid barrens of North Africa, assuming Aragorn never made it as far south as Far Harad. The movies’ depiction of the “swarthy” Haradrim people reinforces this.
That brings us to a related and important point: Rhûn and Harad aren’t just virgin ground for Middle-earth filmmakers. They represent golden opportunities to introduce a diversity of culture and peoples into the franchise’s traditionally Eurocentric tapestry, in an organic and meaningful way.
Eregion: Birthplace of the Rings
Of course, the series could well explore other stories besides Aragorn’s. Plumbing the origins of the One Ring, for instance, would be welcome, as would the opportunity that gives us to witness an ancient Elf kingdom in full flower.
The Rings of Power, cousins of the One, were forged in Eregion when it was the domain of the Elf artisans called the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, or People of the Jewel-Smiths. By the time of the movies, nothing remained but the sad, ruined land we saw the Fellowship pass through on the way to Moria. Yet an age before, Eregion was great. It would be something indeed to see its glittering halls, its wonders of craftsmanship, — and its Ring-forges bright, but doomed to fail.
Númenor: Middle-earth’s Atlantis
The humans of Middle-earth had their ancient glories too. Theirs was a kingdom built on an island gifted by the gods — a kingdom so mighty that proud Gondor was deemed only a pale shadow of it.
The tales of Númenor and its eventual downfall into the sea includes nobles and kings, the corruption of high civilization, and war with the gods. There’s a lot Amazon can show here, from the land itself to its fabled fleets “like an archipelago of a thousand isles” — enough, in fact, to cow Sauron himself into submission without a shot fired. We can expect any screen portrayal of this Atlantean utopia to be one of slacked-jaw grandeur, showcasing the dizzying heights mankind once achieved in Tolkien’s magnificent universe.
Angband: Middle-earth’s Hell
There’s also grandeur of another kind. We’ve seen plenty of Mordor in the movies, and lava-ridden, wasteland-esque visions of hell are old hat anyway. But as far as Middle-earth goes, you haven’t seen hell until you’ve seen the original: Angband, dread fortress of Morgoth, the dark god to whom Sauron was once a mere lieutenant.
We’re not likely to see it unless Amazon takes us back to really old days, but all descriptions paint Angband as a place of uttermost horror. Nestled beneath volcanic mountains and teeming with all manner of unholy creatures — including Balrogs, and we all saw what just one of those can do — this was where Morgoth sat on his dark throne orchestrating the destruction of the ancient Elves and their human allies. If ever there is an opportunity in this series to awe us with a glimpse at the heart of evil itself, Angband is it.
The series itself, of course, is still a good way off. We have nothing but speculation and wish lists for what could be a rather long time. But we can hope. The world Tolkien built deserves to be showcased on our screens in its entirety.
