Well, it has finally been confirmed – The Rings of Power’s Halbrand is, indeed, Sauron, as so many viewers had already guessed! For some of us, this was a bit unexpected. Even actor Charlie Vickers didn’t know the truth about his character for sure until he was deep into production, although he had a hunch. “I knew from the third episode, so I filmed that sequence on the raft [in episode 2] wholeheartedly as Halbrand,” Vickers tells Den of Geek. “I had a suspicion because I auditioned with a Richard III speech, and with a speech where I was playing Satan in Paradise Lost, so I was like ‘Okay, there’s something a bit dodgy about this guy.’” When showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay did reveal Halbrand’s secret identity, it then became Vickers’ challenge to play a dual role, sprinkling in little bits of Sauron’s personality while also personifying the tortured king of the Southlands. Yes, Vickers really did his homework, even going back to the History of Middle-earth series of unfinished drafts and essays collected by Tolkien’s son Christopher: “There’s some really interesting stuff in there about whether his repentance was genuine or not, or just out of fear, and that he’s lingering and slowly reemerging.” By the end of “Alloyed,” it’s clear we’re in the reemergence phase, with Sauron back and on his way to Mordor. As he climbs down a mountain towards the wasteland below, it almost looks like he’s cutting a path directly to Mount Doom. Longtime Lord of the Rings fans know exactly what that means… “Tolkien talks about, at the beginning of the Second Age, [Sauron] lingers in Middle-earth and very slowly comes back, and I think that’s what we’ve seen,” Vickers says of Sauron’s final scene of the first season. “We’ve seen the end of that period over this first season. I think in his mind, he’s like, ‘Shit, yeah, I’m back. It’s happening.’”
Halbrand, Not Annatar
The Rings of Power is based on the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings books, which provide only the bare bones of an outline of what went on in the Second Age around the forging of the titular Rings. But somewhat surprisingly, Halbrand’s story contradicts quite a lot of the little that there is. Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings states that Sauron first chose Mordor as a stronghold and started building his fortress of Barad-dûr. He then “won over” the Elven smiths of Eregion (an Elven kingdom near to Moria) and together they began forging the Rings of Power (the first 16 of them, those that were eventually given to Dwarves and Men). The Three Rings were also forged in Eregion – later books state that they were forged by Celebrimbor without Sauron’s involvement, but The Lord of the Rings doesn’t specify that. Then Sauron goes and forges the One Ring at Mount Doom and Celebrimbor, realizing what is happening, hides the Three Elven Rings. The changes certainly add something to Galadriel’s story. Hearing Sauron tempt her in exactly the same words she used when tempted by the One Ring in The Lord of Rings – the promise to make her a “Queen” and “stronger than the foundations of the earth” – is powerful stuff. Watching that scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where she almost gives in to temptation and takes the Ring from Frodo will have even more of an emotional impact now, as we can assume she is reminded of Halbrand, and of how she saved him in the Second Age — and perhaps even liked him.
Sauron and Celebrimbor
The changes do take something away from Celebrimbor’s own story, though. Celebrimbor is responsible for forging all but One of the 20 Rings of Power, and it’s a bit strange that he has been rather side-lined as a secondary character in the series so far. The focus has understandably been on the Elves we already know and love, Galadriel and Elrond, but the cutting short of the storyline between Sauron and the Elven smiths has drastically reduced Celebrimbor’s role in the story, and we have missed out on seeing a relationship develop between him and Sauron. Instead, Sauron simply shows up in a human disguise, and Celebrimbor takes some advice from him in the same scene he first meets him. It lacks the drama between them that a closer adaptation of Tolkien’s text would have provided. In other Tolkien texts, there is more detail about this relationship between Celebrimbor and Sauron. Sauron befriends Celebrimbor while disguised as a beautiful Elf called Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. Elrond, Gil-galad, and Galadriel all mistrust him, but Celebrimbor is taken in and together they create the Seven Rings for the Dwarf-lords and the Nine Rings for Mortal Men. The absence of these 16 Rings from The Rings of Power’s storyline so far is something that will have to be addressed in season 2, since one of the Seven Rings becomes an heirloom of Durin and eventually, Thorin Oakenshield, and the Nine Rings are what create the Nine Ringwraiths we see in The Lord of the Rings. The Rings of Power includes no mention at all of the name “Annatar.” There is an easter egg-type reference to it, when Halbrand tells Celebrimbor that his suggestion of using alloys to create the Rings is a “gift,” but the name itself does not appear. This may be because of the complicated situation around the legal rights to Tolkien’s works.
The Rights Issues Behind the Sauron Change
So what does this mean for Sauron and Celebrimbor going forward? Who is going to forge the other 16 Rings of Power, and when? Perhaps Halbrand/Sauron will take on a new disguise to work with Celebrimbor and forge them together – after all, although Galadriel and Elrond know who Halbrand really is, Celebrimbor does not (presumably Galadriel was simply too embarrassed to admit just how badly she had messed up, but keeping that secret may prove to be a mistake). Or perhaps Sauron is off to Mordor to deal with Adar and forge is own One Ring, and Celebrimbor will forge the others. Only time will tell.
