In one of the best scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) talks to Frodo (Elijah Wood) about what would become of her if she had the One Ring: “A queen. Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the morning. Treacherous as the sea. Stronger than the foundations of the earth.” A terrific goose bumps moment – and one that’s being prepared in the season finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Most “Lord of the Rings” fans will have noticed: After Galadriel (here: Morfydd Clark) discovered the secret of Halbrand/Sauron (Charlie Vickers), a fight for her soul ensues, which also puts her on the raft leads back to where they once met – and there shows her a vision of Sauron in a reflection on the water, in which this Galadriel with the breastplate and flowing white robes is damned reminiscent of the one from The Fellowship of the Ring:
Amazon / Warner Bros.
Left Galadriel as Queen at Sauron’s side in The Rings of Power, right in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Also, Sauron describes the Elf in very similar terms to what she herself does in the film (and in the book): “I’ll make you queen. Beautiful as the sea and the sun. Stronger than the foundations of the earth.” But that’s not all – the connection between Galadriel and Sauron implied in this scene is actually in the books of JRR Tolkien.
In an interview with the US industry magazine deadline Explaining Galadriel and Sauron’s relationship, co-showrunner JD Payne said there was a passage in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring that served as inspiration: “There was this line that we found very, very intriguing from the [Kapitel] ‘Galadriel’s Mirror’, in which she says: ‘I perceive the Dark Lord and recognize his intentions, or those concerning the Elves.’”
So, in a way, The Rings of Power explains where this close connection between Sauron and Galadriel came from. However, it is – at least in the eyes of Sauron performer Charlie Vickers – not a romantic relationship, as he told the industry magazine Variety stressed:
“When he says, ‘Become my queen,’ that shouldn’t be taken as romantic. It’s great that people are reading stuff into this, but I think he’s only doing it for his own benefit in this scene. At that moment he thinks: ‘If she joins me, it will help me to implement my plan faster.’ And when she defies him, it’s not the end of the world. I don’t think they have a romantic connection, but a cosmic one.”
Vickers also stated, “It must be exciting for him to meet someone similarly powerful and old and charismatic, it gets his blood pumping. and it inevitably brings him back to his dark side. Galadriel doesn’t understand it at the moment, but she rekindles the lust for power in him.“
It will probably not be the last time that the connection between Galadriel and Sauron is addressed in “The Rings of Power”. We can definitely look forward to a comeback of the two characters in the second season of “The Rings of Power”, which is currently being filmed.
