In the third episode “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” you could perhaps still dismiss it, but in episode 4 it happens again: Isildur (Maxim Baldry) hears a strange voice while sailing on the sea and sees a mysterious one country in the distance. What this is all about is not explained, but there are some clues in episode 4.
In the previous episode it’s not even clear what exactly Isildur sees here: Is it the paradisiacal Valinor, where the Valar and numerous Elves live? Is it Numenor? Or maybe Middle-earth?
However, in episode 4 we learn that this is the west of Númenor, the “true Númenor”, as Isildur’s friend Valandil (Alex Tarrant) puts it. But why is Isildur looking so longingly towards the western part of Númenor?
In the books of JRR Tolkien, the western of the five arms of the star-shaped island bears the name Andustar and there is also the city of Andúnië – which is somewhat the hometown of Isildur’s family. Their relatives bore the title “Princes of Andúnië”because they come from a subsidiary line of the royal family and thus also have Elros Tar-Minyatur, the founder of Númenor and brother of Elrond (Robert Aramayo), as ancestors.
In Tolkien’s works However, at some point the princes of Andúnië, i.e. Isildur’s family, were forced to leave their hometown and move to the east of the island. Responsible for this were King Ar-Gimilzôr and the growing strife between the Elves and the Númenoreans who were envious of their immortality.
Andúnië, as the westernmost port of Númenor, was the place where the Elves from Valinor in the far west landed, and thus naturally a thorn in the side of the island’s hostile kings.
Isildur probably just longs for the hometown of his family, his ancestors. At the same time, Andúnië also stands symbolically for a Númenor that was still loyal to the Elves and the Valar – and Isildur longs for that too, after all, like his father Elendil (Lloyd Owen), he is one of the so-called loyal ones, i.e. the Elven friends among the Númenoreans.
And instead of continuing to do his duty as a sailor, in episode 4 he consciously turns his back on the new, hostile Númenor. The sailing master (Antonio Te Maihoa) also accuses him of letting go of the rope on purpose.
There remains the question of the mysterious voice that Isildur hears. There are several possibilities here: He may be listening the voice of his unnamed mother by Tolkien or from his ancestor Silmarien, from whom descended the princes of Andúniëor possibly even from one of the Valar.
Or maybe those responsible for the series just allow themselves a little trick and the whole thing should simply remind a little of the “Lord of the Rings” films and the seductive voice of the One Ring…
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 5 will be released on September 23, 2022 on Amazon Prime Video. Maybe we’ll learn more about Isildur’s motives in it – although he has now committed himself to the fight against Sauron’s followers in Middle-earth…
