In the first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” we got enough hints to prove the fact that an evil power was on the rise. Nobody believed Galadriel when she said so, and that is why she decided to take matters into her own hands and not go to the Undying Lands. She had met a person named Halbrand and was stuck in the sea with him before they were saved by an unknown sailor. Nori had kept the Meteor Man in hiding but couldn’t fathom what the purpose of his visit was. She knew that the secret lay in the constellations, but she had little or no knowledge about them. So, let’s see what unforeseeable circumstances await Arrondir, Galadriel, and Nori on their respective journeys.

Galadriel and Halbrand were saved by Elendil , who worked as a sea guard for the kingdom of Numenor. Now, this in itself was an irony because Numenoreans considered Elves to be their enemy. They believed that even after helping the army of the Elves in the great war against Morgoth, they were not duly compensated. The boon of immortality was never given to them, though still, an average Numenorean had an age span that was thrice as long as compared to a normal human hailing from Southlands. Galadriel and Halbrand are brought in front of Queen Regent Miriel and her cousin Chancellor Pharazon. There is a kind of restlessness and unrest that can be seen in the eyes of the people standing in the court. It had been a long time since an Elf had stepped onto their lands. They despised her presence. They had a lot of questions as to why Elendil saved Galadriel when he knew about the general law of the land.

Diplomacy was something that Galadriel was not well acquainted with. She argues with Queen Regent Miriel that Valar had granted them the island, and done a favor to them, because they stood with the Elves in the great war. Galadriel also doesn’t know at this point of time what happened that made the relationship between the Numenoreans and Elves sour. Queen Regent Miriel is astonished at the arrogance and disobedience of an Elf, standing in her court, and alive only because she had chosen to show some mercy. Galadriel had a pretty simple demand. She was sure about the fact that evil was rising, and once again, a dark shadow loomed over Middle Earth, and so she wanted Queen Regent Miriel to grant her a passage through the waterways to Middle Earth and provide her with a ship. An impetuous fervor was seen in the eyes of the Queen. She told Galadriel that her ancestors, the Edain, were not given the island of Elenna as a mere favor, but they paid a huge price for it. She also said that the ships of Elves were not allowed to pass through their lands for generations. Halbrand understands that this arrogance wouldn’t lead them anywhere and would make matters worse. He asks the Queen if they would like to stay for a few days, as she was reluctant to let them go. He says that it would give her advisers and officials time to think about the plea made by them. Chancellor Pharazon agreed and granted them three days, with the condition that Galadriel would be restricted to the palace grounds.

Elendil was called by the Queen as he had saved an Elf, and he ought to give an explanation for doing so. The name Elendil, in the ancient tongue of Eldar, means “Elf-Friend.” Elendil belonged to a category of men who were called “The Faithful.” The Faithful were the ones who had sworn their allegiance to the Valar, and they upheld the ways, customs, and traditions of their ancestors. The Faithful, unlike the other Numenoreans, were not envious of the fact that the Elves enjoyed the boon of immortality, and they didn’t. He tells the Queen that he was only carrying out his duty. Elendil believed that the sea was always right, and if it had put the Elf and the man in his way, then there would be some purpose, some motive behind it. Surprisingly, he is given a promotion by Queen Regent Miriel. Elendil was now the Post Captain, and his duty was to keep a check on Galadriel. Elendil told about his promotion to his son Isildur and his daughter Earien. Isildur was undergoing sea trials for a position in the navy, but he told his father that he wanted to defer it and wanted to explore the western shores. Elendil told him that the only option they had was to move forward as there was nothing there on the western shores. Maybe Elendil knew something about the future of Numenor and Middle Earth, and that is why he was asking his son to be a part of the navy and learn to sail the ship.

Halbrand, on the other hand, was not a common man, as he was pretending to be. He wanted to make peace with the people of Numenor, and be a part of them. We still don’t know what Halbrand was up to in reality, but there was some game plan in his mind that nobody was aware of. He wanted a job at a blacksmith’s workshop. He was so desperate that he told him that he was ready to do any menial work as long as he kept him as his employee. But the blacksmith told him that he could not do so because to forge steel in Numenor, a person had to earn a guild crest, a silver badge that they wore on their shoulders. Halbrand met a few strangers at the bar and offered them drinks. Once they were drunk, he stole the guild crest from one of the workers named Tamar. But he was a cunning man. He caught Halbrand and, with his colleagues, started beating him. Halbrand lost his temper and retaliated. He overpowered them, even though they were many in number. After the fight, you realize that Halbrand was no ordinary human being. It felt like he was powerful, one of the greatest warriors of all time, and maybe he was disguising himself on purpose so that his identity remained unknown.

Arondir was captured by the Orcs, who were making them dig underground tunnels somewhere in the Southlands. He met his colleagues from the Southlands, Revion, and Margot, there. Arondir was told that the orcs were digging to find some weapons. A weapon for their master, whom they referred to as Adar. Now the word Adar had an Elvish origin, and Arondir was confused as to why an evil lord would keep an Elvish name. Revion was of the opinion that Sauron was referred to by a lot of different names, and maybe Adar was one of them. Revion, Arondir, and the other Elves present at the digging site made a plan to escape. They tried, but the orcs were huge in number, and they had wolf-like predators called Wargs that attacked the Elves on their command. Revion dies, and so do a lot of others. Arondir wasn’t able to escape, but he was still alive. There was still hope left that somehow, he would be able to inform the others about Sauron and his devised plans.

At the end of “The Rings of Power” Episode 3, we see that Adar, whom Arondir and other elves considered to be Sauron, arrived at the scene, amidst the chants of his name. We are not shown the face of the man, and we don’t know if the speculations made by Arondir and others had some truth in them. It is possible that Adar was not Sauron himself but the commander of his armies. Whoever he was, he had the orcs under his control, and they would play a crucial role in the upcoming battle between the alliance of elves and men and the successor of Morgoth, the dark lord Sauron.

The Harfoots were on the brink of another migration. Elanor Brandyfoot (Nori) and Poppy Proudfellow hadn’t told anyone anything about the anonymous giant they had kept in hiding. Nori had found the book where Sadoc Burrows, the trial finder, had mentioned the constellations and other areas where research had been done. She tore a page, which had a pictorial representation of a constellation that the meteor man was pointing to earlier. It, too, resembled the secret sigil that Galadriel had found. It meant that the constellations, too, were pointing to the Southlands, where Sauron’s army was digging tunnels. Largo, Nori’s father, didn’t know how he would be able to cope with the pace of others during the migration, as he had a broken foot. As history tells us, the Harfoots that were left behind were never able to make it back to their clan. The meteor man, by mistake, arrives at the place where the Harfoots had assembled to listen to the speech of Sadoc Borrows. It was a tradition to remember the ones whom they had lost, before every migration. Everybody gets to know that Nori was helping the meteor man. They were angry as she had put their lives in danger by her carelessness. As a punishment, the Brandyfoot family is told to be at the back of the caravan. Largo knew that if they were in front, there was a bleak chance that he would be able to cope with the pace. But being at the back meant that they would get separated from the rest of the clan, surely. The meteor man arrived at the scene, and Nori asked his family to enter into an agreement with the giant, as he was the only one who could help them. It was decided that the Brandyfoot would help him in return for him pushing their cart, and thereby helping them to stay united with the rest of the community. 

Galadriel went to the House of Lores with Elendil, who was asked by the Queen of Numenor to be around her at all times. Galadriel was surprised to know that Elendil also spoke English. Galadriel gets to know that the Hall of Lore was created by Elros himself, who was the first ruler of Numenor and was known as Tar-Minyatur. Elros was the brother of Elrond, and both of them were half-elves. Elendil tells her that she should be grateful to the last king because of whom the House of Lores was still standing. Galadriel is surprised to hear that there were people in Numenor who were loyal to the Elves. Elendil tells him that the last king had to pay a huge price for his loyalty. He was removed from the throne and was exiled in his own kingdom. The king was still alive and stayed in a tower. Galadriel drew the secret sigil on a piece of paper and told Elendil to help her find any information on the symbol. They got an account from a human spy who was stationed in an enemy dungeon. It suddenly struck Galadriel that it was not a sigil but the map of the Southlands. The accounts of the spy spoke of a devilish plan to create a realm where evil would thrive. It was written there that the plan would be initiated by the successor of Morgoth if he was defeated in the Great War. Elendil and Galadriel knew two things: firstly, the Southlands were standing on the brink of a catastrophe; and secondly, Sauron was not going to stop after he captured the Southlands.

Though Queen Regent Miriel showed that she didn’t appreciate the utter disregard of laws that Elendil had done, somewhere, you feel that she was in favor of the whole thing. She talks to herself in her private chamber and says that the moment had arrived that she and her father had always feared. Maybe Queen Regent Miriel had knowledge of some prophecy. Maybe she knew that one day an Elf would arrive in their kingdom. Maybe the arrival of an Elf was a kind of signal that initiated the doom of Middle Earth. Maybe in the prophecy, they were told that the elves and the men would have to combine their forces in the future, because that is how they would be able to defeat the evil lord, Sauron. The king who was removed from the throne and who had saved the House of Lores from getting demolished was her father. She was the daughter of King tar- Palantir, who lived in exile in his own kingdom. How much she knows is still doubtful. But we know for certain that Queen Regent Miriel, like Elendil, is a member of the Faithful, and both of them know something about the future of Middle Earth. The only reason she does not show her loyalty in public is that she knows that she would also meet a similar fate like her father. She had disguised her intentions, and maybe would wait a little further, get to know about what Galadriel wanted to do, and then eventually show her cards. 

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