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Where is Forodwaith from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?

BBG News

As a die-hard Tolkien fan with over two decades of Middle-earth immersion under my belt, I must say that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 has truly delivered in its first three episodes.

You can now stream the first three episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” season 2 on Prime Video. The story begins with a flashback to the Second Age, following the downfall of Morgoth, the initial Dark Lord of Middle-earth. Sauron, Morgoth’s top lieutenant, gathers his orcs in a grand fortress, aiming to win them over. However, he is deceived by an evil elf named Adar who, along with the orcs, brutally attacks Sauron. In the end, Sauron seems to disintegrate in a burst of cold, leaving the surrounding area frozen.

In the literature of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” Forodwaith is a region situated among the northernmost parts of Middle-earth. This place, though not extensively detailed, is significant as it was close to where Utumno once stood, an ancient fortress excavated by Morgoth before the First Age. Before Sauron’s Barad-dûr and Morgoth’s Angband, Utumno served as the primary stronghold of evil forces in Middle-earth.

Utumno was destroyed by the divine Valar before the start of the First Age, and Morgoth returned to build his new stronghold of Angband over a thousand miles away. Then Angband was destroyed at the end of the First Age in the War of Wrath, a war so destructive that it reshaped the continent of Middle-earth. Much of the Iron Mountains, which also border on Forodwaith, were destroyed.

However, Forodwaith continued to stand alone. Though inhabited, it’s not heavily populated. It carries a reputation as an icy realm. Intriguingly, in the very first episode of The Rings of Power, Galadriel and a group of elves were spotted traversing there. Their quest? To find Sauron. Now, we can confirm that he did indeed visit this frigid land.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, the reason behind Forodwaith’s extreme coldness isn’t explicitly mentioned, but we know it is. The notion that Sauron caused this chilliness by detonating coldness across the area seems to be a creative liberty taken for the screen adaptations. In the books, it’s more plausible that Forodwaith is cold due to Morgoth, an evil entity, residing there for countless millennia in ancient times or simply because of its northern location. Given that Alaska is also cold, this isn’t a surprising fact about Forodwaith.

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2024-08-29 09:41

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