Lord of the Rings: What if Sauron wasn’t the only villain from the trilogy to appear in the Rings of Power?

Please note that below is a detailed synopsis of the first episodes of Rings of Power Season 2 available on Prime Video. If you haven’t seen them yet and don’t want to know anything about their content, I suggest you stop reading this article right now!

While the mystery surrounding the stranger’s identity is still unsolved, the Rings of Power series introduces a new wizard character, again unnamed. The role of Ciaran Hynde, the latter appeared in the first episodes of the prequel season 2 of The Lord of the Rings.

Dressed in all white, the latter has long black hair and a beard. The long staff proves that he is indeed a witch, but his tracing tells the stranger that he is probably a practitioner of black magic. As for his identity, we don’t know, but many fans are already speculating that it could be Saruman.

The presence of the character will create a chronological problem

The iconic villain of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this character was portrayed by Christopher Lee. Leader of the White Council, he revealed his true nature to Gandalf before his lust for power was finally quenched by the wrath of the Ents at the end of the two towers. Many Rings of Power fans believe that the Stranger and Gandalf are the same person.

Saruman’s existence at this point in Middle-earth’s history does not account for the chronology of JRR Tolkien’s novels. The series didn’t hesitate to deviate from the books, introducing several non-canonical characters such as the elf Arondir, or even Halbrand (who was none other than Sauron’s alter ego in Season 1).

But other fans raise the possibility that this black wizard is not Saruman, but another wizard. Tolkien’s novels actually evoke the five Istars, the name the English writer gave his witches. Three are well known to fans: Gandalf and Saruman, but also Radagast the Dark, who appeared in The Hobbit trilogy as Sylvester McCoy.

Two witches we don’t know much about

The last two istars are called Alatar and Palando, but the latter are more generally called the “blue mages” (or “Itrin Lewin” in Sindarin). Tolkien’s books give us very little information about them, except that they went to the East, but never returned from their journey.

A short text is published in Volume 12 of History of Middle-earth (Peoples of Middle Earthunpublished in France) relates the story of the Blue Mages to the war of the Elves against Sauron during the Eregion battle. In this case, Sauron’s forces in the east are said to have been defeated by an army raised by two witches.

In fact, the Black Mage and the Stranger could be Alatar and Palando (or vice versa). In this way, the series does not betray the chronology of JRR Tolkien’s books, a short stretch that leads to their presence in the eastern territories from the Second Age.

By comparison, Gandalf and Saruman didn’t arrive in Middle-earth until about a thousand years after the end of the series. We understand better why the identity of two wizards in circles of power arouses so much passion among fans of JRR Tolkien…

Rings of Power Season 2 can be seen every week exclusively on Prime Video.

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