Second Age

We'll be talking all things Rings of Power, from its breathtaking costumes, brilliant performances and powerful writing, to its stunning visuals and sweeping scores, while also just having a good old natter about the show.

Whether you're a lifelong Tolkien nerd, a huge Rings of Power fan, or new to Middle-earth, we're excited for you to join us on our journey through the Second Age.

The Second Age

Hi and welcome to Nazcals.

I'm Northie.

He introduces himself as Gandalf and says, that's what they're going to call him, isn't it? Now, the song

can truly begin.

So, to start off, shall we address the elephant in the room? Should Gandalf be in a show about the Second Age? What do we think? What does the lore tell us, Jessica? The

Turn to 131.

Anyway, I'm not going to read it all, but it reminded me that Tolkien himself has already given a brilliant and masterful overview of the second age.

It's better than the appendices one because he's actually sort of analyzing it in a way that he doesn't in the appendices or even in the Silmarillion actually.

Yeah.

So he starts off by saying the next cycle, after having told him about the first, you know, the first age, the next cycle deals or would deal with the second age.

But it is on earth a dark age and not very much of its history is or need be told.

Well, there you go, everybody.

begun the domination of this place in middle earth just like sauron's going to be beginning his advance in lord of the rings so it's the usual tolkien echoes where nothing is new under the sun everything is an echo of um what came before or at least most things

well And what he realizes is that it's at this point he had not done anything in the Second Age or the Third Age yet.

There were no ages.

This was just the Silmarillion and time.

So it was when the Lord of the Rings came up, he decided to create the Third Age.

And with that, he had to create appendices that had the Second Age.

Where did everybody come from? And with that, when he had his competition or his little challenge with C.S.

Lewis about one writing a sci-fi story and one writing a time travel story, he came up with Numenor.

For now, let's return to Númenor and the story of Aldarion and Erendis.

[upbeat music] The Tolkien Road, episode 186, Second Age Deep Dive: The Mariner's Wife, part three.

[upbeat music] Hello, everyone.

Welcome to The Tolkien Road, episode 186, Second Age Deep Dive.

We're continuing with Aldarion and Erendis, The Mariner's Wife, part three now.

So welcome in.

[laughs]

Um, so yeah, what's up, everybody? Uh, back after a week off, so we're continuing with The Mariner's Wife, Aldarion and Erendis, from Unfinished Tales.

But before that tree was destroyed, Isildur had risked his life to steal some of its fruit, which would become the first white tree of Gondor.

It was planted in the city of Minas Ithil, later called Minas Morgul, near the time of its founding, which was roughly in 3320 of the Second Age, and it would be destroyed when Sauron attacked the city in 3429. but not before Isildur fled once again with a sapling.

And that sapling was not planted for 14 years, until the year 2 of the Third Age, when Isildur planted it in Minas Anor, which was later called Minas Tirith, in honor of his brother Anarion, who had died in the War of the Last Alliance.

That second tree lasted until the year 1636 of the Third Age, and we read this in Appendix B.

So firstly, Elendil can mean elf friend, something Tolkien noted in a 1954 letter to Robert Murray and reaffirmed a decade later in a 1964 letter to Christopher Bretherton.

However, this is not the only meaning Tolkien gives it.

In Volume 11 of The History of Middle-Earth, The War of the Jewels, Tolkien wrote, It is not surprising that the Edain, the houses of men that were loyal to the elves of the First Age and who basically became the Numenoreans of the Second Age, when they learned Sindarin and to a certain extent Quenya also, found it difficult to discern whether words or names containing the element El referred to the stars or the elves.

This is seen in the name Elendil, which became a favorite name among the Edain, but was meant to bear the sense of elf-friend.