S02 E04: Eldest

[Erestor Arcamen]

Discussion of Season 2 Episode 4: Eldest

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" Eldest (TV Episode 2024) | Action, Adventure, Drama

Eldest: Directed by Sanaa Hamri, Louise Hooper. With Robert Aramayo, Morfydd Clark, Daniel Weyman, Markella Kavenagh. The Stranger finds what he's been searching for. Arondir and Isildur search for Theo. Galadriel and Elrond walk into a trap.

www.imdb.com

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

I personally found this episode to be boring and unenjoyable.

 

[Halasían]

I personally found this episode to be boring and unenjoyable.

A bit of a bridging episode. Storywise it was a bit of an S1 slog, but I thought Tom was alright as was the Barrow Wights. I know the 'lore' doesn't add up, etc etc, but it was nice to see. If the Army of the Dead looked more like these Barrow Wights instead of iridescent magical green ants in the Return of the King movie, it would have been more believable.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

A bit of a bridging episode. Storywise it was a bit of an S1 slog, but I thought Tom was alright as was the Barrow Wights. I know the 'lore' doesn't add up, etc etc, but it was nice to see. If the Army of the Dead looked more like these Barrow Wights instead of iridescent magical green ants in the Return of the King movie, it would have been more believable.

Yeah the Barrow Wights scene was cool for sure.

 

[Eljorahir]

The nice Stoor lady is hoping someone will come and lead them to the Sûzat where there’re streams of cold water and soft rolling hills easy for hole-digging, bringing the ancient dream of Rorimas Burrows to fruition.

I’m not sure where the extra “t” comes in, but Appendix F Part II says that Sûza = Shire.

Maybe we’ll be seeing some folks being led to the promised land later in the series. Could be very nice indeed.

(Thanks to YouTuber Chris and his Philosophergames channel for pointing this out. I certainly don't know my Appendix F!)

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

The nice Stoor lady is hoping someone will come and lead them to the Sûzat where there’re streams of cold water and soft rolling hills easy for hole-digging, bringing the ancient dream of Rorimas Burrows to fruition.

I’m not sure where the extra “t” comes in, but Appendix F Part II says that Sûza = Shire.

Maybe we’ll be seeing some folks being led to the promised land later in the series. Could be very nice indeed.

(Thanks to YouTuber Chris and his Philosophergames channel for pointing this out. I certainly don't know my Appendix F!)

I assumed she was referring to the shire as well

 

[Tar-Elenion]

The nice Stoor lady is hoping someone will come and lead them to the Sûzat where there’re streams of cold water and soft rolling hills easy for hole-digging, bringing the ancient dream of Rorimas Burrows to fruition.

I’m not sure where the extra “t” comes in, but Appendix F Part II says that Sûza = Shire.

Maybe we’ll be seeing some folks being led to the promised land later in the series. Could be very nice indeed.

(Thanks to YouTuber Chris and his Philosophergames channel for pointing this out. I certainly don't know my Appendix F!)

It is from Peoples of Middle-earth:
"The Shire seems to me very adequately to translate the Hobbit Sūza-t, since this word was now only used by them with reference to their country..."
The Appendix on Languages

 

[Elthir]

I’m not sure where the extra “t” comes in, but Appendix F Part II says that Sûza = Shire.

As Tar-Elenion noted, the -t hails from a draft text to Appendix F, published in The Peoples of Middle-Earth. The form Sûzat was not repeated in the Appendix as published, but in any case, most of the experts seem to agree that the -t was meant to represent the definite article "the".

The draft text in question is longer than the published version and contains some forms that were revised for the published work. It's been argued, however, that words or elements that simply do not appear in the final form of the Appendix could be missing due to Tolkien cutting down its length.

Anyway, a huzzah to
Galadriel's hair looking
like a crown at some point.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

I found this episode a bit of a let down after episode 3. I felt they had decided to crush into this episode the things PJ left out. So we get Barrow Wights, and an Old Man Willow type tree. We also meet Ents which are far too hasty and violent, large spiders and a Nessie type creature like that in the lake in front of the entrance to Moria. An over-egged episode imo.

On the other hand, bearing in mind there is little relation to JRRT's writings, I like the idea of "eldest" Tom Bombadil training The Stranger in the ways of wizards - training he clearly needs as Nori and Poppy can testify as they pull out thorns from delicate places. I also liked the Stoors' village, especially the emphasis on cabbages - beloved of fans of Robin of Sherwood.

I thought it was unfair that so few orcs had to fight Galadriel but will Galadriel fall for handsome Adar? They do have something important in common.

 

[Halasían]

I found this episode a bit of a let down after episode 3. I felt they had decided to crush into this episode the things PJ left out. So we get Barrow Wights, and an Old Man Willow type tree. We also meet Ents which are far too hasty and violent, large spiders and a Nessie type creature like that in the lake in front of the entrance to Moria. An over-egged episode imo.

On the other hand, bearing in mind there is little relation to JRRT's writings, I like the idea of "eldest" Tom Bombadil training The Stranger in the ways of wizards - training he clearly needs as Nori and Poppy can testify as they pull out thorns from delicate places. I also liked the Stoors' village, especially the emphasis on cabbages - beloved of fans of Robin of Sherwood.

I thought it was unfair that so few orcs had to fight Galadriel but will Galadriel fall for handsome Adar? They do have something important in common.

I think this was the weakest episode of the season, with its only rival for the title being Ep6.