The Rings Of Power's Letters Between The Elves And Men Look Different In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lore

Warning: This post contains spoilers for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" Season 3, Episode 4. Proceed accordingly.

In "The Rings of Power" Season 3, Episode 4, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) reconnects with his king, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), to figure out how the Elves can get reinforcements in the fight against Sauron. Elrond suggests calling for aid from the powerful human island kingdom of Númenor, to which the Elven elder statesman Círdan (Ben Daniels) replies: "We already have." He shows Elrond a letter the Númenórean king Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) sent in reply, which contains the terse response: "I regret that Númenor must tend to its own affairs."

In J.R.R. Tolkien's source material, letters are also exchanged between High King Gil-galad and the kings of Númenor, albeit under very different circumstances.

In "The Rings of Power," the interaction is with the proud Pharazôn, and Elrond interprets the rejection as the newly minted king of Númenor practically begging to join the war. The half-Elven commander concludes that Gil-galad should sail directly to Númenor to meet with Pharazôn in person. While the end of that story remains to be seen in the coming weeks as Season 3 rolls out, the other version has already been told in full in Tolkien's legendarium — and it goes a little differently.

To understand the history of Númenor and the Elves interacting via the Middle-earth postal system, it's important to note that the Second Age is over 3,000 years long. The showrunners for "The Rings of Power" have already gotten backlash for reducing the multi-millennia story into the span of a few years. Some condensing was likely necessary to tell a cohesive story, but when you reduce millennia into months, you end up with a lot of distortions. One of those is King Pharazôn interacting with Gil-galad via snail mail.

In Tolkien's legendarium, this exchange actually happens between Gil-galad and the Númenórean king Meneldur, more than 2,000 years before Pharazôn is born. It's found in the partially written story "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife," which appears in the book "Unfinished Tales." In the posthumously published volume, Tolkien presents a story where the ambitious mariner Aldarion, prince and heir to the throne of Númenor, sails to Middle-earth over and over again, building bases and establishing relationships with the Elves as they fight against evil on the mainland.

Another important difference here is that the original correspondence happens before Sauron has openly forged any Rings of Power or launched the War of the Elves and Sauron. However, evil is stirring, and Gil-galad realizes that it's serious. This leads him to send a message to Númenor through Prince Aldarion to King Meneldur — a long letter full of updates and requests for aid.

Part of Gil-galad's letter to King Meneldur reads thusly: "A new shadow arises in the East. It is no tyranny of evil Men ... but a servant of Morgoth is stirring ... Not far off is the day, I judge, when it will become too great for the Eldar unaided to withstand ... I make bold to seek your help. If you have any strength of Men to spare, lend it to me, I beg."

Gil-galad goes on to explain the situation and the work Aldarion has been doing to help Númenor establish bases along the Middle-earth coast. And King Meneldur's response? It isn't to say that he's busy. He decides to lay down his power and make his son king to ensure Númenor is ready to resist the Dark Lord when the time comes.

Four episodes in, "The Rings of Power" may be combining this plea for aid with Pharazôn's own Second Age arc. In the tyrant's personal story, Pharazôn does refuse to work with the Elves. However, when he hears that Sauron is in competition with Númenor, he decides to gather an army and sail to Middle-earth to teach the Dark Lord a lesson. This story and that of Prince Aldarion and King Meneldur are both important, and they at least appear to be playing out together in "The Rings of Power." The question is, will Pharazôn be convinced to sail to the aid of the Elves? Or will he take on Sauron on his own?

The first four episodes of "The Rings of Power" Season 3 premiered on November 11.