As someone who lived through a terrible world war, and saw more than his fair share of suffering and trauma, Tolkien was not afraid to write about grisly deaths within his stories. It has become a theme in many modern TV shows and films that the protagonists of the story, the really important characters, never die, surviving to the end. However, this was not the case withinTolkien’s works. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Part of Tolkien’s life in WWI included the idea that it was an honorable death to die fighting to protect those you love, and this is a theme that translates into many of his noble heroes. Some of the best examples of this include thedeaths of Thorin, Fili, and Kili, the sonsof Durin’s line, inThe Hobbit.And of course, inLord of the Rings, there is Boromir, the son of Gondor who redeemed himself right at the end by dying to save Merry and Pippin.
Now, with the Amazon TV series theRings of Powerhaving recently launched, fans are beginning to wonder what epic deaths will be featured on the show, and which heroic characters will be lost along the way. There are obvious characters like Galadriel, Elrond and Sauron (or at least his spirit and dark power) that definitely won’t die during theRings of Power.Viewers already know that these characters must survive, because they have such important parts to play in the laterHobbitandLord of the Ringsstories. However, there are also a whole host of new characters in the upcoming series who have no such permanence, characters like Bronwin, Arondir, Nori the harfoot. One character in particular who has caught the attention of many fans is Gil-galad, and the question as to whether the series will explore his terrible demise.
RELATED:What Is The Last Homely House?
In some senses, some viewers have already seen Gil-galad die, although they might not know it. During the prologue of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of theFellowship of the Ring,fans may recall the epic fight scene in which the army of elves is seen storming against Sauron, and the ring is eventually cut off his finger by Isildur wielding Anduril. Gil-galad is actually in this scene, as thebattle is the Last Alliance.
The Last Alliance was a 7-year-long war in which Gil-galad and his host of elves fought alongside Elendil and his army of Men to hold back Sauron and his forces from behind the gates of Mordor, where he fled to regain his strength after his last defeat. Gil-galad can be seen in this prologue fighting next to Elrond, in a blue and golden armor, and he is taken down just before the ring is removed by Isildur. According to Tolkien’s original books, Gil-galad and Elendil managed to defeat Sauron. They overcame his physical body so that only his dark essence remained intact, which is why Isildur was able to cut the ring off in the first place. But sadly, their injuries were so severe that Gil-galad later died of his wounds.
There are two accounts or renditions of Gil-galad’s death across Tolkien’s works. The first account appears in theLord of the Rings, in a poem translated by Bilbo Bagginsin Rivendell:
“Long ago he rode away, / and where he dwelleth none can say, / for into darkness fell his star, / in Mordor where the shadows are.”
This is a reference to Gil-galad’s fall at the Last Alliance. The star falling into darkness is a visual description of his life and light fading from the world, a once noble king now extinguished. This is corroborated in further detail in the script that Gandalf reads in the ancient archives of Minas Tirith. Here, Isildur has written in the account of the taking of the ring:
‘What evil it saith I do not know, but I trace here a copy of it, lest it fade beyond recall. The ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so, Gil-galad was destroyed.’
It is clear that Gil-galad dies a horrible death, scorched by the fiery hand of Sauron in the ferocious battle. But as Gil-galad has already been seen in several of the trailers forRings of Power, and is set to be a prominent character, people are wondering how far his story will go. Because of the compressed timeline of the series, it is uncertain whether the show will go as far as the Battle of the Last Alliance.
There is a potential that this fateful battle could be the vision that Galadriel has in the initial teaser trailers, of the elves floating in the red sky, shot through with arrows and spears. But many feel that it is unlikely for the series to go this far, at least within the first season. This may be something in the works slightly farther down the line, but if so, viewers will likely have to wait quite awhile to see it.
