The Rings of Power: Who Is Adar & Why Does He Look Like That?

On August 29, Amazon Prime Video will drop the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the most expensive TV project in history.

Officially based on the trilogy of John R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the series tells the story of the events that took place several millennia before Frodo Baggins set out on his journey to Orodruin.

What happened in the Second Age, how the Rings were made, and how the alliance between Elves and Men was formed is described in more detail in other sources – The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, to which Amazon did not acquire the rights. This makes the entire series the most expensive fan fiction in history.

Despite this, the first two episodes of the project were watched by a record 25 million people, who immediately began to form their theories about what we were seeing, and some of these theories were confirmed, including the one about Adar.

Is Adar Based on Maeglin, the Only Elf Who Sided with Morgoth?

In the fourth episode of the first season, we are introduced to a mysterious elf who is the leader of the orcs of the Southlands and whom they call Adar, which means "father."

From a brief conversation between this character and Arondir, we learn that Adar is over a thousand years old, for he remembers rafting down a river in Beleriand, a region that was almost completely destroyed and flooded during the War of Wrath when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, was defeated.

Adar is Actually the First Orc Created by Morgoth Himself

In Tolkien's books, the only elf who willingly sided with Morgoth is Maeglin, a character who was also born and raised in Beleriand. It is believed that Maeglin died in the First Age, during the fall of Gondolin, and that his body fell into the flames at the foot of the hill of Amon Gwareth. There are burn marks on Adar's face – perhaps this elf survived and went into hiding in the series?

But everything turned out to be easier and more interesting. Adar is not really an elf, but an orc. Tolkien gives several versions of the origin of orcs, according to one of which they are elves kidnapped by Morgoth and distorted by his dark magic, turning them into ugly creatures.

Adar is in fact the first elf to undergo such a transformation, a test subject who retained his original elven appearance. As such, he is literally a father and mentor to the orcs around him.