Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6.
In this week’s episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a dark relic from the First Age is revealed. In his first conversation with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Adar (Sam Hazeldine) brings out Morgoth’s crown, a powerful symbol of the first Dark Lord, now coveted by the second one, Sauron (Charlie Vickers). According to the Uruk, the power contained within the Iron Crown, combined with the Elven Rings of Power, is enough to defeat Sauron, but this all sounds very dangerous; Galadriel won’t even look directly at the crown. What is it about this crown that makes it special, even so long after Morgoth’s defeat?
Morgoth’s Iron Crown Was Made To Hold the Silmarils
The Iron Crown of Morgoth looks familiar from the start. It’s the same aesthetic and design as Sauron’s own iconic armor from The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, which The Rings of Power replicates. It says a lot how Sauron continues to use his predecessor’s design in his own gear, seeing himself as Morgoth’s heir in everything he does. However, the Iron Crown has a much longer history, from before the First Age of Middle-earth even started.
In the Years of the Trees (when the light of the world came from the trees Laurelin and Telperi in Valinor), the Elven smith named Fëanor forged the Silmarils, three gems of unspoken beauty that are regarded as among the most beautiful things in Middle-earth, imbued with the very light of the Trees and blessed by the Valar themselves. Obsessed with the gems, Morgoth destroys the Trees and, in the chaos and darkness that ensues, steals the Silmarils from Fëanor, also killing his father in the process. Nearly every conflict in the First Age revolves around these acts, with the Sons of Fëanor swearing to retrieve their father’s work and destroy Morgoth.
After he steals the Silmarils, Morgoth returns to his fortress of Angband and designs the Iron Crown. While the crown itself may not seem like much, it is a powerful object. While the Silmarils themselves don’t hold power, the light of the Trees and the Valar’s blessing makes them harmful to Morgoth, but he wanted to wear the three of them nonetheless. So the Iron Crown is designed not only to hold the three Silmarils, but also to keep them from hurting him. They still burn his flesh whenever he wears the crown. Still, he would never take it off.
Morgoth’s Crown Is Lost After His Defeat in the War of Wrath
The First Age is marked by many conflicts around Morgoth and the Silmarils. One of the gems is even retrieved by Beren and Lúthien and kept by their family, eventually being passed down to Eärendil the Mariner and his wife Elwing, Elrond’s (Robert Aramayo) parents. With the Silmaril upon their boat’s brow, they become the only mortal beings to reach the Undying Lands of Valinor by themselves, and Eärendil pleads with the Valar for help against Morgoth. The Valar are moved by his feats and accept his plea.
With the Host of the Valar joining the fight against Morgoth in Middle-earth, the War of Wrath begins. It’s the bloodiest conflict in J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Legendarium, portrayed in the initial scenes of The Rings of PowerSeason 1 (although a little different from the books). The following blood and destruction are so great, that Beleriand, a whole continent of Middle-earth where most of the fighting takes place, sinks under the sea as a consequence. Morgoth is finally defeated and loses his crown and the Silmarils.
As punishment, Morgoth is banned to the Void, a gap between dimensions. To make sure he doesn’t come back, the Valar turn his crown into a collar and chains to hold him imprisoned. The Silmarils are also lost. Eärendil gets to keep his Silmaril on his boat’s bow and is allowed to sail the skies with it. The other two are retrieved by two of the Sons of Fëanor, Maedhros and Maglor, but they can’t keep them. They caused so many acts of cruelty trying to retrieve the gems before, that the Silmarils cause them too much pain. These two gems end up cast into a fiery bottomless pit and the ocean depths, respectively.
Morgoth’s Iron Crown Still Has a Part To Play in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2
Before Adar reveals the Iron Crown of Morgoth to Galadriel, it had already been teased in The Rings of Power. He tells her that he was present when Sauron (Jack Lowden) refitted it to himself, and that he used the crown to kill him. This is shown in the first scene of Season 2, a flashback sequence set in the fortress in Forodwaith. Sauron presents his claim as the new Dark Lord to the Orcs, who immediately reject him, saying they don’t want to immediately go back into another deadly conflict on behalf of someone they don’t trust. Pretending to accept Sauron’s claim, Adar then uses the crown to kill him.
The Iron Crown surviving Morgoth’s demise and being used in the Second Age is a big departure from Tolkien’s original writings, but it works in the context of the series. Adar doesn’t explain how he was able to retrieve the crown itself, saying only that “there are many stories” about what happened to it, so that’s as far as he is willing to say about it right now. The crown has also been featured in teasers for Season 2 in different circumstances, held by Sauron as he fights Galadriel, and even mentioned by Vickers himself in an interview, so it will likely play an important part in the two final episodes of the season.
Season 2 of The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Thursdays.
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