Fire, water, and wine: recurring motifs in The Rings of Power

Those of you who have watched The Rings of Power have probably noticed the many symbols and motifs used in the show (no, I will never get tired of reminding you just what a clever and well thought out show this is!). Both seasons use fire and water repeatedly, giving them multiple significances, sometimes placing them in parallel storylines. Season two also uses the motif of the wine (present in season one as well, although to a smaller extent).

Let’s take a deep dive into the significance of fire, water, and wine in The Rings of Power. You will find yourselves appreciating the show’s storytelling even more by the end.

Death and rebirth through fire – Mount Doom and the creation of Mordor

Fire is a powerful symbol in almost every culture and mythology. Fire offers warmth and life. Fire also destroys and consumes. The Rings of Power plays with this dual nature, using it to subvert viewers’ expectations and to tell a more poignant and complex story.

Fire is used several times in season one. The Stranger arrives in a ball of fire, and Nori meets him inside a fiery crater – the opposite image that we get with Galadriel and Halbrand. Galadriel meets Halbrand on the water, while he is heading west. Nori meets the Stranger surrounded by fire, after he has traveled eastward. This is not by chance. Both Halbrand and the Stranger are presented as potential forms Sauron might have taken. We suspect from the start that one of them is the enemy. And the Stranger surrounded by fire, often destructive with his power, often doubting himself whether he is good or not, might seem like a more perfect candidate than Halbrand, who we meet surrounded by water – a cleaner, purer element we might mistakenly believe.

But fire is not only linked with the Stranger. Fire is also present during the eruption of Mount Doom and the destruction of the Southlands. Here, its dual nature is obvious. Fire is destructive, because it completely wipes out the Southlands. Fire is also a creative force, because it gives birth to Mordor. From this perspective, the opening scene in 1x06, when Adar plants the alfirin seeds that will never see the light of day, whispering “New life, in defiance of death”, takes on a very different meaning. There will be death – the death of the Southlands, in fire. But there will also be new life – the birth of a land where orcs can thrive, also through fire.

The fires of Mount Doom serving as both destructive and creative force. Image credit: The Rings of Power/ Amazon Prime

The fires of Mount Doom act also as a transformative force. Not only do they change the land, making it unrecognizable and unusable by any except Adar’s children. They also change the people that survive them.

Míriel loses her sight in the fire when sparks from a burning house explode in her face. This changes her. First, it shows her as a sacrificial figure, a role she will continue in season 2 and, I suspect, beyond. She loses her sight trying to save lives.

Blindness can be symbolic in itself. In many mythologies, the blind are prophets and seers, having access to knowledge that those around them lack. Míriel can already be considered a prophetess of sorts given her contact with the palantír and the many times she has witnessed Númenor’s fate in it. Now, this wisdom seems sharpened.

Isildur is also transformed by fire. His supposed death in the burning hut isolates him from his family and his peers. Fire transforms him – offering him a death of sorts – the death of his childhood, and his rebirth into manhood. Indeed, Isildur’s experiences in the fires of the Southlands and in Shelob’s tunnels are a prime example of the hero’s journey, which often includes death and a descent into the underworld (in Isildur’s case, that would be Shelob’s tunnels and even his confrontation with her). Isildur emerges a different person from these experience – and the new person he has become was born in the flames of that burning hut.

Still, perhaps the transformation that we se the clearest is Galadriel’s. At the end of episode 6 of season one, we see Galadriel standing still as the fires of Mount Doom rush towards her. The scene is chilling. Galadriel has realized she has been wrong, and the realization keeps her in place, shocked and trapped in the moment. For someone who has rebelled against the fate others imposed on her throughout the season, this sudden acceptance of the inevitable feels unnerving.

Galadriel survives the conflagration and is obviously changed by the experience. Galadriel undergoes a true baptism of fire. She is reborn and renewed in the flames. She see things clearer. This process will be finished in the final episode of season one, when Galadriel will surrender Finrod’s dagger to the flames of Celebrimbor’s forge – and this, too is a dual act of destruction and creation. As Finrod’s dagger is destroyed, the Three Elven Rings are created.

Drowning and sinking: the many roles of water in The Rings of Power

Like fire, water is a dual, ambiguous element. It is cleansing and purifying and used in rituals of rebirth and renewal. At the same time, it is destructive and implacable. The Sail Master of Númenor tells his cadets: There is no harsher master than the sea. And this seems to be a very apt sentiment.

In Tolkien, waters are the domain of the Vala Ulmö, who tries to comfort both Elves and Men even when the other Valar no longer interfere with the affairs of Middle-earth. The sea is also the domain of the two Maiar Uínen and Ossë. Uínen is gentle and merciful. Ossë is reckless and destructive. The duality of water is therefore present in Tolkien from the start – it can bring healing and quench fires; or it can bring chaos and sink islands.

Sinking and drowning are recurring motifs in The Rings of Power, with several key characters being especially tied to water. I have already discussed the way water is used to mislead us into believing Halbrand might turn out to be good, as he is presented almost in opposition with the Stranger, whose key element is fire. However, there are other characters also who are closely tied to water.

Galadriel passes through both fire and water, undergoing thus a complete rebirth and renewal. Galadriel can be said to have a special relationship with water. The first time we see her, in the prologue scene of episode 1, when she is still a child, she is building a paper boat beside a river. Galadriel’s relationship with water is, therefore, something she has from the beginning. Her conversation with Finrod about ships floating and stones sinking cements this tie and signals that water will play an important part in Galadriel’s storyline.

When Galadriel refuses to return to Valinor, she casts herself into the sea. Whether she intends something with this desperate act, if she is really planning to swim all the way back to Middle-earth (or, at least, Númenor), or if this is the only act of defiance left to her, it is hard to tell. Perhaps she is simply rejecting a course of action she knows is wrong, hoping that the right one will present itself to her eventually. Galadriel’s meeting with Halbrand in the Sundering Seas seems to be a way in which fate changes for her. Halbrand’s apt use of the metaphor “the tides of fate” seems to prove this. However, there is an ambiguity in this meeting from the start, as the sea itself seems to revolt against it through the Sea Worm and the storm.

The moment when Galadriel sinks into the sea and is rescued by Halbrand is initially meant to be interpreted as a moment of change for her. However, I would argue that the moment of change and rebirth actually happens in the final episode of season one, when Galadriel is rescued from her illusion of drowning by Elrond. Until then, she had been unknowingly tangled in Sauron’s webs. Her rejection and then Elrond’s rescue of her from Sauron’s illusion, bring Galadriel back to the surface, so to speak. The water cleanses her, but it is only in that moment by the river Glanduin that this happens.

Still, Galadriel’s tie to water continues. Soon after her rejection of Sauron, Galadriel becomes the bearer of Nenya, also known as the Ring of Water. Her famous mirror from Lothlorien is also made of water, and she helps the Fellowship by offering them ships, so they can move faster on the river. Even though we see Galadriel pass through both water and fire, water remains her element.

Galadriel's association with the element of water is strengthened with the wearing of Nenya, the Ring of Watter. Image credit: The Rings of Power/ Amazon Prime

Water can also be associated with Míriel. As Queen of Númenor, she naturally feels a profound tie to the sea, understanding both its comforting and its tumultuous side. Her most triumphant moment takes place in water – when she confronts the Sea Worm on Elendil’s behalf and emerges victorious.

Like Galadriel, Míriel is dressed in white when she sinks into the waters. As a color, white often signifies purity and cleanliness. It is also worn during baptism ceremonies. Indeed, the idea of baptism is even stronger in this case because, when she returns to the surface, Míriel receives a new name. She becomes Tar-Míriel, Queen of the Sea, as Elendil calls her. The Sea has recognized Míriel’s right to be Queen of Númenor. Míriel has faced the judgement of the gods and has been deemed pure and clean. And even though her victory does not seem to last, as Pharazôn finds a way to exploit it and further his own agenda, Míriel’s new identity as rightful Queen of Númenor remains and is cemented through her refusal to flee the city with Elendil.

Miriel wears white as she is about to face the Sea Worm. Image credit: The Rings of Power/ Amazon Prime

We cannot discuss the motifs of water and drowning in The Rings of Power without mentioning Isildur’s mother and her sacrifice to save his life. We learn about the fate of Isildur’s mother gradually. In season one, Elendil tells Galadriel that she drowned. In season two, Isildur confesses to Estrid that his mother drowned saving his life, even though no one in Númenor knows this. Although in season one, it seemed that the loss was recent, Isildur’s confession in season two reveals that the drowning happened a while back, when Isildur was ten.

The drowning is, therefore, a formative experience for Isildur, and the death of his mother in water influences his own relationship with the sea and with the world at large. As someone growing up in a culture that repeats the phrase The Sea is always right with conviction, Isildur seems to take the notion that he has been spared when his mother was not as a sign that he is meant to do “something special”, as he says, “something singular” that would make him worthy of his mother’s sacrifice. Suddenly, Isildur’s frustrations and outbursts in season one no longer seem like a spoiled child’s temper tantrums. They become the attempts of a confused young man to come to terms with an event that has shaped so much of his personality and to earn an existence that – in his mind – should have been cut short a long time ago.

The drowning happens off-screen (although I am still hoping we might get a flashback of this scene in the show at one point). However, it is clear that it changes and shapes Isildur and the person he will become. Just like Míriel, just like Galadriel, Isildur passes through both water and fire, and both elements have an impact on his evolution.

The writers of The Rings of Power probably did not choose at random those three characters when tying them to the element of water. All three of them will end their stories close to a body of water. When we last see Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings, she finally crosses the Great Sea to Valinor, returning home and ending her long labors in Middle-earth. Míriel will be taken by the Great Wave in the Downfall of Númenor, drowning with the rest of the island. Isildur will also die in water, shot down by orc arrows as he tries to cross the river Andúin. The implacable, complex nature of water as a bringer of both life and death is now even more strongly emphasized.

Temptation, sacrifice, and blood: the symbolical role of wine in The Rings of Power

Wine is a powerful symbol, often associated with religious rituals. Like water and fire, wine can be seen as a symbol of transformation and change, a rebirth or a passing to a higher state of existence. Wine is also associated with blood and sacrifice, can be seen as a connection to the divine, while at the same time representing temptation and seduction. All these elements are present, in one form or another, in The Rings of Power in connection to wine.

In the first episode of season two, Adar recounts the moment he was chosen to be “blessed of Morgoth’s hand”. He was taken to a mountain peak, bound and left there for days. Already, this has the feel of a rite of initiation, albeit a dark and twisted one. At the end of this tormenting experience, Sauron approaches Adar. In one of the most haunting lines of the show (made even better by Sam Hazeldine’s poignant delivery), Adar recalls how Sauron gives him wine: “He offered me wine, red as the blood moon. He offered me wine on that dark and nameless peak. And I drank it. I drank it all.”

A blood moon is what people sometimes call a lunar eclipse. During an eclipse, any sunlight reaching the moon passes through Earth's shadow, which is what gives the moon its reddish tint. Symbolically, Sauron’s own shadow cuts off Adar’s access to the light.

The mention of the red wine, associated with the blood moon turns this offering into a twisted and corrupted Communion. One has to wonder if it is really wine Adar drank. Given that we later see Sauron tricking Celebrimbor into believing that his blood is mithril powder, it is not so far fetched to believe that he tricked Adar into believing that his blood was wine.

This is the moment of Adar’s transformation. From a captive Elf, he becomes one of the first Orcs. While, unlike in Tolkien, part of the transformation seems to be of Adar’s own choosing, the choice comes after days of torments, making the acceptance of the wine less of a willing act and more the attempt of someone in a horrible situation to stop the pain.

Whatever the reason, Sauron’s wine serves several functions. It transforms Adar, sealing the Faustian bargain he makes with the Enemy. It connects Adar to Sauron. It tempts and corrupts him. It makes him sacrifice who he used to be.

Another scene in season two that features wine is the moment when Celebrimbor’s bottle of First Age wine is broken. Fans of the show will know there have been a lot of jokes about the broken First Age bottle, with people bemoaning the waste. Surely a wine that is several thousand years old would taste very good.

One has to commend Celebrimbor on his priorities. While Beleriand was falling in ruin after the War of Wrath and everybody was evacuating, Celebrimbor was, apparently, packing the essentials. Such as a bottle of wine that he has apparently carried with him all the way to Eregion.

Celebrimbor claims he has been saving the bottle for a special occasion. We already know of his ambitions to create something singular, something that would change Middle-earth forever, preserving its beauty and improving it for the better. He sees the success of the Three Rings and what will follow as his crowning achievement.

Unfortunately, this is when Sauron decides to make his move, hoodwinking Celebrimbor and transforming from Halbrand, the weather-beaten Southlander, into Annatar, emissary of the Valar. The window opens abruptly, and Celebrimbor drops the bottle of wine to the ground, shattering it and spilling its contents.

One cannot help interpreting the breaking of the wine bottle as an omen. Celebrimbor thinks he has achieved his dream, but this could not be further from the truth. The shattering of the bottle mirrors the shattering of Celebrimbor’s hopes and dreams. The loss of the First Age wine will be echoed in the final episode of season two by the loss of the books of knowledge and the loss of the city of Eregion itself.

The spilled wine foreshadows the blood Celebrimbor himself will shed and his ultimate sacrifice. However, perhaps it is a good thing that Celebrimbor did not manage to share a glass of his no doubt exquisite wine with Sauron. If wine can be considered a symbol of temptation, then Celebrimbor not having the chance to drink it in that momentous scene foreshadows his eventual rejection of Sauron’s temptation. Despite the blood and the sacrifice, Celebrimbor dies victorious.

In the third episode of season two, Pharazôn also mentions wine. During the highly-charged moment when he enters Míriel’s chambers unannounced, Pharazôn talks about the night his father died, how Pharazôn finished the wine that was still in his goblet because, according to him “it seemed a shame to waste it”. Ever the pragmatist and opportunist, Pharazôn drinks the wine not as a final act of bonding with his late father, but because the wine is there, so he might as well drink it. Pharazôn holds nothing sacred – not friendship, not family ties, not respect for the dead. His gesture of betraying Míriel the next day is yet another opportunity that he thinks it would be a shame not to take advantage of.

This is not the first time Pharazôn has been associated with wine. In the fourth episode of season one, Pharazôn offers wine to the rioters in front of the palace, in a move that serves to solidify his standing as a supposed “man of the people”. This is the way Pharazôn garners support. Tamar and all the others will become “Kingsmen” in the future and follow the bloody path that will eventually lead to the downfall of Númenor.

Interestingly enough, in the same scene, Kemen approaches Eärien offering her wine. According to him, it is from vineyards near the Meneltarma – presumably owned by Pharazôn. One has to wonder at Pharazôn’s daring. If Meneltarma is a sacred mountain, having vineyards near it feels a little bit like sacrilege. At the same time, it could emphasize the impression that Pharazôn is favored by the gods – something that he will play with in the next season, when he will sabotage the arrival of the eagle at Míriel’s coronation.

Kemen approaching Eärien with wine doesn’t seem by chance, and speaks of temptation and seduction – not necessarily in the romantic sense (although Kemen obviously has romantic designs on Eärien) – but more as an attempt to induct Eärien on his and Pharazôn’s side. Eärien falls for this, gradually turning away from her family, heading for her betrayals in season two.

However, there might still be hope for Eärien. She refuses the wine from Kemen, meaning that she might not fall completely for the temptation and seduction of the Kingsmen. Indeed, at the end of the second season, we see her warning her father that they are coming to arrest him. It might be that, even though she is tempted to follow the path of the Kingsmen, Eärien might eventually come to turn away from it – and somehow redeem herself to her family and the rest of the Faithful she has betrayed.

Conclusions

This is just one interpretation of three recurring elements that seem to have symbolic meaning in The Rings of Power. Fire, water, and wine appear to be tied to both destruction and creation, to drastic transformations and life-altering choices. Neither good not evil in themselves, water, fire, and wine provide a mirror of the characters’ struggle and their evolution.