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Who is Arondir?
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What is a Silvan Elf?
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Is Arondir in the LOTR Books?
Prime Video’s first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered in September 2022 and exposed fans of the franchise to a new time period in Middle-earth. In this new time period, previously only shown in books like The Silmarillion, there is a slew of new characters. Some of these characters are names hardcore fans will recognize if they read Tolkein’s works outside the main LOTR books, but many of them are new characters created for the series. One of these new characters is Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova.
Arondir and a small group of elves patrol around an area known as the Southlands in Middle-earth, where a similarly small group of humans reside. While there is some tension between the elves and humans here, Arondir fulfills his duty without complaint. Unbeknownst to them, there is an amassing army within the shadows of the Southlands. This group plays a larger role in the overall story of The Rings of Power, but more importantly, they serve as a threat to Arondir, giving him the opportunity to display all of his abilities for the audience.
Who is Arondir?
Arondir is a Silvan Elf who was born in Beleriand, a land decimated in the war against Morgoth during Middle-earth’s first age. Rings of Power introduces its audiences to Arondir after he has assumedly been a resident of the Southlands for many years. It’s made clear that he travels throughout the Southlands and checks in on the village of Tirharad periodically. Despite an alliance between the humans of Middle-earth and the elves to defeat Morgoth, and Arondir being a regular presence in the village, most of the people in the Southlands don’t like Arondir. One resident goes as far as to call him “knife ears,” a racial slur for elves that Tolkien didn’t use in any of his works.
Arondir has a close relationship with the village’s healer, Bronwyn, and it’s obvious to others that it’s more than an innocent friendship. Arondir’s fellow elf warns him against falling in love with the human, reminding him of the familar Beren and Luthien story, one of the few tragic tales about a human and elf falling in love. Elves are immortal, while humans are not. This little fact didn’t sway Arondir away from Bronwyn, but he didn’t get a chance to divulge his feelings for her either, as he was captured by orcs before he could.
Arondir proves himself as a formidable warrior throughout the first season of Rings of Power. He tries to escape captivity from the corrupted elf Adar and his orcs. Later, he fends off Adar, who may or may not join forces with Sauron during an attack against the people of Tirharad. Unfortunately, his success against the attack was overshadowed by the destruction of Tirharad as Adar managed to trigger Mount Doom’s eruption, transforming the village and surrounding area into Mordor.
In the battle, Bronwyn took an arrow in the back. Arondir and his quick thinking got Bronwyn to safety, where he was able to heal her and get her back on her feet. Arondir is expected to play just as important of a role in the second season of Rings of Power.
What is a Silvan Elf?
Arondir is not the first Silvan Elf fans have seen onscreen in a Lord of the Rings project. The first and most notable appearance of a Silvan Elf was Legolas in The Fellowship of the Ring. However, some fans argue that he’s not a true Silvan Elf, since his father, Thranduil, is descended from a Sindar bloodline.
Silvan Elves, also referred to as wood-elves, come from Mirkwood and Lothlorien during the third age. They are descended from the Noldor and have a strong connection to nature. Unlike the Noldor, who audiences best recognize as those who live in places like Rivendell, the Silvan Elves make their homes within the refuge of a forest. According to Beorn in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Silvan Elves are less wise, but more dangerous than their Noldor counterparts.
Is Arondir in the LOTR Books?
Like Tauriel from The Hobbit movies, Arondir doesn’t appear, nor is he mentioned, in texts written by J.R.R. Tolkien. The same goes for Arondir’s romantic interest, Bronwyn. The majority of the characters in and around Tirharad are original creations for Rings of Power, meant to show what the Southlands were like before the area was transformed into Mordor. Mordor’s origins aren’t explicitly stated in The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit books, but there are notes jotted down, which The Rings of Power tweaks here and there.
There was quite an uproar over Arondir’s inclusion in the Prime Video series, but he has added an extra layer to the LOTR lore for the better. While creating original characters for a franchise so beloved by many can be jarring, it doesn’t diminish anything that came before.
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