Throughout theRings of Powerseries so far, there have been several glimpses of maps that have shown the Southlands appearing in the lands next to what will later become Gondor and Rohan. But from theLord of the Ringstrilogy, andThe Hobbitmovies, fans have come to know these lands as the dark place where Sauron and his orcs dwell: Mordor.
The latest installment of the Amazon TV show ended in devastation and ruin, as the orcs plan finally came to fruition, and a large volume of water was dumped into the midst of the volcano seen in the background of Tirharad. And with its subsequent eruption, the huge land-form was proven to be none other than Mount Doom, meaning that Mordor has finally come to Middle Earth.
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Audiences were given a very early glimpse of this from the original trailers of theRings of Power, which showed Galadriel in the wreckage of a burning village, bathes in red light and thick ashes, and with the lava flowing out of the volcano in the latest storyline, it looks like Tirharad is no more. There has finally been a culmination of several clues dropped over the latest episodes, including the tunnels that the elves were forced into digging, the orcs whose skin burned in sunlight, andthe leader Adar, who gave mention of giving his children, the Uruks, a home of their own.
Now, it appears that they have achieved just that, and that the fire and destruction of Tirharad will spread further and further, until the surrounding lands become the recognizably barren wasteland of Mordor from the Peter Jackson movie adaptations. The people will have no choice but to flee into the surrounding lands of Rohan and Gondor to the West, where the Numenoreans will set up their kingdoms, and toHarad in the south, where they may meet an even worse fate.
The 6th installment of theRings of Powerseries was certainly a rollercoaster, as defeat after triumph after defeat swept acrossthe heroes Bronwyn and Arondir. Using the clever tactic of the destruction of the tower brought the villagers of Tirharad some time to escape, and to flee back to the village, which they then tactically set on fire to entrapthe orcs in their skull masks. And just when it looked as though they had won and were finally set free, they realized that the fallen orcs were actually their kin who had sworn allegiance to Sauron, and paid the ultimate price for it.
The real orcs then stormed into the village, taking the tavern which housed the surviving villagers, by force. It appeared that they would all die, until the Numenoreans arrived and saved the day at the last moment, vanquishing the orcs. But even here, was the first clue given to the audience that something was coming, as Valandir asks Ontanmo “What do you think?” and he replies “I like the mountain.” Little did they know, mere hours from then, that mountain would be their undoing.
Waldreg has long been a traitor, a coward, and a worshiper ofthe darkness of his ancestors in the olden days. He believed from the start that Sauron would return and become their deliverance, and has suddenly taken it upon himself to make sure that happens. By stealing the sword of the enemy, and entering it as the key into a vault, which set off a chain of reactions ending in the eruption of the volcano, Waldreg has single-handedly ensured four things: the death of several of his people, the escape of Adar, the imminent return of Sauron, and a sunless world, blocked out by the smoke and ash of Mount Doom, for the orcs to wreak havoc from.
The orcs have already been burning villages, such as Hordern, where Bronwyn was born, as was discovered in the first episode, but their movements have been limited to nighttime hours as their skin burns in the light. Now, thanks to Waldreg and Adar’s intervention, they will be able to spread over the lands and form them into the rubble of Mordor seen inFrodo and Sam’s journey to destroy the ring.
As the volcano, instantly recognizable as the iconic Mount Doom, blows, the orcs chant “Udun, Udun”, which is the name of the 6th episode. Interestingly, in Tolkien’s works, Udun is the name of a desolate valley in Mordor, a minute section of the much larger plains that stretch for miles as far as the great eye of Sauron can see. Udun was famed for being created by volcanic activity, which just goes to show that this small patch of annihilation is only the beginning.
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