How The Rings of Power Alters Tolkien's Lore on the Letters Between Elves and Men

In the fourth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3, Elrond reconnects with King Gil-galad to secure reinforcements against Sauron. When Elrond suggests asking the island kingdom of Númenor for assistance, Círdan reveals that a message has already been sent, resulting in a cold refusal from King Pharazôn. While this creates immediate drama in the Prime Video series, the sequence adapts and condenses events found in Tolkien's broader legendarium quite differently.

According to Tolkien's source material, historical letters exchanged between Gil-galad and Númenórean monarchs occurred over two millennia before Pharazôn's reign. As detailed in the posthumously published Unfinished Tales, the original correspondence took place between Gil-galad and King Meneldur, with Prince Aldarion acting as an intermediary. Rather than a modern-style administrative brush-off, that historical plea warned of a rising shadow in the East and ultimately prompted Meneldur to abdicate in favor of preparing his realm for war against the Dark Lord.

The streaming adaptation appears to merge several distinct Second Age timelines into a much tighter narrative window to fit the show's pacing. Although this temporal compression has drawn criticism from purists for distorting the grand scale of the source text, it allows the series to weave elements of Aldarion's maritime missions together with Pharazôn's later tyrannical arc. Viewers are left wondering how Pharazôn's rejection will ultimately steer his interaction with Sauron as the current season continues to unfold.

What to watch next: New episodes of The Rings of Power Season 3 stream on Prime Video following their November 11 premiere.