Rings Of Power Had Me Worried, But This Tolkien Secret Might Not Be Ruined After All

Summary Confirmation from showrunners assures fans that Rings of Power season 2 won't solve Tolkien's big Entwife mystery.

The addition of an Entwife character in season 2 doesn't aim to reveal the fate of the Entwives from Tolkien's lore.

Arondir's encounter with an Ent couple in season 2 emphasizes the tragic theme of Sauron's devastation without revealing too much.

The trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 had me worried, but clarification from the showrunners has settled my fears about the Entwives. Among the many clips teased for the upcoming season was the image of an Ent covered in flowers, and while it was difficult to tell, I had my concerns that Prime Video had brought an Entwife to the screen. As exciting as the first female Ent on screen would be, I assumed that this meant Rings of Power was going to try to solve Tolkien's big Entwife mystery. Now, I'm reassured that this isn't the case.

Tolkien mentioned Entwives in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Merry and Pippin met Treebeard before the march to Isengard. The old Ent asked whether the hobbits had ever seen Ents near their home in the Shire, hoping they could solve the mystery of where the female Ents had gone. Treebeard explained that the Entwives had traveled away from their partners to establish gardens near the Southeast of Middle-earth but never returned. Decades after Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ended, the mystery of the Entwives has never been solved.

Rings Of Power Season 2 Will Feature An Entwife Character

A Second Age Entwife Would Solve The Mystery, Right?

Custom image by Ryan Northrup

Tolkien liked to leave certain mysteries unsolved when it came to his Middle-earth works. This added to the depth of his worldbuilding, making screen adaptations, especially one set in the Second Age, difficult. When I saw the Ent in the Rings of Power season 2 trailer, I feared that Prime Video was straying too far into the areas Tolkien specifically left ambiguous. Adorned with flowers, the being was almost certainly an Entwife, and showrunner Patrick McKay confirmed my speculation. Since Rings of Power has brought an Entwife into the mix, does it aim to solve Tolkien's mystery?

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An Important Detail Means Rings Of Power Isn't Solving The Entwife Mystery

The Entwife's Companion Is A Hint That Tolkien's Mystery Is Safe

Thankfully, McKay has revealed further details about the Entwife seen in The Rings of Power season 2 that indicated that Prime Video won't reveal what happened to these beings leading up to the Third Age. He explained that Arondir would encounter an Ent couple, male and female. According to Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the Etwives took off alone, and none of the Ents knew what had become of them. Since the Entwife character introduced in season 2 is with her mate, we can assume there is still a long way before the Entwives' big disappearance.

Hopefully, Arondir's interaction with the Ents will be the end of it. There's no need for Rings of Power to dive further into the future of the Entwives or to come up with its own version of their fates. Instead, the Prime Video series can make the same subtle implications that Tolkien did—hinting that Sauron destroyed the Entwives' gardens in the Brown Lands, and that they likely burned with them. This allows the tragedy of Treebeard and the other Ents to shine through without the added frustration of revealing too much about what Tolkien specifically kept hidden.

The Rings of Power season 2 will begin streaming on August 29, 2024.

Why It Makes Sense For Arondir To Run Into An Ent Couple

Rings Of Power Featuring An Ent Couple Enforces The Mystery's Themes

While I'm relieved that Rings of Power won't necessarily spoil the Entwife mystery, there are still some problems with Arondir coming across an Ent couple. As of the end of season 1, Arondir is somewhere near Mordor, and the trailer for season 2 suggests that he and Isildur will remain in this region for at least part of the coming episodes (since Isildur is seen fighting the spider Shelob). Running into a male and female Ent here is odd since, in canon, it was only the Entwives who migrated to the Brown Lands. However, I can't help but like this idea regardless.

Definitive answers aren't necessary since the point was the tragic hope the Ents maintained that their partners were still out there somewhere.

The mystery of the Entwives has never really been about the fate of the female Ents. We know Sauron most likely wiped them out since Treebeard confirmed that the gardens in the Brown Lands had been burned. Definitive answers aren't necessary since the point was the tragic hope the Ents maintained that their partners were still out there somewhere. It's the sort of heartbreaking, romantic detail that Tolkien was known for. I love that Arondir, a tragically romantic character in Rings of Power, would run into an Ent couple before they were torn apart. It's a chance to emphasize Sauron's devisation without harming Tolkien's intentional secrets.