The new teaser for Rings of Power portends doom and gloom in more ways than one. Different blasts can be seen in the teaser, featuring what appears to be a Numenorian vessel ablaze in the port and what may be the remnants of the fight with the orcs. The new video opens with pictures of a burned-down hamlet coated in dust, providing context for the already glimpsed crimson apparition of Galadriel surrounded by all of the deceased floating elves, which isn’t exactly elaborated on – however at least provided more detail.
All these sequences include Galadriel, although one looks to be a real experience of surviving through dragon fire (or maybe that of a Balrog, given that she awakens in the picture coated in cinder), while the other seems to be a dreadful glimpse of a future conflict as well as the downfall of her race to some awful destiny. Following the prologue of the video, in which a mountain of elfin helmets lay in the aftermath of a conflict.
Whose Corpse Was That?
However, while it is just a peek, Galadriel weeping over a corpse drenched in brightness provides what is perhaps the most horrific moment of sorrow and grief in the current trailer. Tar Miriel’s comments, “it is here Galadriel,” reverberate in the listener’s ears as the camera focuses in on her weeping eyes. This was the night we had been dreading.” Who is this unknown elf lying lifeless in front of the golden woman, and how come his demise has touched her so profoundly?
The public has been made to assume that the dead man is Galadriel’s elder brother Finrod, and this is supported by a number of hints. A shortcut inside the video to a clip of Galadriel grieving the deceased from an earlier teaser serves as the first clue that this may be Finrod. In the preceding scene, a blonde elf can be seen battling in a massive struggle and shouting out in fury or anguish as a horde of orcs slaughters his fellow elves.
Letting this image play in tandem with another of Galadriel weeping over the remnants of a very similar-looking elf establishes the connection that these two features are linked, and that the young elf in both pictures is the same. This was the case when the clip was initially published in the previous trailer, leading fans to believe that this was Finrod, participating in the Battle of Wrath.
There are still some unanswered issues about whether the former would perish in the epic fight or if Finrod would succumb as he did in the novels, but it is becoming more plausible that Finrod is the mysterious character.
Maybe The Werewolf Killed Him
The next clue is consistent with the narrative, at least insofar as the massive scratch wounds on the elf’s arm are concerned. Though they may be attributed to an especially gregarious orc or a unique sort of weapon that slashed into the warrior’s arm, the markings are much too similar to wolf claws to go undetected.
Finrod, along with Beren (the renowned progenitor of Aragorn and Arwen), is imprisoned by the Dark Lord in the original story from the Silmarillion. When Beren is attacked by a werewolf amid their mission to recover the Silmarils, Finrod is the one to put himself in mortal danger to save his friend.
To save Beren’s life and maintain their family’s pledge, Finrod kills the monster, but in doing so, he is mortally wounded and eventually passes away. The fact that Galadriel saw similar signs on the deceased she is mourning is too suggestive to be a simple happenstance.
One more obvious point reinforces this idea. The corpse on the podium is clutching his sword and has been set out solemnly befitting a great warrior. This is the identical blade that Galadriel wields in the first teaser for the Rings of Power.
Either Galadriel retrieves the blade from Finrod’s corpse as he is cremated and utilizes it in her following fights as a means of respect, or the dagger is an ancestral heirloom, and she as well as all of her brothers have similar versions of it, binding them in powerful connections of devotion and bravery to each other.
