Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth

Image: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/New Line Cinema
Image: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/New Line Cinema

Amazon has been slowly but surely teasing details about its upcoming Lord of the Rings show. For a while, the rumor was that it would be about a young Aragorn; there was even some casting oddities to back that up. But when Amazon’s official Lord of the Rings Twitter account started tweeting out maps of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, fans got on a different track:

The first map had only topography, but they kept getting more detailed. Fans got wise when one map included the placename “Calenardhon,” an ancient name for Rohan, land of the Horse Lords.

Now, it appears as if Amazon has come right out and told us when its Lord of the Rings show is happening: the Second Age of Middle-earth:

Look at the bottom left-hand corner of this latest map and you’ll see the island of Númenor. The island was a gift from the god-like Valar to the Edain — who were the first men or Fathers of Men — for standing with the Elves in the war against Morgoth at the end of the First Age. Toward the end of the Second Age, the king of Númenor captured Sauron and brought him back to the island as his prisoner, but Sauron corrupted the king and his people. This ended with a cataclysm that saw the island sink beneath the sea. That would make for good TV viewing, don’t you think?

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Still, the Second Age is long; it lasted about 3,500 years and includes such events as the forging of the Rings of Power and the last alliance of Elves and Men, a battle that opens Peter Jackson’s movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

In any case, Aragorn was not alive in this period, so it seems unlikely he could show up, unless Amazon has some tricks up its sleeve it has yet to reveal.

You can check out an interactive map of what Middle-earth looked like in the Second Age here. We’re in!

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