When The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 brings Celeborn into the story, it won’t just reunite Galadriel with the husband she thought she’d lost. According to Charlie Vickers, who plays Sauron, it will also reveal a relationship between Celeborn and Sauron. “They have their own shared history,” Vickers told Nerdist, adding that Sauron’s general attitude to Celeborn can be summarised: “I’ve been hanging out with your wife.” Vickers' playful commentary raises a serious question. Did Celeborn and Sauron ever actually cross paths in Tolkien’s Second Age?
Celeborn’s disappearing act
The show’s version of Celeborn has been missing since season 1, where many Tolkien fans expected him to be from the start. There, Galadriel tells us he went to fight in the War of Wrath against Morgoth and she never saw him again. Celeborn may well have fought in this war in the legendarium, but J.R.R. Tolkien never mentioned it. Season 3 brings Celeborn back after the five-year time jump from season 2, and he is played by Jamie Campbell Bower. The show has suggested he has spent roughly a thousand years locked away in a series of prisons.
That disappearance is the show’s own invention. In Tolkien’s writings, Celeborn is at Galadriel’s side through the First and Second Ages, which is why their story in The Rings of Power is so different from the books. If Sauron had anything to do with locking Celeborn up, it would give the Dark Lord a very personal stake in Galadriel’s love life. Bower has hinted as much, describing Sauron as someone who uses what you love most to cut you.
What Tolkien actually wrote
In the books, the clearest overlap between Celeborn and Sauron comes in Eregion, the Elven realm where the Rings of Power were forged. Tolkien never settled on one version of Galadriel and Celeborn’s history, and he returned to amend their stories again and again. But in what may be the fullest account, published in Unfinished Tales, the couple live in Eregion when Sauron arrives there around the year 1200 of the Second Age, disguised as the generous Annatar.
The Elven-smiths of Eregion fall under Annatar’s spell, and Sauron eventually turns them against Galadriel and Celeborn. Galadriel leaves for Lórinand, the realm that would become Lothlórien, but Celeborn refuses to travel through the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm and stays behind in Eregion. That means he was living alongside Sauron’s disguised self during the very centuries when the rings were made.
Then, when Sauron’s mask finally slips and he invades Eregion, Celeborn leads a sortie against his armies. He’s driven back, but he survives to join Elrond’s forces in the north. So in this version of events, yes, Celeborn and Sauron share a city and then a battlefield, even if Tolkien never wrote a passage with the two face to face.
A rivalry that runs to the end
Their history doesn’t stop with the Second Age either. In the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, after the One Ring is destroyed, Celeborn leads the host of Lórien across the Anduin to take Dol Guldur, Sauron’s old fortress in Mirkwood. Galadriel then throws down its walls. Fans have spent decades calling Celeborn “Mr Galadriel,” but storming the Dark Lord’s old fortress is an impressive CV highlight of his own.
The Rings of Power has already removed Celeborn from Eregion, so it isn't following Tolkien’s narrative exactly. Instead, it is filling in gaps and building its own history between him and Sauron with educated guesses. This history seems to reach back to the War of Wrath. With the cast and showrunners already teasing a love triangle between Galadriel, Celeborn and Sauron, that history is likely to be anything but friendly.
Celeborn is strung up by Sauron in the season 3 trailer in a dungeon, putting to bed debate about whether Sauron knew about Celeborn's disappearance. Even if it was Morgoth or his forces that claimed Celeborn as a prisoner, it doesn't look like Sauron was overly keen to let him go. What is still to be revealed is how much Sauron had to do with the imprisonment, and how his growing relationship with Galadriel changed his attitude toward her husband in custody. What is for sure is that Sauron won’t be on Celeborn’s Yule card list.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 premieres on Prime Video on Nov. 11, 2026.
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