When does Rings of Power take place? How does the show change the timeline?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set in The Lord of the Rings universe, but the events take place thousands of years before the likes of Bilbo, Frodo or Aragorn were born. Their story takes place in the Third Age of Middle-earth, when the dark lord Sauron rises again to threaten the world. The Rings of Power is set in the Second Age, when Sauron was just finding his feet as a world-conquering villain. In the First Age, which we've seen hinted at, Sauron was merely the lieutenant to an even more powerful dark lord named Morgoth, but by the time of the this story Morgoth is long gone.

So that's vaguely when this show is set. However, The Rings of Power intensely compresses the timeline of the Second Age as it was laid out by J.R.R. Tolkien in the appendices to his Lord of the Rings books. For example, here are when some key events occurred according to Tolkien:

• 1500: Working together, Sauron (calling himself Annatar) and Celebrimbor forge rings of power for dwarves and men
• 1590: Working without Sauron's direct help, Celebrimbor forges the three Elven rings of power
• 1697: Sauron attacks the Elven kingdom of Eregion
• 3177: Ar-Pharazôn becomes the ruler of Númenor

In the books, these events take place over a period of 1,677 years. On The Rings of Power, all of them have happened (or are about to happen) in the space of one season of TV, and not in the order they happen in the books. The elves used the three Elven rings of power in the season 2 premiere, Annatar and Celebrimbor are currently forging rings of power for dwarves and men, it looks like Adar is about to attack Eregion, and Ar-Pharazôn took control of Númenor in the third episode of season 2, despite the fact that his character won't be born until many hundreds of years after the rest of those events in the book.

So the answer to "When does Rings of Power take place?" is complicated. It's in the Second Age, but within that time frame, events are pretty well scrambled. New episodes air Thursdays on Prime Video.

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