Tyroe Muhafidin, star of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” discusses the conflicts between elves and humans in the Second Age of Middle-earth. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay created the eagerly awaited adaptation for television based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels for Amazon. The events of “The Rings of Power” occur during the Second Age, a period of relative calm, thousands of years before The Hobbit or “The Lord of the Rings.”
The performance will take viewers back to a time before the Dark Lord Sauron attained greatness and nearly conquered Middle-earth. The conflict with Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, still impacts the continent during the Second Age. While the show Rings of Power includes some well-known characters, such as the Elves Galadriel (now portrayed by Morfydd Clark) and Elrond (played by Robert Aramayo), it has also created a ton of new characters to help explore the vast history of the world. One such character is the Silvan Elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), who harbors a forbidden love for Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniad Theo, who is played by Tyroe Muhafidin and is Bronwyn’s little son, has been spotted in trailers brandishing a broken black sword.
Muhafidin recently discussed “The Rings of Power” and his character in an interview with Collider at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. The actor further discussed the war between Elves and humans during the Second Age and how Theo’s role in the world is defined by his family. Here is what he said:
He’s not happy, you can say that a little. Obviously, the history between the humans and the elves you know, 1000s of years prior, Theo’s ancestors sided with Morgoth and fought against the elves, and so in punishment for their doing that they got banished and had to restart in almost the slums of the Southlands. And it’s patrolled by the Elves. And you know, and it was generations ago, and Theo thinks and Bronwyn thinks, and I think the whole village thinks that it’s time to move past it and move forward, but the Elves just won’t forget. So there’s a lot of tension in there. And especially when your mom is dating one of them.
Tirharad is a settlement in the Southlands inhabited by the ancestors of humans who joined Morgoth during the War of Wrath and fought against Elves, adding greater context to Muhafidin’s remarks about the tensions between Elves and humans during this period. These humans effectively live in exile in the settlement, under the watchful eye of the Elves, which only exacerbates tensions between the two races. Even if the people of Tirharad, like Bronwyn and Theo, want to forget the mistakes made in the distant past, the Elves’ intransigence prevents them from doing so.
The Last Alliance of Elves and Men was formed because the two races eventually put aside their differences to fight against a greater evil, as anyone familiar with Middle-history earth will know. The pact, forged in reaction to Sauron’s threat of conquest, expresses itself in the War of the Last Alliance, which has multiple distant phases and lasts for twelve years. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” will detail these incidents and conflicts.