What Is Morgoth's Crown And Why Is It Significant In Tolkien's Lore
Image Source: Escapist Magazine
With The Rings of Power season two wrapped and the word about season three eagerly awaited, questions are remaining on peoples’ minds about things that occurred in season two.
One of those pertains to Adar’s revelation that the crown seen used to kill Sauron at the beginning of the season is none other than the same crown as the greatest dark lord of all time: Morgoth.
The story behind this crown and the seeming alteration of lore is a pretty fantastical one.
Remember the hammer that Celebrimbor used in the show to fashion the rings? That hammer belongs to a legendary elf from before the First Age: Feanor. Feanor was an elven smith whose talent was so great that he was celebrated not only by his people but also by the Valar, the lesser gods of Arda. Feanor was so talented that he managed to forge three jewels that captured the light of the two trees of Valinor and the blessings of the Valar. These jewels, the Silmarils, are considered the most beautiful things ever made.
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Image Source: CBR
That beauty was not lost on the great rival of the Valar and Eru Iluvatar, Morgoth. He became so obsessed with the jewels and their beauty that he launched an assault on Valinor, destroyed the two trees with the help of a titanic spider named Ungoliant, and then ran off to Middle-earth with his prize. The only problem was he couldn’t hold them because they burned him. His evil deeds were so great that their mere touch burned him. In an effort to still behold their beauty and perhaps gaslight himself into believing himself to be worthy of them, he fashioned a crown to hold them and place them on his head. Even then, they still hurt him.
In time, though, the Silmarils were the obsession of the age and led to Morgoth’s downfall. A star-crossed pair, Beren and Luthien, managed to infiltrate Morgoth’s lair and take one of the Silmaril’s from his crown. They passed it down through their family, and Earendil, Elrond’s father, used it and begged the Valar to help the Elves be rid of Morgoth. The following conflict, called the War of Wrath, saw Morgoth’s destruction.
Afterward, as the story goes, Morgoth’s crown was fashioned into a collar and chains to hold him in the void and ensure he was never released and allowed to torment Middle-earth again. However, according to Adar in the show, the crown he possesses is Morgoth’s crown. How can this be?
Image Source: Screen Rant
The clue comes from what he says, and combined with knowledge of Tolkien and his work; there’s enough room to allow for artistic license here. Adar says, “There are many stories” about what happened to Morgoth’s crown. This is a play on the concept that over time, stories that are passed down, especially about objects that are no longer seen, get modified and changed by each person who hears it and then tells it themself. What we are seeing in the show is during the second age, which is thousands of years after the end of the First Age, when the War of Wrath occurred.
Add to that the fact that Tolkien’s stories changed over time, and his own world-building was a fluid thing when he was alive. His son Christopher spent his life compiling and organizing his father’s notes and letters about the world he made, so much so that there is a multi-volume collection, nearly 5,000 pages, of notes and explanations of this work in The History of Middle-earth. So, allowing for that and knowing how stories warp over time allowed the writers to pursue the path they did and claim that was Morgoth’s crown.
So why is this hunk of metal so important? Well, it’s certainly symbolic in large part, but you also have to know Sauron’s motivation. Sauron is one of the Maiar, a kind of demi-god who served the Valar. He originally served Aule, the father of the Dwarves and the smith of the Valar. He came to admire Morgoth and became his servant, but they did not agree on what should be done with Middle-earth.
Sauron’s vision for Middle-earth was one of beauty, but it was a corrupted beauty, and he also, through his association with Aule, became jealous of Feanor’s legend and wished to one-up him. The same can be said of his view of Morgoth. Sauron, surviving the War of Wrath, saw a power vacuum and thought it was his time to do better than Morgoth. Therefore, the crown is not only a symbol of the power Morgoth possessed but also of what he wanted to achieve, which is something Sauron himself wanted to do even better.
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