Warning: The following article contains spoilers from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode six.
The latest Rings of Power episode finally unveiled Adar’s identity, and it was nothing like what we had presumed.
While most fans had interpreted the name Adar, or “father” in the Common Tongue, in the metaphorical sense and were looking toward familiar characters such as Maglor for deliverance, the mysterious villain explained why his Orcs literally see him as their father. Or more precisely, in this case, their ancestor.
Galadriel refers to Adar and what’s left of his kin as Moriondor, which translates to “Sons of the Dark.” But who were these servants of the Enemy and what’s their significance in the canon?
Who are the Moriondor?
The name “Moriondor” may have managed to raise a few eyebrows among the most resourceful Tolkien scholars, due to the simple fact that you could probably scour the entire legendarium without coming across any word even remotely resembling it. In other words, Moriondor is an original invention of The Rings of Power, though perhaps not entirely unheard of until now.
You see, J.R.R. Tolkien never explicitly explained the origin of the Orcs. In his earliest notes, the Orcs were Morgoth’s device, with the dark lord molding the very slime of the earth into mindless creatures that would do his bidding. However, in The History of Middle-earth, edited and published by his son Christopher Tolkien, the author notes that you could trace the origins of Orcs to the first generation of the Elves who woke up in Middle-earth, something that we recently broke down in another article.
The Rings of Power seems to be favoring that version of the conflicting origin, revealing Adar to be one of those earliest Elves who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in Morgoth’s terrifying grip. It is said that twisting and corrupting the Elves was the greatest sin Morgoth committed, and we’re literally talking about a being who denied the Free Peoples peace for thousands of years.
Adar is apparently one of the earliest Elves to be corrupted in that way, which is why he’s retained most of his looks as one of the Eldar. And it also explains why the Orcs seem to hold him in reverence and call him “father,” because he’s not only their ancestor but also enough Elf to have retained his immortality.
We might learn more about the villain and his backstory in future episodes, perhaps even future seasons if he lives to reach them, but for now, we’ll have to accept the explanation that Adar is basically one of the first Elves to be twisted by Morgoth’s evil.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power airs weekly, on Fridays, on Amazon Prime Video.
