Beware, this paragraph contains major spoilers for the fifth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power! If you haven't watched the most recent episode on Amazon Prime Video, you should go back right now.
The fifth episode of “Rings of Power” brings nothing but sorrow and doom for the Elves. Elrond is shown by High King Gil-galad that their tree is becoming corrupted, which indicates that their own light is fading away from them. Both Gil-galad and Celebrimbor are convinced that the only way to save all of the Elves from death is the precious metal Mithril, which is being mined by the nearby Dwarves. Elrond is shown that the only way to save all of the Elves from death is the precious metal Mithril. However, in the last episode, Elrond promised his buddy Durin that he wouldn't tell anybody about the Mithril, and because of this commitment, Elrond will not reveal to the Elves whether or not the metal can be found in the mines.
But when Elrond tells Celebrimbor about the oath, the Elven smith immediately begins relating the tale of Elrond's father, Earendil. In order to enlist the assistance of the Valar, who are essentially gods, he went to seek their assistance in the fight against Morgoth. It was a perilous journey that, according to J.R.R. Tolkien's writings, came with an automatic death sentence. In the end, Earendil was successful, and his life was spared; Elrond tells Durin in episode 4 that Earendil now bears the Evening Star around the sky.
Celebrimbor says to Elrond, “I was there, Elrond, the night your father set sail,” and he means it literally. “A man of the mortal realm who had the delusional belief that he could persuade the gods themselves to fight on our side in the conflict. I overheard your mother begging him not to go, pleading with him, and asking him why he had to be the one to suffer this fate. Do you have any idea what he was trying to say? Because he was the only person capable of completing the task.” It is clear that Elrond is moved by the tale, as seen by the fact that the next time we see him, he is discussing the Mithril with Durin. It would appear that the tale of his father's valiant deeds has influenced Elrond's perspective.
However, as several readers of the book have pointed out, there is a quite significant flaw in this story. If the narrative is genuine to Tolkien's books, then the statement simply cannot be accurate. To start, at this moment in the timeline of Lord of the Rings, Elrond's mother Elwing is depicted as a bird rather than a human being. After Elwing dove into the water to save a Silmaril, one of the Valar transformed her into a Silmaril (a jewel containing the light of the Two Trees in Valinor).
After that, Elwing took flight until she located Earendil aboard his ship, at which point the two of them made the joint decision to go to Valinor. As a result, there is simply no possibility that Celebrimbor could have overheard Elrond's parents prior to the expedition, given that they were both already at sea when they decided to travel to Valinor as their destination — and Elwing was a bird, which Celebrimbor would certainly remark if he had heard it. They both travelled to Valinor at the same time, thus Elwing would not have been able to convince Earendil to remain in Middle-earth.
“Does anyone else get the impression that Celebrimbor's Earendil story is purposefully exaggerated in order to provoke Elrond's anger?” asks one user on Reddit (new window), while another user on the same platform says (new window): “For real, he's influencing Elrond with every piece of discourse.”
Someone else believes that Sauron could already be up to no good (link opens in new tab): “It was noted in the first episode that Elrond wasn't asked to a meeting, and I'm wondering if it wasn't because they had already decided that he would be working with Celebrimbor. I have a theory that Sauron, also known as the Lord of Gifts, was present, and that is the reason why the corruption began so soon after. Something is rotten in the state of Lindon.” Sauron assumes the identity of Lord of Gifts, also known as Annatar, in order to deceive the Elves. However, another idea has already detailed how he may already be working behind the scenes in order to influence the Elves.
However, Elrond had previously stated that his father travelled to Valinor “single-handedly,” thus either he is not aware of the reality or the programme is concealing his mother's role in the expedition.
It is currently unknown whether Celebrimbor is purposefully deceiving Elrond with a lie or whether the programme is making any alterations to the narrative. At this point, though, everything looks like it might be a scam.
