The Rings Of Power: The War Of The Elves And Sauron Explained

Amazon's flagship Middle-earth series, "The Rings of Power," is using Season 3 as a soft reboot. This is partly due to a five-year time jump, one that will launch Middle-earth into the heart of the War of the Elves and Sauron. That multi-year conflict started at the end of Season 2. In the source material, the knock-down, drag-out event leads to one of Sauron's most victorious moments. The Dark Lord gets much closer to total domination of Middle-earth than he ever does in "The Lord of the Rings."

Expect Season 3 to dive right into the fray. By this point in the story, Sauron unleashes his armies across the continent as he starts to swap his deceptive strategy as Annatar for one of a truly Dark Lord bent on conquest, violence, and destruction. We get a brief reference to this war in the source material that the showrunners are primarily working from — the appendices of "The Lord of the Rings." There, in a timeline of Second Age events, it says that the war starts four years before Sauron invades Eriador, kills Celebrimbor, and seizes many of the Rings of Power (events depicted at the end of "The Rings of Power" Season 2). After that, we get the single summary line for the next couple of years: "Sauron overruns Eriador."

In the books, this multi-year win streak for the villain starts after nearly a century of preparation (although the show has condensed everything into the span of a few years). But when Sauron finally unleashes his armies, all hell breaks loose — and fast.

In the years that follow the start of the War of the Elves and Sauron, the Dark Lord spreads his influence across the bulk of Middle-earth. Some of this comes through attacks by his Orcish soldiery. But battlefield brute force isn't all. "The Silmarillion" talks about how Sauron uses this time to distribute the Rings of Power that he's captured to Men and Dwarves, too.

As for the Elves, some resist, but most are killed or flee before his growing power. Their only safe havens are the new fortress of Rivendell (which was teased at the end of Season 2) and the High-king Gil-galad's kingdom of Lindon (home of the Grey Havens, where Frodo sails away from Middle-earth at the end of "The Return of the King").

For years, everywhere he goes, Sauron wins. His armies multiply. His power in the East and South, in kingdoms like Harad, Khand, and Rhûn, grows quickly, too. He recruits Men and Orcs into his armies, and for a while, he seems unstoppable. It isn't until the seventh year of the war that the Elves, Men, and Dwarves resisting Sauron get a reprieve. After the Elves ask for aid, the king of Númenor sends a great navy and army. The book "Unfinished Tales" details a series of events where the delayed Númenórean fleet arrives in the nick of time, destroying Sauron's strength before he can defeat the Elves. This is followed by the final battle of the war.

Once the Elves get help from Númenor, they are finally able to overpower Sauron. This leads to the end of the war, which "Unfinished Tales" describes thusly: "In the Battle of the Gwathló, Sauron was routed utterly and he himself only narrowly escaped." The humiliated Dark Lord retreats to Mordor with a tiny bodyguard. The appendices of "The Lord of the Rings" conclude the war with the succinct line "Sauron is defeated," followed by "Sauron is driven out of Eriador. The Westlands have peace for a long while."

While losing the war is a huge step back for the Dark Lord, Sauron doesn't throw in the towel yet. Not by a long shot. He still has plenty of resources — and by this point, he has his One Ring to rule them all. Tolkien says in the wake of his defeat, Sauron "vowed vengeance" on Númenor. He starts rebuilding his strength, and he's so successful that, despite the happy end to the war, Tolkien calls the centuries that follow the "Days of Flight" for the Elves and the "Black Years" for all of Middle-earth.

Expect the dramatic ups and downs of the War of the Elves and Sauron to be defining parts of the "Rings of Power" Season 3 storyline. The Dark Lord emerged from hiding at the end of Season 2. Expect his armies (and his ring-servants) to do the talking in Season 3. "The Rings of Power" Season 3 comes to Prime Video on November 11.