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Halbrand/Sauron: the Fisher King symbology and meaning in the show
I was wondering why Halbrand's 'King of the Southlands' emblem is a kingfisher of all things. I've looked for some symbolism or meaning but nothing seemed to fit the narrative.
But when Celebrimbor mentioned the kingfishers just before his death, I knew that it must have a meaning, it must be important.
And then I had an epiphany, the meaning is not a kingfisher, it is the Fisher King! This meaning fits Sauron's narrative in the series perfectly.
The Fisher King is an immortal king in Arthurian legend. He is charged with keeping the Holy Grail.
Sauron is a Maia, a powerful spirit tasked with implementing Eru Iluvatar's will and protecting the world.
However, The Fisher King was wounded, and incapable of performing his tasks himself. Often the wound has been a punishment for a crime that the Fisher King has committed, and it would not heal in time.
The King Fisher's wound is Morgoth's corruption. Because of his terrible life choices, Sauron has been corrupted by Morgoth, and is incapable of fulfilling his sacred purpose as a Maia: creating order and peace in Middle-earth. In the show, this is represented by his inability to create the rings and take the leadership role.
His is impotence affected the fertility of his land, reducing it to a barren wasteland.
Forodwaith, and later Mordor, are wastelands - both are affected by Morgoth, the source of Sauron's wound/curse/corruption
All he could do is fish in the river near his castle and wait for the “chosen one” who would be able to heal him. His strength evaporated with his inactivity and his kingdom fell into waste. The only activity that seemed to give him pleasure was fishing in the lakes close to his castle.
After regaining his human form, Sauron wanders the Middle-earth aimlessly and ends up on a raft. He seemed content with staying in Numenor and working as a smith. The "chosen one" is Galadriel of course.
In the Arthurian legend, the Fisher King appears to the youth, Parsival, first in the form of a fisherman in a boat, then of a mortally wounded king who cannot find redemption for his sufferings.
The imagery is all here - Galadriel first sees Sauron on a raft.
And if you think that it is too subtle, behold the wounded king of the Southlands laying under the kingfisher sigil, watched over by a noble knight on a quest to find him:
In the legend, the noble knight manages to heal the Fisher King in exchange for the Holy Grail.
Galadriel unknowingly offers Sauron forgiveness and redemption through fighting at her side. But we know the outcome of this story - Sauron is not healed.
This could mean that it's a reverse Fisher King story - Galadriel, the noble knight, helps Sauron to take back his power as Morgoth's successor.
But that does not fit with dying words of Celbrimbor. He says that it's a pity how Sauron has silenced the kingfishers - therefore I think that Halbrand, the king of the Southlands with a kingfisher sigil, represents a repentant Sauron who wants to redeem himself.
When Celebrimbor says that Sauron has silenced the kingfishers, it symbolises the fact that Sauron has destroyed his chance at redemption with his actions.
And Sauron knows this at some level, even if he's still deceiving himself that he's committing all the atrocities for a higher good. That's why Celebrimbor's words of him never being able to reach the Undying Lands cut him so deep that he looses control.
And how could have Galadriel healed the Fisher King's wound? That's just my speculation, but returning to Arthurian legends, a knight on a quest for the Holy Grail has to ask the right question. And the right question in this case would be asking Sauron why didn't he come to repent to Valinor?
The only way to heal Sauron from Morgoth's corruption would be to persuade him to return to Valinor, because Sauron is a demigod corrupted by a god, and no one in the Middle-earth can heal him.
And we see this in the show - Sauron tries to repent and fails:
"...and he fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong"
I'm wondering if we will get the exact moment when Sauron has embraced Morgoth again in the flashbacks in future seasons.
If the showrunners would like to make it very literal, he might have returned to Morgoth's service after Mount Doom's eruption - which could have been a magical event (the eruption was a part of Morgoth's plan in case of defeat). It would tie in nicely with Halbrand's actual would representing Morgoth's corruption.
Or coming back to Morgoth could have been a more gradual process starting with Galadriel's rejection.
(I was also speculating about Morgoth's role in the show here if you would like to read more about it)
(And here's something on ambiguity of Sauron's motives in the show)
Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.
The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.
The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.
The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...
The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.
The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.
The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.
The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...
The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.
The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...
The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.
The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.
The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...
Please!!!
I DONT WANNA PAY BILLS I WANNA USE MY MONEY FOR FOOD AND LIL GIFTS FOR MYSELF AND MY LOVED ONES
The Witch King's very bad day continues.
CACKLING
One year gone
One year of killing civilians
One year of bombing hospitals
One year of bombing schools
One year of destroying a whole city
One year of starving people to death
One year of making people leave their homes to live in tents
One year and still the world just watching us dying
One year thousands are missing under the rubble thousands arrested with unknown future
One year of thousands of children lost either one of their parents or both
Thousands lost parts of their bodies
I can’t imagine this will continue for a year
Fuck this world fuck everyone
One year gone
One year of killing civilians
One year of bombing hospitals
One year of bombing schools
One year of destroying a whole city
One year of starving people to death
One year of making people leave their homes to live in tents
One year and still the world just watching us dying
One year thousands are missing under the rubble thousands arrested with unknown future
One year of thousands of children lost either one of their parents or both
Thousands lost parts of their bodies
I can’t imagine this will continue for a year
Fuck this world fuck everyone
Honestly though props to Rings of Power I cannot remember the last time I was this emotionally devastated
Finally watched the finale, my sincere, coherent, heartfelt thoughts:
To all my American friends, the time is now.
Please, execute a BOMBARDMENT. Call your representatives!
“how do you plot / plan your book?” very bold of you to assume i do that.
by the way, it's extremely easy for a government to NOT commit a genocide. you have to go out of your way to do genocide. if we start seeing US and isreali officials trying to be like, "we made a mistake! we didn't know what we were doing!" in the near future, remember that they had all the facts and chose to take part in genocide anyway. remember that they could have chosen to NOT send money. they could have chosen to NOT drop bombs and white phosphorus. they could have chosen to stop. stopping only requires that you do nothing, and they couldn't even be bothered to do nothing instead of something.
Israel has launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. There are no hostages in Lebanon. But they never mattered anyway because Israel is a filthy, supremacist ethno-state that wants to expand its borders and colonize the rest of the region. Israel has been threatening to do this for 40 years, still scorned by the resistance and solidarity of Lebanese people who pushed them out in 1978, in 1982, in 2006.
🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂
babe wake up october 2024 just dropped
🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂🎃🍂
Mean Girls (2004) || The Rings of Power (2024)
People have been asking for elves who aren’t just perfect ethereal Mary Sues for ages and the minute they get Galadriel making bad choices because of her PTSD and Gil Galad being kind of bitchy because he’s got objectively one of the worst jobs in Middle Earth (which he inherited as a teenager and has a nearly 100% fatality rate), folks are upset they aren’t likable enough?? If y’all saw what the elves got up to in the First Age you’d hurl.
I love that canonically Sauron is an arts and crafts enjoyer like RIP Sauron my king you would've fucking loved the hot glue gun
Obsessed with the Elves being constantly deceived by Sauron in all his many guises and Durin taking one look at him and going "fucking fraud"
Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.
Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.
The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.
And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.
I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.
morfydd clark saying if she could steal anything from the trop sets it would be the novelty doorknobs is so funny. she's the best. it makes me sad to think there are men foaming at the mouth like infested mongrels to tear her down because they take umbrage with the fact her galadriel has a personality. do they feel masculine? do they feel smart? do they think tolkien is going to rise from his peaceful grave and crown them the king of gondor after they leave a bitchy little youtube comment on a fan video with fifty views? they've spent two years bullying a woman who is so adorable she would steal novelty doorknobs.