Amazon Studios The Rings of Power is here. The Second season is on its way. We want all Spoilerites to have the best viewing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Second Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!
This post contains potential spoilers for The Rings of Power’s second season. At the time of writing these are simply rumours, but if you may want to avoid spoilers come back later and see if I was right!
In past articles I have answered the question:
Tales of the Shire recently gave us the long-awaited trailer for the long-awaited cozy hobbit game so many of us didn’t even know we needed in our lives. Previously, I wrote about the trailer for this feature series and this week I want to break down some of the unexpected moments and Easter Eggs from the game trailer!
Bywater!
When I was watching the trailer for the first time I had a huge reaction to “Bywater” appearing & being mentioned multiple times in this trailer. You can watch my TikTok trailer reaction below:
TikTok – Make Your Day
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Bywater is a pretty important part of The Shire referenced throughout J.R.R. Tolkien’s work AND the site The Battle of Bywater.
What is The Battle of Bywater, Ashley?
I’m so glad you asked!
TL;DR The Battle of Bywater is part of The Scouring of the Shire. When you hear Tolkien fans criticize the original Lord of the Rings movie trilogy one of the criticisms that gets lobbed at Peter Jackson’s adaptation is:
- Leaving out Tom Bombail and Goldberry
- Skipping The Scouring of the Shire completely
I’m not here this week to defend the latter (although I do think for the structure of a film and the catharsis we had already experienced by that point in the trilogy as audience members completely justifies not including The Scouring of the Shire …), it is worth noting.
The Battle of Bywater is considered the final military engagement during The War of the Ring a.k.a. the events of The Lord of the Rings AND the second, but also LAST, battle ever fought in The Shire.
Teaser: I’m going to write more about the Battle of Bywater for you next week!
Since the narration in the Tales of the Shire trailer references “new beginnings” I think it’s safe to assume the game is set following the events of The Lord of the Rings and, likely, in the rebuilding and reconstruction phase of Bywater’s history.
Another cool thing about Bywater?
IT’S WHERE THE GREEN DRAGON IS LOCATED!!!!
Knowing this, if I were going to make a prediction for any canon Tolkien characters to appear in Tales of the Shire my money is now on Samwise and Rosie Gamgee. Depending on which year the game is set maybe even their daughter Elanor Gamgee (later: Gardner). Not doing do we see The Green Dragon in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring AND it gets a most epic mention in Merry and Pippin’s song in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as you can see below:
The Fine Brew of the Green Dragon
Pippin and Merry sings about the ale of “The Green Dragon” at the inn of Edoras, capital of Rohan. Lyrcis: Oh you can search far and wide. You can drink the whole town dry. But you’ll never find a beer so brown. As the one we drink in our home town.
Next I want to mention FISHING!
I can feel you scratching your heads as you read this. I’m pretty sure this is an unintentional Easter Egg because other cozy games like Animal Crossing also feature fishing, but fishing was a key livelihood and industry for the River Folk. “The River Folk” are a community of Hobbits who relied more heavily on the abundance of a river than agriculture to support their society. Their most famous members are: Déagol and Sméagol.
Yes, that Sméagol!
As of this moment the only release date we have for Tales of the Shire is “2024.” My hopes and dreams is they land on Hobbit Day.
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“Bravo!”