The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has proven to be an expansive and extensive return trip to Middle-earth, full of its own twists and turns of audience expectations. The
very first set photo on its own set the internet ablaze, hinting at a much more significant backstory than many were expecting, as the picture showed a shot of Middle-earth that could only have taken place in the First Age, long before the events of
The Lord of the Rings and
The Hobbit, and long before the original timeline in which the series had been rumored to be set. Another wrench in the works, however, was dropped in the showrunner interviews, when
J. D. Payne revealed that the Tolkien Estate still
owns the rights to The Silmarillion, which is the primary source text that tells the story
The Rings of Power depicts.
This revelation, of course, presents an interesting conundrum. How much of a story can
The Rings of Power tell if the writers are not allowed to use material from its main source? The answer, as shown in the episodes, is actually quite a lot. While
The Silmarillion contains perhaps the most complete story of the Second Age, there are a great many references to First and Second Age material found in
The Lord of the Rings on its own, and while the events and characters exclusively in
The Silmarillion (presumably) cannot be used, there are enough references throughout the other books to establish a fairly complete storyline by themselves.