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In some senses, some viewers have already seen Gil-galad die, although they might not know it. During the prologue of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of the Fellowship of the Ring, fans may recall the epic fight scene in which the army of elves is seen storming against Sauron, and the ring is eventually cut off his finger by Isildur wielding Anduril. Gil-galad is actually in this scene, as the battle is the Last Alliance.
The Last Alliance was a 7-year-long war in which Gil-galad and his host of elves fought alongside Elendil and his army of Men to hold back Sauron and his forces from behind the gates of Mordor, where he fled to regain his strength after his last defeat. Gil-galad can be seen in this prologue fighting next to Elrond, in a blue and golden armor, and he is taken down just before the ring is removed by Isildur. According to Tolkien’s original books, Gil-galad and Elendil managed to defeat Sauron. They overcame his physical body so that only his dark essence remained intact, which is why Isildur was able to cut the ring off in the first place. But sadly, their injuries were so severe that Gil-galad later died of his wounds.
There are two accounts or renditions of Gil-galad’s death across Tolkien’s works. The first account appears in the Lord of the Rings, in a poem translated by Bilbo Baggins in Rivendell:
This is a reference to Gil-galad’s fall at the Last Alliance. The star falling into darkness is a visual description of his life and light fading from the world, a once noble king now extinguished. This is corroborated in further detail in the script that Gandalf reads in the ancient archives of Minas Tirith. Here, Isildur has written in the account of the taking of the ring:
“Long ago he rode away, / and where he dwelleth none can say, / for into darkness fell his star, / in Mordor where the shadows are.”
It is clear that Gil-galad dies a horrible death, scorched by the fiery hand of Sauron in the ferocious battle. But as Gil-galad has already been seen in several of the trailers for Rings of Power, and is set to be a prominent character, people are wondering how far his story will go. Because of the compressed timeline of the series, it is uncertain whether the show will go as far as the Battle of the Last Alliance.
‘What evil it saith I do not know, but I trace here a copy of it, lest it fade beyond recall. The ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so, Gil-galad was destroyed.’
There is a potential that this fateful battle could be the vision that Galadriel has in the initial teaser trailers, of the elves floating in the red sky, shot through with arrows and spears. But many feel that it is unlikely for the series to go this far, at least within the first season. This may be something in the works slightly farther down the line, but if so, viewers will likely have to wait quite awhile to see it.
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