One of the biggest and most common criticisms of Tolkien’s stories, and the Peter Jackson movie adaptations of the Lord of the Rings, is the lack of strong and heroic female characters. There are only three notable women in the original trilogy: Arwen, Eowyn, and Galadriel. Each of them has moments of grandeur and triumph, but these are not balanced with their moments of weakness and subservience.
However, the recent Rings of Power series decided to challenge this portrayal of its characters. It created female leads that succeed in all the ways those who came before them fail. The women in Rings of Power — namely Galadriel, Miriel, and Bronwyn — are champions of their fields, pioneers against the world of voices who try to drown them out or tell them their place. They finally represent some of the diversity that has been so long lacking in this well-loved franchise.
The books in themselves are definitely male-dominated. This was partly due to being published in the 1950s, but also because Tolkien drew on his own experiences of male camaraderie during the First World War. Even so, the depiction of women is arguably worse in the movies than in the published writing. There were lots of opportunities for Peter Jackson to add a little extra will and gumption to the characters, but even when these scenes were filmed, they weren’t deemed valuable enough to make it to the final edition. Both Eowyn and Arwen had epic battle scenes cut from the movies. Even Galadriel hardly featured at all across the trilogy, despite being such a prominent figure across the First and Second Ages of the world, and the subsequent depiction in Rings of Power.
Conversely, Galadriel, Miriel, and Bronwyn are all given plenty of screen time in the Amazon series. Their prominence is reflective of their amazing contributions to protecting the fate of Middle Earth (or helping to further its turmoil, as may be the case for Galadriel).
Women In The Lord Of The Rings
There are definitely some rare moments the original trilogy that the female characters shine, but they are just that: rare. They are fleeting, and quickly forgotten among the more problematic portrayals. For example, the shield-maiden of Rohan’s “I am no man” scene as she cuts the head from the Fell Beast and destroys the Witch King, one of the worst villains of their time, is probably one of the most memorable occasions in cinematic history. However, is also surrounded by Eowyn’s most undermining moments, which only seems to reduce her. The films paint her as fair and beautiful, but entirely naive.
Equally, Arwen’s race through the forest with the collection of nine Black Riders on her heels is a visually gripping display of defiance against evil, and a will strong enough to protect the wounded Frodo from the grips of the Unseen World. When she reaches the Ford of Bruinnen, with her steely “If you want him, come and claim him” triumph, she summons a wrathful flood of horses to wash the enemy away. It’s easy to see her elven power and grace as a heroine. But then she spends the rest of the trilogy wilting away as she waits for Aragorn, the true hero of the tale, to fix all of her people’s problems. Arwen’s fate was never strongly tied to the One Ring in the books, and yet in the movie versions, she begins to fade from the world as the power of Sauron grows. This only serves to make her appear as a withering damsel in distress.
Women in Rings Of Power
On the other hand, the Rings of Power female characters are at the center of the story, rather than passive bystanders. The narrative revolves around Galadriel, and her strength to stand up and fight for what she believes in, despite so many being against her. She is fierce enough to jump ship and defy the ulterior motives of Gil-galad in sending the elves back to the Undying Lands. She is brave enough to convince the entire island of Numenor (who have a resistance verging on hatred towards elves) to go and protect the Southlanders from orc onslaught, knowing that they can’t defend themselves without aid. And she is valuable enough that even Sauron himself wants Galadriel to join him and rule Middle Earth.
Then there are characters like Miriel. She is a determined and admirable leader, the queen of her people despite undercurrents of sabotage from those she holds in her highest council. She does what is right, but also what is best for her people. She is a warrior on the battlefield as much as she is a political ruler in the throne room. The way in which the series addresses her blindness only serves to enhance her ambition and her will. Despite some of the terrible deaths that were faced when the orcs destroyed the Southlands, she vowed to return and look after the people she had promised to protect.
One of those people is Bronwyn, who became the champion of her people by guiding them towards the light when all they could see was darkness. Bronwyn is a Southlander of humble origins, and yet she quickly rises up to do what is needed when no one else will. She is a perfect representation of how love can conquer all, both through the love of her son Theo, and also through her trust and acceptance of Arondir, despite the elves’ oppression of her people. Bronwyn has all the traits it takes to make a Tolkien hero, and she, like the other women in Rings of Power, is a key instigator in the narrative, rather than a passive bystander like the women in Lord of the Rings.
