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While people are quite, and even singularly, focused on things that appear in The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power that aren't in Tolkien's writings anywhere, what I find interesting are things that the show is using or showing from what Tolkien wrote, but are outside the books we know 100% that Amazon bought the rights to: Lord of the Rings, including Appendices, and The Hobbit. Famously, as soon as the last promotional map landed, we saw the map of Númenor with named locations, which only appears in Unfinished Tales. But there are have been other little things, like names, that have been used, and seems to support the reported situation that the showrunners can ask the Estate for permission on a case-by-case basis to use elements from other writings.

If this seems rather minimal, then rest assured it is no joke. Peter Jackson and co had Gandalf mention the other two wizards, aside from Saruman and Radagast, but 'conveniently' forget their names (which are published outside LotR/Hobbit). The specific name Annatar isn't in LotR/Hobbit, and so this name couldn't be used in a licensed Middle-earth-based game that included the character, leading to a made-up name being used instead.

Now that season 1 has finished, can we compile a list of things/events/places/names/etc that appeared in it that are verifiably from a non-LotR/Hobbit Tolkien book? Here by 'LotR' I include the appendices, and don't just mean the narrative of the War of the Ring.

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    I'm very curious to know why this is being downvoted. It seems to me to be a logical question to ask, and definitely one that has concrete and verifiable answers. [added: I realised I left off the most important part of the title - it's not just meant to find things outside Tolkien, that would be a terrible and lazy question] Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 11:45
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    I'm pretty sure Annatar is used in the Shadow of War computer game which is also taking place in the second age. So I don't think it's related to copyright of specific books.
    – Amarth
    Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 11:52
  • @Amarth cf lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Antheron The makers of LOTRO didn't have the rights to the name Annatar forums.lotro.com/forums/… Commented Sep 10, 2022 at 12:04
  • Well, the show is before the end of "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" in the 2nd edition of The Silmarillion, so it all takes place before The Hobbit, so while much of what is there so far has been referenced (clearly or otherwise) in the Jackson films or Tolkien's books but none of it has been from there. Commented Sep 14, 2022 at 0:08
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    Idk if this counts, but it is obvious that the representation of Galadriel in the show is very different from what we had in LOTR, apparently, in Unfinished Tales it is mentioned that she was some kind of top performance athlete among elves, that she would braid her hair in order to participate in sports and that her name means "Man maiden"
    – Mrc4t987
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 15:06

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