'Rings Of Power' Intro Has A Hidden Secret About The Creation Of Middle-earth

We’re three episodes into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power now, and unless you’ve been consistently skipping straight into the action every episode, you obviously will have clocked the mysterious opening sequence, full of what at first glance appear to be sigils or crests formed from sand. As Kotaku reports, we’ve now got a full explanation as to what these shapes are, and Tolkien nerds stay calm, but it links into some juicy lore.

Take a look at the trailer for The Rings of Power below.

Over on Twitter a couple of days ago, game designer Alexander King posted a thread detailing his realisation that the shapes appeared to be Chladni figures, which, as Kotaku summarises, are patterns formed when sound resonates through something lightweight, like the sand in the opening. This theory was confirmed by Anthony Vitagliano, the creative director of the team who made the credits, who shared a blog post which explains the sequence in greater detail. 

🙏 thanks for the wonderful breakdown of the titles. More info on the inspiration we pulled from Tolkien’s writings for the title along with the full credits of the team who brought it to life. Behind the scenes coming soon. Cheers! https://t.co/2c7j6Vy0Rx

— Anthony Vitagliano (@a_vitagliano) September 11, 2022

“Taking inspiration from J.R.R Tolkien’s Ainur, immortal angelic beings that sing such beautiful music that the world is created from their very sound, we conceived […] a main title sequence ‘built from the world of sound’,” the post reads. “Cymatics is a natural phenomenon that makes sound visible to the eye. Vibrations of fine particles on a flat surface display striking symmetrical patterns that reflect audio frequencies. Cymatics are understood by physicists and mathematicians, but to us mere mortals, they are nothing short of magic.”

“The sequence conjures an ancient and invisible power, struggling to be seen. Symbols form, flow, push, and disappear as quickly as they came. The unknowable realms of sound create fleeting visions of conflict and harmony that move in lockstep with Howard Shores’ opening title score.”

What’s more, back over on Twitter, Vitagliano teased that “there is quite a bit hidden in the intro that will make more sense as the season progresses”, so we’ll just have to stay tuned to see what that is.