It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — inevitably, there will be a certain character or arc that you just don’t care about. For some it may be Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and his winding quest for a true purpose. For others, this writer included, it’s the Harfoots: the proto-Hobbits whose nomadic lifestyle was covered thoroughly in The Rings of Power’s first season.
Don’t get me wrong, the Harfoots aren’t all bad. If nothing else, they’re the hopeful heart of a series that’s starting to explore some very-dark territory. It also helps that The Rings of Power connected them inextricably with the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), the one figure that could potentially stand toe-to-toe against the Dark Lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers) later on. That proved occasionally useful in Season 1: when the Harfoots weren’t reduced to collateral damage in the Stranger’s quest to uncover his inherent powers, they were reminding him of his inherent humanity. But as The Rings of Power hurtles into its second season, Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) fortunately have much more to offer than moral support.
“There's nothing so Tolkienien as little figures in a grand expanse,” Rings of Power executive producer Lindsey Weber tells Inverse. “And the story of Nori and the Stranger achieves that this season.”
At the end of The Rings of Power Season 1, Nori sets off with the Stranger to help him find his destiny; maybe even his home. Despite showing incredible potential, the Stranger really only remembers a constellation of stars — and Nori intends to use those stars as a map to uncover her new friend’s past. Unfortunately, doing so is easier said than done: when we catch up with the duo at the top of Season 2, they’ve been wandering in the wilderness for weeks, going around in circles. It’s not until Poppy catches up with them — armed with forgotten knowledge from their Harfoot elders — that the party finally gets on track.
Their new guide isn’t a map, per se, but the words to a walking song that all Harfoots know — the same song Poppy sings at the end of Season 1. But most importantly, its lyrics actually mention landmarks that once guided their nomadic ancestors through the desert. “Harfoots must have come this way a long time ago,” Poppy suggests, which means that she, Nori, and the Stranger could be returning to the Harfoots’ old stomping grounds.
Ultimately, the trio lands in the region of Rhûn, near-indistinguishable from the desert they were just wandering in, but somehow recognizable to the Stranger. He claims to have visited this land in dreams — he also catches a glimpse of that aforementioned constellation — so they’re definitely close to recovering his identity. Rhûn is likely where the Stranger will meet Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), an ancient entity that could guide him on the path to good. It’s also where another powerful figure, the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds) seems to reside. Either way, it all seems to be leading to the ultimate revelation of the Stranger’s identity as (probably) Gandalf.
After their unrelated storyline in Season 1, it’s nice to see The Rings of Power create a more tangible connection between the Harfoots and the greater Lord of the Rings narrative. The Harfoots’ purpose in Season 1 was tangential at best — Nori’s connection with the Stranger mostly served to explain Gandalf’s future fondness for halflings like Hobbits. But the Stranger’s journey in Season 2 alongside Nori and Poppy strengthen his eventual discovery of his identity. “We see him going through all these different interactions with Nori and Poppy, and gradually he's building an idea of who he is,” Daniel Weyman, who plays the Stranger, tells Inverse. “If he does these things and who he becomes if he does these things… And that seems like a really fun way to learn about an unnamed character.”
The Harfoots continue to give the Stranger something to fight for in Season 2. But the season still needs to try to test them, which Weber teases will happen as they journey further into Rhûn: ““In addition to their adventure, there's perhaps a bit of misadventure and some surprises along the way,” she says. Adds Megan Richards, who plays Poppy Proudfellow: “They're in completely new territory. So, even the rules of the landscape that they're in are completely different to what they've already known.”
With The Rings of Power dragging the mystery of the Stranger’s identity into its second season, Nori and Poppy need to prove they’re worth our time and investment. Connecting them to Rhûn reaffirms their value to the Stranger while reaffirming their importance to the narrative. As their powerful ally comes into his own, hopefully the Harfoots will find ways to do the same.
