Spoilers for the conclusion of “The Rings of Power” are coming.
Songs that smack are still being released by the “Lord of the Rings” franchise. Fans still frequently rewatch the original Peter Jackson trilogy, which features a Howard Shore score, twenty years later. Despite their uneven quality, “The Hobbit” movies featured a mesmerising performance of “Far Over The Misty Mountains Cold” and “I See Fire,” an overwrought song by Ed Sheeran.
Now that “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerfirst “‘s season is coming to a close, J.R.R. Tolkien’s fairly lyrical and poetic prose is inspiring yet another fantastic song. The episode comes to a close with a well-known voice introducing the closing titles while singing a hypnotic rendition of some of the most well-known phrases from the trilogy. Who performs the song at the end? Fiona Apple is here!
A familiar lyric
Just after a frightening closing shot reveals Sauron, now revealed to be the hot smith Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), standing on a craggy cliffside across from the still-exploding Mount Doom, the “Criminal” and “Sleep to Dream” musician sings the audience out. A shot of the man’s eye and the three newly created rings merge into one another, and a zoom out reveals that he is now wearing a shadowy cloak as he steadfastly gazes into the distance.
That final image is well complemented by Apple’s words, which are clean and pure yet still quite gloomy and scary. Here are the lyrics, which are taken from the epigraph of “The Lord of the Rings,” in case you need to brush up on your Middle-earth history:
“Three rings for the elven kings under the sky
Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone
Nine for mortal men doomed to die
One for the dark lord on his dark throne
In the land of Mordor
Where the shadows lie
Where the shadows lie.
One ring to rule them all
One ring to find them
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them.
Apple’s contribution is perfectly fitting
As the credits roll, Apple performs the middle stanza once more. The instrumental version of this song, composed by series composer Bear McCreary, was previously heard this season, it was revealed last week. The instrumental rendition of “Where the Shadows Lie” appears in the first episode with the idea of using the same motif for the show’s last episode of its debut season, according to a statement from Amazon Studios worldwide head of music Bob Bowen.
Apple’s inclusion on the soundtrack was hailed by McCreary as well “I am very appreciative of the opportunity to have worked with the iconic singer Fiona Apple. I’ve been moved by her musicality for the past twenty years, and I can’t think of another performer more able to capture the mystique, majesty, and force of this song.”
Rarely releasing new music, the Platinum-certified, well-liked alternative artist most recently released “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” which went on to win Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammys in April 2020. It is even more unusual for her to feature on a soundtrack, making her delightfully eerie addition to “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” all the more noteworthy.
