The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been attracting millions of viewers with its cast of wonderous characters, including The Stranger (Daniel Weyman).
A whopping 25million people tuned in to watch the JRR Tolkein adaptation on the day of its launch, breaking previous records for Amazon Prime.
The most expensive television programme ever made is set thousands of years before Peter Jackson’s well-loved films in the Second Age.
It follows Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) as she vows to avenge her brother’s death by defeating the evil Sauron, turning her back on a life of eternal glory by jumping off the boat to Valinor.
But, of course, the fantasy drama doesn’t just revolve around elves, and also examines the lives of dwarves, harfoots, humans and other creatures.
This includes the mysterious character The Stranger, who cannot speak English or Elvish, and finds himself lost in Middle Earth.
But who is he and where did he come from? Here are all the theories about The Stranger’s real identity.
Where did The Stranger come from?
The giant fell from the sky in a meteor before plummeting to the land of Rhovanion near a community of Harfoots.
Inquisitive and precocious harfoot Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) approaches The Stranger, who is lying in a fiery crater, and vows to look after him.
Nori visits The Stranger and strikes up a relationship feeding him food and recognising he has magical ability with fireflies.
However, when he accidentally crashes into the harfoot’s village, as they are due to migrate, Nori is scolded for befriending The Stranger.
As they travel to their next settlement, with Nori’s father struggling with the load due to an injured foot, Nori enlists the help of The Stranger, who is able to bear the weight of their caravan.
Nori tells her mother she feels like she was destined to meet The Stranger.
Who is The Stranger?
Many fans on Reddit have theorised The Stranger could be Gandalf, with one reason being the first word the creature learns in Rings of Power is ‘friend’ from Nori, which the wizard later uses as a password to unlock a hobbit door in the film trilogy.
One LOTR lover wrote: ‘Him coming as a meteor surrounded by fire can be a reference to him being “a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Arnor”. Also, I think he crashes near the Harfoots to try and show us a link to the Hobbits so early on in his life on Middle-Earth.’
However, others have dismissed the idea that The Stranger is Gandalf owing to the history of LOTR because the wizard only arrives thousands of years after the events of the Rings of Power.
Some viewers believe the creature could be a Blue Wizard, while a Reddit user said it was ‘clear that the Stranger is of the Maiar.’
They added: ‘In The Silmarillion, it’s explained that when the Ainur descended to Arda and became the Valar, they wore a human-like appearance as a regular person would wear clothes.
‘It’s pretty clear to me that the Stranger is of the Maiar. So I’ll assume that, like the Vanar, the Maiar wear the appearance of a human like a clothe.’
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream on Prime Video
