Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power hides a secret message in its opening credits, the creators have confirmed.
After a fan outlined a theory analysing the runes of the opening credits as Chladni figures (referring to 18th-century German scholar Ernst Chladni) in Tolkien’s runes, film studio Plains of Yonder confirmed the significance.
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“We set out to portray a universe both primordial and timeless,” Plains of Yonder said in a blog post. “Taking inspiration from JRR Tolkien’s Ainur, immortal angelic beings that sing such beautiful music that the world is created from their very sound, we conceived of a main title sequence ‘built from the world of sound.'”
They went on to explain the nodal patterns are known as cymatics, writing: “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.”
The initial theory was suggested online by Twitter user Alexander King, first acknowledging the connection to Chldani’s work.
Take a look here:
I was watching that new Rings of Power show, and the opening credits have these abstract shapes forming and reforming in sand. They seemed strangely familiar, and I suddenly remembered I'd seen them before, they're Chladni figures! (1/x) pic.twitter.com/VQSMwUdDG5
— Alexander King (@LiterallyAKing) September 11, 2022
Following the release of the first two episodes on September 2, Amazon shared that the show had earned 25million viewers in the first 24 hours after debuting “in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide”.
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