Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Charlie Vickers as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power director Charlotte Brändström claims that Galadriel was in love with Halbrand.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel; Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad; Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

In an interview with the Nerdist following the conclusion of the show’s second season, Brändström was asked, “Seeing Halbrand really affected Galadriel—what were her feelings for him?”

She replied, “Yeah. Galadriel obviously was in love with Halbrand. She was very attracted to him. So when Sauron changes shape… Sauron knows this because he gets into her head, so he knows what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling.”

“So when he immediately takes Halbrand’s shape, he completely destabilizes her because that was her weakness. She had very strong feelings for the King, for Halbrand, obviously in the first season,” Brändström added.

Charlie Vickers as Halbrand in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

As for what Sauron thought, Brändström shared her thoughts after being asked, “When bonded characters reunite after separation, it’s always intense… Doubly, so if it’s Galadriel and Sauron, can you talk a bit about crafting their sword fight reunion and what you wanted them each to bring to that moment?”

She answered, “Yeah, these are two very magnificent actors and also two extremely strong and magical characters in Middle Earth. And they were also the most powerful people there. So the fact that the two of them were fighting against each other, I wanted to be very epic. And when Sauron realizes that he’s not going to win, that’s when he starts to change shape to distract her. So he tricks her really.”

“And he becomes Halbrand for a while because he knew the feelings Galadriel had for him. I also think that Sauron was almost disappointed in the end because I think he would have liked to have Galadriel as his queen,” she stated.

Charlie Vickers as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

Brändström continued, “And I think that even however malicious and dark Sauron is, he’s the Dark Lord, he also believes very strongly that he’s there to help Middle-earth. He’s going to heal it all.”

“There’s a French film director from many years ago called Jean Renoir, and he always said in one of his films called The Rules of the Game that everybody has their reasons, always, and that’s what I go by. It’s like you always need to find what their motivation is and then the character becomes credible, too,” she concluded.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel; Benjamin Walker as High King Gil-galad in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

Nowhere in Tolkien’s legendarium is there any hint that Galadriel loved any version of Sauron. In fact, Tolkien noted that Sauron perceived Galadriel as his chief obstacle while also stating that she’s never deceived by him either. Furthermore, she is married to Celeborn and the two have a daughter, Celebrían.

Christopher Tolkien explained in Unfinished Tales: The Lost Lore of Middle-earth that a note from his father, J.R.R. Tolkien, stated, “Sauron endeavoured to keep distinct his two sides: enemy and tempter. When he came among the Noldor he adopted a specious fair form (a kind of simulated anticipation of the later Istari and a fair name: Artano ‘high-smith,’ or Aulendil, meaning one who is devoted to the service of the Vala Aulë. (In Of the Rings of Power, p. 287, the name that Sauron gave to himself at this time was Annatar, the Lord of Gifts; but that name is not mentioned here.) The note goes on to say that Galadriel was not deceived, saying that this Aulendil was not in the train of Aulë in Valinor, ‘but this is not decisive, since Aulë existed before the ‘Building of Arda,’ and the probability is that Sauron was in fact one of the Aulëan Maiar, corrupted ‘before Arda began’ by Melkor.’”

Elsewhere in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien wrote, “He perceived at once that Galadriel would be his chief adversary and obstacle, and he endeavoured therefore to placate her, bearing her scorn with outward patience and courtesy. [No explanation is offered in this rapid outline of why Galadriel scorned Sauron, unless she saw through his disguise, or of why, if she did perceive his true nature, she permitted him to remain in Eregion.]”

Marton Csokas as Celeborn and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition (2001), New Line Cinema

In regard to Suaron’s aim that he’s attempting to help Middle-earth, this was the original intention as noted by Tolkien in Letter 131 to Milton Waldman. He wrote, “In the Silmarillion and Tales of the First Age Sauron was a being of Valinor perverted to the service of the Enemy and becoming his chief captain and servant. He repents in fear when the First Enemy is utterly defeated, but in the end does not do as was commanded, return to the judgement of the gods. He lingers in Middle-earth. Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth, ‘neglected by the gods’, he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power – and so consumed ever more fiercely with hate (especially of gods and Elves).”

In the text of The Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote, “Seeing the desolation of the world, Sauron said in his heart that the Valar, having overthrown Morgoth, had again forgotten Middle-earth; and his pride grew apace. He looked with hatred on the Eldar, and he feared the Men of Numenor who came back at whiles in their ships to the shores of Middle-earth; but for long he dissembled his mind and concealed the dark designs that he shaped in his heart.”

Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema

In fact, Tolkien even wrote that Gil-galad and Elrond doubted Sauron’s facade and fair-seeming ways, “Only to Lindon [Sauron] did not come, for Gil-galad and Elrond doubted him and his fair-seeming, and though they knew not who in truth he was they would not admit him to that land.”

And if it was not clear that Sauron was only pretending to care about Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote, “Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only so long as it too should last. … And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.

Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

What do you make of Brändström’s claim that Galadriel was in love with Halbrand?