How Morfydd Clark Uses Welsh Language To Connect To Her Rings Of Power Character - Exclusive
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is going to have a lot of Elves. The Faerie folk may be few and far between by the time of "The Lord of the Rings" story, but the earlier you go in Middle-earth history, the more the Elves take center stage. During Prime Video's show, we're going to see Elves from one end of Middle-earth to the other. Some of these, like Arondir and his military compatriots, will be busy overseeing affairs in the Southlands of the continent as a far-flung extension of Elven power. Others, like Gil-galad and Elrond, will be managing political tension in the north.
And then there's Galadriel. The future Lady of Lorien will be traipsing all over the map, from Lindon to Númenor to the Sundering Seas and beyond. We recently sat down with Galadriel actress Morfydd Clark and asked her a couple of questions about how she's found ways to connect to her critical character. Not surprisingly, her Welsh heritage played a key part in that process.
Morfydd Clark wrestles with how Galadriel thinks
During our interview, we asked Morfydd Clark if her bilingual skills — specifically her knowledge of Welsh — have impacted how she portrays her character on screen. Her initial response was that she was excited to be in a project that had to do with Elvish. She followed this up with the fact that the ability to see the world through the Welsh language gives her a chance to tap into a different kind of linguistic inspiration.
"I feel I can be much more romantic and deep in Welsh. So that was really useful for me because I was thinking, '[What's the] language of her heart? What language does she think in? And how much does she throw this in, and would, in times of rage, would Quenya come in?' So that was really useful. I felt so proud. It was really nice to have that connection to being bilingual while filming this."
Her co-star, Charlie Vickers, plays the human Halbrand on the show. Vickers added a comment that took the conversation to an even deeper level, asking, "What does she dream in?" to which Clark replied in the affirmative.
The actress isn't the only Welsh actor on the set. Fellow cast members Owain Arthur and Trystan Gravelle are also from Cymru, but they play a Dwarf and Man, respectively. Clark is the only Welsh-born representative that will be able to directly draw on her native tongue to inspire her language as she speaks, thinks, and dreams in Elvish.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is available on Prime Video on September 2. The show takes place in the Second Age, thousands of years before "The Lord of the Rings," during a time when Sauron is just beginning to rise to power.