The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien is the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a fantasy series, taking place in the world of Middle Earth. The book emphasizes the importance of collaboration and friendship. The story takes place right after The Two Towers, where Gandalf and Pippin are leaving for Minas Tirith after leaving King Théoden and Merry in Rohan. Minas Tirith is the capital of Gondor, and Gandalf and Pippin intend to rally the king to fight against Sauron. Sauron is the main antagonist of the story, as he is trying to take over the world. While Gandalf is talking to Gondor's king, they receive news that Sauron’s forces are attacking them. They send out Faramir, and his army to deal with the attack, however he is overpowered and injured while attempting to retreat. Back in Rohan, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas realize that they might not come in time to Gondor’s aid so they leave immediately. They leave the riders to go summon a ghost army, which is in debt to Aragorn. Back in Gondor, Minas Tirith is being attacked and is in a full on siege, however the Riders of Rohan break the siege and continue the fight. The forces of Sauron scatter, and attempt to regroup, when they are stopped by Aragorn and his crew riding ships. They had taken these ships by using the Army of the Dead. Sauron’s forces finally retreat back into Mordor, which is where Sauron and his army dwell. After the battle, they all agree to go to Mordor to attack Sauron themselves. However, they do not believe they will win, but are attempting to distract Sauron from Frodo destroying the ring. Frodo and Sam, are in Mordor currently, attempting to be undercover and destroy Sauron’s ring. Once Sauron’s ring is destroyed, Sauron will die and be unable to come back to life. So this sacrifice is truly noble, because if they succeed then Sauron and all evil will be destroyed, The perspective now switches to Frodo and Sam. It takes place right where the Two Towers ended, where they are escaping Cirith Ungol. They manage to escape and make their way towards Mount Doom. Mount Doom is a volcano that will destroy Sauron’s ring. After many days of travel, and completely out of supplies they arrive at Mount Doom. They are about to destroy the rings, however the Ring overpowers Frodo. As the ring gets closer to Mount Doom, it’s power of Frodo has grown stronger, and now it is finally too much. Frodo is unable to throw the ring into the Cracks of Doom, and tries to flee by putting it on. However, Gollum, who had been stalking them, takes the ring for Frodo by biting his finger. Unfortunately for Gollum, he falls into the Cracks of Doom while doing so, which completely destroys the ring. Back to Gandalf and Aragorn, their army becomes uncoordinated by Sauron’s downfall, and flees. Gandalf sends Eagles to save Frodo and Sam, which they do successfully. The ending to the trilogy begins, with Frodo reuniting with Gandalf, Aragorn becoming king along with many other things. Once the hobbits, Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam go back to the Shire, which is where they live, they find out that it has been taken over by Saruman. They had made Saruman prisoner in the last book, however he escaped. The hobbits of the Shire fight back and he is finally killed. Frodo then decides to leave for the Blessed Realm, which is where the gods of Tolkien’s world live. The book is filled with bravery and perseverance. This book finally wraps up the amazing story, in such a beautiful way. Although there was a lot of fighting in this book, more than the other books, the story still focused more on the dialogue and storytelling, rather than the actual battles. Something that this story brings up time and time again, is the bravery and comradery of the characters. This makes sense, as Tolkien began writing the Lord of the Rings trilogy during World War 2. The allies had to work together, and come up with cunning tactics in order to fool the Germans, very similar to the Lord of the Rings. In this way, I agree with Tolkien. The ability to work together is very useful, as one man cannot solve the cure to cancer, but many people might be able to do so. In the story, only the powers of the three races, Elves, Men, and Dwarves, could defeat Sauron, which again is similar to Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. This story is similar to Harry Potter, as the whole wizarding world had to come together to defeat Voldemort. People from all over the world had to come and defeat him, and each risked their lives in order to save Harry. It’s clear that the Return of the King had a great deal about morality and virtues, and really made me think about how important friendship and comradery is important to our world. The Return of the King was a beautifully written book that wrapped the trilogy in a literary masterpiece.
Comments