The Lord of the Rings

***The Lord of the Rings*** is an epic high fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien, which was later fitted as a trilogy. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book *The Hobbit*, and soon developed into a much larger story.

Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it being written during World War II, it was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955. It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into at least 38 different languages, becoming one of the most popular works in twentieth-century literature.

The action in *The Lord of the Rings* is set in what the author conceived to be the lands of the real Earth, inhabited by humanity but placed in a fictional past, before our history but after the fall of his version of Atlantis, which he called Númenor. Tolkien gave this setting a modern English name, Middle-earth, a rendering of the Old English *Middangeard*.

## Main conflict

The story concerns peoples such as hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, and Orcs (called goblins in *The Hobbit*), and centers on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in the Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of the War of the Ring. The main story is followed by six appendices that provide a wealth of historical and linguistic background material, as well as an index listing every character, place, song, and sword.

Along with Tolkien's other writings, *The Lord of the Rings* has been subjected to extensive analysis of its literary themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story is merely the last movement of a larger mythological cycle, or legendarium, that Tolkien had worked on for many years since 1917. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of *The Lord of the Rings*, include philology, mythology and religion, as well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I. *The Lord of the Rings* in its turn is considered to have had a great impact on modern fantasy, and the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" have been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The immense and enduring popularity of *The Lord of the Rings* has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and a large number of books about Tolkien and his works being published. *The Lord of the Rings* has inspired (and continues to inspire) short stories, video games, artworks and musical works (see Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien). Numerous adaptations of Tolkien's works have been made for a wide range of media. Adaptations of *The Lord of the Rings* in particular have been made for the radio, for the theatre, and for film. The 2001–2003 release of the *Lord of the Rings* film trilogy saw a surge of interest in *The Lord of the Rings* and Tolkien's other works.

## Back story

The back story begins thousands of years before the action in the book, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent reincarnated deity who possessed great supernatural powers and who later became the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor. At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survived the catastrophic defeat and chaining of his lord, the ultimate Dark Lord, Morgoth Bauglir (who was formerly counted as one of the Vala, the angelic *Powers* of the world). During the Second Age, Sauron schemed to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In the disguise as "Annatar" or *Lord of Gifts*, he aided Celebrimbor and other Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of magical rings which confer various powers and effects on their wearers. The most important of these were The Nine, the seven an the three (which he did not touch or know of the three.) called the *Rings of Power* or *Great Rings*.

However, he then secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring, by which he planned to enslave the wearers of the other Rings of Power. This plan failed when the Elves became aware of him and took off their Rings. Sauron then launched a war during which he captured sixteen and distributed them to lords and kings of Dwarves and Men; these Rings were known as the Seven and the Nine respectively. The Dwarf-lords proved too tough to enslave although their natural desire for wealth, especially gold, increased; this brought more conflict between them and other races. The Men who possessed the Nine were slowly corrupted over time and eventually became the *Nazgûl* or Ringwraiths, Sauron's most feared servants. The Three Sauron failed to capture, and remained in the possession of the Elves (who forged these independently). The war ended as the Men of the island-nation of Númenor, a great nation, helped the besieged Elves, and Sauron's forces retreated from the coasts of Eriador. At this time he still held most of Middle-earth, excluding Imladris (Rivendell) and the Gulf of Lune.

Over 1500 years later, word reaches the current Kings of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, that Sauron has been bearing the title "Lord of all Middle-earth". This provoked Ar-Pharazôn and gave him an opportunity to show the glory and strength of Númenor. He arrived in Middle-earth with such overwhelming force that Sauron's armies flee at the sight of them. Abandoned by his minions, Sauron surrendered to the Númenóreans, and was taken to Númenor as a "prisoner". Sauron then started to poison the minds of the Númenóreans against the Valar. Thus, Sauron set into motion events that brought about Númenor's destruction. He did this by corrupting the King's mind, telling him that the immortality of the Elves was his to take if he set foot upon the lands of Aman, the *Blessed Realm*, where Valinor, the realm of the Valar, was located. With old age on his mind, Ar-Pharazôn led an invasion of Aman and Valinor with the greatest host seen since the end of the First Age. However, upon reaching Aman, he and his army were buried by a landslide, and there they would remain until the Final Battle in Tolkien's eschatology. Manwë, the King of Arda, calls upon Eru Ilúvatar (God), who opened a great chasm in the sea, destroying Númenor, and removed the Undying Lands from the mortal world. The destruction of Númenor destroyed Sauron's fair and handsome physical body, but his spirit returned to Mordor and assumes a new form — black, burning hot (though he was not on fire), and terrible.

Over 100 years later, he launched an attack against the Númenórean exiled (the Faithful, who did not join Ar-Pharazôn's expedition), who managed to escape to Middle-earth. However, the exiles (led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion) had time to prepare, and, after forming the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the Elven-king Gil-galad, they marched against Mordor, defeated Sauron on the plain of Dagorlad, and besieged Barad-dûr, at which time Anárion was slain. After seven years of siege, Sauron himself was ultimately forced to engage in single combat with the leaders. Gil-galad and Elendil perished as they combat Sauron, and Elendil's sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. However, Sauron's body was also overcome and slain, and Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil, and at this Sauron's spirit flees and does not reappear in his terrible form for many centuries. Isildur was advised to destroy the One Ring by the only way it could be — by casting it into the volcanic Mount Doom where it was forged — but he refused, attracted to its beauty and kept it as compensation for the deaths of his father and brother (weregild).

So began the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later, while journeying to Rivendell, Isildur and his soldiers were ambushed by a band of Orcs at what was eventually called the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. While the latter were almost all killed, Isildur escaped by putting on the Ring — which made mortal wearers invisible. However, the Ring slipped from his finger while he was swimming in the great River Anduin; he was killed by Orc-arrows and the Ring was lost for two millennia. It was then found by chance by a hobbit named Déagol. His relative and friend Sméagol strangled him for the Ring and was banished from his home by his maternal grandmother. He fled to the Misty Mountains where he slowly withered and became a disgusting, slimy creature called Gollum.

In *The Hobbit,* set 60 years before the events in *The Lord of the Rings,* Tolkien relates the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who takes it to his home, Bag End. Story-externally, the tale related in *The Hobbit* was written before *The Lord of the Rings*, and it was only later that the author developed Bilbo's magic ring into the "One Ring." Neither Bilbo nor the wizard, Gandalf, are aware at this point that Bilbo's magic ring is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron.

## Synopsis

*The Lord of the Rings* takes up the story about 60 years after the end of *The Hobbit.* The story begins in the first volume, *The Fellowship of the Ring,* when Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's adoptive heir, came into possession of Bilbo's magic ring. Bilbo's old friend, Gandalf the Grey, who got Bilbo involved in the adventures in *The Hobbit* that led to the discovery of the Ring, discovered that it was in fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power and the object for which the Dark Lord has been searching for most of the Third Age, and which corrupted others with desire for it and the power it held.

Sauron sent the sinister Ringwraiths, in the guise of riders in black, to the Shire, Frodo's native land, in search of the Ring. Frodo escaped, with the help of his loyal gardener Sam Gamgee and three close friends, Merry Brandybuck, Pippin Took, and Fatty Bolger. While Fatty acted as decoy for the Ringwraiths, Frodo and the others set off to take the Ring to the Elven haven of Rivendell. They were aided by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, who saved them from Old Man Willow and took them in for a few days of feasting, rest, and counsel. At the town of Bree, Frodo's party was joined by a man called "Strider", who was revealed, in a letter left by Gandalf at the local inn for Frodo, to be Aragorn, the heir to the kingships of Gondor and Arnor, two great realms founded by the Númenórean exiles. Aragorn led the hobbits to Rivendell on Gandalf's request. However, Frodo was gravely wounded by the leader of the Ringwraiths, though he managed to recover under the care of the Half-elven lord Elrond.

In Rivendell, the hobbits also learned that Sauron's forces could only be resisted if Aragorn took up his inheritance and fulfilled an ancient prophecy by wielding the sword Andúril, which had been forged anew from the shards of Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron's finger in the Second Age. A high council, attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-earth; Elves, Dwarves, and Men, and presided over by Elrond, decide that the only course of action that can save Middle-earth is to destroy the Ring by taking it to Mordor and casting it into Mount Doom, where it was forged.

Frodo volunteered for the task, and a "Fellowship of the Ring" were formed to aid him — consisting of Frodo, his three Hobbit companions, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, and Legolas the Elf. Their journey took them through the Mines of Moria, where they were being followed by the wretched creature Gollum, whom Bilbo had met in the Goblin-caves of the Misty Mountains years before. (The full tale of their meeting is told in *The Hobbit.*) Gollum long possessed the Ring before it passed to Bilbo. Gandalf explained that Gollum belonged to a people "of hobbit-kind" before he came upon the Ring, which corrupted him. A slave to the Ring's evil power, Gollum desperately sought to regain his "Precious." As they proceeded through the Mines, Pippin unintentionally betrayed their presence and the party was attacked by creatures of Sauron. Gandalf battled a giant subterranean demon, the Balrog, and fell into a deep chasm, apparently to his death. Escaping from Moria, the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, go to the Elven realm of Lothlórien. Here, the Lady Galadriel showed Frodo and Sam visions of the past, present, and future. Frodo also saw the Eye of Sauron, a metaphysical expression of Sauron himself, and Galadriel was tempted by the Ring. By the end of the first volume, after the Fellowship has travelled along the great River Anduin, Frodo decided to continue the trek to Mordor on his own, largely due to the Ring's growing influence on Boromir; however, the faithful Sam insisted on going with him.

In the second volume, *The Two Towers,* a parallel story, told in the first book of the volume, details the exploits of the remaining members of the Fellowship who aided the country of Rohan in its war against the emerging evil of Saruman, leader of the Order of Wizards, who wanted the Ring for himself. At the start of the first book, the Fellowship was further scattered; Merry and Pippin were captured by Sauron and Saruman's orcs, Boromir was mortally wounded defending them, and Aragorn and the others went off in pursuit of their captors. The three met Gandalf, who has returned to Middle-earth as "Gandalf the White": they found out that he slew the Balrog of Moria, and although the battle also proved fatal to Gandalf, he was then sent back and "reborn" as a more imposing figure. At the end of the first book, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli helped defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of the Hornburg while Saruman himself was cornered by the tree-like Ents and Huorns, accompanied by Merry and Pippin, who escaped from captivity, and the two groups' paths crossed.

The second book of the volume tells of Frodo and Sam's exploits on the way to Mount Doom. They managed to capture and "tame" Gollum, who then showed them a way to enter Mordor secretly (as opposed to the Black Gate), albeit through the dreaded realm of Minas Morgul. At the end of the volume, Gollum betrayed Frodo to the great spider, Shelob, and though he survived, he was captured by Orcs. Meanwhile, Sauron launched an all-out military assault upon Middle-earth, with the Witch-king (leader of the Ringwraiths) leading a fell host from Minas Morgul into battle against Gondor, in the War of the Ring.

In the third volume, *The Return of the King,* the further adventures of Gandalf, Aragorn and company are related in the first book of the volume, while Frodo and Sam's are related in the second, as with *The Two Towers.* As told in the first book, the Fellowship assisted in the final battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of the tower-city of Minas Tirith in Gondor and the climactic life-or-death battle before the Black Gate of Mordor, where the alliance of Gondor and Rohan fought desperately against Sauron's armies in order to distract him from the Ring, hoping to gain time for Frodo to destroy it.

In the second book, Sam rescued Frodo from captivity. After much struggle, they finally reached Mount Doom itself, tailed by Gollum. However, the temptation of the Ring proved too great for Frodo and he claimed it for himself. However, Gollum struggled with him and managed to bite the Ring off. Crazed with triumph, Gollum slipped into the fires of the mountain, and the Ring was destroyed.

Finally, Sauron was defeated, and Aragorn was crowned king. However, all was not over, for Saruman managed to escape and scour the Shire before being overthrown. At the end, Frodo remained wounded in body and spirit and went west accompanied by Bilbo over the Sea to Valinor, where he could find peace.

According to Tolkien's timeline, the events depicted in the story occurred between Bilbo's announcement of his September 22, 3001 birthday party, and Sam's re-arrival to Bag End on October 6, 3021. Most of the events portrayed in the story occur in 3018 and 3019, with Frodo heading out from Bag End on September 23 3018, and the destruction of the Ring six months later on March 25, 3019.

## Characters

*For character information see: List of characters*
### Good (excluding most minor characters)

* Aragorn
* Gimli
* Legolas
* Gandalf
* Boromir
* Frodo Baggins
* Sam Gamgee
* Peregrin Took
* Merry Brandybuck
* Bilbo Baggins
* Elrond
* Glorfindel
* Arwen
* Elladan
* Elrohir
* Thranduil
* Haldir
* Celeborn
* Galadriel
* Gwaihir
* Balin
* Glóin
* King Dain
* Faramir
* Denethor II
* Beregond
* Treebeard
* Theoden
* Éomer
* Éowyn
* Háma
* Gamling
* Theodred

### Evil

* Sauron
* Witch-king of Angmar
* Mouth of Sauron
* Ringwraiths (the Nazgûl)
* Gorbag
* Shagrat
* Saruman
* Gríma Wormtongue
* Uglúk
* Gollum
* Shelob
* Durin's Bane, a Balrog

## Adaptations

*Main article: Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings*
*The Lord of the Rings* has been adapted for film, radio and stage multiple times.

The book has been adapted for radio three times. In 1955 and 1956, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) broadcast *The Lord of the Rings*, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story, of which no recording has survived. A 1979 dramatization of *The Lord of the Rings* was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD. In 1981 the BBC broadcast, *The Lord of the Rings*, a new dramatization in 26 half-hour installments.

Three film adaptations have been made. The first was *J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings* (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story (hence its original title, *The Lord of the Rings Part 1*). It covers *The Fellowship of the Ring* and part of *The Two Towers*. The second, *The Return of the King* (1980), was an animated television special by Rankin-Bass, who had produced a similar version of *The Hobbit* (1977). The third was director Peter Jackson's live action *The Lord of the Rings* film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three installments as *The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring* (2001), *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* (2002), and *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* (2003). The live-action film trilogy has done much in particular to bring the book into the public consciousness.

There have been four stage productions based on the book. Three original full-length stage adaptations of *The Fellowship of the Ring* (2001), *The Two Towers* (2002), and *The Return of the King* (2003) were staged in Cincinnati, Ohio. A stage musical adaptation of *The Lord of the Rings* (2006) was staged in Toronto, Canada.

## Influences on the fantasy genre

Following the massive success of *The Lord of the Rings*, Tolkien considered a sequel entitled *The New Shadow*, in which the Men of Gondor turn to dark cults and consider an uprising against Aragorn's son, Eldarion. Tolkien decided not to do it, and the incomplete story can be found in *The Peoples of Middle-earth*. Tolkien returned to finish his mythology, which was published in novel form posthumously by Christopher Tolkien in 1977, and the remaining information of his legendarium was published through *Unfinished Tales* (1980) and *The History of Middle-earth*, a 12 volume series published from 1983 to 1996, of which *The Peoples of Middle-earth* is part.

Nonetheless, the enormous popularity of Tolkien's epic saga greatly expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to *The Lord of the Rings,* the genre flowered throughout the 1960s. Many other books in a broadly similar vein were published (including the *Earthsea* books of Ursula K. Le Guin, the *Thomas Covenant* novels of Stephen R. Donaldson), and in the case of the *Gormenghast* books by Mervyn Peake, and *The Worm Ouroboros* by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered.[*citation needed*]

It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry which achieved popularity in the 1970s with *Dungeons & Dragons*. *Dungeons & Dragons* features many races found in *The Lord of the Rings* most notably the presence of halflings, elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintains that he was influenced very little by *The Lord of the Rings*, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the then-popularity of the work. *The Lord of the Rings* also has influenced *Magic: The Gathering*. *The Lord of the Rings* has also influenced the creation of various video games, including *The Legend of Zelda*, *Baldur's Gate*, *Everquest*, *The Elder Scrolls*, *Neverwinter Nights*, and the *Warcraft* series, as well as video games set in Middle-earth itself.

As in all artistic fields, a great many lesser derivatives of the more prominent works appeared. The term "Tolkienesque" is used in the genre to refer to the oft-used and abused storyline of *The Lord of the Rings*: a group of adventurers embarking on a quest to save a magical fantasy world from the armies of an evil "dark lord," and is a testament to how much the popularity of these books has increased, since many critics initially decried it as being "Wagner for children" (a reference to the Ring Cycle) — an especially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of the books as a Christian response to Wagner.

The work has also had an influence upon such science fiction authors as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. In fact, Clarke (who compared it to Frank Herbert's *Dune*) makes a reference to Mount Doom in his work *2061: Odyssey Three*. Tolkien also influenced George Lucas' *Star Wars* films.