The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, Book 3)

In this final installment of "The Lord of the Rings," the quest to destroy the One Ring is concluded and the power of the Dark Lord finally defeated. Tolkien's attention to detail shines here, both in his descriptions of the battle scenes, and in the attention to the struggles of Sam and Frodo. In the end, you almost feel as if you've lived through the war yourself.

Tolkien has a message here. While he clearly considers war to be an evil, it is equally clear that he feels that it is sometimes necessary for good people to sacrifice everything to fight the forces of evil. Tolkien wrote these books in the aftermath of two World Wars, and that influence is almost palplable in this book. Above all, this is a story of courage and sacrifice, about standing up and fighting for what is good against those that would destroy it.

In the last installment of the Lord of the Rings, the pivotal moments in the battle for Middle Earth occur. Pippin becomes a guard of the Citadel in the service of Denethor. Denethor, the steward of Gondor, becomes insane and commits suicide by fire. Merry is in the service of King Théoden, the king of Rohan. Théoden dies in the battle of Pelennor fields. Sam goes into the tower of Minas Morgul to save Frodo from his evil orc captors. Frodo and Sam venture into Mordor where they destroy the One ring. Aragorn is crowned king. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin return home to find that Saruman has defiled their homeland, the Shire. Grima Wormtounge murders Saruman. Sam Gamgee marries his true love, Rosie Cotton. Bilbo, Frodo, and Gandalf go to the Grey Havens where they will go on a ship to the West, or Undying Lands.
Out of the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King is the most intense. It is usually the favorite book of those who read it. I find that this book has the most emotion for me because when I read it, I am there on the journey with them. I have grown to love each character and I cared what happened to them. When Frodo and Sam went into Mordor, I was there too. I have spoken with a girl who thought that Frodo was acting like a baby. I then realized that those who only have watched the movies do not have a compete understanding of the power of the One ring. In the movie, the essence of the One ring is lost. I believe that if a person really wants to understand the Lord of the Rings, they should read this book. The Return of the King is my favorite book. It is definitely a great book to read and I want everybody to read it. This book is a tragedy because Frodo is sacrificed in a way. My favorite quote is in the end of the Return of the King, where Frodo says, "But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them" (382). This shows the sacrifice that Frodo gave to save the Shire. A sacrifice that was not properly acknowledged for it's worth. Sam is the only person in all of Middle Earth who truly knows of Frodo's suffering to save the Shire.

(See my reviews for "Fellowship" and "Two Towers" also).
Return of the King is probably my least favorite of the three. I think that my main problem was that I kept getting confused with all the battle portions. Sometimes, action does not translate well into words, this is one of those times. There's nothing wrong with the book, I just have to work harder to follow this one. I do like the return to the Shire, and I wish that that portion had gone on a bit longer, or that Sam's adventures as mayor would have been written (even as a separate book...not officially part of the trilogy, like "The Hobbit"), etc.

`The Return of the King', the third of the three volume novel, `Lord of the Rings' by philologist J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the most influential popular novels of the 20th century. Other bases of big motion pictures such as `Ben-Hur' and `Gone With the Wind' can't hold a candle to it as it had an influence far beyond its role as the basis for a movie script. For starters, `Lord of the Rings' has had a large and growing readership from its original publication in the mid 1950s to the present, while I suspect practically no one reads Lew Wallace's `Ben-Hur' any more and few people have recently read Margaret Mitchell's `Gone With the Wind'. Another `Lord of the Rings' offspring is the whole `Dungeons and Dragons' role playing games phenomenon. This game originally appeared a few years after the second blooming of `Lord of the Rings' popularity in 1965, when the books were published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in response to a pirated copy published by Ace. This is when I first became enraptured by the stories of Middle Earth.

In many ways, it is almost impossible to speak of any one of the three volumes which do not in the usual sense of the word form a trilogy of three independent novels related by common characters, location, and history. `The Lord of the Rings' is a single novel which was serialized in three volumes published over two and a half years in the mid 1950's. When the three titles are published in a single volume, it is not hard to see that the work is really not much longer than `Gone With the Wind' and it is certainly shorter than some notable novels such as `Atlas Shrugged'. One virtue we did get from the division into three titles by Tolkien is that Peter Jackson had a valid basis on which to split a single story into three long movies totaling close to 10 hours of viewing time.

Like the movie version of `The Fellowship of the Ring', the `Return of the King' movie leaves off one important chapter. And, unlike the Tom Bombadil / Barrow Wight episodes in the first volume, the deleted `Scouring of the Shire' chapter in `Return of the King' created what was virtually the only real criticism of the movie, because the drama of `the scouring' was left out of the events between the celebrations in Gondor over the defeat of Sauron and the departures at the Gray Havens. So, we get a half-hour of celebrating and saying good-bye. Not too much in relation to the previous nine and a half hours, but a bit tedious in the context of a three hour movie. So, for the three of you who are reading the books for the first time, you have a great `lost' event to look forward to in reading `The Fellowship of the King'.

One of the easily most important parts of this third volume is the very long historical appendix which lays out the major events of the first three ages of Middle Earth. One of the most satisfying aspects of both `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings' is the sense of the great depth of history. The appendices show that the history of the One Ring just scratches the surface, as Isildur wrested the ring from Sauron (see the opening scene of `Fellowship of the Rings') at the beginning of the Third Age. There are two earlier ages of Middle Earth from the time of the birth of the elves to the end of the first war with Sauron. It is a knowledge of this history which tells us why a ranger from the distant north is an heir to the throne of Gondor and why Denethor, the Steward cannot be King. One thing which amazes me is that no reviewer has noted is wondering about the fact that Arwen and Aragorn are very, very, very distantly removed cousins, since it is quite possible that Elrond was the brother of Aragorn's great,....great grandfather. This is because Elrond and brother Elros Tar-Minyatar were given the choice of immortality as a half-elf or very long life and a homestead on the island of Numenor, removed from the sorrows of Middle Earth. Elrond chose immortality and `exile' to Middle Earth'. Elros chose long life on the Eden-like island.

This appendix contains a great many other bits of miscellany. The most important for those who have seen the movie is the story of the love between Arwen and Aragorn, which is not in the main narrative. This history is easily one of the most elaborate fictional histories created to date. Other fantasy histories such as Robert E. Heinlein's future history (in which he predicts the turmoil of the 1960's with amazing accuracy) is tiny in comparison. And, according to Tolkien's own writings, almost all this history was created before he began writing `The Lord of the Rings'. For those of us who get pleasure from such invented worlds, these appendices were just a little amuse-bouche. Enough to give us a taste of how deep this history went, without giving us many details of the great events of the first and second ages. It was this hunger which created such demand for `The Silmarillion', the last complete (posthumous) work by Tolkien, assembled by son Christopher Tolkien.

If you have not read `The Hobbit', I strongly recommend reading that before picking up `The Lord of the Rings'. And, I suggest you read or at least browse the appendices at the end of this volume before starting `The Fellowship of the Ring'. I am almost inclined to suggest you read `The Silmarillion' before reading `The Hobbit', but `The Silmarillion' reads a lot more like history than like dramatic fiction. It is a much poorer novel than either `The Hobbit' or `The Lord of the Rings'.

Truly great ending to the greatest fantasy novel, ever.

In this trilogy focusing on medieval ages and sorcery,the fellowship has one final battle against Saruman and his massive orc army.Can Aragon,Gimli,and Legolas fend off Saruman's army,while Frodo and Sam,led by Golem,have one final chance to get the ring in Mount Doom,and find out if Golem really has a good side or not?
If you like action as much as I do than this is the book for you.It is adventurous as it gets. You wouldn't be able to take your eyes off of this marvelous book once you start reading it.