The Bottom Line: The climactic conclusion to an epic series that has inspired linguists, historians, theologians, fanfic writers, and huge nerds all across the world for half a century.
DavidK93's Full Review: J. R. R. Tolkien - Return of the King: The Lord of...
Once upon a time, DavidK93 graduated from college and got a job. And then he suddenly didn’t have time to write reviews on Epinions. But he still had an unhealthy compulsion to write at least one review a month, even though he never managed to start one before the last three days of any given month. And then he went to see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in December with his hair stylist, whom he dated briefly but who then stopped responding to his calls and therefore became just his hair stylist again. He subsequently reread the novel, which he had read once before, and finished it some time in January. But it was at least three months before he finally got around to writing the damn review of the book, let alone the movie review in which he will detail all the differences between the two. So, without further ado, his review of the book, written in the last 48 hours of April (only...not, because his body became consumed by fatigue and he fell asleep before 10pm on April 30, without any awareness of doing so, and then it just totally didn’t work out after that either), while attempting to utilise British spellings and idioms at every turn, on account of Tolkien being British and all.
Incidentally, as I have mentioned before, in my reviews of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the Authorized Paperback Edition really is quite a handsome packaging of the novels. The cover of The Return of the King is a lustrous purple, with Tolkien’s name printed in a large white font at the top, looking like it could have been done with a very wide quill or stylus. The title is smaller and at the bottom, in a normal typeset. On the back, near the top, is a brief teaser on the contents of the novel. Spanning the front and the back, across the middle, is a full colour illustration by Ted Nasmith, portraying the fortified white tower of Minas Tirith and its surrounding demesnes, which includes the Mundburg and the Pelennor Fields.
Several maps are included in the book, but not the Shelly Shapiro maps that were included in the previous two volumes. These maps are by an unidentified illustrator, and are rather a bit less useful in my opinion. I found them hard to read and hard to match up to one another. There is one map of central and western-central Middle-earth (That is, the map does not include the far north (Forodwaith), the far south (Haradwaith), or the far east). There is also one that shows the northwestern part of that region, which includes Arnor and Eriador. A map of Rhovanion shows the lands between Mirkwood and the sea of Rhûn. There is also a close-up of the entirely unimportant western region of Gondor, and a far more interesting one of eastern Gondor and of Mordor. In general, the choice of maps here makes less sense than the maps in the first two books.
The beginning of the book also contains the Beagle introduction and a synopsis of the preceding volumes, while a sextet of appendices and a quintet of indices serve as a substantial postscript to the overall shorter novel.
The Return of the King picks up exactly where The Two Towers left off. There’s really no point at all in reading this book if you haven’t already read Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I mean, I really can’t imagine why you would, anyway. The Lord of the Rings is basically just one long novel that got packaged into three volumes. Anyway, the novel is again divided into two rather disjoint “Books.” In Book 5, Gandalf and Pippin are headed towards the Gondorian fortress city of Minas Tirith, while Merry stays with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the army of Rohan as they ride to the defence of Gondor. While the forces of Rohan will try to prevent Minas Tirith from being taken from without by the fearsome army of Sauron, Gandalf and Pippin will fight to prevent it from failing from within as Denethor, Steward of Gondor, descends into madness. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli will take the ultimate risk and walk the Paths of the Dead, while Merry’s mettle will be tested in battle and Pippin’s will be tested by the madness of one to whom he has sworn fealty. And while massive armies collide in the West, Book 6 shows that the real conflict is unfolding in Mordor as Frodo and Sam flee the agents of Sauron and attempt to destroy the One Ring at Sammath Naur (the Cracks of Doom) at Orodruin (Mount Doom).
The harsh divisions between the books (as well as between “Merry chapters” and “Pippin chapters” in Book 5) continue to make it quite difficult to follow the action at times, because Pippin will see the effects of something that Merry did twenty-five pages ago, and then Frodo and Sam will see it some hundred and fifty pages later. It’s just a bit jerky, and in my opinion a bad stylistic choice.
In the culmination of their coming-of-age story arc, Merry and Pippin really prove themselves in The Return of the King. Merry becomes a beloved retainer of Théoden King of Rohan, and then out of love and loyalty for his liege, he defies him and joins the army in their final defence of Minas Tirith, where he fulfils his mighty purpose. Pippin, out of gratitude for Boromir’s sacrifice at Amon Hen, pledges his service to the Steward Denethor. Then, as a mighty power struggle develops between Denethor and Gandalf, Pippin’s loyalties are sorely tested. Both young Hobbits learn a lot about themselves and about the world in the course of their journey, and truly make the transition from youth to adulthood by the end of this instalment.
Frodo and Sam continue their desperate quest to destroy the Ring of Sauron in Mordor. Throughout the story, Sam has grown in confidence and initiative, and while he has always been brave, he had had more opportunities to display that trait recently. There has been a gradual transition of the dominant role from Sam to Frodo, because Frodo has been increasingly weighed down by the weight (literal and metaphorical) of the Ring. This has reduced Frodo’s ability to function, and it has also begun to drive a wedge between the two Hobbits by fuelling doubts and jealousy between them. But they must cling to one another and to their companionship if they intend to survive.
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli actually have, in my opinion, considerably less development in this novel than in the previous ones. Once their characters were established, there wasn’t much of anywhere for them to go. Aragorn is a noble and wise man, who is immediately recognized as a leader by all who encounter him and inspires courage in all whom he commands. But we already knew that. Legolas and Gimli have forged an unlikely friendship as Elf and Dwarf. They are both accomplished warriors, and either would gladly give their own life to save the other, or any other member of their company. But we already knew that. So there you have it.
Gandalf, on the other hand, always manages to unfold more and more layers, as it were. Particularly revealing in this novel were the confrontations between Gandalf and Denethor. The men of Gondor are among the noblest and most ancient lines of Men, and even as their Steward (rather than King), Denethor embodies great power and lore. It is Denethor who is set up as a foil to Gandalf in The Return of the King, much more so than the distant Sauron, and also to a greater extent than Saruman was in The Two Towers. The greatest tragedy of Denethor, I feel, is the fact that he favoured his elder son, Boromir, in whom the blood of Gondor ran less true than in his younger son, Faramir. In addition, Denethor’s inability to accept Faramir caused him to project infidelities onto him in regards to the younger man’s relationship with Gandalf. Gandalf, for his part, is swift and judicious in the application of his extensive knowledge, and shows great wisdom in his management of the city of Minas Tirith as Denethor descends into madness.
Éowyn, the shield-maiden of Rohan, also maintains a presence as the lone representative of female humanity in the entire trilogy. Seriously, there’s her, a couple of Elf women, and some hairy Hobbit girls. Anyway, she represents her ilk with great strength and force of will. She has the strength of her convictions, and this leads her to respect her loyalties as she sees fit. And that doesn’t always mean obeying orders. She is an accomplished warrior, whose greatest fear is to die passively. In addition, she’s in love with Aragorn, who of course is in love with Arwen. Luckily, Faramir is eventually on hand to psychoanalyse her. And she kind of needed it, because the doom and gloom was getting a little hard to handle.
Tolkien’s writing is, well, just the same as ever. It’s always very detailed, but sometimes a little bit too detailed. I mean, it’s good that the geography of Mordor is laid out as well as it is, and even in writing the choreography of the battle scenes is excellent. But, on the other hand, there are just way too many historical narratives inserted into the text. I mean, it’s marginally bad when we have to hear about the ancestry of the great lord of men who dwelt once in a place that the characters have come to. It’s worse when we have to hear about the ancestry of the great and noble eagle that is carrying some of our characters to safety. But, frankly, it doesn’t get worse than the incomprehensible badness that is hearing about the ancestry of a tree—Seriously, y’all, a tree!--that has called out to Aragorn from across the land. Yeah, I know.
The really interesting part of the novel, for me, is the ending. (Potential spoilers follow in the remainder of this paragraph.) Many fantasy genre novels end, approximately, “Yay, we defeated the great evil! Let’s go home now, where we’ll all be kings and queens and married to each other or people we met along the way!” The Return of the King ends more like, “Yay, we defeated the great evil! Let’s go home now, where we’ll all be kings, but first we have to completely rebuild our society, after which we can usher in a completely new era of history. Then let’s marry each other and found dynasties in which all of our children will be kings as well!” It’s actually pretty cool. Everybody gets to show off their hard-won new identities, endowed as they are with the many lessons of their literal and metaphorical journey, and then you find out what happens over the next year or two. And if you’ve got the stomach for appendices (Wait, was that a pun?), you can find out what happens over the course of the next century or so.
Speaking of the appendices, they really are impressive. Granted, their contents will not be of interest to everyone. However, for true übernerds like me, they are a treasure trove of knowledge. Appendix A, “Annals of the Kings and Rulers,” is a massive 64 pages, and is divided into several sections and subsections. They include information on (I) The Nûmenorean Kings, (II) The House of Eorl, and (III) Durin’s Folk. The appendix tells of the major accomplishments of the more important leaders in Middle-earth throughout recorded history. Appendix B is the “Tale of Years,” featuring extensive timelines of the Second and Third Ages, as well as information about “events concerning the members of the Fellowship of the Ring” in the Fourth Age. Here, for example, you can learn that Samwise Gamgee became a seven-term Mayor of the Shire, and sailed over the Sea after the death of his wife Rose, some sixty-one years after the end of the novel’s main action. Peregrine Took went on to become Thain, and Meriadoc Brandybuck became the Master of Buckland, and both of them, along with Samwise, were regarded as noblemen under Aragorn’s reunited kingdom. Appendix C consists of family trees, which is like my lifeblood. You will find family trees for the Baggins, Took, Brandybuck, and Gamgee families. Appendix D is the “Shire Calendar,” along with extensive notes about archaic calendars used in Middle-earth and elsewhere. Appendix E, “Writing and Spelling,” features a pronunciation guide that is very useful if, like me, you often find yourself saying aloud any of the unusual words found in this novel. In addition, there are tables and explanations of the characters of Tengwar (used to write the Elvish Quenya language) and the Angerthas (used to write the Dwarvish languages). I, myself, used to be able to read and write Tengwar, but that was about two years ago and I’m out of practice. I’m still pretty much fluent with the futhark, but the Angerthas is much more complicated than that despite the similarities. Anyway, if you’re really interested in the languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, I’d suggest reading (well, I’ve already let the cat out of the bag, I suppose) The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, by Ruth S. Noel. It shouldn’t be surprising that these fantasy languages were so well developed, as Tolkien was a linguist by education. Appendix F, “The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age,” goes into greater detail on the races living in Middle-earth and the languages spoken by them. There’s also a bit in there about the “translation” of the Red Book of Westmarch, for that is the central conceit of The Lord of the Rings: that the whole thing is translated from the document maintained by Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, and later Samwise’s descendents. Of particular interest might be the fact that the word “hobbit” is given to be an invention. In fact, the Halflings (Holy crap! MS Word’s spell check automatically capitalizes “Halfling!”) of the Shire and of Bree used the word “kuduk,” which was derivative of a word of the Rohirrim, “kûd-dûkan,” meaning “hole-dweller.” These words were converted in the text into “hobbit” and “holbytla,” respectively.
There are also five very useful indices. The first is to “Poems and Songs,” and is organised by title/subject. The second is also to “Poems and Songs,” but by their first lines. The next three all comprise the “Glossary Index.” The first of those is “Persons, Beasts, and Monsters,” the second is “Places,” and the third is “Things.” The indices relate to the entire three-novel series, and they come in very handy if you’re like me, and find yourself often writing about The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Return of the King is the climactic conclusion to an epic series that has inspired linguists, historians, theologians, fanfic writers, and huge nerds all across the world for half a century. I can’t imagine a fan of fantasy literature notreading this, as it is the genesis of the genre. And now I’m done, a mere month after I intended to be. So, now on to the movie review, which I hope to get done before I leave for a vacation on Wednesday, since when I get back it will be time to do it all over again for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban.
QF2 (See explanation of QF on my profile page.)
It's hard to ignore certain gay elements in the relationsip between Sam and Frodo. I know I've said it before, but it really just cannot be said quite enough. The way they cling to each other with such tenderness, and in particular the moment they share at the end of their quest, really reflects the relationship of lovers, as far as I'm concerned.
This is the third part of Lord of the Rings. Set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth--home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peac...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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