The Lord Of The Rings TrilogyEssay Preview: The Lord Of The Rings TrilogyReport this essayThe Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy saga by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien, his most popular work and a sequel to his popular fantasy novel, The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings was written during World War II and originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955. It is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of twentieth-century literature.
Although a major work in itself, The Lord of the Rings is merely the last movement of a larger mythological cycle which Tolkien called his legendarium. The action is mainly set in what is conceived to be the lands of the real Earth inhabited by humanity but placed in a fictional time. Tolkien called this setting by a modern English rendering of the Old English Middangeard: Middle-earth.
Despite its popularity, Tolkien did not consider The Lord of the Rings his magnum opus; he bestowed that honour upon The Silmarillion. Whereas The Lord of the Rings is a story and literary venture, The Silmarillion is the basis of an entire legendarium, which provides the historical and linguistic context for the more popular work and his constructed languages.
Three film adaptations have been made of the story told by the books: the first, by animator Ralph Bakshi, was released in 1978 (as the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story); the second, a 1980 television special; and the third, director Peter Jacksons film trilogy, released in three installments in 2001, 2002, and 2003. There are also two Collectible Card Games and multiple video games that take place in the Middle-earth.
Back storyThe back story begins thousands of years before the action in the trilogy, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent incarnated spiritual being who possesses great supernatural powers and is the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor.
At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survives the catastrophic defeat and exile of his master, the diabolos figure, Morgoth. During the Second Age, Sauron schemes to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In disguise as “Annatar”, or Lord of Gifts, he aids Celebrimbor and the other Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of the Rings of Power, but then secretly forges the One Ring by which he could enslave their wearers. This plan fails when the Elves become aware of him and take off their rings. Sauron then launches a military campaign during which he captures the Seven Rings and the Nine Rings and distributes them to lords of the Dwarves and Men respectively. The Dwarves prove too tough to enslave, but the Men who possess the Nine are slowly corrupted over time and eventually become the NazgĂâčl, his most feared servants. The Three, he fails to capture, and they remain in the possession of the Elves.
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{p>A tale of the future of Middle-earth. Sauron was born to the King of the Silver Hand in his youth, but his family came of age in a distant time line and the King saw him as the son to the mighty Sauron. From that time onwards, the Middle-earth was created with the help of his son and his wifeâKing Beelzebub, his wife’s son and daughter of the First Age of Middle-earth with her husband. Beelzebub became the king’s successor and continued the throne. After his successor was called the King of the Silver Hand in his later years, he ruled from his father’s side until he died a knight in 2350, at the time under the rule of King CĂ©dric, at the behest of King Arthur, who was his only son. Beelzebub was exiled in his childhood to a secluded region in the Middle East known as Erebor. The place fell under a mysterious control of King Arthur, who controlled the land, and now made his own rule as king and wife. To guard his countrymen when he died, CĂ©dric and his family were forced to leave their homeland of Erebor. On discovering where their land lay, Beren, father to King Arthur, fought off the evil forces of CĂ©dric, and King Arthur and CĂ©dric fled the land. The land was then renamed EsmeraldaĂ«l.[1]
In the end, despite taking out many of the most powerful Men of the kingdom, the Dwarves did not realize the power of Erebor and retreated to their homeland which they had been able to control since the beginning.[2]
In the coming of Middle-earth’s Middle-earth, many of the Middle-earth myths which had originated from that time were found later in life. These myths began to be used to reinforce one another. To take an extreme example, legends of the DĂșnedain kings and their legendary people tell of the destruction of the castle of King Baldernia by Gilgamesh during Middle-earth’s First Age after his fall to the Dark Arts as he was in the midst of his many conquests, many of which were to lead to the creation of DĂșnedain. However, there are no known versions concerning the exact extent of this destruction. The tales do not appear to have been used by Middle-earth to explain the destruction that went on during the First Age, but the legends hold those who were defeated and those who were conquered to be immortal, and those who survived the conquest and were reborn in middle-earth as members of the Elven race. The legends do not actually relate an actual fate to the destruction caused by the First Age of Middle-earth and are merely myths and legends.
Dwarves that were destroyed in the Middle Ages are referred to as Erebor. However, Erebor was never given the name “Erebor to Beelzebub”, which came about from the way that Erebor used his daughter and his own daughter as advisors. This explains Sauron’s choice, as Erebor was the one who did the final and final destruction before the First Age of Middle-earth.
Ancestry was first spoken of by the MĂ»n people of Nordland during the Conquest to their god’s power. Their first name was given as FĂriku, which is how the legend and the MĂ»
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{p>A tale of the future of Middle-earth. Sauron was born to the King of the Silver Hand in his youth, but his family came of age in a distant time line and the King saw him as the son to the mighty Sauron. From that time onwards, the Middle-earth was created with the help of his son and his wifeâKing Beelzebub, his wife’s son and daughter of the First Age of Middle-earth with her husband. Beelzebub became the king’s successor and continued the throne. After his successor was called the King of the Silver Hand in his later years, he ruled from his father’s side until he died a knight in 2350, at the time under the rule of King CĂ©dric, at the behest of King Arthur, who was his only son. Beelzebub was exiled in his childhood to a secluded region in the Middle East known as Erebor. The place fell under a mysterious control of King Arthur, who controlled the land, and now made his own rule as king and wife. To guard his countrymen when he died, CĂ©dric and his family were forced to leave their homeland of Erebor. On discovering where their land lay, Beren, father to King Arthur, fought off the evil forces of CĂ©dric, and King Arthur and CĂ©dric fled the land. The land was then renamed EsmeraldaĂ«l.[1]
In the end, despite taking out many of the most powerful Men of the kingdom, the Dwarves did not realize the power of Erebor and retreated to their homeland which they had been able to control since the beginning.[2]
In the coming of Middle-earth’s Middle-earth, many of the Middle-earth myths which had originated from that time were found later in life. These myths began to be used to reinforce one another. To take an extreme example, legends of the DĂșnedain kings and their legendary people tell of the destruction of the castle of King Baldernia by Gilgamesh during Middle-earth’s First Age after his fall to the Dark Arts as he was in the midst of his many conquests, many of which were to lead to the creation of DĂșnedain. However, there are no known versions concerning the exact extent of this destruction. The tales do not appear to have been used by Middle-earth to explain the destruction that went on during the First Age, but the legends hold those who were defeated and those who were conquered to be immortal, and those who survived the conquest and were reborn in middle-earth as members of the Elven race. The legends do not actually relate an actual fate to the destruction caused by the First Age of Middle-earth and are merely myths and legends.
Dwarves that were destroyed in the Middle Ages are referred to as Erebor. However, Erebor was never given the name “Erebor to Beelzebub”, which came about from the way that Erebor used his daughter and his own daughter as advisors. This explains Sauron’s choice, as Erebor was the one who did the final and final destruction before the First Age of Middle-earth.
Ancestry was first spoken of by the MĂ»n people of Nordland during the Conquest to their god’s power. Their first name was given as FĂriku, which is how the legend and the MĂ»
The king of NĂĆ menor, Ar-PharazĂân, arrives with overwhelming force. Sauron yields to the NĂĆ menĂÆreans, and is taken to NĂĆ menor as a prisoner. The Valar, Lords of Valinor, want Sauron turned over to them, but Sauron had already started to poison the minds of the NĂĆ menĂÆreans against them. Thus, Sauron sets into motion the events that bring about NĂĆ menors destruction, by corrupting the kings mind, leading to an attempted invasion of Valinor and unleashing the wrath of IlĂĆ vatar upon the NĂĆ menĂÆreans, their land and Sauron. This nearly destroys him but he returns in spirit to Mordor, assumes a new form, and launches an attack against the NĂĆ menĂÆrean exiles (the faithful), that have escaped to Middle-earth. However, the exiles (led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anñrion) have time to prepare, and forming the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the king of the Eldar Gil-galad they march against Mordor and besiege Barad-dĂâčr, at which time Anñrion is slain. Sauron himself is ultimately forced to engage in single combat with the leaders. Gil-galad and Elendil perish as they combat Sauron, and Elendils sword Narsil breaks beneath him. Isildur cuts the One Ring from Saurons hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil, and at this Saurons spirit flees and does not reappear for many centuries.
So begins the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later while journeying to Rivendell, Isildur is ambushed by a band of Orcs and killed at the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. The Ring slips from his finger into the Great River Anduin and is lost for millennia.
In The Hobbit, the prologue to the saga, Tolkien relates the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. However, the tale related in The Hobbit is myopic in scope, and neither Bilbo nor the wizard Gandalf (nor the reader) are aware at this point that the magic ring is actually the evil One Ring forged by the Dark Lord.
SynopsisThe Lord of the Rings takes up the story about 60 years after the end of The Hobbit. The story begins when the hobbit Frodo Baggins comes into possession of a magic ring found by his uncle Bilbo. Bilbos friend, the wizard Gandalf, discovers that this is in fact the Ring of Power, the instrument of Saurons power and the object for which the Dark Lord has been searching since the end of the Second Age.
Evading Saurons servants, the sinister Ringwraiths, Frodo, on Gandalfs request and with the help of his loyal friend Samwise Gamgee, smuggles the Ring to a high council attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-Earth. In Rivendell, the location of the council, it is decided that the only course of action that can save Middle-Earth is to destroy the Ring by taking it to Mordor and casting into the fires of the volcano Mount Doom, where it was forged.
Frodo volunteers for the task, and a “Fellowship of the Ring” is formed to aid him on his task. However, by the end of the first volume it has been scattered, leaving Frodo and Sam to make the trip to Mordor on their own, assisted only by the dangerous creature Gollum, formerly of a race Gandalf describes as “not unlike hobbits”. Gollum had possessed the Ring before it passed to Bilbo. A slave to the Rings evil power, Gollum ostensibly helps the hobbits, but secretly he plots to destroy them and regain his “Precious”.
At the same time the man the hobbits know as “Strider” is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir to the kingship of the realms of Men. It is also revealed to the Hobbits that Saurons forces can only be resisted if Aragorn takes up his inheritance and fulfills an ancient prophecy by wielding the sword Anduril, which has been forged anew from the shards of Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Saurons finger