The end of all things.
The Return of the King is an excellent final volume to Tolkien’s masterpiece. As most familiar with the publication of The Lord of the Rings will already know, this story was never intended to be separated into three different volumes, but alas Tolkien threw his publisher a bone on this one. If I had to rank the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, I would rank The Return of the King lowest, but that is no insult. As an isolated third volume, The Return of the King spends much of its page count resolving character arcs and plot threads, even after the Ring has been unmade and Sauron and all his creation has been thrown down in defeat and ruin. However, the numerous endings and the length of the falling action works much better in the context of The Lord of the Rings as a 1000+ page epic saga, as it was intended.
Compared to the The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, The Return of the King does not spend as much time giving the reader wise quotes or beautiful passages describing the natural beauty of Middle Earth. Instead, readers are given a close-up view of evil in many forms: Sauron’s tyranny, Gollum’s treachery, Saruman’s spitefulness, the orcs’ crassness, the Witch King’s nightmarish terror, the lies and twisted truths of the Palantiri and the Mouth of Sauron, and the crushing misery of the lands of Mordor itself. Watching our characters stare down the darkness and defy it through perseverance, hope, strength of arms, faith, sacrifice, pity, and forgiveness is one of the most powerful things about reading The Lord of the Rings. More than anything else, I believe the power of Tolkien’s work to captivate audiences the world over comes from the inspiration we can all find in following the Host of the West in their all-but-doomed march to the gates of Mordor; or Sam as he literally carries Frodo on his back to the end of all things; or Merry and Éowyn as they defy expectations and slay the Witch King; or Frodo as he forgives and pities both Gollum and Saruman moments after they each tried to take his life.
On its surface, The Lord of the Rings is a story about Elves and Dwarves and Hobbits and Wizards and Kings and a Dark Lord and a magical ring. It is an enchanting tale of talking trees and majestic cities and wicked orcs. But it is also a rich and timeless tale about friendship, sacrifice, hope, the power that each of us has to change the world, and the importance of loving that world and each other. That is why it is a great tale, and I hope that the Red Book of Westmarch will be read every day until the second music of the Ainur and the remaking of the world.
QUOTES:
“The hasty stroke goes oft astray.”
“Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend.”
“Follow what may, great deeds are not lessened in worth.”
“As I have begun, so I will go on. We come now to the very brink, where hope and despair are akin. To waver is to fall.”
“In the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
“The world is full of enough hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”
“Many folk like to know beforehand what is to be set on the table; but those who have laboured to prepare the feast like to keep their secret; for wonder makes the words of praise louder.”
“It must often be so […] when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.”
The Once and Future Lit 