The Lord Of The Rings

You would like to get some information beside the movies? Here you go! The World of "The Lord of the Rings" is known to be John Roland Reul Tolkien’s life project. He is said to be one of the most important writers, not only in the "Lord of The Rings" genre of fantasy, but overall. He died on the 2nd of September in 1973 - but the world created by him lives on. He did not only write "The Lord of The Rings" series (1: "The Fellowship of the Ring"; 2: "The Two Towers"; 3: "The Return of the King") but also "There and Back Again" and "The Silmarillion" to just count the most famous. He gave the world of Middle Earth life with thousands of small adventures. After Tolkien’s death, his son, Christopher Tolkien, took his father’s notes and continued to grow the world even to this day. The famous author J.R.R. Tolkien may be taken from us - but lives on through his heir.

The story begins long before the present time, a time even before the timeline of the first book. Bilbo Baggins, caught in an orcish fort, finds a magical ring. After his disappearance on his 111th birthday, this ring is bequeathed to his nephew Frodo Baggins. Together with the wizard Gandalf the Grey, he finds that this ring is forged by the dark lord Sauron, and if he gets this ring, the whole world of Middle-Earth will be covered in darkness and be enslaved by evil. Together with his gardener Samwise Gamgee, the brave Hobbit Frodo goes to the Valley of Imladris to meet Elrond and to be part of a council to decide what to do with this tool of madness, the ring. They all agree that the ring has to be destroyed, but that's only possible in the fires of Mordor, Sauron’s land. Together with 8 companions, Frodo forms "The Fellowship of The Ring", which is the first book’s name . The fellowship goes to the waterfalls of Rauraros, where the first book ends with 2 hobbits being captured by Saruman, an evil wizard.

As the Fellowship partly reunites (the lost Hobbits have been found) most of them wander towards the capital in the biggest land of the humans: Gondor and it's capital Minas Tirith. Gondor, the land where one from the Fellowship, Aragorn, is next in line to be king. This event is so impactful, it is the third book’s name. The "The Return of the King". In Minas Tirith, they all prepare for a big battle, asking the people of Rohan for their help. Frodo and Sam were betrayed by Gollum. They are nowon their own again, but already in the lands of Mordor. They have to face an army of orcs and try to sneak to the mountain, Mount Doom, to finally destroy the Ring of Power and therefore the all-mighty Dark Lord Sauron.

Saruman the White forms an alliance with Sauron in Mordor. It is called the alliance of "The Two Towers". The Fellowship splits up. Frodo and Samwise are heading to Mordor while the others are trying to find the lost Hobbits in the Lands of Rohan. Their hunt is unsuccessful, but it leads them to meet Thèoden, Rohan’s king, and helphim in the big battle of Helm's Deep. Meanwhile Frodo and his gardener have an encounter with Gollum, who claims to be able to lead them to the dark lands of Mordor…

When talking about literature, it always comes to one common point: Motives. What are those in "The Lord of the Rings"? First of all, the fight of good against evil. Then, not to forget, the inner growth of the main characters and the little, unsuspicious Hobbit heading for the big bad guy Sauron and his army.

When talking about the main characters we cannot afford to forget the following few. The Fellowship: Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, Heir of Isildur (Human) Boromir of Gondor (Human) Legolas out of the Mirkwood (Wood elf) Gimli Gloinsson from Erebor (Dwarf) Gandalf the Grey (Wizard, Human) Frodo Baggins (Hobbit) Samwise Gamgee (Hobbit, Frodo's gardener) Meriadoc Brandybock (Hobbit, Frodos cousin) Peregrin Took (Hobbit, Frodos cousin)

Of course every good story comes from the amazing side characters, giving it a bit of a depth. In the first Book of the series, we are meeting... - Saruman the White - Galadriel - Elrond - Arwen - Tom Bobadil - Isildur

Here's the part everyone is waiting for: The dark power rising in the East. Here are the ones who want to claim our lives! - Sauron - Nazgûl (9 former men, betrayed by the dark lord) - Saruman (his betrayal comes up in the first book) - Sauron’s Dark Hand (Sauron’s Tower, Sauron’s Hand of 5 orc chiefs and Sauron’s Mouth)

"Not all those who wander are lost." (Bilbo Baggins, "The Fellowship of the Ring")

What needed to happen so that Frodo could get the ring? Here, we'll take a look at the things during Sauron’s last appearance. First, an elven blacksmith called Celebrimbor forged some rings. To be exact, 3 for the Elves, 7 for the Dwarves and 9 for the mortal men. Also, Sauron forged one for himself with all of his anger, his hate and his will to destroy and enslave inside. There is something written on it, saying "One Ring to rule them all" but it's only visible trough fire and flames. The other rings, both the three and the seven, just let Sauron know where the wearers are at any time. The nine rings of men do something completely different.. Those ring wearers were all once kings and they wanted with every part of their soul to grow their power. So he gave them rings to make them more powerful, and in turn they went mad. Every one of them did horrific things to those that they were close to. After realizing this, they all killed themself, but instead of Death, Sauron awaited them. The nine mortal men became the nine immortal Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths. They seek the One Ring, forged by Sauron himself but he's the only one who can use it. So the Nazgûl are in a permanent search of something so powerful that they can’t wield. As Sauron’s power was at his highest, an alliance of elves and men attacked him. Isildur, the king of Gondor cut the ring off of Sauron’s hand and took it for himself. The hero died shortly after that by an ambush of orcs and the ring was lost for a long time. Gollum found it one day and kept it hidden, but some 500 years after, it came to Bilbo, where our history lesson ends.

"The Lord of the Rings" has a quite unique kind of storytelling. In the usual case, you follow the main character on his/her journey and afterwards, the book ends. In this case, the book starts after the adventure is done with one of the main characters to write the story down for his heir. It is also special with the the amount of (main) characters in the book. There are nine main characters (and a lot of side characters) who split up into two groups in the second book and three in the third. Tolkien gave every group the same amount of time in the story. Every group has their own story which is important for the whole plot and each of them has an equal amount of pages for their story to be told.

Tolkien was not only exceptional for the depth of his many characters, but also that the creation of his world also brought in many races of creatures and people. In the universe he created there are Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and even living trees. There are much more in the world, almost too many to specify,for example trolls. Tolkien’s foundation to the stories come from Nordic mythology. There are the dwarves of Nidavellir, the elves of Alfheim, and the giants of Jötunheim. As that wasn’t enough for Tolkien, in addition to creating those species, he even created his own language! For example, the runes of the dwarves are heavily based on what we know today as old Norse runes that the Vikings used.. He was also inspired by the Finnish language which he used when creating the language of the elves. He even created an alphabet for those, which he came up completely by himself! So to say, he did not only create one of the world’s biggest fandoms - he also created whole languages for those.

Poems and Songs are very important in Tolkien's world. While Hobbits are glad about nearly everything in their life (despite an empty plate in front of them), they sing about nearly everything. For instance, taking a bath, doing the dishes,or even taking a small hike to the local tavern. Dwarves aren't considered simple people. They are primarily focused on themselves, mining in their enormous mountains for treasures or forging weapons, armors and almost anything you can imagine. There’s also something unique about their songs. With their deep voices in the mountains, they sing about treasures, about bond that they make with each other in the depths of the mountains. They sing, about forging and of course about hiking - dwarves are walking a lot, they don't trust anyone or anything outside their race. And of course, they want to visit their relatives at some time in their kingdoms under the mountains, which are separated across all of Middle-Earth. Elves, on the other hand, are the opposite of dwarves. They love the sky above them, even in their castles it feels open to nature and the stars. Elves are noble warriors, and they are deadly with any weapon of their choice. They are immortal (if they don't die by the blade), and some consider them to be the wisest of all. This can be all heard in their songs. They sing about the moon and the stars and praise the sun. They tell about long forgotten ages in a way that lets you see them..

In this section, we're digging like dwarves deeper in the Nordic mythology and at the parts Tolkien took from it. First of all, "Middle-Earth" is based on one of the 9 Realms of the Nordics. The World of the humans, our world, is called "Midgard". Also, he found inspiration in Odin's ring, "Draupnir". He got this one from the dwarves Sindri and Brokkr, after they made a bet with Loki. The Ring leads to inner peace for Odin, and to prosperity for the Gods and fertility. Nice to know: Out of this bet with Loki came the mighty hammer of Thor, Mjolnir, too. And even Odin’s spear Gugnir, which never misses its target.

Are the characters at the end the same as in the beginnig? Well, that can be surely answered with a "no". Here are the biggest growths! Frodo, taking the ring to Mordor. He suffered under his burden to carry the ring and it affected his thinking of good and bad. After he was freed form the ring, he tried to make things up for all the bad habits he had upon their journey. Eventually, he even left Middle-Earth with the last of the elves after his upmaking was finished, but he still felt awful. Aragorn, the lonley rider who spent most of his time in the woods became king of Gondor. He was a wise king with a noble hearth and a good man to his wife Arwen, an elvish woman. Bormir, once part of the Fellowship, was the first to get infected by the ring. He always wanted to use it and at once, he didn't trust anyone, was filled with anger and even tried to steal the ring from Frodo. As the group was attacked by orcs, he saw his mistakes, saved Frodo and sacrified himself for the Fellowship. Gandalf the Grey was taking into the shadows by a Balrog in Moria. He came back from the dead, being now Gandalf the White to protect the lands of Middle-Earth from the eastern shadow of Mordor.

"Death is just another path, one which we all must take. The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns into silver glass. And then you see it: White shores, and beyond, a far green country, under a swift sunrise." (Gandalf the White, "The Return of the King")

"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

Home of the wood-elves of Mirkwood. Legolas is the kings son and his best fighter.

These are the dark lands of Mordor where Sauron has his tower and his army of orcs.

That's the Shire. Home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc Brandybock, Peregin Tuk, Samwise Gamgee and the only location in Middle-Earth where you can find Hobbits.

Minas Tirith. The biggest city of men, home to Boromir and land of the long lost king Aragorn.

Rivendell, Home of the Elves (espacially Elrond and Arwen). Here is the council that leads to the fellowship. Also, Aragorn lives here if he's not in the woods or on a journey.

C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE BOOK

Bilbos Birthday

Frodo arriving at Imladris

The Fellowship in Moria

Lady Galadriel

Boromirs betrayl

The orc's raid

The splitting of the Fellowship