December 21, 2015
I actually finished this book last night, but it got a little late to write this entry. I'm at the start of a long winter break from work, so I'm hoping to get more reading time in. I did an okay job of fitting in some reading time to my busy schedule recently, but this book, the final book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was a long one.
I didn't remember much of the events from the movie as I read. All I remembered was that Gollum fell into Mount Doom with the ring, Aragorn becomes the King, Sam marries Rosie, and Frodo sails away at the end with Gandolf and the elves. Oh, and the almost-death of Faramir. There were snippets that stuck out to me, but not the whole narrative of the story.
The story started off not split in two, but into several parts as more Fellowship members are separated. I almost feel like the movie did a better job of emphasizing the pain that Merry and Pippin felt while apart. In the book they're certainly missing their old lives, but they throw themselves into the service of the respective lords under whose protection they find themselves.
The leaders in the (at first) desperate fight against Sauron's creatures acknowledge that their massive efforts are only a decoy. The real fate of Middle Earth lies in the outcome of Frodo's mission. He and Sam meet many dangers in Mordor, but of course are ultimately successful, and they all more or less save the world.
Though I didn't have much vested interest in Faramir or Éowyn, but I thought their hooking up was good. Éowyn is one of the few female characters in this series, but she was a strong female. In the end she conforms to the expectations of her gender (had the series been more modern, I'd like to think it would turn out differently), but her role in the story was significant.
Poor Frodo! He bore the ring for too long to not be affected by it. He leaves Sam to have a normal, prosperous life in the Shire. Sam has always been the biggest hero of the story in my view, and I was glad to see him get a happy ending. But still...poor Frodo.
So ends my reading of Tolkien's works. If the writing isn't always spectacular, these are still classics that have inspired every work of fantasy literature since written. Would there be, for instance, a Dark Tower series without Lord of the Rings? Would there be a Harry Potter? I think not.
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