When Aragorn first enters the story at Bree, there is little about the weather-beaten Ranger called Strider that suggests Rivendell. He carries no visible Elvish title. He does not present himself as a prince raised in the household of Elrond. He looks instead like what decades of wandering have made him: one of the Dúnedain … Read more
When Merry Brandybuck offers his sword to Théoden, the moment seems to settle his place in the coming war. The King of Rohan accepts him, names him an esquire of his household, and welcomes a hobbit into a warrior culture built around horses, loyalty, and service. Then, almost immediately, Théoden refuses to take him into … Read more
At Amon Hen, the Fellowship does not break cleanly. It shatters. Frodo disappears. Boromir returns alone and shaken. Merry and Pippin rush into the woods. Sam vanishes in another direction. Legolas and Gimli begin searching. Then Orcs descend upon the scattered Company. In the middle of that chaos, Aragorn does something that can seem strange … Read more
Boromir’s Last Journey: When There Was No Grave, the Fellowship Gave Him River, Weapons, and Song Boromir dies far from Minas Tirith. There is no tomb waiting for the heir of the Steward. No company of Gondor to carry him home. No time even for Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli to raise a proper cairn. Merry … Read more
Gil-galad stands at the end of an extraordinary line of Elven kings. He is the last High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth, the ruler who joins Elendil in the Last Alliance, and one of the great figures remembered by the Elves thousands of years after Beleriand disappeared beneath the sea. Yet one surprisingly basic … Read more
Saruman is no longer lord of Isengard when Gandalf meets him for the last time on the open road. Orthanc has been taken from his control. His armies are gone. His staff has been broken. Sauron has fallen. The once-formidable head of the White Council is reduced to a ragged wanderer with Gríma Wormtongue trailing … Read more
At Henneth Annûn, Frodo is confronted with one of the strangest moral choices of his journey. Below him, in the dark water beneath the Rangers’ hidden refuge, Gollum is catching fish. He does not know that he has crossed a forbidden boundary. He does not know that Gondorian archers are watching him. And he certainly … Read more
When Bilbo Baggins finally returned to Bag End, he had survived trolls, goblins, giant spiders, imprisonment, a conversation with Smaug, and the Battle of Five Armies. He had become an Elf-friend. Dwarves knew his name. A king beneath the Mountain had called him friend before dying. And in Hobbiton, people were selling his furniture. That … Read more
When Théoden rides out from Edoras after casting off the influence of Gríma Wormtongue, one problem cannot be solved with horses and swords. Rohan's king is going to war. His son Théodred is dead. Éomer must ride with him. Yet thousands of people will remain behind while Saruman's armies threaten the kingdom. Someone has to … Read more
When Meriadoc Brandybuck rides back into the Shire after the War of the Ring, he is not yet the Master of Buckland. His father, Saradoc Brandybuck, still holds that office. Yet Merry returns as something Buckland has probably never seen before: a hobbit who has served a king, ridden with the Rohirrim, fought on the … Read more