The Council of Elrond reaches its terrible conclusion on October 25, 3018: the One Ring cannot safely be used, hidden, or sent away. It must be taken into Mordor and destroyed in the fire where it was made. Frodo accepts the burden. Yet the Fellowship does not immediately ride south. Instead, weeks pass in Rivendell. … Read more
The Sceptre of Númenor was supposed to pass according to law. Yet one of the most revealing details in the island kingdom’s history is that the question of who could marry whom became inseparable from the question of who could rule. That tension appears most clearly around Númenor’s first Ruling Queen, Tar-Ancalimë. Her father changed … Read more
At Amon Hen, Frodo Baggins faces one of the loneliest choices in The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship has crossed mountains, darkness, grief, and hundreds of miles together. Aragorn is prepared to accompany him toward Mordor. Merry and Pippin have no intention of abandoning him. Gimli and Legolas are loyal to the Company. Sam … Read more
How Beorn’s Provisions Made the Company’s Route Through Mirkwood Possible When Thorin Oakenshield’s company reached Beorn’s house, the Lonely Mountain was still far away. Yet one of the most dangerous decisions of the entire journey was already approaching: how could fourteen travelers cross Mirkwood without horses, without reliable food, and without leaving the one path … Read more
When Bard’s black arrow struck Smaug, the most obvious obstacle to the restoration of Dale vanished in a single night. The dragon that had destroyed the old town, occupied Erebor, and terrorized the surrounding country was dead. But killing Smaug did not automatically bring Dale back. The old settlement beneath the Lonely Mountain had already … Read more
A green shield seems like one of the simplest images in Rohan: wood, paint, a bright device, something carried by a rider or hung ready in a hall. Yet in The Lord of the Rings, shields do more than protect the body. They quietly reveal the difference between a kingdom, a royal household, and a … Read more
The most famous escape from the Elvenking’s halls begins with an absurdly simple object: an empty wine-barrel. Bilbo Baggins has thirteen Dwarves locked in separate cells, an underground palace full of Elves around him, and no obvious route through the guarded main entrance. Then he discovers the water-gate beneath the cellars. Empty barrels are routinely … Read more
When the Rohirrim finally reach the Pelennor Fields, the reader has spent chapters feeling the approach of catastrophe. Minas Tirith has been darkened beneath Mordor’s shadow. Faramir has been wounded. Denethor has begun to despair. Gandalf stands before the broken Gate. Théoden’s riders have crossed Rohan, passed secretly through the Drúadan Forest, and arrived almost … Read more
The morning after the hobbits first sleep in Tom Bombadil’s house, rain closes around them. It is not a violent storm. The clouds gather into a grey roof, steady rain hides the Old Forest, and water begins running from the hills. Somewhere above the hobbits, Goldberry is singing. Her voice seems almost to descend with … Read more
Frodo Baggins returns to the Shire alive. The Ring is destroyed. The Nazgûl are gone. Shelob has been escaped, Sauron has fallen, and even the last violence brought into Hobbiton is eventually overcome. Yet Frodo does not simply become well. One of the quietest and most unsettling details in the closing history of the War … Read more