G'day, I'm still on my travels, but this time I'm in the USA, traveling along the east coast to see family. And I have just finished reading The Return of the King, which is the third volume in the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. So I've already covered the previous two volumes in two previous blog casts.
And yes, they can be a bit rambling, but I'm trying to follow the structure of the stories and make comments about the story itself as it unfolds in the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, and then make some comparisons along the way to the movies. So I'm going by memory with the movies, which I have seen many times. And the main discovery of this process of rereading The Lord of the Rings, which I hadn't read since I was a teenager, is that despite the core story being very similar between the movie and the books, there are a lot of key differences in the books.
Obviously, the books delve much deeper into this world. There's a lot more lore and legend and storytelling. You learn a lot more about the characters.
You learn about the places. But also, there are some episodes that are different, that are in the book but left out of the movie. And there are a few parts of the movies that were created for the sake of the films that didn't happen, didn't take place in the books.
So I'm trying to identify those specific places and then talk about why the film might have made different choices. So in going through the books, I'm looking for points where they differ from the films and vice versa. What stories in the books are left out of the films, and what do the films add that's not in the books? And in doing so, I'm not trying to discredit the films by Peter Jackson.
I think they're marvelous films. Obviously, they had to make some difficult decisions about what to leave out, and they may have also added some parts that weren't originally in the book for the sake of drama or romance or to make the story clearer to filmgoers. Because obviously, you can't expect all the filmgoers to have read the book or to be familiar with this world.
So the film had to introduce a lot of elements to make clear what the story was about and what the characters in the world and etc. So I think the films take some liberties. They're all reasonable, I would say.
Nothing that's terribly outside of the realm of what's written in the book. But obviously, they had to make some key decisions about what to leave in and what to take out. So anyway, I've taken some detailed notes on my iPad while reading The Return of the King.
So I'm basically going to go through chapter by chapter, even though this may get a little bit tedious, and explain what happens in each chapter. And then along the way, I'll make some observations about what may or may not be missing from the movies, or what was in the movies that wasn't in the books. All right, so here we start.
The Return of the King, as usual, is divided into two books. So every one of these volumes in the trilogy is divided into two books. And in the first book, we're really focused on the war on Minas Tirith.
Minas Tirith is the castle town that is kind of set up right across from, not far from, the land of Mordor. Kind of has a guardian capability, since Mordor has, in recent ages, been a land of evil. You had Minas Tirith, and you had what becomes Minas Morgul.
Kind of twin cities, you could say. But Minas Morgul, closer to Mordor, was taken over by the Nazgul, and became the city of the Nazgul. So in the first book, we have the growing war, the mounting war on Minas Tirith, where Mordor, the forces of Mordor, Sauron's forces, are preparing to attack Minas Tirith.
And we find that this is a very systematic and well-planned attack. Meanwhile, Gandalf and his party, and the remaining fellows in the Fellowship of the Ring, are moving to protect Minas Tirith, and to bring the riders of Rohan to also help defend Minas Tirith. Because as Gandalf points out, if Minas Tirith is taken and defeated, that's basically the linchpin for the whole Middle Earth.
Everything else will fall. So like a set of dominoes, once Minas Tirith is defeated and taken over by the forces of evil, everything else falls after that. So this is really the last defense all the heroes in the story have to assist in the defense of Minas Tirith.
So it's a very epic story in the trilogy, because it involves all of the heroes, except of course Frodo and Sam. And Frodo and Sam, the hobbits, are on their own journey into Mordor. And that occupies at least the first half of the second book.
Of course, everybody knows that they eventually achieve their goal. If you don't know that, I don't know what rock you've been hiding under. But, you know, spoiler alert, they do achieve their goal of taking the ring to Mount Doom and disposing of it, actually destroying it, even though the destruction happens in an unforeseen way.
But that occupies the first part of the second book, and then the rest of the second book they are returning to home. And that's actually a very important feature of the story, and one that I feel is relatively neglected in the film. So in The Return of the King, we get the epic battle of Minas Tirith, and that's very stunningly visually represented in the film.
And of course, we get Frodo and Sam's perilous journey into Mordor. But we were not treated to the full vision of Tolkien and their journey back home, which involves going back to almost all the places that they visited along the way as they were taking their journey to Mordor. And then when they get back to the Shire, things have changed.
And there's another part of the story that I think was completely missing from the film, was what happened when they returned to the Shire. So we can talk a little bit later about why the filmmakers might have decided not to include that part, but I think it's a very key part of the story that's missing, and I want to talk about that. So we start with chapter one, and this is where Pippin and Gandalf, so Pippin is riding on Shadowfax with Gandalf, and they're riding, racing towards Minas Tirith, because Gandalf must lead in the defense of the city.
All of this chapter is basically from Pippin's point of view. So the interesting thing about the first book is that whenever possible, Tolkien chose to tell the story from the point of view of the hobbits, Pippin and Merry. So you have Merry's with Aragorn, and with Gimli and Legolas, and their party, and with Theoden, the king of Rohan.
So they're riding separately from Gandalf. Gandalf, because Shadowfax is so fast, he's already reached Minas Tirith, but as we find out, Aragorn has another purpose in his journey, and he leads the party down a very dark path. So you have the point of view of Pippin, and you have the point of view of Merry in these different chapters in the first book of Return of the King.
And I think that's interesting, and a little bit missing from the movie, is that point of view. Whereas in the second book of the Return of the King, primarily what you get is the point of view of Sam, who is supporting Frodo on his journey. And what you really see is this adventure unfolding from Sam's point of view.
And I that was very intentional on the part of Tolkien. So Pippin and Gandalf arrive in Minas Tirith, and they go up the kind of winding road that leads up the city to the citadel at the top, where they meet Denethor, who's the steward, not the king, but the steward of Minas Tirith. So you find out that for many generations, Minas Tirith has been run by stewards who were not the original kings, who descended from Númenor, the heirs of Elendil, right? So who came from Númenor in ancient times with his son Isildur.
But after a line of kings ruling over Minas Tirith and Gondor, that's the land, the kings eventually kind of petered out, and these stewards took over and basically served as de facto kings. But what we learn is that, what we eventually learn is that Aragorn is the true heir of Isildur along a long line, and that he is coming to reclaim the kingship. And that, of course, Denethor is very wary of this because he realizes that his place is going to be usurped.
So there's a lot of drama and tension around the figure of Denethor. And all of this is seen through Pippin's eyes and ears. So one thing that is interesting, first, you know, as with all of the Tolkien books, you get a very minute and very lovingly detailed description of the city of Minas Tirith, of its different levels, the city, the people, the buildings, and the other features of the city.
Denethor greets Pippin and Gandalf as honored guests. And, of course, he's very interested in Pippin and what he has to tell him because Pippin was with Boromir, who turns out to be Denethor's son, his favorite son. And Denethor wants to find out what happened to Boromir, why did he die, under what circumstances did he perish.
And then there's this mysterious story behind the fellowship that Denethor is also trying to understand because Gandalf instructs Pippin, don't tell him, don't tell Denethor anything about the ring, don't tell him about Aragorn, since Aragorn is coming to ultimately reclaim his title as king and could be a threat to Denethor. So all of that is made clear to Pippin. But, of course, Denethor, and I feel like the Denethor character in the book is actually much smarter, cleverer, and wiser than the Denethor in the movie.
For some reason, my impression of the Denethor in the movie is that he's not really evil, per se, but he's kind of bordering on incompetent. And there's something of that in the original story that's true, that's faithful in part to the original story. But it seems like the Denethor in the book is much wiser and more penetrating in his vision and his understanding than the one in the movie.
So Faramir is different in the book and the film, and so is Denethor. And Denethor really seems very regal as well. He really seems like a king, even though he's not.
But Pippin decides pledge allegiance to Denethor, to pledge himself as his servant, his faithful servant. And he becomes a member of the guard and an honored guest and even a kind of heroic figure in Minas Tirith. And then Pippin and Gandalf get set up in a guest house.
Gandalf goes off to do his business, but Pippin gets set up with another guard named Baragond, who's completely missing from the movie as far as I remember. But Baragond turns out to be a very interesting figure in the story. He leads Pippin around, kind of shows him the lay of the land, takes him to lunch, introduces him to other guards, and he really treats him with respect and courtesy and Pippin as well.
So you can see that Pippin is getting a lot of respect from the people of Minas Tirith. And he doesn't seem like the kind of buffoonish figure that I think he appears in the film. I think Pippin also has much more of an air of gravity in the book than he does in the film.
So Pippin kind of learns a lot about the city and about his role, his new role, his chosen role. And then Baragond sends him down a few levels to meet his son. And that's a very interesting moment in the story, which is completely absent from the movie.
And I think it was a missed opportunity because there really aren't any children in the films. And very few children play any, you know, big roles in the book as well. This is just one exception where Baragond's son takes Pippin around and there's a lot of banter between the two of them.
Of course, Baragond, being a man, his son is, even at the age of 10, much taller than Pippin, who's only four feet tall, although he's grown because he drank some ent juice. And so he ends up growing and becoming a very tall and imposing hobbit. And that plays a role at the end of The Return of the King.
But anyhow, there's a lot of, there's a very nice kind of episode where Pippin and Baragond's son are walking around and getting to know each other and learning more about the city. And then we find that Pippin is going to be summoned by Denethor the following morning. He goes back to the guesthouse.
Gandalf returns late at night and he's wondering when Faramir will return. He sees that as absolutely vital to the future of the city, that the second son of Denethor should return and help to guard the city. And I think Gandalf already perceives that Denethor is unstable, that he's not really fit to be the chief guardian of the city at this point.
And that proves true. So that's the end of chapter one. And then we move to basically Merry's perspective.
And Merry, the other hobbit, is riding with Aragorn and with Gimli and Legolas who are riding together on a horse who have become fast friends. And also with Theoden, King Theoden, and Eomer, his nephew Eomer, who becomes, well, jumping the gun here, but becomes the next king of Rohan. And this is the chapter where Aragorn decides to take a dark path.
And he is given a gift from the Lady of Rivendell, who we all know as Arwen. So their relationship is hinted at in the book. It's not made explicit as it is in the film.
We all remember Liv Tyler playing the role of Arwen, who is considered one of the most beautiful females, if not the most beautiful female, of Middle-earth, vying with Galadriel. So the Lady of Rivendell has given Aragorn a gift, which turns out to be his banner, the banner of the of the heirs of Ilindel, with the white tree and the stars. And she has also sent word to the Dúnedain, who are basically the same people as Aragorn.
These are the rangers, the men originally of Númenor, their descendants who have kind of pledged to keep Middle-earth safe, to guard all of the different communities in Middle-earth from the evil forces that are penetrating into Middle-earth. So the Dúnedain come to Aragorn's aid. That's also something that I felt that I think was missing from the movie.
It's, I guess, suppose it was considered to be a little too complicated for the story of the film. Anyhow, so Aragorn's party grows. And interestingly, we have a parallel of Merry and Pippin.
Pippin becomes kind of the esquire or pledges himself to Denethor in Minas Tirith. Meanwhile, Merry pledges himself to Theoden and becomes very close. He establishes a very strong bond with Theoden.
And the bond is mutual. So again, there's a lot of mutual respect flowing back and forth between the hobbits and the men that they are close to. I think that was another thing I felt was a little bit missing from the film.
You don't get that sense in the film, but there's a sense that these great men, kings and so forth, kind of see the worth of these hobbits, think that these are very hardy folk, kind of similar to how Gandalf perceives their worth and their merit. So Theoden becomes very close to Merry. They, you know, they form a kind of bond of friendship over time.
And Merry later considers Theoden to be like a father to him. So there's a kind of Shakespearean language in these episodes, in especially the ways that the king speaks and and that the kind of the manners, the kind of courtly manners that the heroes use to speak to each other and to speak to the other great figures in this world. I just noted down a little, I don't know if you could call it a poem, a song, right? Because there are so many songs in The Lord of the Rings that are left out of the film.
But I kind of made up my own song to capture what was going on in this part of the story. Dark was the oath the men did take to join with Elendil. Dark was the path that Aragorn took to rally back the dead.
Dark was the path that Gandalf took to level up to white. Dark was the path that Frodo took into the Mordor night. So our key heroes in the story are all taking these paths of darkness in order to achieve greater power, greater wisdom.
And that's very deeply embedded in Tolkien's story, right? It's kind of the hero's journey. You have to ride through the valley of darkness in order to achieve your higher goals. And there's something I think also very Christian in that message as well, fitting in with Tolkien's Catholic background.
So Aragorn does something interesting, which again I think is not in the movie. I don't remember this being in the film, but he uses the palantir. That's this orb that you can look to look into to communicate with others.
Turns out it was made in ancient times. There were seven of them that were brought to Middle-earth, and they were used by the men of Númenor to communicate with each other across vast distances. But then the two remaining palantir that we know were taken over by Sauron and of course Saruman to communicate with each other.
We learned that in the Two Towers, but we remember that Wormtongue had thrown the palantir out of the Tower of Orthanc, where he and Saruman were kind of locked in after the Ents in the Two Towers took over Isengard and flooded it. The palantir was taken up by Gandalf, and he was going to use it, but then Pippin ended up using it instead and almost got sort of sucked into the mind of Sauron, but fortunately escaped. And now Aragorn has inherited the palantir as is his right, right? This is his rightful an object that belonged to his ancestors that he rightfully inherits.
And so Aragorn takes a look in the palantir, and in doing so he confronts Sauron. And for the first time Sauron realizes that an heir of Isildur is on the move. He's alive, and it seems that he is coming to reclaim his throne.
So obviously Sauron is very, what's the word, threatened, right? If you can think of Sauron, he seems to be all powerful, but he's actually very, very, very threatened by this development, which he didn't really know about until now. So what Aragorn has chosen to do is show himself, reveal himself, and in doing so he forces Sauron to act. And the idea, it's a strategic move that he is forcing Sauron to play his hand more quickly than he would have.
So he's forcing Sauron to reveal his full power to bring his army out to attack Minas Tirith. And of course all of this is paving the way for Frodo and Sam to complete their journey, right? So Aragorn, Gandalf, they all know that they have to do everything in their power to to enable Frodo and Sam to pass into the land of Mordor and complete their mission. So he also finds out some other useful information as he looks into the palantir.
It's all part of his transformation into a king, right? Up until this moment he has been Strider. He's been this kind mysterious ranger figure with these, you know, powers, but he hasn't really revealed himself as a true king yet. So he's on his path to revealing his true kingly nature and reclaiming the throne.
And so the party rides into Helm's Deep and they are with the Dúnedain, and from there they ride to Dunharrow, which is a kind of another retreat of the men of Rohan, and that's where they meet up with Eowyn, right? The niece of King Theoden. So Eowyn, Lady Eowyn, she meets with them. She obviously has an interest in Aragorn.
She's drawn to him and to his kind of kingly power, his charisma, but obviously he can't reciprocate, even though he has great respect for her. He is, as we find out at the end, he's kind of betrothed to Arwen. So he has another lady love, and that is played up very plainly and obviously in the movies, but it's a little bit more subtle in the books.
So Aragorn tells Eowyn about the battle for Helm's Deep, which she wasn't part of, and then her eyes are kind of on fire because he tells her that he is going down this very deadly dark road, and this is the path of the dead, right? There's this very dark mountain path that nobody who has gone down that path has ever come out of alive, and it turns out that it's haunted with the spirits of the dead who owe a debt to the heirs of Elendil because they broke their oath. So this is very medieval, very kind of feudal kind of system that's now been replicated in the world of the dead, where they still have not fulfilled their oath to the heirs of Elendil to fight against Sauron, and so they've been forced to kind of roam the earth as spirits, as angry, unfulfilled spirits until they complete their mission, until an heir of Elendil comes and rescues them, basically, and leads them to battle against Sauron. And Aragorn, through legend and lore, has kind of perceived that he is that heir, that it's his role to lead the dead out into the final battle, and that this will help turn the tide of the war. So all of that is in the book, it's a little bit, obviously in the film it's there too, but it all transpires differently in the film from the way it unfolds in the book. Eowyn is very upset because she thinks that Aragorn is leading himself to, kind of leading him and his men to his own death.
She can't perceive that there would be any other outcome, so she is very upset with his decision, but she can't stop him from going. She's also upset that she is a shield maiden of Rohan, but she's not allowed to participate in the final battle and so forth. So, Aragorn rides off, leaving Eowyn in her pain, and he takes the riders along this dark path.
They pass through dark caverns, he calls to the dead to fulfill their oath, and the dead ride with Aragorn and his party. He's left Merry behind, that's one important thing. Merry has been left behind with Eowyn and with Theoden.
Theoden does not come with them as well, so it's just Aragorn, the Dúnedain, and Gimli and Legolas who are on this mission. So they ride through darkness, they gather, they rally the dead, and they follow the riders to the Vale. They come through the mountains to a place where there's a Black stone, the Black stone of Erech, where they must fulfill their oath.
So it's there at the stone that he tells them, you must fulfill your oath by ridding the land of servants of Sauron. So, that's where we're left with chapter two. And then in chapter three, again, it's Merry's point of view.
He goes with Theoden and Eomer to their hold in the White Mountains, again, Dunharrow. They arrive a little bit later after Aragorn and his party have left. Eowyn is there, the riders assemble, thousands of riders assemble.
Merry asks about the Path of the Dead, but the King, King Theoden himself doesn't know where it leads. He doesn't understand why Aragorn took this path. Eowyn expresses her wish to go with the party to Gondor, to go with the riders to Gondor, but Theoden won't let her.
She's asked to stay and take care of Dunharrow. Merry wants to go as well, but Theoden says that the men can't take him, so he tells Merry and Eowyn to stay behind. And then a messenger comes from Denethor asking the King to bring men to Minas Tirith, and he agrees to take 6,000 men.
So the party, the riders leave Dunharrow as a dark cloud from Mordor starts to obscure the sky, and on their way they pass Edoras, which is where Theoden has his Hall. His great hall is located where we first met him. And Merry travels with them on a pony, but he's told to stay in Edoras.
But then a mysterious rider picks him up and offers to carry him, a rider named Dernhelm. So that's all we know at that point in the book is that there's this mysterious rider, Dernhelm, who has lifted Merry up and put him on his horse and is going to take him with the riders of Rohan. So Merry gets to go after all and join in the battle.
And that proves to be extremely important to the story. So then chapter four, again, we switch to the point of view of Pippin. And Pippin finds out he's in Minas Tirith, finds out that Faramir and his men have returned.
Faramir discusses the situation with Denethor and with Gandalf in the Citadel, with Pippin as a witness. And basically, Denethor commands him to go and defend Isgilioth, which is along the river where the enemy is going to swarm in. And it's kind of a suicide mission.
And they both know it. But Faramir decides to go and do his best because he's trying to, of course, he's trying to win favor from the king [steward]. He knows he's not the favored son, that Denethor's son Boromir died.
Faramir is trying to win the favor of not the king, but the steward, his father. Anyhow, that turns out to be rather tragic. Faramir is basically going to his doom and everybody knows it.
So he and his party are overrun by an army of orcs and men, men who have joined Sauron, men from the south. And they've been preparing to take Minas Tirith by siege. So Gandalf goes out, helps to rescue some of the men.
There's another prince in Minas Tirith who goes out with a cavalry. They're able to get some men back to the gates, but most of them die as the army, Sauron's army, continues to march to the outskirts of Minas Tirith and sets up trenches. They set up siege engines.
And of course, they're led by the Nazgul and by the black captain of the Nazgul. And Faramir is brought in. He is felled by an arrow, a black arrow. So he is poisoned. He is brought near death back to the citadel. And Denethor decides to commit a double suicide because he sees that there's just no point anymore in continuing this war.
They've lost. He would rather go out in a blaze of, if not glory, at least, you know, sacrifice himself on a funeral pyre than have to see his city being taken over by evil forces. And since he thinks that Faramir is already dead or beyond repair, he's going to sacrifice him as well.
So Pippin, of course, is very upset with this. And he goes out to seek help and find Gandalf. He finally gets to the gate, but Gandalf is busy because the opposing army of orcs and trolls and giants and all sorts of evil creatures is at the gates.
And they've got a giant ram and they're trying to get in. And finally, they ram their way into the outer gate. And the captain, the black captain, comes on his horse and challenges Gandalf.
But that's when we hear the horns of Rohan. So finally, the riders of Rohan have arrived and it seems like there's hope after all. So that's a really powerful ending to the chapter.
So in terms of the movie, I think all of this is fairly faithful with some minor elements, some minor differences. But I feel like one of the strengths of the movie was in portraying the battles. They really put a lot of effort into giving you a sense of the battles that were ongoing.
Chapter five, the riders of Rohan, on their way, they gain help from these wild mountain men. They take a shortcut trail to the war front. Theoden leads them into battle. They slice through the orc enemies. The Nazgul chief flies to Theoden and deals death. And Snowmane, the king's horse, falls on the king, trapping him.
So the king has basically been dealt a death blow and he's dying. Eowyn, who turns out, Dernhelm, the mysterious rider who took Merry, is none other than Eowyn, which we all knew if we had seen the film. Eowyn and Merry are there and they actually confront the Nazgul.
And this is one of the best scenes in the whole book. The Nazgul, of course, says, no man can kill me. You know, basically says, I'm immortal. No man can kill me. And she takes off her helm, reveals herself to be a woman and says, well, I am no man. And that's when the Nazgul overwhelms her and breaks her arm, breaks her shield.
But then Merry comes behind the Nazgul and in an act of true bravery, he stabs the Nazgul with his blade. And the blade, it turns out, is the same blade that he found in the barrow. Remember in the early episode of The Fellowship of the Ring, where they're in the forest of Tom Bombadil, and then they go into the barrows and they get trapped by a barrow wight.
Well, it turns out that the blade that he picked up in the barrow is a kind of a magical blade and has the power to truly hurt this magical figure, the black captain. So it kind of stuns him. And then Eowyn is able to deal a death blow, basically send his spirit back to Mordor where he's no harm anymore.
But not without almost sacrificing herself. So Merry, at this point, having attacked the Nazgul is near death. Eowyn is near death. And I don't think that was really portrayed in the film. But in the book, they are both brought, along with Theoden, Theoden's body, because Theoden has died at this point. They are brought back into Minas Tirith.
And Merry and Eowyn are eventually taken into the Houses of Healing, along with Faramir. So Faramir is healed as well. So I'm kind of jumping the gun.
There's a chapter where Gandalf helps to rescue Faramir. That's the chapter seven. Gandalf helps to rescue Faramir. They learn that Denethor was using the palantir to try to find out what was happening and that he was maddened by Sauron. So all of this was part of Sauron's plan. Beregond actually forsook his duties to help save Faramir.
So in chapter eight, Eowyn and Theoden are brought to Minas Tirith. Merry's with the party, but he falls seriously ill. Pippin finds him, takes him to the House of Healing.
Aragorn is summoned by Gandalf. So Aragorn, as the coming king, has this power to heal the sick. So Eowyn ends up surviving. So does Merry. Faramir is also healed with special leaves that Aragorn gathers, known as kingsfoil. And we may recall that this was the same poultice that Aragorn used, I believe, for Frodo when Frodo was wounded by the Morgul blade in the Fellowship of the Ring when he was on Weathertop and attacked by the Black Captain.
So now the Black Captain has attacked and wounded all of these heroic characters, but they're healed by Aragorn.
So the party gathers. In chapter nine, Pippin asks Aragorn's party to tell him of the paths of the dead.Legolas ends up recounting the story of their arrival and how they overwhelmed the ships, sailed with wind to Minas Tirith. Gandalf holds council. The lords decide to confront Mordor. Their only hope at this point is to divert attention from Frodo. That's still kind of the main mission. Sauron will think that one of them wields the ring, and he will set a trap for them.
And so in chapter 10, the final chapter of the first book of The Return of the King, the heroes march out with 7,000 men to the Black Gate of Gondor, where they confront Sauron's domain. An emissary comes forth from the gate, claiming himself to be the mouth of Sauron. He's a Black Dunedain. He makes them an offer, shows them the belongings of Sam and Frodo. Remember that Frodo had been captured by orcs after he was poisoned by Shelob. We don't know if he's dead or alive.
So they have the belongings of Sam and Frodo, who he calls spies. Gandalf rejects the offer of enslavement to the master, sends him running back. The gate opens, and countless orcs stream out.
Pippin kills a troll before he loses consciousness. So Merry's been heroic. Pippin now has his chance to have a heroic encounter with an evil creature that's much more powerful than he is.
The last thing that we see in the first book is eagles flying above the party as they are hopelessly surrounded by the orcs and the trolls and all the evil forces. And then we get into book six.
So now book six, the final book of The Return of the King and the final book of the trilogy, of course we return to the story of Sam and Frodo, and now we're seeing things through Sam's point of view.
So in chapter one, Sam has to retrace his steps through the tunnels, the tunnels of Shelob, at the border of Mordor. He's almost through the pass into Mordor, where Frodo has been attacked by Shelob and then taken by orcs to their tower, to the guard tower. Sam is trying to figure out how to get into the tower.
He has to go all the way down to the lower entrance of the guard tower of Cirith Ungol. The orcs, he can perceive because he's wearing the ring, and so he can hear through walls and perceive that the orcs have been having a fight. And it seems that the two leading orcs in the troop that took Frodo have been at odds with each other.
They've gotten into a fight and all of the orcs in the tower have been killing each other. So as he gets into the entrance and goes up the tower, he just finds dead orc after dead orc. Nobody's alive.
He's able to ascend into the tower and to go up the stairs, and finally he gets to a room where above that room there's a trap door in the ceiling. He has to take a ladder up there, that's where Frodo is being kept. The other thing he finds out is that Frodo is alive, so that's keeping him going.
So Sam gets up to the room where Frodo is being kept, and he fights Gorbag, who is the one remaining evil orc. He basically throws Gorbag through the trap door and [Gorbag] dies in the fall. Frodo is naked and obviously still stunned by the poison of Shelob, has no idea where he is at this point.
Sam gives him the gray cloak of the elves, and they decide to dress in orc armor, take swords and shields, and basically disguise themselves as orcs in order to basically get out and into Mordor. They have to disguise themselves.
So in chapter two they set off into Mordor. The ring that Frodo is wearing, so Sam gives Frodo back the ring. At first Frodo is very upset that Sam has taken the ring, but of course he, once he has the ring back, he realizes Sam was guarding it for him, and without that the ring would have been taken to Sauron for sure. But the ring becomes heavier and harder to carry.
As they're going into Mordor they meet a group of orcs that are marching, and they're basically forced by the orcs to march with them, but then they escape as more orcs arrive. The orcs are assembling to, obviously this is a function of Aragorn and Gandalf and their party, going to confront the evil forces at the gates of Mordor. So Frodo and Sam are able to escape, and they're walking towards Orodruin, which is the Mount Doom, the volcanic mountain, but it's still quite far away, and the terrain is pitted and scarred and inhospitable.
They have very little food, very little water. So in chapter three they're walking to Mount Doom, and they continue to find inner strength despite no food and little water. The lembas, the elfin bread, sustains them, and near to the entrance to Mount Doom, Gollum appears, and he attacks them.
Frodo drives him off. Sam threatens him, and he slinks away, but he continues to follow them. Frodo gets inside at the edge of the drop into the volcano, so they arrive at the edge of the volcano.
He balks, and he puts on the ring just at the moment where he should be throwing it into the volcano to destroy it. Sauron has been concentrating all his attention on the western lords, Aragorn, Gandalf, and their party, and so he has missed this mission completely. And finally, as Frodo puts on the ring, Sauron finally sees him and realizes what a huge mistake he made, and he sends the Nazgul flying back into Mordor to try to capture Frodo, but it's too late.
And that's when Gollum plays his part. He attacks the invisible Frodo, manages to bite his finger off, take the ring. Frodo reappears without the ring, without his finger. [Gollum] gleefully takes the ring, but then he falls into the precipice and is consumed by the flames of Mount Doom, and the ring is destroyed.
And then everything that is under Sauron's power crumbles. So I think all of this is pretty well depicted in the film. There are some minor variations.
The tower story is a little bit different. They kind of foreshorten, of course, the epic journey that Frodo and Sam take through Mordor, but more or less the elements of the story are the same in the film as in the book.
And then in chapter four, Frodo and Sam believe that the end is near. There's no escape for them now. They do find a rock that's being kind of surrounded by lava flowing from the mountain. So they're going to meet their doom there, but Gandalf rides in on an eagle, on the captain of eagles, to rescue them. So again, that's depicted in the film as well. And then Aragorn heals them in Ithilien, and they awake many days later. So now they are true heroes.
And Aragorn has his coronation and declares Frodo and Sam heroes of the realm. Pippin and Merry are there as well. They've grown taller from drinking the Entdraught.
Draft, I should say, the Entdraft. Chapter five, Eowyn is restless, and she begs leave from the House of Healing to join the battle. So it's kind of going back in time a little bit.
Faramir falls in love and courts her. So we get to kind of experience the courtship between Faramir and Eowyn that we just glimpse at very briefly at the end of the movie.
The party returns.Aragorn is crowned king with the crown of his ancestors. Eowyn agrees to wed Faramir. Aragorn gives Faramir the land of Ithilien, kind of enfeofs him as a prince. Remember, because he was the steward of Gondor, but now he's enfeofed as a prince. Eamor, the king of Rohan, returns to Rohan. Aragorn resides in Minas Tirith as the returned king.
Gandalf takes Aragorn on a climb up Mount Mindolluin, which is the tall mountain overlooking Minas Tirith, where he finds the sapling of a white tree, same tree that had grown in Minas Tirith, but that had withered and died. So symbolically, Aragorn takes the sapling carefully back to Minas Tirith and plants it, and it grows into the white tree. So it's symbolic of the return of the king's power to the land of Gondor.
None of that, as I recall, was in the film. Gandalf says that the age, the third age is now over, and the fourth age is beginning. So he declares the advent of a new age of Middle-earth, and he also says that the elder folk, meaning the elves, will leave Middle-earth, and Aragorn must rule now.
The elves come to Minas Tirith, including Galadriel, Elrond, and Elrond gives the hand of Arwen to Aragorn. We find out in the appendix, there's a whole section in the appendix that describes the backstory of Aragorn and Arwen, and we find out that Elrond said that Aragorn could take Arwen's hand only if he becomes the king of Gondor. So now he's fulfilled that mission, and he gets to wed Arwen.
So Aragorn knows he'll grow old, and Gandalf tells him that he too will leave Middle-earth, that he was an enemy of Sauron, and now that's over, and a new age of men has begun.
So in chapter six, the party of lords and the members of the fellowship travel back towards Rivendell. They visit Rohan, and they bury Theoden, king Theoden, in a tomb mound next to his ancestors.
Eomer toasts to the betrothal of Eowyn and Faramir. They toast Eomer the king of Rohan and of the Mark. Gimli visits the jeweled caverns in Helm's Deep along with Legolas, so they get to continue their friendship.
Then they go to Fangorn Forest, and Treebeard meets them, and it turns out that Treebeard and the Ents have turned Isengard into an orchard, and Treebeard let Saruman and Wormtongue go, and Saruman gave him the keys to the tower. So now Aragorn takes the keys to the tower of Orthanc, as is his right, and Saruman and Wormtongue are basically beggars on the road, and later the party meets them, and they are unrepentant. Then they drop off Galadriel and Celeborn in Lothlórien.
Then they pass the mines of Moria, where Gandalf had encountered the Balrog. They arrive at Rivendell, and Bilbo, of course, is there, and he seems very forgetful, kind of in his dotage. He gives gifts to the hobbits, including gifts that he already gave to Frodo, and they return to the Shire with Gandalf.
Elrond tells Frodo that he will meet him in a forest near the Shire with Bilbo at a future time. So chapters seven and eight, the party of hobbits heads back to the Shire, but when they reach the Shire, they find it has been taken over by evil men led by a mysterious man named Sharky, and these men are basically bullying the hobbits. They're knocking down trees. They're cutting up the land. They're building, basically doing all the evil things that men do to kind of ruin the Shire. So Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, sorry, not Gandalf.
Gandalf has gone off. Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam are forced to confront the situation on their own, and this is where, you know, all the heroic powers that they gained on their long journey, now they have to use them to repair their own home, and this is something that was, as far as I remember, was completely missing from the film, and actually a very important part of the story that I feel it's a real shame that this wasn't told, because I think it's a very important feature. It's not just about the hero going to foreign lands and vanquishing the enemy and gathering, having great experiences and gathering great powers.
It's also the return home and repairing the home, the homeland. So this is an important part of the story that I think is missing in the films. So the four hobbits, they've gained great strength and powers, and they are able to rally the other hobbits together with them to drive the evil men who are also part orcs out of the Shire, and then finally they confront Sharky, and of course it turns out that Sharky is none other than Saruman, and that Saruman and Wormtongue have been kind of leading these evil men and destroying the Shire, and that this was done out of petty vengeance and so on.
As Saruman is leaving in disgrace, Wormtongue turns on him and basically stabs him in the back with a knife, and then Wormtongue is killed by the hobbits' arrows, so Saruman and Wormtongue are no more.
Chapter nine, Elrond and his party arrive at the woods, as he said they would, outside of the Shire. Frodo meets them, and he decides to depart with Gandalf and Bilbo to the Western lands because he has been wounded, right? He was wounded at Weathertop by the Morgul blade, he was wounded again by Shelob, and then finally he was wounded by none other than Gollum, who bit his finger off.
So even though he was repaired somewhat, he still has all these inner wounds that keep expressing themselves, and he will never really heal from this evil and from the power that the ring had on him for all the days that he carried it. So Gandalf and the elves have agreed to take the two ring bearers, Bilbo and Frodo, to the western lands where they can live and heal.
And of course Sam stays in the Shire, and he marries Rosie, his lady love, which is also depicted in the film. They have a family. He becomes the mayor, and he basically takes over Bag End, and Pippin becomes the Thain. That's a part that I really love that I think is completely, again, missing from the film. Pippin is much stronger, more valiant, and cleverer in the books than he is in the films, and he ends up being the Thain, which is the de facto king of the Shire and ruling with an even hand.
So it's really a fitting end to this epic journey, and that's it. That's the end of The Lord of the Rings. Then there's a series of appendices, which I'm not going to go into here, but they give the backstory of all of the, you know, the fables and the legends and the lore that you kind of picked up by songs and by snatches of stories by the different characters during the tale of The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien delves much further and deeper into those backstories. I think it's definitely well worth reading the story of Arwen and Aragorn. You find out how they met, and you find out that Aragorn grew up with Elrond for reasons that are told in this part of the appendix, and there are other stories that are worth reading, but I'm still working my way through that part of the book.
But it's not essential to the arc of The Lord of the Rings, but I can see how Peter Jackson and his team kind of plundered little bits from the appendix to enhance the film and give kind of a better understanding of the story. So that's it. I think overall, the film, the films are faithful to the books. They take some liberties, but nothing that’s out of character or beyond the vision and imagination of Tolkien himself. So I think that unlike the Hobbit (movies) which took a lot more liberties with the characters including those that were not in the original story of the Hobbit at all, the Lord of the Ring movies have been much more faithful to the books, you could say much more respectful to Tolkien’s original vision. But at the same time you can understand why they took some departures in order to tell the tale to a cinema-going audience. So that’s the end of my series, hope you enjoyed it, over and out.