J.R.R. Tolkien's Return of the King

J.R.R. Tolkien's Return of the King
Begin: 10/06/07
End: 10/11/07
Quality: Ten out of Ten.
Reason: Reading Plan.
Genre: Fiction. Novel. Fantasy. Epic. Classic.
Original Language: English.
Date of Publication: 1954.
Fog Index: 7.5/85% are harder
Flesch Index: 80.7/96% are harder
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.6/85% are harder
Complex Words: 4%/92% have more.
Number: Countless.
Synopsis: This is the final book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The first half of the book deals with the war on Gondor while the second half deals with Frodo and Sam making it to Mount Doom and the outcomes of the War of the Ring.
Thoughts: A little sad it’s all over. Impressive as always. I kept finding little refrences to the fact that Sauron didn’t really have willing servants but slaves that he bent to his will which is interesting spin on things. Orcs not being evil creatures as much as just tools of Sauron. I was also extremely fascinated with Saruman in this reading. I just can’t figure this fucker out, was he that power mad and disturbed? They gave him chance after chance. How can that man have that much pride?


“Too often have I hear of duty,” she cried. “But am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will.”

“What do you dear, lady?” he said.
“A cage,” she said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deads is gone beyond recall or desire.” (767)

“I pity even his slaves” (795)

“But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?” (849)

“Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” (861)

“for he had few servants but many slaves of fear.” (880)

“But far worse than all such perils was the ever approaching threat that beat upon them as they went: the dreadful menace of the Power that waited, brooding in deep thought and sleepless malice behind the dark veil about its throne. Nearer and nearer it drew, looming blacker, like the oncoming of a wall of night at the last end of the world.” (914)

“Then suddenly, as before under the eaves of Emyn Muil, Sam saw these two rivals with other vision. A crouching shadow, scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing, a creature now wholly ruined and defeated, yet filled with a hideous lust and rage; and before it stood stern, untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at its breast it held a wheel of fire. Out of the fire there spoke a commanding voice.
‘Begoner and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the fire of Doom.” (922)

“and even at that moment all the hosts of Mordor trembled, doubt clutched their hearts, their laughter failed, their hands shook and their limbs were loosed. The Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies they saw a deadly light and were afraid.” (927)

“But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil; such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.” (974)