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The Lord of the Rings
characters, places and story
The Lord of the Rings
characters thrill our imagination and terrify our souls. Their journey
through Middle
Earth is at the heart of what could be the greatest epic
fantasy of all time.
The
One Ring, as portrayed in The
Lord of the Rings movies
It took JRR Tolkien
12 years to write what will likely live in the hearts of fantas fans
forever. He began working on The Lord of the Rings
in 1937. Originally it was intended to be a sequel to his earlier work
about Bilbo
Baggins called The
Hobbit.
But it soon took on a life of its own.
What
impressed me most on my first reading of The Lord of the Rings
as a teenager were the characters. The
Lord of the
Rings characters are the reason, above all else, why we
care so much about what happens
to Middle Earth. The heroes
JR Tolkein delivers
to us are flawed and we love them all the more for their imperfections.
Samwise Gamgee,
though unquestionably loyal, is intolerant of the pitiful creature Gollum. Frodo,
though determined and courageous, succumbs to the power of the Ring in
the final hour. And Aragorn,
though brave and virtuous, is fearful of embracing his destiny.
Similarly the villains are not purely evil, Sauron and his
armies excepted. Softened by sympathy, Gollum gives up
his wicked ways to serve Frodo, the new master of the ring,
only to return to them when he feels he's been deceived. (Click here to read cool movie trivia about Gollum.)
Tolkien
introduced me to several species I hadn't encountered before
in the fantasy realm, including the slow-paced Ents, the filthy Orcs and the mighty Oliphaunts.
We embrace Middle Earth's mythical and human characters alike not
because of their strangeness but because of their similarities to us,
human or
otherwise.
The characters in this epic story deal
with all the same issues we struggle against today, including racism (the
animosity between the elves and the dwarves), apathy (the Ents'
decision not to intervene in the war until they see how it
has affected
their own race) and above all man's lust
for power
(which is the reason the One Ring has survived for so long).
 The
Lord of the Rings is the archetype of the high fantasy
genre
and Middle Earth is the most highly developed fantasy world ever
conceived. Tolkien invented languages
and religions
for many of The
Lord of the Rings characters, which include
hobbits, elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, ents and balrogs. He spent much
of his life developing Middle Earth’s culture, history and mythology,
as documented in his six appendices and in works such as The
Silmarillion.
Tolkien
did for the fantasy genre what William
Shakespeare
did for English literature and the Brothers
Grimm
did for fairy tales. He defined it. He enriched it. He showed us all
what it could be. Every fantasy author since has aspired to his
greatness. J K Rowling
is perhaps the only one who’s rivaled his
influence in fantasy. But many artists continue to be inspired by his
courage, depth and devotion.
Keep up with all the latest on Tolkien's works over at The One Ring. (The link opens the site in another window so should you decide to
visit, I'll still be here, waiting for you to return!)
Where to next? Merlin the Wizard is here to transport you wherever you wish to go,
whether to read about
The Hobbit
characters at Fave Fantasy Characters
OR
my review of the 1977 movie The
Hobbit
OR
return from The Lord of the Rings characters, places and story to Home
The
choice is yours. The magic is Merlin's!
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