Book Review: The Return of the King
The third and final instalment in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy epic.
Here we are at last. It’s been a long time coming—years in the trying—but I have finally finished a full read-through of The Lord of the Rings. After the surprising ease of reading The Two Towers, The Return of the King was a step into totally uncharted waters. And what a remarkable ending this was for the trilogy. I’ve stopped my read at the end of the narrative chapters, short of the Appendices, and my review will focus on the story. Weirdly, I have read them quite extensively before. While my previous attempts at reading the actual story fell off, I was utterly fascinated by the historical presentation of the Appendices, especially all the family trees, languages and alphabets. I do still plan to re-read through them, but at a slower pace, and mostly as preparation for tackling The Silmarillion later down the line. For now, though, let’s talk about The Return of the King…
Blurb
The Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate adventures as the quest continues. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, joined with the Riders of Rohan against the forces of Isengard, and took part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin, captured by Orcs, escaped into Fangorn Forest and there encountered the Ents.
Gandalf returned, miraculously, and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo progressed towards Mordor to destroy the Ring, accompanied by Sméagol—Gollum, still obsessed by his ‘preciouss’. After a battle with the giant spider Shelob, Sam left his master for dead; but Frodo is still alive—in the hands of the Orcs. And all the time the armies of the Dark Lord are massing.
Review
The Return of the King all on its own is a masterpiece of writing. I was not expecting to enjoy it quite as much as I did, and I certainly expected to enjoy it after The Two Towers. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is utterly fantastic, and I had to stop for a bit and just marvel at the writing when I got to the end of the chapter, ‘The Pyre of Denethor’. I loved also how we got much more time for the romance between Faramir and Eowyn, which was sadly missing from the movie bar one scene giving it a brief nod. In fact, we got far more from Faramir and Eowyn in the book than we ever did between Aragorn and Arwen. I think that’s the main thing that I did not expect on this first read, and my only disappointment. The movies treated Aragorn and Arwen’s romance like how the books treat the Tale of Beren and Luthien, which really works since their stories are deliberately compared.
Again, like in the previous instalment, the book splits the two storylines and you read most of the Gondor story before then jumping back in time a bit to read through most of this leg of Frodo and Sam’s journey, before the two finally converge after the destruction of the Ring. I think the biggest departure from my expectations was the fate of Saruman and Wormtongue. In the movies, their story is cut short in the second film, but in the books Saruman is left alive far longer, and it has really quite interesting consequences. For one thing, we get an answer to the hanging question nobody asked: How did Saruman get his stash of Old Toby? And it’s treated as if it’s some big looming mystery, but I thoroughly appreciate Tolkien tying up all the loose ends, no matter how trivial they may have seemed. The meeting of the remains of the Company with Saruman and Wormtongue on the northward road I found quite funny (nobody else I talked to about it did though, regretfully), and I now find myself wishing that Peter Jackson had included the Scouring of the Shire in the movie. It very neatly showed how Merry and Pippin’s ordeals in Gondor and Rohan had changed them, turning them from ragamuffins and gadabouts to great warriors and leaders.
In Frodo and Sam’s trek across Mordor, I did appreciate the grim humour in them taking the path around the inner edge of the mountain ranges before closing in on Mount Doom, while at the urging of Gandalf after learning about the path through Cirith Ungol, the Lords of Men all march on the northerly Black Gate specifically because he thinks that’s exactly where the hobbits won’t be!
Honestly the ending of the Peter Jackson adaptation always makes me tear up anyway, and it was no different reading the ending of The Return of the King.
Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed this journey through The Lord of the Rings, and I’m glad I’ve finally managed to do so at a time in my life where I am properly able to appreciate it. This was definitely done at the right time and I’ve found that it’s nowhere near as intimidating as I thought it was.
