The Return Of The King

[Dillson]

As before, the topic is for posting about The Return Of The King.  E.g.  Favourite chapters, favourite characters, descriptions, quotes etc.[/size]



P.S. Thanks Elbereth for stickying[/size]

[The Seventh Witch (Me!)]

This is a brilliant book! Yet the one I have read the least as I always used to read all three at once when I was younger and run out of steam by the end of TT!

The end is a bit of an anti-climax for me though, with everyone just sort of wandering off on their own way, but what else could he do with it really?!

[Telcontar]

I didn't like the end much either.  I get why Frodo left and everything, but having the battle in the Shire was disappointing, especially after the size of previous battles in the book.  It was also slightly sad that the whole fellowship (or what was left of them) totally split up.  I still think it's the best of the 3 though!

[EG]

I really enjoyed the climax of this book, the build up and the final destruction of the Ring.  But I really think it should have stopped there.  I always think its as if Tolkien didnt know how to end it, and the Scouring of the Shire was a bit unnecessary and anti-climatic....  I like that the hobbits went back to the Shire as it was when they left in the film.  

But I dont actually think that Tolkien even needed to take his characters home.  We just needed to know they were safe and saved

[Idril]

I understand why he felt the Scouring of the Shire chapter was necessary, he wanted to make the Hobbits heros to their own people and he couldn't do that by simply recounting their deeds because the other hobbits probably wouldn't have believed them and I don't think they would've cared.  Tolkien had made a point of the fact that the hobbits were so isolated from the rest of ME, he had to make things a little more immediate and personal for it to matter to them.  That said, I did find it anti-climatic.  It almost seemed like it belonged to a different book although it gave it a nice little symmetry because I felt the first part of FOTR seemed like it was from another book too.

[Mithrandir]

Oh, EG has stollen all of the lines I was going to use.
Well I also find The Scouring of the Shire boring and anti-climatic. I think it should've been like in the film The Return of the King, but I think there should've been a bit more in between the coronation and then sailing over the seas, like a bit more information about what happened to men and elves and the servants of Mordor, then there should've been the journey home, and then the rest as it is with out The Scouring of the Shire.
There is a major point to be made about this however. In the film, it makes The Shire seem like a safehold of goodness in the world, like there is one place which is kept pure and isn't affected. But the point in the book is that no place escapes the war, the last war to cover the whole of Middle-Earth. The book says that no one can escape this destruction, and that is why the chapter is necessary, yet, probably not liked.

[gil-amath]

aiya mellons

well, in trotk I found a surprise (that if i had read the sillmarilion before wouldent) and it was gandalf in posession of one of the 3 elven rings, at first I thought it waqs unfair, as gandalf is not an  elve, later  I thought "why unfair? anyway it wouldnt be used, and who else might have it?"

namarie

[elbereth]

well to me I think that the scouring of the shire kind of symbolized that you can never go back to the way it was...it will always be different...like they grew up and saw the world in a different way...they were all changed....it was just so sad to me...

[Estrella de Gondor]

I never liked the scouring of the shire bit much either and could not really understand the cries of horror when it was left out of the movie. However it is there like everything else for a purpose.
1.  to show how Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin  couldn't fit in to the shire any more,  they are heroes for a while but this doesn't last long  "Few people knew or wanted to know about his <Frodo's> deeds and adventures....."
2.  it does explain the end of Saruman
3.  it gives a sort of symmetry to the whole trilogy, going back to the first starting point,  and I like the fact that the last bit of all is of Sam,  who in some ways has become the central character

[Ellie_Greenleaf]

I love this book, I read it all in one night the first time I read it because I couldn't put it down (I ended up going to sleep at 4 in the morning!)
This book made me cry more than any of the other books! There were so many emotional things like Merry and Pippin in the Houses of Healing, Shelob's Lair where Sam says "Don't go where I can't follow" The Tower of Cirith Ungol and Mount Doom. This book made me fall in love with Sam's character because he is so sweet and loyal and would even die for Frodo

[elbereth]

it also showed us how brave Samwise really was...not that we didn't already that...but when he was faced with leaving Frodo behind...and he defeated Shelob...that took sheer guts...I don't think that I could have done that...ewww....they just gross me out.....but anyway...at first I just didn't like the scouring of the shire but after rereading...I just made sense....that even the shire was part of the whole of middle earth...that no matter how much you ignore something....sometimes you hve to take part in what is happening around you...and even though they weren't intrested in Frodo or what he did...they definately noticed the changes in Merry, Pippen and Sam...they all had a new found experience and confidence...they helped to change the fate of the world and that changes a person.

[Dillson]

The scouring of the Shire was used to show that full-circle that the Hobbits had journeyed.  It also shows that nothing is safe from evil, and once the evil goes to work, the changes are permenant and they cannot go back to the way that it was.[/size]

[elbereth]

yeah...what he said...

sorry dill I just couldn't resist the urge...

[Mithrandir]

When I first read Gandalf (et cetera) sailing over the seas to the undying lands, that was the first time I had cried in years! It was so emotionally beautiful and so epic. Tha was one of the emotional pieces I have ever read in my entire life! The genious of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien really shows in that chapter, and it makes you wish that were on that boat too, and that you could carry on the adverture in the undying lands with Gandalf (et cetera) to see what happens to them.

I s'pose talking about The Return of the King includes The Appendices.
I don't know if this was just me, but did anyone when they first read The Lord of the Rings spend hours pouring over the maps, Tengwar, Cirth, geneology and calendars to try and bring themselves closer to middle Earth. Spend all their time translating the title page and look back and think "How did it take me so long?".
The Appendices really set off the entire book, without them, it nothing. They are just as valid as all the other chapters.

[The Seventh Witch (Me!)]

Yes I totally agree Mith (as usual! )  I SO wanted there to be a book about the Undying Lands so I could see what they did there! And although when I first read the books the Appendix, dates etc. were a bit too boring for me (I was much younger! ) now I spend hours poring over them! I'm useless at History and dates but I'm determined to get all these dates into my head!

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