The Lord of the Rings

SPOILER ALERT!

"This is a report I wrote for school on th LOTR trilogy. It is written in a required format, if the organization seems kind of strange.

It was supposed to be only a page; Oh well. So, here is a brief overview of the book, including spoilers and some really neat characters."

The Lord of the Rings

A book report by: Kara

The Lord of the Rings, written by J. R. R. Tolkien, describes the War of the Ring and tells of each of the races of Middle Earth’s part in it, particularly the Hobbits.
“When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbition…Time wore on, but it seemed to have little effect on Mr. Baggins.” This was because Bilbo Baggins possessed a Ring of Power which prevented his aging and made him invisible when he was wearing it.
This story takes place in a fictional time before the present, when earth was known as Middle Earth and Elves, Dwarves, and Wizards roamed as well as Men, when Nymphs, Ents, and little Hobbits made their home here.
This is an account of a fight of courage and bravery against incredible odds.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned Ring is an evil Ring of Power, and its evil master, Sauron, has discovered its location and is sending evil wraiths to steal it away, so that with it, he can rule all of Middle Earth.
The Lord of the Rings details the journey of Frodo, Bilbo’s young cousin, through Middle Earth to Mount Doom in Mordor, under the evil Lord’s very nose, to destroy the evil ring. He takes with him representatives of each race on Middle Earth, The Wizard: Gandalf, who seems to know everything; two Men: Aragorn, the Ranger and heir to the throne; Boromir, Captain and son of the Steward of Gondor. He takes with him an Elf: Legolas, prince of Mirkwood; a Dwarf: Gimli (son of Gloin, a friend of Bilbo); and three Hobbits: Sam, Frodo’s gardener; Merry, and Pippin, good friends of Frodo who have come whether or not he wanted them.
They travel through Moria, the "deserted" underground kingdom of the dwarves, where they are attacked and lose Gandalf, and to Lorien, stronghold of the Elves, then to Emyn Muil, where Orcs attack and kill Boromir as well as carrying off Merry and Pippin.
Here Sam and Frodo decide to leave without telling anyone and travel towards Mordor through the mountains without directions. The rest of the party go to track the Orcs; however, the Orcs have been ambushed by Men of Rohan, a neighboring kingdom, and the Hobbits have crept away unnoticed and been found by Ents, who decide to go attack a nearby servant of Mordor, whose fortress they destroy.
Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, while tracking the Hobbits, run into Gandalf, who, for a confusing reason, is alive again. They go to help Rohan in a battle, afterwards to the Ent destroyed fortress and get Merry and Pippin while they are there. However, because Pippin does something incredibly stupid, Gandalf and Pippin rush off to Gondor, where the army of Rohan will later follow them. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and some others go to defeat another part of the enemy’s force. Sauron musters all his forces to destroy Gondor, but Rohan, and Aragorn with reinforcements show up at the last minute and save the city.
Sam and Frodo have run into an untrustworthy guide who wants the ring. Because he betrays them, Frodo is captured, but escapes and they stagger exhaustedly toward the volcano, Mount Doom. They get into the Mountain, and the Ring is destroyed while Gondor is attacking Mordor as a diversion.
Aragorn is finally crowned King and gets married, and the Hobbits defeat the thieves who have taken over the Shire in their absence. But the journey was hard on Frodo, and, at the end, he departs with the remainder of the Elves and Bilbo to Elven-home.

The characters in this book are incredibly brave and noble. Frodo sets off on a journey for which a Hobbit is seen as unfit. Gandalf guides the Company and defends them in Moria. Aragorn fights though he has been denied his kingship long. Boromir defends Merry and Pippin with his life. Legolas sets out on an impossible mission while he could just depart for the Elven-home. Gimli confronts ghosts. Sam helps his exhausted master through the land of Mordor and saves him when he is captured. Merry and Pippin come when told to stay home and volunteer for all sorts of dangerous things. Sauron has great power, and yet these people fight him. Rohan comes to Gondor’s aide with their small force. As Gandalf says,” ‘We must walk open-eyed into a trap, with courage, but small hope for ourselves. For, my lords, it may well prove that we ourselves shall perish utterly in black battle far from living lands; so that even if Barad-dur be thrown down, we shall not live to see a new age. But this, I deem, is our duty. And better so than to perish nonetheless-as we surely shall, if we sit here- and know as we die that no new age shall be”

The Lord of the Rings inspires endurance, courage, and bravery.
Tolkien’s characters are real, and have personalities and senses of humor but they can also be very grave. They are show thought and their actions follow their thought and make for believability.
Evil is shown as, well, evil; it is the very unattractive enemy, which is defeated. Tolkien mentions God briefly as the organizer of events who was making things happen.
A good theme of this book was that, “This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such oft is the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” In other words, if there is evil, ordinary people may be called to fight against it as well as great.