Monday, January 31, 2011

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

This book concludes the story of Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom. I noticed this time around, in addition to Sam and Frodo's awareness of their role in the story, how the story matches neatly: Frodo loses a finger to end the story just as Sauron lost one to start the story. The loss of the finger also echoes the way Beren lost his hand on his quest to recover a Silmaril. The appendices are much easier to read when you're familiar with Tolkien's work in The Silmarillion. I found the story of Aragorn and Arwen (in Appendix A) particularly moving this time.

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