'Inside Tolkien's The Return of the King' Documentary

[Music] [Music] hello i'm graham mctavish and I've come here to rural Warwickshire in the heart of England to explore the background to one of the most famous works of literature in the world the Lord of the Rings jr. our Tolkien's great work has its roots firmly set in this landscape the main legacy from Tolkien's time as a young boy here in rural worker was his immense fondness and respect for the ordinary rural population among whom he spent his formative years together this gentle English landscape with its quiet villages and respectable orderly population produced the inspiration for the Shire from which the whole great adventure begins rarely he's not like any other figure in English literature very very isolated in every sense he was isolated socially he moved in a small circle of Oxford Don's but not outside at all he I think read very very little in modern English writing not that much English literature in that since since since choice I used to say you know the English tutor just stopped at Chaucer the main point about his Oxford career was that it gave him a lovely cozy nest ready to inhabit his teaching duties were that heavy he had a big house in North Oxford which his four children grew up he had Martha's friends in CS Lewis and other Don's of like mind all of them had strongly religious all of them liking fairy stories and myths and they would meet together in Oxford pounds of pints of beer in Lewis's rooms in college on Thursday nights I know and drink their beer and smoke their pipes and talk good manly talk and read their stories to each other that was really wonderful that's what was the best part of his life and really gave him the encouragement to go on The Return of the King brings to a close a long complex narrative its complexity was in many ways something Tolkien himself never intended he'd sit out simply to write another Hobbit but as he says in his introduction this tale grew in the tele tracing the movements of the characters in The Return of the King is an intricate business the increasingly scattered members of the Fellowship of the Ring follow very different paths and The Return of the King opens with Gandalf's and Pippins arrival at the wonderful city of minister tilith the chief city of Gondor ministereth occupies the easternmost shoulders of the white mountains facing Mordor across the river plain of the Anduin it climbs the slopes in seven concentric terraces each with its own rampart pierced by a single gate each gate occurs in a different part of the war circumference so that a journey from the first level to the seventh would follow a zigzag path a great pair of natural stone cuts the city into to down its center higher than the walls themselves and jutting from the side of the mountains where the ship's proud it's as if he could see clearly in his mind's eye what he was describing which is completely imaginary but he could see every detail of it and that enables the reader to have this very strong sense of place I think that must be one of the main reasons why tokens readers often feel as if they've been to these places talking contributed to this cliche a little bit by talking in letters and in conversations himself about feeling that he'd been exploring that this was a land that he hadn't created lock stock and barrel all in one go but that he got rolling and that he entered into himself in his imagination and began to explore and so the world unfolds for the reader of the book very much as it did for Tolkien himself in the progress of writing it he was creating a history a myth a mythology of England he called it and that involved not just a story it involved geography cartography geology ethnography any other Aughra fee you like he had to do it all and he did he used to draw enormous charts and maps of not just a landscape but also things like the phases of the Moon the weather perhaps even the tides things that he was certain he had got to get right because he was writing a real story about a real world so it seemed to him and everything must work on its own Thames was fit or the thing wasn't going to be real to him Gandalf and Pippin proceeded immediately to an audience with Denethor the reigning steward Denethor is also the father of Faramir and the slain Boromir aged-care worn and Stern Denethor sees a little hope for the survival of ministereth and gondol he has a scathing disregard for Gandalf's plan to destroy the ring which he views as hopeless folly as a professor of anglo-saxon literature talking was immersed in the surviving literature from the Dark Ages and one of the overriding qualities of what survives is that sense of melancholy that pervades the remaining fragments often the whole genre conveys a sense of sadness loss decline even decay it's almost the essential ingredient an embeddable we see this in the atmosphere of Hrothgar's hole which is haunted by the monster Grendel it's a gloomy and miserable portrait and there are very strong echoes of that most obviously in Iran a bleak picture of theoden's Hall which we saw in the tutos Denethor interrogate spin closely about boromir's death Pippin tells him what he can and in an unplanned gesture offers Denethor his service in gratitude for boromir's struggle to save his and mary's lives Denethor accepts his offer ordering him to join his household the narrative then leaves Pippin and turns to Mary who was left behind with Aragorn Legolas and Gimli among the Riders of Rohan after Gandalf and Pippins departure Aragorn uses the palantír of orthanc gazing into it to challenge sound the way each volunteer affected the person using it this he seems to have a close relationship to the legitimacy of its use by that person does does this person have the right to use this volunteer as it were so aragorn's right as he said couldn't be doubted with Denethor although he had a very very strong personality he he didn't have an incontestable right to use that Palantir he was using it as it were illicit lee and that's why I think Sauron was able to influence his mind in ultimately unhinges mind not by lying to Denethor but by showing him selectively what was the case and Sauron was being economical with the truth with Denethor through the Palantir he discerns a new threat to Gondor an unforeseen force of course ends from the havens of unbar far to the south have allied themselves with Sauron and are planning to sail up the mouths of the Anduin to join the attack on Menace tilith their intervention spells the city's certain defeat for the forces of Rohan need 10 days to muster and ride to the city Aragorn therefore resolves to follow a different road to Minas Tirith one that leads through the paths of the Dead his intention fills the men of Rohan with dismay who can foresee only Aragorn throwing his life away on a fruitless errand nevertheless he parts courteously with feared end living Mary with the riders to serve the king with whom he has formed an affectionate friendship throughout the trilogy the hobbits represent the qualities in the ordinary English rural population was talking admired remember it's aft alongside them in the trenches of the Great War and he'd seen it firsthand just how resolute ordinary English men can be under extreme circumstances and he'd grown to respect them very much and of course at both world wars they'd come through against enormous adversity to prove themselves to be winners so it's no surprise that the officer class if you like to put it that way in the form of Theoden and Denethor quickly recognized the qualities of dignity and courage which talking is embodied in the hobbits and despite the overwhelming forces ranged against them they're not daunted and they bring a glimmer of hope in the darkness and these are the signals which are read by Denethor and Theoden with Legolas and Gimli and a party of Rangers sent by Elrond from the north Aragorn rides out to seek the entrance to the underground tunnel which enters the White Mountains at dunharrow in emerging through a narrow defile on the mountain southern slopes above addict the company enters the subterranean way and find themselves followed by an invisible post of spirits who offer them no challenge but terrify them with a palpable sense of malice Aragorn summons them as is elders heir to a trysting place on the other side of the White Mountains where they can fulfill their ancient vow and find peace the culmination of the ride through the past of the dead is that term aragorn's claimed the kingship simply cannot be doubted because it's recognised by the dead and if anybody should know the heir of his elder they should in the meantime marry now left alone among the riders its dismayed to learn the theorem means to leave him behind with his niece Elin the sister of Emma whom he is appointed to govern the row of him in his absence in many ways Tolkien used the hobbits to introduce the modern reader of the contemporary reader into this ancient world and since the contemporary reader is not likely to feel himself or herself to be a strapping valiant warrior but in fact have more as it were spiritual affinity with a rather small vulnerable person who's fond of his or her home comforts the hobbits make a very good sort of point of entry into this world so I think it's a good choice that you have this small kind of person doing the best they can in these circumstances if everybody was like Aragorn Anthea and I don't think it would work um who was fallen in love with our gone from a distance has fallen into a bleak despair at his departure but in the guise of a young rider named Dern helm she offers to take Mary secretly with the hosts as they ride to the aid of Minas Tirith she is in this situation which is again very familiar from the Norse Sagas we are men we will go off and do the fighting but when the men are all slain and the house has burned down you have leaved to be burnt with it and you know which is what happens in a lot of these Old Norse Sagas earned and she doesn't want to do that and she is but she also got this desperate love for a de God and so she goes off to seek death as a warrior Tolkien is often accused of marginalizing their women and his work sometimes to the point of misogyny but although that are comparatively few of them they're all strong characters and they represent as much a force for the good as the men do if you look at our one Galadriel and all Elwin they all have to make very tough choices and they prove themselves each in different ways to be selfless courageous and as such they're essential to the plot and they're not just an adjunct to that night a great cloud covers the sky a canopy of fumes from Mount Doom that blackens the night and turns the day into a dispiriting gray Twilight concealed behind durn helm Mary witnesses the muster of Rohan as the riders set out for - - the narrative now returns to the siege of ministereth Denethor reveals his bitter resentment of farah Mia's regard for Gandalf lamenting the lost Boromir as his true son the following day he orders Faramir to take charge of the city's last line of defense at the Western banks of the great river against the advice of many who feel their forces are already too thinly stretched news come shortly after that the effort proved a costly waste the armies of Mordor forced the crossing with heavy losses on both sides and were pursuing the survivors across the plains back to ministers in the in their third book The Return of the King you have a new way of looking at at the forces of Mordor the power of Mordor in that it's not qualitatively different but it's sort of quantitatively different I think that's the point in the whole story where you come to realize just how immeasurably powerful and strong Mordor is in physical and military terms and at that point it's difficult not to have a sneaking sympathy we've done for because that's the sort of thing he was being shown endless forces battle and upon battle how could this ever be defeated Faramir has been grievously wounded and Denethor attends him smitten with remorse for his hard words he no longer cares about the defence of his city which he now openly admits to be hopeless well Tolkien avoided allegory as we know but I think he was trying to get something across through the character of Denethor and and what he was concerned with was the sin of despair and Gandalf makes the point against in authorities I think terribly important the Gandalf says something like despair is only for those who know the end beyond any doubt and we don't Denethor decided that he did know the end beyond any doubt which was a mistake he comes very quickly into conflict with Gandalf once he arrives on the scene at ministereth and it's in the contrast between their characters that we see sort of the failings in Denethor I think as Tolkien wanted us to see them that in history devotion to duty in his sense that his mission as steward of gondor and the fate of Gondor as the nation in his care was all that mattered he'd become too narrow he'd become too fixated and in that narrowness he became vulnerable then when that mission became threatened by the supremacy of Mordor in military terms he became prey to despair which in the antis comes to the armies of Mordor arrived before the city and it is now that Gandalf takes command a siege of Minas Tirith is is mainly an opportunity for Tolkien to really get stuck into a kind of writing that he's actually very very good at which is Baptists in that siege he narrates the action itself with incredible economy and this is where I think he's being quite modern it moves that a very brisk reference as good as you could get in any action film a lot of readers recognize but at the same time every detail of that actually is there to highlight some aspect of the character in the stage you encounter many confrontations during the siege and they're not all between the opposed forces that are actually doing the fighting you spend much more time observing confrontations for example between Gandalf and Denethor or between Faramir and Denethor and you view them through the eyes of Pippin who has a different relationship with each of those three characters so that the very careful triangulation of characters in those scenes is very very specific and Tolkien knew exactly what he was doing there and he was getting it almost directly from palms like bale off that he knew so well really the the the gist of it is is the sheer Verve of the writing it just it carries you along it's it's extremely powerful and vivid and and you can't not turn the page the very soon the tide of battle turns against the defenders was the fighting rages Jenifer orders the guard to take Faramir to the tombs of the Kings and stewards of Gondor there he has him laid on a pyre and prepares to immolate both Faramir and himself this really is a masterful piece of writing and some wonderful juxtaposition of it try and take physical actions at the walls which is so fast-paced and realistic it really moves along a breathtaking piece and it's action on a huge scale but the action is contrasted with the intense psychological drama which is being played out on an intimate scale in the citadel it all adds to the sense of overwhelming danger and an intolerable pressure from every side which is being brought to be it on the city and as the disasters pile up one on the other it really has the effect of placing the reader into the rather uncomfortable shoes of the defenders horrified at Denethor intentions Pippin leaves Barragan to defend Faramir and dashes off to find Gandalf the wizard however as other things on his mind Pippin finds Gandalf at the main gates just as they are smashed in by a great battering ram and the lord of the Nazgul rides in as they confront each other the nazgûl mocks the ruin of Gandalf's hopes but just then a [ __ ] crows and on the morning wind can be heard the battle horns of the newly arrived Riders of Rohan relief has come to the city the narrative now jumps back to the riders as they struggle against time to reach ministereth we now learn how they find unexpected help in the forest of draw down the forest is inhabited by a furtive race of Aboriginal men whose leader ganba Regan offers to Schofield in a shortcut that will bring the riders to minister death quickly and secretly by a shorter route through the stone Wain valley to emerge just north of the out walls of the pelennor fields outside ministereth the furtive wild men of the woods or Moses as the roarin called them are the only new race which tokine introduces in the return of the king the word was is emphasizes their undeveloped condition and is a modernized version of an old English word meaning wild men they are thus primitive in the eyes of the roarin being wood dwelling hunter-gatherers with an intuitive relationship to the natural world and few visible accoutrements of civilization the glimpses we occasionally get into the layers of history which talking is so carefully bow up and one of the many things which make middle ear such a believable place and the fact that there are races which have disappeared into the mists of time adds to the atmosphere of the work as the riders emerge onto the plains before - tilith and draw up their battle formations a sea wind begins to drive back the fumes of mortal and the light of morning falls upon the fields of Pellinore the riders strike deep into the rear of the mortal armies assembled before the walls of Minas Tirith but there is still much to do see you then is in the thick of the fight but he is suddenly overshadowed by the winged steed of the Lord of the Ring wraiths theoden's horse shines from frozen mary also finds himself thrown down alone among the slain eeeh when alone confronts the world of she's driven to the ground by a blow from the room rates nice but Mary crawling unnoticed behind him aims a stroke at the back of the Ring wraiths leg with the barrel blade with a great cry he dies leaving Mary to wander the battlefield his sword arm numb his vision fading with Aylwin in in The Return of the King going so strongly into military mode its first of all it's fairly plain that she does that because she is brokenhearted about Aragorn and more to the point ashamed of her people's particular her father's weakness in the past that she identifies with their sort of great military glory of the past and wants to live in that way and redeem it and it's magnificent what she does and with Mary's help destroys the G for the nazgûl it's an extraordinary thing to do but nonetheless after all said and done there is a sense that well maybe this isn't exactly what she's supposed to be doing with her life meanwhile the battle rages on suddenly ships appear on the river Anduin the men of Gondor waver they assume the Corsairs of Umbara attacking but from the ships come Aragorn Legolas and Gimli leading the Rangers and other forces from the south the new reinforcements finally succeed in tipping the balance and driving the armies of Mordor from the field it's a complicated powerful team and it's not just the arrival of Rohan which is a key moment obviously for boats as well and then the new forces up from the south of Gondor that Aragon has brought in his train and I think all this adds to the feeling that Tolkien wanted to convey of just what a narrow shave it was what a narrow escape the West has had in in this siege if just one of these complicated set of of events that were necessary to save ministereth had gone wrong it would have fallen hence aragorn's strategy that he presents to the captains of the West we mustn't just sit here and wait for the next one we can't win this militarily so we must actually go out and meet the enemy and that will be such a bizarre thing to do from his point of view that it can only lead him that is Sauron to suspect that we have the ring because otherwise how would we have the nerve to do this knowing what we know it's a very intelligent strategy actually but in another sense it's the only thing they could have done Gandalf in the meantime have been delayed by denna Falls despairing attempt to commit suicide taking his ailing son faramir with him when Gandalf and Pippin reached the tombs they find evidence of men fighting passing inside they find baritones defending Paris who lies feverish on the piled up wood while Denethor orders his men to slay Barragan and light the pyre ganda holds the mighty and lifts Faramir free but Denethor driven mad at his despair seizes a torch from an attendant and leaps onto the path lighting it and lying down a Palantir clasp in his hand [Music] it wasn't just a question of him personally being doomed or even just Minister if it was everything that Newman or and the men of Western us have represented this this noble attempt as it were to establish let's say a just Camden and middle-earth that as he saw it had all failed in the end his choice to fling himself onto his own funeral pyre taking his failing son faramir with him is it it's in a way it's it's own gesture of defiance given his special information is inside information through the Palantir that as he sees it there is no hope for Gondor that Sauron is coming and he will come to gloat over his old opponents and Denethor and his pride is not going to give him that satisfaction suicide in a very limited sense makes sense in that context for Denethor now that said tragically he doesn't know the whole story he did he lacks faith and Gandalf's plan for sending the hobbits with the ring he's aware of it he thinks it a piece of monumental folly which has doomed them and he can't bring himself to trust in possibility and and Denethor acquitting in that manner was exactly what Tolkien was as it were warning us against Faramir Ewan and Mary are all taken to the houses of healing where they attended by Aragorn who as heir of Isadora has inherited a gift of healing he uses great skill to bring his charges back from the brink of death arrogance character is finally fully revealed in the return of the King as his identity if they returned King emerges so does the inherent ability and generosity of spirit that especially qualifies him for his role the masterful will that enables him to challenge sir on through the Palantir to lead his company through the paths of the dead and to compel the old spirits to honor their ancient oath is balanced by the tact humor and kindness he shows towards the hobbits and the convalescent Faramir and kneeling in the houses of hue [Music] [Music] the captains of the victorious Allied forces hold a council to ponder their next action Gandalf advises that they march at once on Mordor not with any hope of military victory but as a diversion to keeps our on attention directed away from the quest from the ring bearer the whole point of the strategy militarily is to keep sorrel engaged in order to give Frodo a chance to destroy the road that's the only hope and that's what it's all about it there is no illusion of being able to defeat sour on in his own terms at his own game which is sheer strength that's not even an option led by Gandalf and Aragorn a force far too small for a serious assault on mortal sets out passing through Fillion and Fenster the battle plain before the Black Gate sounding the challenge of the King of Gondor as they go if the trip offend captains of the West to the black caves since Aragorn had recognized and convinced all the others purely military victory is not a possibility if that's your starting point then you really don't need to even take everybody along with you you don't need to have as massive an army as you can because it isn't going to be enough no matter how massive it is so this again goes back to convincing Sauer on that the only possible explanation for that doing something so self-evidently stupid or suicide is that you must have the ring with you in terms of Gandalf stones strategy for bringing about the destruction of the me it makes perfect sense as well there's no way that what the forces they have they can seriously contemplate assaulting Mordor there is every reason every practical reason for trying to keep saurons attention away from his own domain where Frodo and Sam are crawling towards Mount Doom at the gate they are met by a herald of Sauron who mocks them and produces items once carried by Frodo and Sam announcing that these spies mission has failed Gandalf defies him and from the gates of Mordor afresh army issues quickly surrounding the small army of Gondor and it's our battle is joined Tippin taking a stand and under the tower guard alongside Barragan slays a troll before being knocked unconscious with the overwhelming force told to bear against them but soon appears as if all will be lost in the return of the king you've got again you've got this double stops you've got first of all the great heroic saying the great battle and killing of the Nazgul and the shaping up all the great battle with the Dark Lord and all the heroic stuff again then back photo and Sam really getting closer and closer towards the end of that Heather as they make their way through with the really horrible situation of more Todd to outdo to the end of their quest and realizing more and more that they're not going to get away Sam when the aftermath of his fight with shale AAB is trying to find a way into the Tower of sitteth angle to rescue Frodo climbing through the stories of the town Sam searches for Frodo finding him at last at the very top being menaced by the last surviving orcs one of them tries to flee and falls breaking his neck the other races pass Sam and escapes Sam returns the ring to Frodo and finds orc clothes to disguise themselves in and The Hobbit sit out on the last leg of their journey to mountain dude how long you actually carried the ring and why you carried it what were very important considerations in terms of how the ring affected you and Frodo had carried the ring for much much longer than Sam and so Sam's stint with the ring as experienced the ring was very brief and he only took it on very very reluctantly when he thought Frodo was dead so he's not nearly so consumed by the ring as proto from the high pass of cirith ungol Frodo and Sam descend onto the plateau of Gorgon off the barren Ashi in a plane of mortal they journey northwards along the inner slopes of the mountains of shadow turning east towards Mount Doom only when they have drawn level with it crawling furtively across the park ashen landscape they are pursued by trackers and taken for orcs by a passing troop are compelled on a forced march but they escape in the confusion when their troop collides with another than anything forcing themselves to the utmost reach of their endurance they press on towards the Smoky Mountain Frodo all the while feeling the ring dragging on him with greater and greater weight as it nears its place of origin their destination is Mount Doom but as they wearily ascend the road up the mountain they are assaulted by God who has followed them in the final throes of his own desperation frantic to recover the ring for himself Sam finds that despite the creatures countless vile treacherous he cannot bring himself to kill him in cold blood with a curse of disgust the orders golem to leave turning to follow Frodo once he's out of sight however garland still following the year of the ring follows on golems complex relationship with Frodo is driven by many conflicting factors there's his desire for the ring and his hatred of its possessor on the one hand and on the other there's his reaction to the mercy and kindness shown him by Frodo so the battle that these contradictory impulses wage within his psyche become a kind of medieval morality plea but unlike a morality play his malice wins out over the brief flickerings of respect and loyalty to Frodo I think by the time of Gollum betraying Frodo and Sam to two Shelob with with that act of betrayal there is no no further hope as it were for Gollum no he's become morally redeemable Gollum is easily Tolkien's most complex character golems will and desire are focused almost exclusively on the ring that he possessed for so long and lost his desire to possess it again is matched only by his hatred for the thief Baggins took a problem Frodo situation mirrors golems very precisely taking the ring first unwillingly The Hobbit resists its mere time and time again though he struggled not the yield costs and terribly his awareness of golems unreliability and his distaste of the creatures fawning flattery leave him desperate to be quitted his unwelcome traveling companions but every time golems light lies in his hands he chooses mercy of instant sparing golems life both on principle and out of a growing fellow feeling for the misery he suffers deprived of his pressure the mercy and empathy he displays for Gollum serve him better than any practical assessment of what to do with garland in Tolkien's tale the single-minded assertion of will is almost always fatal while the practice of sympathy empathy and mercy brings salvation where no amount of Reason could have anticipated it Tolkien was on a number of occasions gently critical of Shakespeare he felt for example that Shakespeare could have done more with the forest of Dunsinane and Macbeth and he addressed this in his own way with the creation of the ends talking was also critical as Shakespeare's handling of the elves for example in Midsummer Night's Dream but I'm certain that he recognized the majesty and power of Shakespeare and any work with deals with themes such as mercy and forgiveness inevitably invites comparison with famous speeches like the quality of mercy that we find in the Merchant of Venice and personally I think there are some interesting parallels to be drawn between Gollum and [ __ ] and I don't think it's going too far to suggest that there might be at least a subliminal influence at work there it ends up with two against overwhelming odds you know it's photo and Sam on Mount Doom this is where it leads that that whole epic tradition way behind because that little epic tradition doesn't have any room for your little foot soldier to be you know the absolute linchpin of the whole thing Sam finds Frodo in the chamber of fire before the cracks of doom where he announces he will not cast the ring into the fire claiming it for himself it's an extraordinary development in which you know the very last moment Frodo claims the ring as his own and betrays the quest actually and I think there's a feeling that if Frodo could do this anybody's capable of it which may have been you know what Tolkien was trying to get across to the reader you too dear reader are not proof against this kind of this kind of corruption what Frodo does is you know desertion in the face of the enemy almost it's you know it is at the very last minute you know he he fails his coach gives out he you know and he can't resist anymore I see places that on his finger and vanishes Gollum rushes past Sam to seize the invisible Frodo and wrestle with him on the brink of a fiery pit Tolkien often depicts the ring sometimes as though it were still serving saurons will trying to obey his bidding or sometimes as an agency in its own right trying to influence its own fate and the fates of those who are involved in it in different ways it's the greatest power on middle-earth when with when United with Sauron but even it has limits Gollum lifts something to his mouth and bites it leaving a suddenly visible Frodo in a heap on the floor as he dances with glee holding up the ring with Frodo's severed finger still thrust thrown it in his rapture however he missed steps and was a great cry plunges into the fire taking the ring in a sense it all comes down to that one piece of pure contingency he might not have step that way might have stepped a different way and then the whole outcome would have been different and I think this is a theme in talking that that tiny things make very very big differences and uses us to question is that just chance it's as if Tolkien saying to us don't overestimate your importance in the scheme of things every character who tries to impose his or her will on events by direct exertion of power never achieves their ends and usually comes to a tragic or a sad and sometimes with redeeming events along the way but they suffer tremendously and those characters who find power not in some external instrument or object but in themselves through their love either for middle-earth itself or for other characters they find themselves triumphing against all odds at once Mount Doom erupts and rivers of lava begin to flow down its sides Sam urges the delirious Frodo on but the hobbits are soon cut off by the streams of molten rock and they lie together fully expecting to meet their deaths the story then returns to the battle before the gates of Mordor in which the forces of Gondor are facing total defeat with the cataclysmic events following the destruction of the Ring the armies of Mordor seemed to waver the ring wraiths on their flying steed screamed towards Mount Doom aware at once of the threat to their masters power without too late the ring is destroyed the black tower crumbles in ruin the ring wraiths and Sauron perish the middle this is Tolkien saying that you know the the greatest power in middle-earth they still are not omnipotent in fact has this fantastic line spot which takes the form of not being able actually takes the form of a lack of imagination a staggering inability to imagine that anybody would do anything with the ring that he saw Iran wouldn't wouldn't that's what sera can't imagine until it's too late and of course the last thing he would do the very last thing is to destroy the ring he would use it Frodo's character is tested by his experiences in The Return of the King more deeply than that of any other figure in the story along with Sam he must push himself beyond the limits of physical endurance to reach Mount Doom it is absolutely central to Tolkien scheme that at the end having reached his objective against seemingly impossible odds Frodo fails refusing to destroy the ring and claiming it at last for his own he is saved by golems frantic intervention to save his precious for himself but he spends the rest of his days in middle-earth afflicted by a complex regret both for his loss of the ring and for his failure to destroy it himself this aspect of the story inspired a great deal of debate and still does today well I think that he found certain aspects of the success particularly the cult aspects and extreme amount of publicity very difficult particulars he was getting earlier by this time he was a frightened of the intrusions on his privacy he didn't like Fame and he didn't like holding elaborate or he never actually really ever appreciated that he become famous always wealthy he always worried about his finances and that he hadn't got much money and he was overspending he was disturbed by the fact that quite clearly a lot of people who read his books and loved them were a bit nutty I mean this is the unfortunate fact that the Lord the Rings does tend to appeal particularly to solitaire lonely people a little like talking himself and his own correspondence talking reports receiving a number of letters from readers who were outraged at what they saw as fraud was betrayal of the trust placed on him by Gandalf Elrond and Eragon these writers couldn't accept that Frodo should be received like a hero afterwards in the face of these objections tokens response was to point out the Frodo's moral responsibility demanded the issue and attempt to carry out the quest to the utmost limits of his physical and spiritual power which in Tolkien's view he did so and talking felt that the Rings destruction by God rather than by Frodo should be seen as an instance of the mysterious workings of fate and grace that had governed the affairs of middle-earth from his very earliest history we need to bear in mind that this is the Frodo who at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring says to Gandalf what a pity Bilbo didn't stab Gollum in the dark when he first gained the ring and here is Frodo at the end who has far more reason for wishing to kill Gollum than Bilbo ever did choosing not to showing mercy and even Sam gets in the act on the end on the very slopes of Mount Doom where the defeated Gollum is groveling in the dust at his feet and he could very easily dispatch him if he wants to even he can't bring himself to kill him and those acts of mercy and generosity are every bit as important in the moral economy of the story as any element of heroic perseverance to an end in the end it is the mercy of Bilbo Frodo and Sam all of whom had the chance to kill Gollum and did not that rules the fate of the Ring and of all middle-earth the result of all this for Frodo is that he emerges with his character more enlarged than that of any other figure in the book his experience runs the fullest gamut from ignorant Hobbit parochialism to the very center of world shattering events from Humble goodwill to proud willfulness to chastened wisdom as Sandman says oh you have become very wise and he has much good that it does him because he's become wise but at the cost you know it has been that he's virtually broken after the festivities surrounding the crowning of the Kings the army returns to - tilith where the surviving members of the Fellowship of the Ring are reunited following the wedding of Aragorn in our way the hobbits at last begin the journey northward in the large party that includes the new king and queen the Riders of Rohan Gandalf Galadriel and sellable and Legolas and Gimli their first destination is NRS the chief city of Rohan where they lay to rest the body of Theoden and celebrate the marriage of Eowyn and Faramir who had fallen in love while in the care of the healers in minutes Timothy from there they continued on to Isengard to visit Treebeard and his aunts who have been keeping watch and sound power tree bear admits that even he came to have pity on sound and ruin and he could not bear to see any living thing along in captivity so he lets our man go our gone and our whanau returned to their City while Gimli and Legolas turn eastward to visit Legolas his homeland their cool the hobbits elves and gandalf continued northward through the gap of Rohan into the deserted lands of anyway on their road north they overtake the pole and wizard traveling like a ragged beggar in the company of one pattern cerimon sneers at them all pointing out spiteful but they may not enjoy their victory so much after all once they reached the red horn gate Galadriel and sellable and bid them farewell traveling back to local area the hobbits continue northward with Gandalf until they reach breed where Gandalf pass with them for as he puts it a long conversation with Tom Bombadil in the old forest the hobbits now on their own return from breed to the Shema [Music] a lesser writer might have ended the tale there the token rolls the story forward with a marvelous epilogue to the great event Tolkien had the problem for what happens next what happens now so the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen that's fine but then there's this really curious that which sometimes appears a bit arbitrary which is the scouring of the shire because in a way the scouring of the shire is a major digression that really isn't essential to the plot or even to this story but I think Tolkien had some things he wanted to get off his chest in the scouring of the shire that wouldn't fit anywhere else so yeah it's a bit of an anomaly in terms of its structure compared to the the neat pattern of the other books you can't help feeling that when this long the numel Tolkien is now enjoying his own tale so much that he simply can't bear to finish it as always as if he too is waiting and see what happens next it's as if he just wants to keep going on with this wonderful creation and he doesn't want to leave middle-earth and that's certainly a feeling that's been shared by millions of readers the hobbits discovered that Saruman had hired gangs of outlaw men to create a ruinous little police state in the Shire stealing the lands produce throwing up senseless ugly buildings chopping down trees and imprisoning any hobbits who objected by the end of it he is exploiting he is the man of the machines he at the man of the Machine Age of tearing things up hacking down the trees disembowelling the earth building the whole you know the ultimate machine civilization which Toki didn't like at all with merry and pippin his captain's Frodo organizes a resistance movement that quickly ejects the oppressors confronting Saruman at Bag End Frodo gives him leave to go where he will even though most of the hobbits wish to kill him Saruman prepares to go directing his abuse at Wormtongue who suddenly rebels and kills Sarah men on the spot before being himself shot by Hobbit archers Saruman has a role in the in The Return of the King it's it's a grievously reduced role from his former position of power but he still has enough power to do as I think Gandalf says malice in a small way towards the end of his life Tolkien was asked by somebody whether he thought Sauron had won in this world as it were you know was in charge and he said no no he didn't think that was the case but he did think that Saruman was doing very well and I think he associated Saruman with politics in it's unflattering sense and bureaucracy and petty mindedness and those kinds of vices and that's what Saruman became reduced to in the end the rest of the story concerns Frodo's last few years in the Shire where he leads a comfortable existence but is deeply troubled by the memories of the ring the loss of which has scarred him in spirit at last offered the opportunity by Galadriel he joins gandalf and the elves as they meet at the blue havens to sail out to the undying lands of the valar where Frodo can find healing it's only in the lands of the valar across the oceans in the undying land that Frodo can go to find final healing which is like a larval offers him a place on the boat and he takes it I think it's fair enough to consider you know where the ring bearers went across the sea as a kind of there may be more than one kind of certainly the idea of heaven it is something that we understand and and that was tokens idea heaven was piece probably peace and quiet actually and and he associated those virtues with with healing it is in the return of the king a tokens primary themes of good and evil power will and desire find their fullest expression though he is often accused of simplistic moralizing by his critics Tolkien in fact crafts a number of brief but finally shaded character studies that probe with great subtlety the complex into relationships between the individual will and the power to do good evil the complex narrative structure of The Return of the King reflects the complex narrative structure of the entire work as its multiple strands all find their resolutions in the story's climax and lengthy genuine yet the overarching complexity rests on a foundation of simple human values and virtues love loyalty fortitude and mercy [Music] The Return of the King ends up back in the Shire where the whole thing started I think that's consistent with Tolkien's emphasis on you know the daily life of ordinary people is ultimately what matters most ultimately you know that's the important arena for what happens in this world oddly enough perhaps to have such an enormous story turn on the dedication and devotion of two small hobbits as they crawl through the choking ash of models and militarized industrialized wasteland is to suggest that the mysteries of will choice and love conceal powers far greater than those wielded by politicians generals captains of industry and even cosmic princes of Darkness such as Sauron there's various hints in the book that fate or whatever you want to call it might be working on the side of those trying to destroy the ring but fate didn't doesn't have a chance to help you unless you're willing to help yourself and this is one of the moral lessons that Tolkien keeps returning to again and again one character remarks sorry we may be very clever but I don't think he'd he'd have any pluck in a tight corner like Gandalf would and that's very important so even down to the level of The Hobbit saying while I'm only a hobbit I can't do much but I've got this sword and I I'm at if I'm going to die I'll go down fighting that's a very important attitude to have Tolkien felt because right up to the last minute it gives faith or God or whatever you want to call it a chance to change things having grown up a member of the generation that suffered the traumas of horror and lost during the First World War only to see them re-enacted on an even larger and more senseless scale during the second Tolkien's thought perhaps instinctively to champion a vision of beauty and hope grounded not in the powers of governments and their leaders but in the unseen and unpredictable powers of the human condition [Music]

Channel: Talking Tolkien

Views: 6,047

Rating: 4.9740262 out of 5

Keywords: lord of the rings, tolkien, documentary, return of the king

Id: 5SEemwB9Emc

Length: 59min 12sec (3552 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 03 2020