Lord of the Rings Literary Analysis: Part One

     While I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the themes that I noticed was about strength coming from small places, which was demonstrated through the Hobbits: Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. It was very clear to me that the books would have had a drastically different ending without them. Over the course of a few more posts, I will demonstrate how each of the four Hobbits played a part in the defeat of Sauron.

Frodo

    Frodo Baggins, son of Drogo Baggins, was a Hobbit who lived in the Shire during the Third Age. When his family drowned in a boating accident, he was adopted by his uncle, Bilbo. When Frodo was fifty, Gandalf the Grey, one of the five Wizards, told him that a mysterious ring which he inherited from Bilbo was forged by Sauron during the Second Age, and would would give him power over the other nineteen rings forged during that period. Meanwhile, the Nazgul, nine servants of Sauron, were hunting Frodo to take the Ring. So Frodo set out to Rivendell, an Elf haven, with his companions: Sam, Merry, and Pippin. After meeting Aragorn in Bree, they were ambushed by the Nazgul at a hill known as Wheathertop. During the ambush, Frodo was stabbed in the shoulder, and the tip of the knife broke off and became lodged in him. After a frantic dash through the Fords of Bruinen, Frodo was healed in the safety of Rivendell, though he remained scarred. Frodo later set out for Mordor with the intention of destroying the Ring, along with Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, and the other three hobbits. Once the eight of them reached Amon Hen (Gandalf fell in Moria), Boromir tried to steal the Ring from Frodo, so he and Sam continued their journey alone. As they crossed the mountain range known as the Emyn Muil, they were attacked by Smeagol, who had the ring before Bilbo stole it from him. Sam and Frodo overpowered him, and Smeagol agreed to take them into Mordor. When the trio came upon Cirith Ungol, a tunnel leading into the Black Land, they found it to be inhabited by a giant spider called Shelob. Smeagol betrayed the hobbits and held back Sam as Shelob injected Frodo with her venom. Frodo was later found by orcs, who locked him inside a guard tower until Sam rescued him. After days of traveling through the hot, barren, and poisonous landscape of Mordor, Sam and Frodo came upon Mount Doom, the only place where the Ring could be destroyed. Unfortunately, Frodo gave in to temptation and tried to keep it for himself. But Smeagol ambushed them once more, and bit off Frodo's finger with the Ring on it. Luckily, Smeagol danced about in celebration, and accidentally slipped into Mount Doom's volcanic crater, and the Ring was destroyed, killing Sauron and the Nazgul along with it.

    Throughout the course of the trilogy, Frodo has to walk thousands of miles, crossing rivers and mountain's alike, all while being hunted by orcs from both Mordor and Isengard. In addition, the Ring was a detriment as well. Unlike Smeagol and the great king Isildur before him, Frodo was able to resist the temptations of power that the Ring was feeding him. And the Ring was physically burdening as well, growing unbearably heavy as Frodo took it to the Mountain of Fire. Despite these obstacles, Frodo took the Ring to its destruction, thus saving the lives of his friends at the Black Gate (more on that in a later blog)