Some background information on the Lord of the Rings, for those of you who
cannot follow the story and/or fell asleep during the movie.
In order to appreciate the movie better, I strongly recommend that you read the
books. The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is a 3 book trilogy by author J.R.R. Tokien.
Tokien is the head of the English faculty at Oxford University. This epic is a
literary work, not a kiddies book, so don't lump it in the same category as
Harry Potter. In fact, you may find the reading heavy in the beginning because
the English used is quite advanced. You may need a dictionary at hand as you
read it. But don't worry, most of the difficult words are used to describe the
scenery and action, so even if you don't have a dictionary, you should still be
able to follow the story line. And this is also where the movie comes in useful
in helping provide the imagery.
Another point to note about the books is that they were written between World
War One and World War Two. So you may find some of the ideas and themes in the
book rather old fashioned. For example, women played relatively minor roles in the
story. Another example is that the attitude of Sam towards Frodo is a very
subservient one, like all good servants are expected of at that time. In fact, I
find the movie "modernized" some parts of the story to make it more appealing to
the democratic era.
For starters, I'll recommend the prelude to the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit.
This book is meant as a children's story (the author actually asked his children
to critic the book before he published it) so it is much easier to read than
Lord of the Rings. The story is about the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Frodo's uncle),
going to the far off mountains to hunt treasure. But on the way, he found the
One Ring, which is the main theme for Lord of the Rings. So this book is a good
introduction to LOTR and the world of Middle Earth.
(There is a fifth book, The Silmarillion, which tells the history of Middle
Earth, from creation till end. This book, you should leave till the last, and
only if you are captivated by the four books and want to learn the whole
picture)
The LOTR consist of 3 books: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The
Return of the King. The story took place in an imaginary world called Middle
Earth. The map of Middle Earth can be found
here. It is a good idea to
refer to it while we tell the story, to get a clear picture of what is happening
in the story. Note that the map is copyrighted material and I'm including it
only as an aid to the explanation below. If you would like to keep a copy,
please buy the books, which will come with the map.
Now, let's trace the journey our hobbit friends took in Fellowship of the Ring
and The Two Towers. We will learn about some of the main places on Middle Earth.
Follow the journey I'm about to describe with the map. In the centre, running
from North to South, is the Misty Mountains. Somewhere near the centre of Misty
Mountain, you can see a road cutting through the mountain. The road begins from
the western end, and somewhere there, is the Shire, the homeland of the Hobbits
where the story begins. The hobbits took the Ring and journeyed east (they
didn't actually take the road for fear of being spotted by the Ringwraiths, the
dark riders on black horses). The first major stop is Bree, where the Inn of the
Prancing Pony is located. Can you find Bree on the map? It is here at the inn
that Frodo first put on the Ring and revealed himself to the Ringwraiths. This
is also where they first met Aragorn, who helped them escaped from the
Ringwraiths.
From Bree, they journeyed east towards Rivendell. On the way to Rivendell is
Weathertop. This is where Frodo was stabbed by the Ringwraiths after he put on
the Ring for the second time. They were then rescued from the Ringwraiths by
Arwen and brought to Rivendell (In the book, it is actually Glorfindel, a scout
from Rivendell who rescued them). Rivendell lies at the end of the road,
somewhere near the foot of Misty Mountains.
At Rivendell, the Fellowship of the Ring was formed. The fellowship consist of
the Hobbit, Frodo, who is in charge of carrying the Ring to Mordor to destroy
it. Also his three hobbit friends, Sam, Merry and Pippin. The other members of
the fellowship are Aragon the Ranger, Boromir from Gondor, Gandalf the Wizard,
Legolas the Elf, and Gimli the dwarf.
At this point, it is a good time to introduce you to the members of the
fellowship and the inhabitants of Middle Earth. Firstly of course are the
Hobbits. Hobbits are small sized, peace loving, friendly, innocent people. They
love to eat and party. They do not care about the power struggles going on in
Middle Earth, but got involved when the One Ring landed up in the Shire, their
homeland. It is because of their innocent, happy go lucky nature that it was
decided a hobbit would be the best person to carry the Ring, because they would
be the least likely to be corrupted by its power.
The Wizards are sent by the Lords of the West (who are the Lords of the West?
This is beyond the scope of this article) to help the inhabitants of Middle
Earth to fight Sauron. They age very slowly, but take the form of old men in
appearance, though physically, they are strong. And they possess wisdom and
knowledge of spells and magic. The wizards are prominent members of a council
known as the Council of the Wise, of which Saruman was the chairman. However,
Saruman, too was corrupted by the power of the Ring, and eventually he was
defeated and destroyed (you will see it in the final movie). Saruman lived in
the tower of Orthanac in Isengard, right at the southern tip of the Misty
Mountains.
Next, Men. They are the race that is most easily corrupted by power and greed.
And Sauron made good use of this weakness to control them and used them to
conquer Middle Earth. Aragorn and Boromir belongs to the race of Man. As you can
see from the Lord of the Rings, Boromir was corrupted by the lure of the One
Ring and he was eventually killed. As for Aragorn, he was a direct descendent of
Isildur, the last man King to defeat Sauron. Isildur had the chance to destroy
the One Ring then, but greed for power overcame him and he decided to keep the
Ring for himself. This led him to a unhappy end, and Sauron was able to raise
again because of it.
The main abodes of man during the time of LOTR are in Gondor and Rohan. Gondor
is where the remnants of the subjects of Isildur dwells after the fall of his
kingdom. Rohan are inhabited by a group of man who are very good horseman. In
LOTR, there is mention of another group of man from the land of Harad in the far
south. These group of man are allied to Sauron. You saw them in The Two Towers
dressed in black robes and turban marching with the elephants.
Elves are the highest race of Middle Earth. They are immortal, does not age,
though they can be killed in battle. They are (mostly) incorruptible by power.
They are good looking, noble, and with excellent physical capabilities like eye
sight and stamina, and are good with using the bow and arrow (You see in the
second movie Legolas leading the chase, and as forward observer and sharp
shooter). The Elves will leave Middle Earth at the end of the story. This has
got to do with the fate of the Ring, which I will elaborate a little more later
in this article. The two main dwellings of Elves mentioned in LOTR are Rivendell
and Lorien (or Lothlorien). There are also elves living in Mirkwood (east of the
Misty Mountain on the map), which is where Legolas came from.
Dwarves are short creatures with long beard and hair which they wear in plaits.
They are treasure hunters and miners of gold and precious stones. So most of
their abodes are found in mountains and caves. The Moria mines used to be
inhabited by dwarves until they were overrun by the goblins. Dwarves had a very
independent and unpredictable mind and so even though Sauron tried to control
them, he found it very difficult to do so.
There are other creatures in Middle Earth. Some interesting ones that appeared
in the LOTR are:
- Balrog. The fire monster that pulled Ganndalf down the cervices in Moria
- Ents: The tree like creatures that livedd in the Fangorn forest that Pippin and
Merry met after escaping from the Orcs. The Fangorn forest is also at the
Southern tip of Misty Mountains, just to the east of Isengard.
- Orcs: Ugly, dirty creatures breed by Sauuron and Saruman for their armies.
- Trolls: The tall, bald and dim-witted giiants that fights for the Orcs. You saw
one in the first movie which stab Frodo in the heart during the fighting in
Moria.
There are others like Wolves, Eagles, Spiders etc which I will not elaborate
here. (Interestingly, Dragons are not mentioned in LOTR, but there is one in The
Hobbit)
And what is Gollum? Gollum seems to be a hobbit, but found the Ring long time
ago and lived with it inside the Misty Mountains until Bilbo came along. The
Ring gave him immortal life, but also deformed him into what he is. His original
name is Smeagol, and in the Two Towers, you can see Smeagol and Gollum, each
representing good and evil, fighting within him as he debate whether to guide
Frodo to death or Mordor.
Finally, of what kind is Sauron? Sauron is not a wizard, unlike Saruman. He
belongs to a even more powerful class of creature called Maiar. I will not
elaborate further who these people are. If you are interested, please read The
Smilmarillion.
The mission of the fellowship is to bring the Ring to Mordor to destroy it.
Mordor is located on the bottom right of the map. Locate Mordor on the map. It
is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Our hobbits has to find a way into
Mordor through these mountains, and a large part of the tale in The Two Towers
is devoted to them trying to find a way, guided by Gollum. You can see there is
a Dark Tower, aka Barad-dur, within Mordor. This is where Sauron lives, and in
the movie, it is the one with the fiery eye at the apex. It is one of The Two
Towers that the book and movie takes the title from, the other being the
Orthanac where Saruman lives. There are also other towers in Middle Earth, and
you will see them as the story develops. Don't confuse them with one another.
Also within Mordor is the Mount Doom. This is the final destination of the
journey, the volcano that our hobbits must drop the Ring into to destroy it.
So why is the One Ring so powerful? For this, we need to delve into the history
of Middle Earth. To keep the story short, in the beginning, elves, with the help
of Sauron, made 19 magical rings. Of which 9 were given to man, 7 to dwarfs and
3 kept by the elves. However, Sauron secretly made One Master Ring, to use to
control whoever who used the other 19.
This is the Master Ring that Isildur didn't destroy when he had the chance on
defeating Sauron (You will recall a flashback scene in the first movie when a
man cut off Sauron's hand during the battle and took the ring. That man is
Isildur). Isildur was later murdered on the Anduin river and the ring fell into
the river, which Smeagol later found and brought to live with under the Misty
Mountains. When Sauron decided to make a comeback, the Ring was stirred, and
brought out of the mountains by Bilbo (told in The Hobbit) and to the Shire. It
is there that the story in LOTR begins.
The elves saw through Sauron's plot and didn't used their rings, though the 3
rings still gives them much power. Rivendell has one, and Lorien another. The
rings has the power to slow down time, and so kept these 2 places pristine and
unspoiled by the corruption of the outside world. There is one more elven ring,
and where is it will be revealed at the end of the tale so I will not spoil the
concluding movie by talking about it here. Another point to note is that with
the destruction of the Master Ring, the elven rings will also lose their power,
so that is why the Elves will have to leave Middle Earth at the end of the tale.
Man used the 9 rings that were given to them, and they ended up becoming the 9
Black Riders (the Ringwraiths) chasing after the One Ring. The fate of the 7
dwarvian rings is unknown. Sauron has never managed to control the Dwarfs minds
even though they used the rings, but all the dwarfs met with unhappy endings and
their hordes of treasures were stolen and plundered.
Ok, let's continue to trace our friends' journey. From Rivendell, they journey
south along the western side of Misty Mountains, and tried to cross the mountain
at Caradhras, Redhorn Pass. But Saruman's spies spotted them and he caused a
heavy snowstorm on them. So they had no choice but to enter Moria's mines to
cross the mountains. Try to locate Moria on the map. It is just somewhere
towards the lower half of Misty Mountains.
In Moria, they were attacked by goblins and Orcs and Gandalf fell into the deep
while fighting the Balrog. The rest made it through to Lorien. It is here they
were given new supplies, and also the elven cloaks (which later hid Frodo and
Sam from the sights of the Harad man). Here also, the elven lady, Galabriel,
managed to resist the temptation of the Ring. But with that, the elves also know
that their days in Middle Earth are numbered.
From Lorien, they took the river Anduin down south. It is at the fall of Rauros
that the fellowship broke. Frodo decided to carry on the journey alone, together
with Sam. Boromir tried to take the Ring from Frodo, but was unsuccessful and
was eventually killed by Orcs. Pippin and Merry were captured by the Orcs, with
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli giving chase. This is where the first movie ends.
The second movie is more difficult to follow than the first, especially if you
have not read the book. There are 3 trails in the story, and you will get
confused by the switching scenes if you're not aware of the different trails.
The first trail is followed by Pippin and Merry. They were taken by the Orcs to
go west to Isengard. But on the way, the Orcs were killed by the man of Rohan.
Pippin and Merry managed to escaped into the Fangorn forest, and it is here that
they met Treebeard the Ent, and the reincarnated Gandalf the White. From here,
the Ents, angered by the destruction of the forest by Saruman, marched to
Isengard to attack Saruman.
The second trail is followed by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli chasing after the
Orcs. They lost the chase at Fangorn, but met Gandalf and were roped in to go to
Edoras to convince the King of Rohan to fight Saruman. Try to find Edoras on the
map. It is located on the northern face of the White Mountains which separates
Rohan from Gondor. At Edoras, after getting rid of Wormtongue who is under the
payroll of Saruman, the men of Rohan decided to retreat to Helm's
Deep, where they believe they can better defend themselves from Saruman's Orc
army. Helm's Deep is further west of Edoras, located near the northern most tip
of the White Mountains. It is at Helm's Deep that the big and long battle scene
of in the second movie takes place.
The third trail is taken by Frodo, Sam and Gollum. From the Fall of Rauros,
Gollum brought the 2 hobbits east through the ridges of Emyn Muil, then through
the Dead Marshes, where they saw the many dead bodies in the water. After
crossing the dead marshes, they came to the Black Gate, aka Morannon. Locate
Morannon on the map. It is on the northern tip of the Ash Mountain protecting
the northern borders of Mordor.
At Morannon, Gollum changed his mind and decided to bring them into Mordor from
a secret tunnel located at another pass. This pass is located on the mountain range of Mountain of
Shadows protecting Mordor's western border. This pass is known as the Kirith
Ungol. You can't see Kirith Ungol on the map. But it is located where Minas
Morgul is. Try to find it.
From Morannon, the hobbits go south along the border between Gondor and Mordor, towards Minas Morgul. Along the way, in Ithilien, they saw the men of
Harads with their elephants. It is also here that they were caught by Faramir.
Unlike the movie, in the book, Faramir was actually quite friendly to them, and
eventually released them to continue on their journey. It is here that the movie
ends.
In the book, it also describes their journey through the tunnel in the Kirith
Ungol pass. It is one of the more dramatic episodes in the book, but the movie
director has left it to be told in the third movie. The book also described the
fall of Saruman, which again, will be shown in the third movie. So I will not
spoil the movie by telling the story here. I will only update this article when
the third movie is released. If you want to know ahead, go buy the 3 books. You
have one year to read them before the final movie is released.
See you in Return of the King!