Essay on The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King

"Oft help will come from the weak when the Wise are foolish," Gandalf once said, and sure enough all the spiders of Mordor are willing to help Frodo and Sam in their quest. Their course leads them to Mount Doom, where just as they arrive they find Gollum claiming the Ring for himself. The Dark Lord Sauron then becomes aware of them, and leaves the Dark Tower to come forth and destroy them; but just them Frodo and Sam rush Gollum and force him backwards into the Cracks of Doom. The Ring is destroyed, and without it Sauron is destroyed by the sunlight. Frodo and Sam leave the Mountain just in time to see the great armies of Aragorn and Faramir coming across the plains of Mordor to greet them. Boromir and Denethor are driven away from Gondor forever, but mercifully spared by King Faramir, and Aragorn is revealed to be the long-lost King of Arnor, the North-Kingdom of old. "Yet you may still rule the Shire," he says to Merry the Thain, "for with Mordor fallen, there may be kingships enough for all."(279) The heroism of Frodo and Sam is sung in Gondor and Arnor for long ages, and even Pipsqueak finds honor in his new role as Faramir's bootblack. "There's room for advancement in this job," he tells the other hobbits knowingly, his eyes on Faramir's crown. Faramir smiles at Pipsqueak's jest and tells him he will always be welcome wherever he goes. (Indeed, the Appendices note that Pipsqueak's