The Return of the King
by J.R.R. Tolkien · first published 1950
15% recommend83% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Epic closing volume of the trilogy, praised for memorable set pieces like the beacons of Minas Tirith, the Rohirrim charge, and Eowyn's duel with the Witch-King, plus strong prose. Its appendices add depth for fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
THE RETURN OF THE KING, which brings to a close the great epic of war and adventure begun in The Fellowship of the Ring and continued in The Two Towers, is the third and final part of J. R. R. Tolkien's masterpiece, "The Lord of the Rings." In these three books, which form one continuous narrative, Tolkien created the saga of the Hobbits of Middle-earth and the great War of the Rings. Praised by such writers and poets as W. H. Auden, Richard Hughes and C. S. Lewis, "The Lord of the Rings" - that special world of beauty and terror and meaning - holds a secure place among the books that will
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Crack open Tolkien's The Silmarillion or the appendices to Return of the King and you won't lack for names.
on “How Do You Name Your Servers” ↗These are also great in my opinion (book as well as film): The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Jurassic Park.
on “The Godfather almost never happened” ↗The charge of the Rohirrim in Return of the King also works for me
on “Genetic underpinnings of chills from art and music” ↗…myself. For that reason, some of my favourite parts of the book were those that were cut from the movie, such as Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-downs. Thankfully, I went on to read The Two Towers and The Return of the King well before the movies were released, and enjoyed them much more because I got to inject a lot more of my imagination into them.
on “What We See When We Read” ↗I can't resist... Reminds me of the Beacons of Minas Tirith from Return of the King, probably my favorite sequence in the entire trilogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWz51CiG2nA
on “Longest Lines of Sight on Earth” ↗…basically non-stop skipping school next day. Then figured out that we could not find the third as it was not printed in Russian yet(at least could not find it where we lived), had to wait couple month to read Return of the King. I read it in English about 7-8 times since and as I became fluent the book only became better. Besy/Demons, Dostoevsky. I read it after I finished Archipelago Gulag I was 15. It is potent stuff, the…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗…to be fair it was a children's book), but not LOTR. One of the things that the book LOTR does best compared to the movies is the prose! For example, compare the book and film versions of the scene in Return of the King when Eowyn confronts (and kills) the Witch-King. In the book it goes like this: "Then out of the blackness in [Merry's] mind he thought that he heard Dernhelm speaking; yet now the voice seemed strange,…
on “Bill Watterson's Life After "Calvin and Hobbes"” ↗…the most curious characters in the LoTR, it's a pity he's usually edited out in adaptations. And he's no transient character either, Tolkien later wrote poems about him and he's also mentioned in The Return of the King. I don't quite buy the explanation given in this post, although it was an interesting read. I think Bombadil is beyond good and evil, he just is. From http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/1586/who-or-what-wa...:…
on “Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil” ↗…named Trotter, and he was a hobbit that wore wooden shoes. This type of slowly building story, where layer upon layer of idea built on top of each other is not really present for most of Two Towers and Return of the King. It was almost like Tolkien was a train that gained momentum as it went forward.
on “How Tolkien created Middle-earth” ↗There’s a lot of discourse over TFR and you’re reading the conclusion of a trilogy. You’d be very confused had you started Return of The King with no idea of Tolkien or the previous movies.
on “Can Govt Debt Solve Fertility?” ↗…place and happy to be there. We go there and back, to where we started. There’s no escape, nothing will ever change and nobody will ever break out of this well-ordered world." Apparently his copy of Return of the King had all the pages after Aragorn's coronation torn out? I wouldn't go as far as to say something along the lines of "you can't go home again" is the main theme of the book, but it's a pretty strong one…
on “Interview with Michael Moorcock” ↗…course of 12 years, and IMO Tolkien's writing greatly improved as he gained experience. I almost gave up reading The Fellowship of the Ring because it was so boring, but I'm glad I didn't, because by The Return of the King the writing has become fast paced and exciting.
on “Harper Lee has died” ↗The "zombie army" in Lord of the Rings was in the book Return of the King, published in 1955. The first big, modern zombie movie was Night of the Living Dead in 1968. So I don't think you can blame them for being unoriginal. Also I'd say they were more ghost than zombie, in…
on “'Living drug' offers hope to terminal blood cancer patients” ↗In the chapter The Land of Shadow in The Return of the King the narrator says: "Neither he nor Frodo knew anything of the great slave-worked fields away south in this wide realm, beyond the fumes of the Mountain by the dark sad waters of Lake Núrnen; nor of the…
on “The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics” ↗Which is weird given that Return of the King is the shortest book (not counting the appendices).
on “Christopher Tolkien has died” ↗