Summary The Lord of the Rings

JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Sixty years have passed since the return of Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the Shire. He is one hundred and ten years old, but outwardly he does not change at all. This brings the wizard Gandalf to a frightening thought: the magic Ring, stolen by Bilbo from Gollum, is in fact the Ring of Power. Millennia ago it was forged by the evil sorcerer Sauron, the master of the Dark Kingdom, forged, then lost and now eager to get back. And this will result in the death of the world, because, having mastered the Ring, Sauron will become all-powerful. The ring can not be destroyed by fire or iron; it subordinates its temporary owner – under his influence Gollum and became a merciless killer; to part with it at will is impossible; if Bilbo was a man, not a hobbit, he would have become a disembodied ghost over the years of the Ring’s tenure, like the nine vassals of Sauron, who were granted nine “junior” rings, subordinate to the Ring

of Power. The Knights became the Ghosts of the Ring, the Nazgul. Hobbits are a different matter, they are stronger than humans, but still Bilbo, with the pressure of Gandalf, parted with the Ring, leaving to live his days in Rivendell, the valley where wizard-elves live.
In the Shire remains heir Bilbo, his nephew Frodo. The ring is now with him, and Frodo sometimes uses it for jokes and jokes: the hobbits are a cheerful folk. It takes another sixteen years. During this time, Gandalf is convinced that Gollum visited the Dark Kingdom and Sauron under torture obtained from him the truth: The power ring of a hobbit named Baggins. Gandalf urges Frodo to leave the Shire and go to Rivendell after Bilbo. There the wise magicians will decide how to proceed with the Ring of Power, so that it does not fall to Sauron.
Frodo is going on the road – alas, without haste. And the nine Ghost Ghosts have already invaded the Shire. These are riders in black, on black horses; at their approach horror covers all alive. Sauron sent them for the Ring, and they begin to pursue Frodo, as soon as he leaves his “hole.” With Frodo sent his servant Sam and his two friends, merry Pippin and Merry. Black horsemen pursue them, the hobbits almost die in the Old Forest, among the predatory trees, then – on the burial mounds, inhabited by ghosts. But immediately outside the Shire they are met by a brave warrior and sage Aragorn. The hobbits do not know that he is a descendant of the ancient king of the West who took the Ring from Sauron a millennium ago, that he was destined to return to the throne, when the ruler of the Dark Kingdom would be defeated. Aragorn with his relatives has long been protecting Shire from the servants of Sauron, and now he must help Frodo to take the Ring to Rivendell. The hobbits again start off, again they are pursued by the Black Riders and overtaken at last. Aragorn manages to drive away the Nazgul, but Frodo is wounded by a poisoned witch dagger. The company miraculously breaks into Rivendell, and on time: another hour or two, and Frodo would have died… In Rivendell, he is healed, and then the council is going to. There, Gandalf first announced publicly that Frodo had the Ring of Power, that the Ring could not be destroyed or left in his home; it can not be hidden, for it will find its carrier. One way: take it to the Dark Kingdom and throw it into the mouth of the volcano, in the fire of which it was once forged. But Frodo is wounded by a poisoned witch dagger. The company miraculously breaks into Rivendell, and on time: another hour or two, and Frodo would have died… In Rivendell, he is healed, and then the council is going to. There, Gandalf first announced publicly that Frodo had the Ring of Power, that the Ring could not be destroyed or left in his home; it can not be hidden, for it will find its carrier. One way: take it to the Dark Kingdom and throw it into the mouth of the volcano, in the fire of which it was once forged. But Frodo is wounded by a poisoned witch dagger. The company miraculously breaks into Rivendell, and on time: another hour or two, and Frodo would have died… In Rivendell, he is healed, and then the council is going to. There, Gandalf first announced publicly that Frodo had the Ring of Power, that the Ring could not be destroyed or left in his home; it can not be hidden, for it will find its carrier. One way: take it to the Dark Kingdom and throw it into the mouth of the volcano, in the fire of which it was once forged.
“But from the Dark Kingdom you can not get out alive!” thinks Frodo. And yet he rises and says: “I’ll carry the Ring, only I do not know the way…” He understands: this is his destiny.
With Frodo are representatives of all the bright forces. This is the magician Gandalf, the elf Legolas, the gnome of Gimli, the people – Aragorn and Boromir (the son of the ruler of the southern kingdom of Gondor, which is near the borders of the Dark Realm). From hobbits – Sam, Pippin and Merry. Nine, as much as the Nazgul, but Frodo is the chief among them, for the Ring is entrusted to him.
At night they move eastward to the mountains, to pass through them and get to the Great River, behind which lies the Dark Kingdom. In the foothills feel: servants of Sauron – birds and animals – are already waiting for them. On the pass, the black forces arrange a snow storm, and the company has to retreat. Wolves are waiting for her at the bottom, werewolves who can barely survive. And Gandalf, in spite of Aragorn’s misgivings, decides to lead the company under the mountains, through the caves of Moria. Once the caves owned by the dwarves, now they are overrun by the army of the Sauron nonhumans, orcs. At the door to Moria Frodo almost drags a monstrous octopus into the lake, and the ferocious orcs attack the company in the dungeon. Thanks to the courage of the company and the magic of Gandalf, the nonhumans are repulsed, but just before the exit from the caves appears an ancient mighty spirit, and in the battle with him Gandalf falls into the bottomless gorge.
Even in the caves, Frodo heard spanking steps behind him, and in the forest beyond the mountains, at the border of the kingdom of the elves, Gollum was shown for a second – the Ring unquestionably attracts him. It’s unclear how he manages to follow the company everywhere, but when Frodo and his comrades, resting at the hospitable elves, get their magical boats, raincoats and supplies, go sailing along the Great River, in the water, something like a log floating along the stream flashes. They are pursued by the orcs: they are showered with arrows in a narrow canyon, and, worse, in the air one of the Nazgul who is riding now a giant winged creature is shown; The elf strikes her with an arrow from her mighty bow.
The end of the voyage; to the right extends the country of free riders, Rohan; on the left – the northern approaches to the Dark Kingdom. Aragorn must decide where to go next, but then falls into the madness of Boromir. The ring of power is the cause of madness, with the help of the Ring, Boromir wants to save Gondor from Sauron. He tries to take Frodo’s Ring by force, he escapes and, having ceased to trust people, decides to go to the volcano alone. However, he fails to deceive the faithful Sam. Two small hobbits go to the limits of the Dark Realm.
Here ends the first book of the trilogy, “The Brotherhood of the Ring”, and the second book begins, “Two Fortresses.”
Comrades are looking for Frodo and Sam in the woods and stumble upon the ambush of the orcs. Boromir dies in the fight, Pippin and Merry abduct nonhumans, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli rush to chase the orcs. However, they are caught not by the kidnappers, but by the horsemen of the country of Rohan. During the night battle, young hobbits escape from their tormentors and find themselves in the ancient forest, where mankind, the Ents, are hidden for many centuries. The leader of the enthes selects the hobbits and carries them to the Saruman fortress on his hands, like branches. It is a mighty magician, a former companion of Gandalf, and now a vile traitor; he, like many before him, was deceived by the Ring and sent the orcs to abduct Frodo. While the Ents are crushing his stronghold, Aragorn and his friends get to the forest and meet not someone but Gandalf! He is not a man, he is one of the ancient demigods, and he defeated the terrible spirit of darkness. Four friends participate in the battle of Rohan’s cavalry with the army of Saruman and on the ruins of his fortress are reunited with Pippin and Merry. But there is no joy: battle is ahead of Sauron himself, and the awesome winged Nazgul flies overhead.
In the meantime, Frodo and his faithful servant Sam, in hard work, are clinging to the rocks on the outskirts of the Dark Realm; Here, already on the descent from the height, Sam manages to catch the pursuer of Gollum. Frodo’s power of the Ring makes Gollum swear that he will serve the hobbits, show them the way to the Land of Darkness. And Gollum leads them through the Swamp of the Dead, where magical lights are wandering, and the faces of dead warriors are seen in the water, then along the wall of the mountains to the south, through a flourishing country recently captured by Sauron. They meet with a detachment of soldiers of Gondor (later they will bring the news of Gandalf’s meeting, which will serve a good service). They pass one of Sauron’s fortresses and, trembling with terror, they see the leader of the Nazgul leading the army of orcs to the war with Gondor. Then Gollum leads the hobbits up the endless staircase to the tunnel that goes to the Dark Kingdom and disappears. This is a betrayal: the giant spider Shelob is waiting in the tunnel for the hobbits. She bites Frodo, wraps it with her cobweb, like ropes. Seeing this, Sam rushes to the rescue. The little hobbit gives battle to the monster, and it, wounded, recedes, but Sam’s loved master is dead… A faithful servant removes the chain with the Ring from Frodo’s neck, leaves the body and desperately plods further to fulfill the duty instead of Frodo. But as soon as he leaves, Frodo stumbles upon the orcs; Sam overhears their conversation and learns that Frodo is not dead: Shelob paralyzed him to gobble up later. Orcs must bring him alive to Sauron, but while they take him to the fortress, Sam remains alone with his despair. The little hobbit gives battle to the monster, and it, wounded, recedes, but Sam’s loved master is dead… A faithful servant removes the chain with the Ring from Frodo’s neck, leaves the body and desperately plods further to fulfill the duty instead of Frodo. But as soon as he leaves, Frodo stumbles upon the orcs; Sam overhears their conversation and learns that Frodo is not dead: Shelob paralyzed him to gobble up later. Orcs must bring him alive to Sauron, but while they take him to the fortress, Sam remains alone with his despair. The little hobbit gives battle to the monster, and it, wounded, recedes, but Sam’s loved master is dead… A faithful servant removes the chain with the Ring from Frodo’s neck, leaves the body and desperately plods further to fulfill the duty instead of Frodo. But as soon as he leaves, Frodo stumbles upon the orcs; Sam overhears their conversation and learns that Frodo is not dead: Shelob paralyzed him to gobble up later. Orcs must bring him alive to Sauron, but while they take him to the fortress, Sam remains alone with his despair.
Here ends the second book of the trilogy, “Two Fortresses”, and the third book begins, “The Return of the King.”
Meanwhile, the young hobbits split. Pippin took with him Gandalf – he rushes to the aid of Gondor, to which the army of Sauron is approaching, Merry remains a page under King Rohan; soon he will perform with the army of this country to help besieged Gondor. Aragorn with Legolas, Gimli and a small detachment also goes to Gondor, but by a roundabout way – through the horrifying Road of the Dead, a tunnel under the mountains, from where no one has ever returned alive. Aragorn knows what he is doing: he, the returning King of Gondor, is urging the army of ghosts who are languishing here (they once retreated from the oath given to his ancestors).
Gondor is besieged, his White Fortress is on fire, the fortress gates have collapsed from the incantations of King Nazgul. At this moment Rohan’s horsemen burst into the field; the black army retreats. When King Nazgul descends from the sky, Merry hurts him, and King Rohan’s niece kills. But the victory is about to turn into a defeat – too many enemies – and then Sauron’s combat fleet, seized by Aragorn with the help of a ghost force, appears. After the victory, the defenders of Gondor decide to send a small army to the very heart of the Dark Kingdom. This suicidal decision is made to divert Sauron’s attention from Frodo carrying the Ring.
At the walls of the Black Fortress an unequal battle begins. Orcs and giants of the trolls smash the army of Aragorn and Gandalf; Pippin strikes the last blow and loses consciousness under a mountain of corpses…
But back to Sam and his trouble. He makes his way to the tower where Frodo lies, and sees that the orcs fought and killed each other. Sam again shows miracles of courage and saves the master. Suffering from hunger, thirst and eternal darkness, the hobbits sneak into the depths of the Dark Realm. Here the Ring hanging on Frodo’s neck becomes unbearably heavy. Finally they get to the volcano, and here, on the slope, they are again overtaken by Gollum. I can not get rid of him; Together with Frodo and Sam, he ascends to the vent of the volcano. It’s time to give the Ring to the fire that gave birth to it, but the power of the ominous talisman over Frodo is too great. The Hobbit in insanity screams: “It’s mine!”, Puts the Ring on your finger; Gollum rushes at him, invisible, bites off his finger along with the Ring and, stumbling, falls in a fiery vent.
The ring of power is destroyed, the Lord of the Rings is dying – the world is finally free. The giant eagles that flew in to help Gandalf carry Frodo and Sam out of the sea of ​​spilled lava. Aragorn returns to the throne of his ancestors and with great honor escorts the Hobbits to the Shire.
There, at home, they are in for a new misfortune: the traitor Saruman entered the country of meek hobbits and mercilessly ruins her. Pippin and Merry, now experienced warriors, raise their people against the people of Saruman. The traitor-wizard dies at the hands of his own clerk. So put the last point in the War of the Ring, the country returns to life, but here’s the oddity: Sam, Pippin and Merry enjoy great respect, and the protagonist, Frodo, remains seemingly in the shadows. He often gets sick – the obsession with the Ring remains in his heart and body. And the humble savior of the world sits down with Gandalf and the elven kings on the ship – their road lies beyond the sea, into the land of blessed immortality.