The Return of the King

WHY: My cousin's royal blue ‘Voyager Classics' edition of ROTK has sat on my bookshelf for almost a decade, next to a fat FOTR movie tie-in edition of the LOTR. With uni break, lockdown, my girlfriend's reminiscence and that annual itch for an Extended Edition rewatch I decided to finally finish the literary trilogy that I struggled with so long ago due to its pacing and detail, and found myself pleasantly surprised with how epic this was.
DIFFERENCES: Since most are already aware/ others have covered it before, I'll instead recap the differences between the film adaptation and this genre classic - spoilers ahead! The war with Aragorn and ring with Frodo storylines are split between Books 5 and 6 respectively in ROTK. Book 5 picks up with Gandalf en route to Minas Tirith with Pippin, warned by the Palantir and Saruman from TTT of the danger coming to Gondor. They spot the lit beacons on their way, and Beregond and his son Bergil serve the Steward Denethor who is not mad but tired from warring with Sauron through his seeing stone. Meanwhile Theoden is already mustering the Rohirrim to arrive, and our favourite multi-race trio takes the paths of the dead alongside the very cool Grey Company of the Dunedain (rangers from the North). Everyone meets in combat with a change of wind and there is a whole other Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, a whole other group & city! Whilst this beefed-up storyline ends on a depressing cliffhanger, Sam is attempting to rescue Frodo from the clutches of an orc stronghold. Together they embark through Mordor and orc-company swinging from depressed to happy, reaching Orodruin in a surprisingly fast manner. There is a lot more wrap-up when compared to the films, describing the House of Healing, coronation and lengthy walk back to the Shire. As the elves and Mithrandir depart Middle-Earth, the hobbits face a final trial by taking back the Shire from Sharkey (aka Saruman). Frodo is severely shaken from the tolls of the ring, and finally departs Middle-Earth in peace.
WRITING: But wait! It doesn't end there. Like a literary paper, Tolkien added the Appendices. These are honestly insane, describing the history of Middle-Earth and whole bloodlines of Kings and Hobbits. We find out more about what happened to all of the fellowship members years after the LOTR, especially Aragorn whose backstory (including his romance with Arwen and travels to the North and South) is tantalisingly covered. I will admit I skipped through the entry on language, as the extremely thorough explanations just failed to add value to me, although I definitely appreciate their existence. These all just reframed to me how beautiful Tolkien's writing could be, and made me respect all the small details from his comprehensive worldbuilding.
WHO: Having read a lot of modern novels recently, it was refreshing to experience Tolkien's at times poetic and unabashedly detailed writing, in what I feel was the strongest entry in the trilogy - it is highly cathartic in one of the darkest times possible. For me, the final ranking stands: Hobbit > B4 > B5 > B6 > B3 > B2 > B1. What surprised me the most was that I am now keen to read the surrounding lore through the Silmarillion and the rest of Tolkien's works!
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“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”“There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?”“Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace!”Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him with wonder; for they saw the grace of his youth, and the valor of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were all blended together. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.

Smokin' that Sam Gamgee, Southfarthing, lembas deluxe, Elbereth Gilthoniel, Skinbark, Bombadil pipe weed

Yeah, I never thought I'd cry reading this book but I did. Twice.

The book picked up almost at a bit of weird place, where The Two Towers left off. Pippin has gone ahead with Gandalf to Gondor, Merry is left with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Riders of Rohan, and Frodo is now in the custody of Mordor orcs while Sam ventures to save him. Sauron is already on the alert, mustering up all the armies of Mordor to march upon Minas Tirith in Gondor.

There were parts of this book that I skimmed, particularly the battle scenes which I wasn't a huge fan of. The bits where Tolkien goes on for pages describing the scenery and landscape through which our adventurers are traversing is still happening in this book, but instead of whimsical and beautiful places like the forests of Lothlorien or the Old Forest of Tom Bombadil, we're generally getting the dark, stifling, ugly crags and deserts of Mordor, so those were much harder to read as well.

So yes, while I did skim through some parts of this book, it also had so many beautiful, heart-warming, uplifting, or just hilarious parts.

I loved the Macbeth-ish part when, during the battle at the siege of Gondor, the Nazgul said, "No living man may hinder me!" and Dernhelm is like, "*But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's daughter." And then she just swoops in and smites some Ringwraith ass. I love that we had two characters (Eowyn and Merry) that all the other warriors and men were like, eh stay at home and don't hinder us during the battle, who actually rose to the occasion and slayed them some Nazgul.

More than ever, I love the hobbits. All four of them. I love how, even though they've seen and been through some really horrible shit, Merry and Pippin just stayed down to earth and drew their courage from the way they choose to lead their lives simply. This quote from Merry in particular, after he came out through a very dangerous time:

“But it is the way of my people to use light words at such times and say less than they mean. We fear to say too much. It robs us of the right words when a jest is out of place.” - Book 5, Chapter 8 “The Houses of Healing”

choose

Firstly, when Frodo and Sam (or really mostly Sam) have destroyed the Ring and they wake up in Gondor, and everyone's bowing to them, honouring them and going, "Praise the Ring-bearers! Praise them with great praise!". I love that you have a story with all kinds of awesome, great people that could've been heroes of their own stories any day - valiant warriors, noble kings, powerful wizards, immortal and wise elves, hardy dwarves, etc. but in the end it's up to these humble, almost powerless hobbits to save the day. They have no powers, no strengths except that of will, and even that wavered sometimes, and really nothing special to make them "the Chosen One", they were just simply caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. But they persevered and made it through and saved everyone's asses. And it's not like they had superhuman strength of mind - both Frodo and Sam wavered so hard, whether in terms of how difficult the journey was or how they became tempted by the Ring. They both contemplated just giving up, especially the closer they got to Mordor. But they didn't - and they made it through! And I felt so hard the strength of their achievements, and I love how ordinary Tolkien wrote them.

I don't think it needs to be very much explained why this chapter made me cry. The bit when Frodo made his goodbyes to Sam, and they realised that they must be parted forever. And then when Gandalf said, "Here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil." OH MAN. OHHHH MAN. Just typing it out makes me cry all over. It just felt like I'm on that journey with them and now it's ending and fdslajfdkls;fjkl;asdjfdls;a dissolves in a puddle of feelings