The Return of the King

The Return of the King closes out J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings, the third volume after The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Published in 1955 by George Allen & Unwin, the book runs 416 pages. It picks up with the kingdom of Gondor bracing for an assault by the Dark Lord Sauron, while Frodo and Sam continue their perilous trek toward Mount Doom. The narrative splits between the war-torn lands of Middle-earth and the quiet endurance of the two hobbits, building to a climax that reshapes the fate of the entire world.

Initial reception was mixed. W.H. Auden, Anthony Price, and Michael Straight praised the work, but Edwin Muir, who had admired the first volume, attacked it. Over time, scholars have zeroed in on two sections: "The Scouring of the Shire" and the appendix tale "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen." The former, often called the most important chapter in the novel, shows the hobbits returning to a corrupted Shire and staging a quiet rebellion. Critics have read it as a satire of socialism, an environmental warning, or both. The latter, which Tolkien insisted was essential, spans years before and after the main story, told from Aragorn and Arwen's perspective rather than the hobbits'. It explores love, mortality, and the tension between Christian themes and the characters' pre-Christian world, and some argue its placement in the appendices strips the main narrative of much of its romance. [edit]