56 pages • 1 hour read
J. R. R. TolkienReturn of the King
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Ring
The Ring serves as a symbol of the corrupting influence of evil and all-encompassing power. While it is an inanimate object, Tolkien makes clear that the Ring has a will of its own and often attempts to manipulate those who bear it. In The Return of the King, the Ring demonstrates its corrupting influence by altering the perception of Frodo and Sam, tempting them and trying to inspire feelings of greed, arrogance, and paranoia. When Sam briefly carries the Ring, he understands for the first time how it can distort the perception of its bearer. As he looks out in disgust at the land of Mordor, the Ring shows him a vision meant to inspire him to seize its power: “And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be” (881). While Sam’s desire to restore the landscape is not innately evil, the Ring uses Sam’s good impulses against him, trying to force him to claim its power for himself.
Frodo’s corruption by the Ring hints that he is becoming more like Gollum the longer he carries it. When Sam offers to help him by carrying the Ring some of the time, Frodo reacts with anger and fear, greedily snatching it back. The narration indicates that this is because the Ring is changing Frodo’s perception of reality: “Sam had changed before his very eyes into an orc again, leering and pawing at his treasure, a foul little creature with greedy eyes and slobbering mouth” (891). Along with causing him to see Sam as an enemy, the Ring also inserts itself constantly into Frodo’s imagination when he is walking across Mordor, replacing all of his memories of the Shire with its own image. Frodo admits that “I begin to see it in my mind all the time, like a great wheel of fire” (898). The association between the Ring and a wheel of fire hints that the Ring is still an extension of Sauron’s will. The image mirrors Sauron’s symbol of a red eye and the fire is reminiscent of Mordor’s volcanic terrain. By indicating that the Ring will always be a tool of Sauron, Tolkien demonstrates how it symbolizes the way that even good people who desire power can be corrupted, because having power warps a person’s perception of reality and turns it inevitably to evil.
The White Tree
The White Tree of Gondor is a symbol of the King of Gondor and Aragorn’s lineage. In The Return of the King, the restoration of Aragorn to the throne of Gondor is symbolized by the restoration of the White Tree, and its blooming represents the potential for mortal men to achieve greatness and recover from the aftermath of the war. At the beginning of The Return of the King, Pippin arrives in Minas Tirith and notices that the White Tree is dead: “a sweet fountain played there in the morning sun, and a sward of bright green lay about it; but in the midst, drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree, and the falling drops dripped sadly from its barren and broken branches back into the clear water” (736). The dead tree mirrors the sad and fallen condition of Gondor under Denethor’s rule. While the steward of Gondor is not evil, he is unable to prevent the decline of his society. Denethor uses the Palantír and his behavior becomes erratic and insensible. Under his poor leadership, the tree withers.
When Aragorn comes to Minas Tirith and is crowned King again, Gandalf takes him to the mountains to show him that a sapling of the White Tree has survived and is blooming again. Aragorn sees that “already it had put forth young leaves long and shapely, dark above and silver beneath, and upon its slender crown it bore one small cluster of flowers whose white petals shone like the sunlit snow” (950). The beginning of flowers and leaves foreshadows how Aragorn’s descendants will continue his legacy even though he is mortal. The tree symbolizes how there is hope for Middle-earth in the Fourth Age. Even though the immortal folk such as the Elves will pass away into the West, humans will be able to preserve some continuity with the ancient times as well as generate new life.
Journeys
Journeys are a significant motif throughout The Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien uses physical journeys through space to metaphorically signify the emotional and spiritual journey of a person through their lifespan. In The Return of the King, the end of Frodo and Bilbo’s journeys suggests their departure from mortal life. This is particularly notable in the song that Bilbo composes during his time at Rivendell. On the surface, the words describe a traveler leaving the long road to go and rest at an inn, but the context of Bilbo’s advanced age and his impending journey into the West with the Elves who are leaving Middle-earth indicates that the lyrics can also be interpreted as a person dying after a long life:
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet (965).
The words of the song suggest that the road itself is endless, meaning that the world will continue on after Bilbo and Frodo leave it. The image of a tired traveler leaving the road to rest at an inn affiliates death with comfort and rest, suggesting that the end of a journey can be healing rather than simply tragic.
Tolkien also uses the motif of long journeys to comedically demonstrate the provincialism of people and the special relationship that they have to their homes. While the hobbits have traveled the world and gained perspective and wisdom from that experience, when they return to Bree and the Shire, the people there are only interested in the parts of their story that relate to local matters. When Frodo promises to write down his story to the people of Bree, he promises “to deal with the amazing events at Bree, and so give a bit of interest to a book that appeared likely to treat mostly of the remote and less important affairs ‘away south’” (973). Tolkien suggests that the long journey the hobbits have been on has given them a vastly different perspective on life and the world. However, even this experience does not detract from the special relationship between the hobbits and their home. While Frodo and Sam have seen the desolation of Mordor, they find themselves more upset by seeing the Shire in a relatively lesser state of ruin. The narration notes that “this was Frodo and Sam’s own country, and they found out now that they cared about it more than any other place in the world” (980-81). Tolkien therefore portrays how journeys can give a person greater awareness and wisdom about the larger world, but that they will always feel closest to their own home.
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By J. R. R. Tolkien
