Moviegoers who have relished The Lord of the Rings trilogy but who have not waded through Tolkien's original books may find this abstract helpful. At the start of the story line, the evil wizard Sauron, who was eclipsed but not destroyed at the end of the Second Age of Middle Earth, has rebuilt his evil kingdom of Mordor, but he must recover the
Ring of power that he himself fashioned millennia ago. Only when he has the ring can he dominate the other rings possessed by men, dwarves and elves and fulfill his dark ambition to dominate Middle Earth.
The ring was briefly held by
king Isildur, who defeated Sauron almost three millennia ago, but Isildur was corrupted by the ring's power, was killed, and the ring fell to a river bottom, to be recovered by Smeagol, a
hobbit creature who likewise was corrupted and condemned to live as the loathsome creature, Gollum. Gollum in turn lost the ring to Bilbo, a hobbit of the Shire, and uncle of Frodo, the central hero in the saga. Leaving to join his elf friends who are abandoning Middle Earth, Bilbo willed the ring to Frodo. Sauron, meanwhile, after learning that the ring is in the Shire, despatches the nine Ringwraiths, spirits of long dead corrupted kings, to find the ring. Only with the assistance of Gandalf, an uncorrupted wizard, does Frodo learn the true identity of the ring. He flees the Shire with Sam, Merry and Pippin, three hobbit friends, barely escaping the Ringwraiths.
The initial plan of the heroes is to leave the ring in the elvish realm of Rivendell, but a council of elves, dwarves, men and hobbits, presided over by Elrond, ruler of Rivendell, decides that the ring must be destroyed. The only way it can be destroyed is to cast it into the igneous depths of Mt. Doom, an active volcano in Sauron's realm of Mordor, from which it was originally fashioned. Because the ring can easily corrupt its possessor, particularly if that person be man, elf or dwarf of high rank, Frodo himself, as a humble hobbit, voluneers to become the ring-bearer and undertake the unthinkable task of taking the ring to Mordor and destroying it.
The rest of the story is essentially a riveting narrative of the adventures of Frodo and his companions. In his quest, Frodo is joined by his three hobbit companions; Gandalf the good wizard; Aragorn, a direct descendent of Isildur and who becomes the returned king; Boromir, a prince of Gondor; Legolas, an elf prince; and Gimli, a feisty dwarf. These nine make up the "fellowship of the ring." All members of the fellowship survive their ordeals except Boromir, who falls victim to the lethal desire to possess the ring for himself.
The adventures involve a narrow escape from creatures who inhabit vast mountain caves, helpful contact with Galadriel, queen of another surviving elf principality of Middle Earth, the onslaughts of Saruman, a corrupted wizard allied with Sauron who secretly seeks the ring, the breaking up of the fellowship, large-scale battles between Sauron's forces and the two kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor, and, finally, after numerous brushes with certain death, the final struggle between Frodo and Gollum at the throat of Mt. Doom and the eventual success of Frodo, the ring-bearer, who casts the ring into the fire.
Peter Jackson and his talented crew know and love Tolkien thoroughly. The essence of the trilogy and the aura it creates for the reader is magnificently created on screen. Everything important that drove Tolkien is present in the films but Jackson and his staff were faced with the need to fill seats in theaters, and they created a three-part film epic that is based on Tolkien's trilogy but not exactly like it in certain plot details.
Some adventures faced by the hobbits on their way to Rivendell are left out, and this includes the encounter with Tom Bombadil, who is only an incidental character in Tolkien's plott line, but is one of the most charming and beloved characters in Tolkien lore. Some details in the battles of Middle Earth were changed by the filmmakers. In the film version, King Theoden of Rohan evacuates Edoras, his capital, in a flight to Helm's Deep--in the
book he does not. In the final film saga, Gandalf confronts the witch-king, leader of the Ringwraiths--in the book he does not.
The major difference between book and film, however, is the attention given in the movie version to the love match between Aragorn and Arwen, the elf daughter of Elrond. Readers of the books are aware of the relationship in the background, because Arwen is introduced in book one and then appears as Aragorn's consort in book three. But the movie weaves a deeply moving portrayal of the affection between a man about to claim the ancient throne of Gondor, and an elf princess who must abandon her people and her personal immortality if she is to marry a human doomed to die.
Those of us who love the books also love the films, because Tolkien's message is so vividly portrayed in both. In creating his cinematic masterpiece, Jackson has become a great epic filmmaker, doing justice to Tolkien, who was one of the greatest saga spinners in the history of English literature.
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