THE FALLEN REALMS. The Dark Lord is doubtless enraged by the continued resistance yet still they stand firm, a defiance that causes the forces of the. Eye to break upon the Lonely Mountain. Weekend to reach a satisfying conclusion, be it glorious recreate famous battles from The Lord ol The Rings or and drinks!) '.

1. Lord Of The Rings Fallen Realms Pdf File
2. Lords Of The Realm Online

The Lord of the Rings is an epichigh fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.^[1]

The title of the novel refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark LordSauron,^[a] who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, the work was initially intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion, but this idea was dismissed by his publisher.^[3][4] For economic reasons, The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955.^[3][5] The three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of background material included at the end. Some editions combine the entire work into a single volume. The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into 38 languages.

Tolkien's work has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger epic Tolkien had worked on since 1917,^[6] in a process he described as mythopoeia.^[b] Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, religion and the author's distaste for the effects of industrialization, as well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I.^[8]The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on modern fantasy; the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words 'Tolkienian' and 'Tolkienesque' has been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.^[9]

The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works,^[10] and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, board games, and subsequent literature. Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film.^[11] In 2003, it was named Britain's best novel of all time in the BBC's The Big Read.

• 1Plot summary
• 2Main characters
• 3Concept and creation
• 4Publication history
• 7Adaptations
• 8Legacy

Plot summary[edit]

Prologue[edit]

Thousands of years before the events of the novel, the Dark Lord Sauron had forged the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power and corrupt those who wore them: three for Elves, seven for Dwarves, and nine for Men. Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively. In the final battle, Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger, causing Sauron to lose his physical form. Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin.

Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol. His friend^[12] Sméagol fell under the Ring's influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains. The Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. Gollum lost the Ring, his 'precious', and as told in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins found it. Meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor. When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron. Sauron learned from Gollum that 'Baggins' of the Shire had taken the Ring. Gollum was set loose. Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his full power, sent forth his powerful servants, the Nazgûl, to seize it.

The Fellowship of the Ring[edit]

The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbitFrodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin^[c] and guardian. Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring's nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Sauron's Ring. Seventeen years later, after Gandalf confirms his guess, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring and counsels him to take it away from the Shire. Frodo sets out, accompanied by his gardener, servant and friend, Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck and Peregrin 'Pippin' Took. They are nearly caught by the Black Riders, but shake off their pursuers by cutting through the Old Forest. There they are aided by Tom Bombadil, a strange and merry fellow who lives with his wife Goldberry in the forest.

The hobbits reach the town of Bree, where they encounter a Ranger named Strider, whom Gandalf had mentioned in a letter. Strider persuades the hobbits to take him on as their guide and protector. Together, they leave Bree after another close escape from the Black Riders. On the hill of Weathertop, they are again attacked by the Black Riders, who wound Frodo with a cursed blade. Strider fights them off and leads the hobbits towards the Elven refuge of Rivendell. Frodo falls deathly ill from the wound. The Black Riders nearly capture him at the Ford of Bruinen, but flood waters summoned by Elrond, master of Rivendell, rise up and overwhelm them.

Frodo recovers in Rivendell under Elrond's care. The Council of Elrond discusses the history of Sauron and the Ring. Strider is revealed to be Aragorn, Isildur's heir. Gandalf reports that the chief wizard Saruman has betrayed them and is now working to become a power in his own right. The Council decides that the Ring must be destroyed, but that can only be done by sending it to the Fire of Mount Doom in Mordor, where it was forged. Frodo takes this task upon himself. Elrond, with the advice of Gandalf, chooses companions for him. The Company of the Ring are nine in number: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, and the Man Boromir, son of Denethor, the Ruling Steward of the land of Gondor.

After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass, the Company take the perilous path through the Mines of Moria. They learn of the fate of Balin and his colony of Dwarves. After surviving an attack, they are pursued by Orcs and by a Balrog, an ancient fire demon. Gandalf faces the Balrog, and both of them fall into the abyss. The others escape and find refuge in the Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by its rulers, Galadriel and Celeborn.

With boats and gifts from Galadriel, the Company travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen. There, Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but Frodo puts it on and disappears. Frodo chooses to go alone to Mordor, but Sam guesses what he intends and goes with him.

The Two Towers[edit]

Orcs sent by Saruman and Sauron kill Boromir and capture Merry and Pippin. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas debate which pair of hobbits to follow. They decide to pursue the Orcs taking Merry and Pippin to Saruman. In the kingdom of Rohan, the Orcs are slain by a company of Rohirrim. Merry and Pippin escape into Fangorn Forest, where they are befriended by Treebeard, the oldest of the tree-like Ents. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn. There they unexpectedly meet Gandalf.

Gandalf explains that he slew the Balrog. Darkness took him, but he was sent back to Middle-earth to complete his mission. He is clothed in white and is now Gandalf the White, for he has taken Saruman's place as the chief of the wizards. Gandalf assures his friends that Merry and Pippin are safe. Together they ride to Edoras, capital of Rohan. Gandalf frees Théoden, King of Rohan, from the influence of Saruman's spy Gríma Wormtongue. Théoden musters his fighting strength and rides with his men to the ancient fortress of Helm's Deep, while Gandalf departs to seek help from Treebeard.

Meanwhile, the Ents, roused by Merry and Pippin from their peaceful ways, attack Isengard, Saruman's stronghold, and trap the wizard in the tower of Orthanc. Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Huorns to Théoden's aid. Gandalf brings an army of Rohirrim to Helm's Deep, and they defeat the Orcs, who flee into the forest of Huorns, never to be seen again. Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to turn away from evil. When Saruman refuses to listen, Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers.

After Saruman crawls back to his prison, Wormtongue drops a sphere to try to kill Gandalf. Pippin picks it up. It is revealed to be a palantír, a seeing-stone that Saruman used to speak with Sauron and through which Saruman was ensnared. Pippin is seen by Sauron. Gandalf rides for Minas Tirith, chief city of Gondor, taking Pippin with him.

Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, who has followed them from Moria. They force him to guide them to Mordor. They find that the Black Gate of Mordor is too well guarded, so instead they travel to a secret way Gollum knows. On the way, they encounter Faramir, who, unlike his brother Boromir, resists the temptation to seize the Ring. Gollum – who is torn between his loyalty to Frodo and his desire for the Ring – betrays Frodo by leading him to the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol. Frodo falls to Shelob's sting. But with the help of Galadriel's gifts, Sam fights off the spider. Believing Frodo to be dead, Sam takes the Ring to continue the quest alone. Orcs find Frodo; Sam overhears them and learns that Frodo is still alive.

The Return of the King[edit]

Sauron sends a great army against Gondor. Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor of the attack, while Théoden musters the Rohirrim to ride to Gondor's aid. Minas Tirith is besieged. Denethor is deceived by Sauron and falls into despair. He burns himself alive on a pyre, nearly taking his son Faramir with him. Aragorn, accompanied by Legolas, Gimli and the Rangers of the North, takes the Paths of the Dead to recruit the Dead Men of Dunharrow, who are bound by a curse which denies them rest until they fulfil their ancient forsworn oath to fight for the King of Gondor.

Following Aragorn, the Army of the Dead strikes terror into the Corsairs of Umbar invading southern Gondor. Aragorn defeats the Corsairs and uses their ships to transport the men of southern Gondor up the Anduin, reaching Minas Tirith just in time to turn the tide of battle. Théoden's niece Éowyn, who joined the army in disguise, slays the Lord of the Nazgûl with help from Merry. Together, Gondor and Rohan defeat Sauron's army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, though at great cost. Théoden is killed, and Éowyn and Merry are wounded.

Meanwhile, Sam rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol. They set out across Mordor. Aragorn leads an army of men from Gondor and Rohan to march on the Black Gate to distract Sauron from his true danger. His army is vastly outnumbered by the great might of Sauron. Frodo and Sam reach the edge of the Cracks of Doom, but Frodo cannot resist the Ring any longer. He claims it for himself and puts it on his finger.

Gollum suddenly reappears. He struggles with Frodo and bites off Frodo's finger with the Ring still on it. Celebrating wildly, Gollum loses his footing and falls into the Fire, taking the Ring with him. When the Ring is destroyed, Sauron loses his power forever. All he created collapses, the Nazgûl perish, and his armies are thrown into such disarray that Aragorn's forces emerge victorious.

Aragorn is crowned King of Arnor and Gondor, and weds Arwen, daughter of Elrond. The four hobbits make their way back to the Shire, only to find that it has been taken over by men directed by one 'Sharkey' (whom they later discover to be Saruman). The hobbits raise a rebellion and liberate the Shire, though 19 hobbits are killed and 30 wounded. Frodo stops the hobbits from killing the wizard after Saruman attempts to stab Frodo, but Gríma turns on Saruman and kills him in front of Bag End, Frodo's home. He is slain in turn by hobbit archers, and the War of the Ring comes to its true end on Frodo's very doorstep.

Merry and Pippin are celebrated as heroes. Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts from Galadriel to help heal the Shire. But Frodo is still wounded in body and spirit, having borne the Ring for so long. A few years later, in the company of Bilbo and Gandalf, Frodo sails from the Grey Havens west over the Sea to the Undying Lands to find peace.

In the appendices, Sam gives his daughter Elanor the Red Book of Westmarch, which contains the story of Bilbo's adventures and the War of the Ring as witnessed by the hobbits. Sam is then said to have crossed west over the Sea himself, the last of the Ring-bearers.

Main characters[edit]

Some characters in The Lord of the Rings are unequivocal protagonists, and others are absolute antagonists. However despite criticism that the book's characters 'are all either black or white', some of the 'good' characters have darker sides that feature in the story, and likewise some of the villains have 'good impulses'.^[13] Therefore the categorization of characters as either 'protagonists' or 'antagonists' below indicates their general role in the story.

Protagonists[edit]

• The Fellowship of the Ring:
  • Frodo Baggins, bearer of the One Ring, given to him by Bilbo Baggins
  • Samwise Gamgee, gardener and friend of the Bagginses
  • Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry), Frodo's cousin and friend
  • Peregrin Took (Pippin or Pip), Frodo's cousin and friend
  • Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, leads the Fellowship until his fall in Moria, returns from death as Gandalf the White to lead the armies of the West against Sauron
  • Aragorn, (aka Strider) descendant of Isildur and rightful heir to the thrones of Arnor and Gondor
  • Legolas Greenleaf, an Elf prince and son of King Thranduil of the Silvan Elves of Northern Mirkwood
  • Gimli, son of Glóin, a dwarf
  • Boromir, the eldest son and heir of Denethor
• Denethor, ruling Steward of Gondor and Lord of Minas Tirith
• Faramir, younger son of Denethor and brother of Boromir
• Galadriel, Elf co-ruler of Lothlórien, and grandmother of Arwen
• Celeborn, Elf co-ruler of Lothlórien, husband of Galadriel, and grandfather of Arwen
• Elrond, Half-elven Lord of Rivendell and father of Arwen
• Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond, love interest of Aragorn
• Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle
• Théoden, King of Rohan, ally of Gondor
• Éomer, the 3rd Marshal of the Mark and Théoden's nephew. Later King of Rohan after Théoden's death.
• Éowyn, sister of Éomer, who disguises herself as a male warrior named Dernhelm to fight beside Théoden
• Treebeard, oldest of the Ents
• Tom Bombadil, lives at the edge of the Old Forest near the barrow-downs, a mysterious character with great powers
• Glorfindel, an elf who lives in Rivendell and saves Frodo from the Ringwraiths.

Antagonists[edit]

• Sauron, the Dark Lord and titular Lord of the Rings, a fallen Maia, helped the Elves of Eregion forge the Rings of Power in the Second Age.
• The Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, men enslaved by Sauron when they accepted his treacherous gifts of Rings of Power
  • The Witch-king of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgûl, and Sauron's most powerful servant, who commands Sauron's army
• Saruman the White, a wizard who seeks the One Ring for himself. Originally the chief of the order of wizards of which Gandalf is also a member;^[14] corrupted by Sauron through the palantír.
• Gríma Wormtongue, a secret servant of Saruman and traitor to Rohan, who poisons Théoden's perceptions with well placed advice
• Gollum, a river hobbit originally named Sméagol and an obsessive previous owner of the One Ring, planning to steal it back.
• Shelob, a giant spider who dwells in the pass of Cirith Ungol above Minas Morgul
• Durin's Bane, a Balrog dwelling beneath the Mines of Moria
• Mouth of Sauron, also known as the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr. The chief emissary of Sauron, he confronts the Army of the West outside the Black Gate.

Concept and creation[edit]

Background[edit]

The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's work The Hobbit, published in 1937.^[15] The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen & Unwin, the publishers, to request a sequel. Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly, and responded with several stories he had already developed. Having rejected his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion, putting on hold Roverandom, and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham, Allen & Unwin thought more stories about hobbits would be popular.^[16] So at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing the story that would become The Lord of the Rings. The story would not be finished until 12 years later, in 1949, and would not be fully published until 1955, when Tolkien was 63 years old.

Writing[edit]

Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December 1937.^[15] After several false starts, the story of the One Ring emerged. The idea for the first chapter ('A Long-Expected Party') arrived fully formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, and the title The Lord of the Rings did not arrive until the spring of 1938.^[15] Originally, he planned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the Ring and its powers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work.^[15] As the story progressed, he also brought in elements from The Silmarillion mythology.^[17]

Writing was slow, because Tolkien had a full-time academic position, and needed to earn further money as a university examiner.^[18] Tolkien abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only restarted it in April 1944,^[15] as a serial for his son Christopher Tolkien, who was sent chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Tolkien made another concerted effort in 1946, and showed the manuscript to his publishers in 1947.^[15] The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not complete the revision of earlier parts of the work until 1949.^[15] The original manuscripts, which total 9,250 pages, now reside in the J. R. R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University.^[19]

Influences[edit]

The influence of the Welsh language, which Tolkien had learned, is summarized in his essay English and Welsh: 'If I may once more refer to my work. The Lord of the Rings, in evidence: the names of persons and places in this story were mainly composed on patterns deliberately modelled on those of Welsh (closely similar but not identical). This element in the tale has given perhaps more pleasure to more readers than anything else in it.'^[20]

The Lord of the Rings developed as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his interests in philology, religion (particularly Catholicism^[21]), fairy tales, Norse and general Germanic mythology,^[22][23] and also Celtic,^{[24][better source needed]}Slavic,^[25][26][27]Persian,^[28]Greek,^[29] and Finnish mythology.^[30] Tolkien acknowledged, and external critics have verified, the influences of George MacDonald and William Morris^[31] and the Anglo-Saxon poemBeowulf.^[32] The question of a direct influence of Wagner's The Nibelung's Ring on Tolkien's work is debated by critics.

Tolkien included neither any explicit religion nor cult in his work. Rather the themes, moral philosophy, and cosmology of The Lord of the Rings reflect his Catholic worldview. In one of his letters Tolkien states, 'The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.'^[21]

Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien's childhood in Birmingham, where he first lived near Sarehole Mill, and later near Edgbaston Reservoir.^[34] There are also hints of the Black Country, which is within easy reach of northwest Edgbaston. This shows in such names as 'Underhill', and the description of Saruman's industrialization of Isengard and The Shire. It has also been suggested that The Shire and its surroundings were based on the countryside around Stonyhurst College in Lancashire where Tolkien frequently stayed during the 1940s.^[35] The work was influenced by the effects of his military service during World War I, to the point that Frodo has been diagnosed as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, which was first diagnosed as 'shell-shock' at the Battle of the Somme, in which Tolkien served.^[36]

Publication history[edit]

A dispute with his publisher, George Allen & Unwin, led to the book being offered to Collins in 1950. Tolkien intended The Silmarillion (itself largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with The Lord of the Rings, but A&U were unwilling to do this. After Milton Waldman, his contact at Collins, expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself 'urgently wanted cutting', Tolkien eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952.^[37] Collins did not; and so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin, saying, 'I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff', fearing his work would never see the light of day.^[15]

For publication, the book was divided into three volumes to minimize any potential financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and modest anticipated sales: The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I and II), The Two Towers (Books III and IV), and The Return of the King (Books V and VI plus six appendices).^[38] Delays in producing appendices, maps and especially an index led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped – on 29 July 1954, on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Houghton Mifflin published The Fellowship of the Ring on 21 October 1954, The Two Towers on 21 April 1955, and The Return of the King on 5 January 1956.^[39]

The Return of the King was especially delayed due to Tolkien revising the ending and preparing appendices (some of which had to be left out because of space constraints). Tolkien did not like the title The Return of the King, believing it gave away too much of the storyline, but deferred to his publisher's preference. He suggested the title The Two Towers in a deliberately ambiguous attempt to link the unconnected books III and IV, and as such the eponymous towers could be either Orthanc and Barad-dûr, or Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and Cirith Ungol.

Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two-book volume, preferring instead the use of book titles: e.g. The Lord of the Rings: Vol. 1, The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South; Vol. 2, The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring and The End of the Third Age. However these individual book titles were later scrapped, and after pressure from his publishers, Tolkien initially suggested the titles: Vol. 1, The Shadow Grows; Vol. 2, The Ring in the Shadow; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring or The Return of the King.^[40][41]

Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed, the work is often referred to as the Lord of the Rings 'trilogy'. In a letter to the poet W. H. Auden (who famously reviewed the final volume in 1956^[42]), Tolkien himself made use of the term 'trilogy' for the work^[43] though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single book.^[44] It is also often called a novel; however, Tolkien also objected to this term as he viewed it as a heroic romance.^[45]

The books were published under a profit-sharing arrangement, whereby Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even, after which he would take a large share of the profits.^[46] It has ultimately become one of the best-selling novels ever written, with 50 million copies sold by 2003^[47] and over 150 million copies sold by 2007.^[1]

The book was published in the UK by Allen & Unwin until 1990 when the publisher and its assets were acquired by HarperCollins.^[48][49]

Editions and revisions[edit]

In the early 1960s Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books, claimed that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because Houghton Mifflin, the US hardcover publisher, had neglected to copyright the work in the United States.^[50][51] Then, in 1965, Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorized by Tolkien and without paying royalties to him. Tolkien took issue with this and quickly notified his fans of this objection.^[52]Grass-roots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace Books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien.^[53][54]

Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Houghton Mifflin to tremendous commercial success. Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would be published with his consent and establish an unquestioned US copyright. This text became the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, published in 1965.^[53] The first Ballantine paperback edition was printed in October that year, and sold a quarter of a million copies within ten months. On September 4, 1966, the novel debuted on New York Times' Paperback Bestsellers list as number three, and was number one by December 4, a position it held for eight weeks.^[55] Houghton Mifflin editions after 1994 consolidate variant revisions by Tolkien, and corrections supervised by Christopher Tolkien, which resulted, after some initial glitches, in a computer-based unified text.^[56]

In 2004, for the 50th Anniversary Edition, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, under supervision from Christopher Tolkien, studied and revised the text to eliminate as many errors and inconsistencies as possible, some of which had been introduced by well-meaning compositors of the first printing in 1954, and never been corrected.^[57] The 2005 edition of the book contained further corrections noticed by the editors and submitted by readers. Further corrections were added to the 60th Anniversary Edition in 2014.^[58]

Several editions, notably the 50th Anniversary Edition, combine all three books into one volume, with the result that pagination varies widely over the various editions.

Posthumous publication of drafts[edit]

From 1988 to 1992 Christopher Tolkien published the surviving drafts of The Lord of The Rings, chronicling and illuminating with commentary the stages of the text's development, in volumes 6–9 of his History of Middle-earth series. The four volumes carry the titles The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated.

Translations[edit]

The novel has been translated, with various degrees of success, into at least 56 languages.^[59] Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and made comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work. As he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators, such as the Swedish translation by Åke Ohlmarks,^[60] Tolkien wrote a 'Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings' (1967). Because The Lord of the Rings purports to be a translation of the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch, with the English language representing the Westron of the 'original', Tolkien suggested that translators attempt to capture the interplay between English and the invented nomenclature of the English work, and gave several examples along with general guidance.

Reception[edit]

While early reviews for The Lord of the Rings were mixed, reviews in various media have been, on the whole, highly positive and acknowledge Tolkien's literary achievement as a significant one. The initial review in the Sunday Telegraph described it as 'among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century'.^[61] The Sunday Times echoed this sentiment, stating that 'the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them'.^[61] The New York Herald Tribune also seemed to have an idea of how popular the books would become, writing in its review that they were 'destined to outlast our time'.^[62]W. H. Auden, an admirer of Tolkien's writings, regarded The Lord of the Rings as a 'masterpiece', further stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of John Milton's Paradise Lost.^[63]

New York Times reviewer Judith Shulevitz criticized the 'pedantry' of Tolkien's literary style, saying that he 'formulated a high-minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist, which turns out to be death to literature itself'.^[64] Critic Richard Jenkyns, writing in The New Republic, criticized the work for a lack of psychological depth. Both the characters and the work itself are, according to Jenkyns, 'anemic, and lacking in fibre'.^[65] Even within Tolkien's literary group, The Inklings, reviews were mixed. Hugo Dyson complained loudly at its readings.^[66][67] However, another Inkling, C. S. Lewis, had very different feelings, writing, 'here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart.' Despite these reviews and its lack of paperback printing until the 1960s, The Lord of the Rings initially sold well in hardback.^[6]

In 1957, The Lord of the Rings was awarded the International Fantasy Award. Despite its numerous detractors, the publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine paperbacks helped The Lord of the Rings become immensely popular in the United States in the 1960s. The book has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.^[68] In the 2003 'Big Read' survey conducted in Britain by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the 'Nation's best-loved book'. In similar 2004 polls both Germany^[69] and Australia^[70] also found The Lord of the Rings to be their favourite book. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite 'book of the millennium'.^[71]

Themes[edit]

Although The Lord of the Rings was published in the 1950s, Tolkien insisted that the One Ring was not an allegory for the atomic bomb,^[72] nor were his works a strict allegory of any kind, but were open to interpretation as the reader saw fit.^[73][74]

A few critics have found what they consider racial elements in the story, which are generally based upon their views of how Tolkien's imagery depicts good and evil, characters' race (e.g. Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, Southron, Númenórean, Orc), and how the characters' race is seen as determining their behaviour.^[75][76][77] On the contrary, counter-arguments note that race-focused critiques often omit relevant textual evidence,^[78][79][80] cite imagery from adaptations rather than the work itself,^[81] ignore the absence of evidence of racist attitudes or events in the author's personal life,^[78][81][82] and claim that the perception of racism is itself a marginal view.^[82]

The opinions that pit races against each other most likely reflect Tolkien's criticism of war rather than a racist perspective. In The Two Towers, the character Samwise sees a fallen foe and for a moment he considers the humanity of this fallen Southron who, just moments before, was shown to be a man of color.^[83] Director Peter Jackson considers Sam in the director's commentary of the scene and argues that Tolkien isn't projecting any negative sentiments towards the individual soldier because of his race, but the evil that's driving them from their authority.^[84] These sentiments, Jackson argues, were derived from Tolkien's experience in the Great War and found their way into his writings to show the evils of war itself, not of other races.

Critics have also seen social class rather than race as being the determining factor in the portrayal of good and evil.^[78] Commentators such as science fiction author David Brin have interpreted the work to hold unquestioning devotion to a traditional elitist social structure.^[85] In his essay 'Epic Pooh', science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock critiques the world-view displayed by the book as deeply conservative, in both the 'paternalism' of the narrative voice and the power-structures in the narrative.^[86]Tom Shippey cites the origin of this portrayal of evil as a reflection of the prejudices of European middle-classes during the inter-war years towards the industrial working class.^[87]

Other observers have cited Christian, specifically Catholic, themes in The Lord of the Rings.^[88]

The book has been read as fitting the model of Joseph Campbell's 'monomyth'.^[89]

Adaptations[edit]

The Lord of the Rings has been adapted for film, radio and stage.

Radio[edit]

The book has been adapted for radio four times. In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 13-part radio adaptation of the story. In the 1960s radio station WBAI produced a short radio adaptation. A 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD. In 1981, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a new dramatization in 26 half-hour instalments. This dramatization of The Lord of the Rings has subsequently been made available on both tape and CD both by the BBC and other publishers. For this purpose it is generally edited into 13 one-hour episodes.

Film[edit]

Following J. R. R. Tolkien's sale of the film rights for The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1969, rock band The Beatles considered a corresponding film project and approached Stanley Kubrick as a potential director; however, Kubrick turned down the offer, explaining to John Lennon that he thought the novel could not be adapted into a film due to its immensity.^[90][91] The eventual director of the film adaptation Peter Jackson further explained that a major hindrance to the project's progression was Tolkien's opposition to the involvement of the Beatles.^[92] British director John Boorman also tried to make an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings for United Artists in 1970. After the script was written, which included many changes to the story and the characters, the production company scrapped the project, thinking it too expensive and too risky.^[93]

Two film adaptations of the book have been made. The first was J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story; it covers The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers. A three-issue comic book version of the movie was also published in Europe (but not printed in English), with illustrations by Luis Bermejo. When Bakshi's investors shied away of financing the second film that would complete the story, the remainder of the story was covered in an animated television special by Rankin-Bass. Stylistically, the two segments are very different.

The second and more commercially successful adaptation was Peter Jackson's live action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). All three parts won multiple Academy Awards, including consecutive Best Picture nominations. The final instalment of this trilogy was the second film to break the one-billion-dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars (something only two other films in history, Ben-Hur and Titanic, have accomplished), including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Hunt for Gollum, a fan film based on elements of the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, was released on the internet in May 2009 and has been covered in major media.^[94]Born of Hope, written by Paula DiSante, directed by Kate Madison, and released in December 2009, is a fan film based upon the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.^[95]

Television[edit]

In November 2017, Amazon acquired the global television rights to The Lord of the Rings, committing to a multi-season television series. The series will not be a direct adaptation of the books, but will instead introduce new stories that are set before The Fellowship of the Ring.^[96] Amazon said the deal included potential for spin-off series as well.^[97] The press release referred to 'previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien's original writings'. Amazon will be the producer in conjunction with the Tolkien Estate and The Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Television.^[98] According to a 2018 report, it will be the most expensive TV show ever produced.^[99] In early July 2019, the New Zealand Economic Development MinisterDavid Parker confirmed that a large part of the series would be produced in New Zealand following negotiations between Amazon and the New Zealand Government.^[100][101]

Stage[edit]

In 1990, Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings,^[102] with British actor Rob Inglis – who had previously starred in his own one-man stage productions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – reading. A large-scale musical theatre adaptation, The Lord of the Rings was first staged in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2006 and opened in London in May 2007.

Legacy[edit]

Influence on the fantasy genre[edit]

The enormous popularity of Tolkien's work expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings, the genre flowered throughout the 1960s, and enjoys popularity to the present day. The opus has spawned many imitators, such as The Sword of Shannara, which Lin Carter called 'the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read'.^[103]Dungeons & Dragons, which popularized the role-playing game (RPG) genre in the 1970s, features many races found in The Lord of the Rings, most notably halflings (another term for hobbits), elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintained that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the popularity the work enjoyed at the time he was developing the game.^[104]

Because D&D has gone on to influence many popular role-playing video games, the influence of The Lord of the Rings extends to many of them as well, with titles such as Dragon Quest,^[105][106] the Ultima series, EverQuest, the Warcraft series, and the Elder Scrolls series of games^[107] as well as video games set in Middle-earth itself.

Research also suggests that some consumers of fantasy games derive their motivation from trying to create an epic fantasy narrative which is influenced by The Lord of the Rings.^[108]

Music[edit]

In 1965, songwriter Donald Swann, who was best known for his collaboration with Michael Flanders as Flanders & Swann, set six poems from The Lord of the Rings and one from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ('Errantry') to music. When Swann met with Tolkien to play the songs for his approval, Tolkien suggested for 'Namárië' (Galadriel's lament) a setting reminiscent of plain chant, which Swann accepted.^[109] The songs were published in 1967 as The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle,^[110] and a recording of the songs performed by singer William Elvin with Swann on piano was issued that same year by Caedmon Records as Poems and Songs of Middle Earth.^[111]

Rock bands of the 1970s were musically and lyrically inspired by the fantasy embracing counter-culture of the time; British 70s rock band Led Zeppelin recorded several songs that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings, such as mentioning Gollum in 'Ramble On', the Misty Mountains in 'Misty Mountain Hop', and Ringwraiths in 'The Battle of Evermore'. In 1970, the Swedish musician Bo Hansson released an instrumentalconcept album based on the book titled Sagan om ringen (translated as 'The Saga of the Ring', which was the title of the Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings at the time).^[112] The album was subsequently released internationally as Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings in 1972.^[112]

The songs 'Rivendell' and 'The Necromancer' by the progressive rock band Rush were inspired by Tolkien. Styx also paid homage to Tolkien on their album Pieces of Eight with the song 'Lords of the Ring', while Black Sabbath's song, 'The Wizard', which appeared on their debut album, was influenced by Tolkien's hero, Gandalf. Progressive rock group Camel paid homage to the text in their lengthy composition 'Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider', and progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest was inspired by the character Galadriel to write a song by that name, and used 'Bombadil', the name of another character, as a pseudonym under which their 1972 single 'Breathless'/'When the City Sleeps' was released; there are other references scattered through the BJH oeuvre.

Later, from the 1980s to the present day, many heavy metal acts have been influenced by Tolkien. Blind Guardian has written many songs relating to Middle-earth, including the full concept album Nightfall in Middle Earth. Almost the entire discography of Battlelore are Tolkien-themed. Summoning's music is based upon Tolkien and holds the distinction of the being the only artist to have crafted a song entirely in the Black Speech of Mordor. Gorgoroth, Cirith Ungol and Amon Amarth take their names from an area of Mordor, and Burzum take their name from the Black Speech of Mordor. The Finnish metal band Nightwish and the Norwegian metal band Tristania have also incorporated many Tolkien references into their music. American heavy metal band Megadeth released two songs titled 'This Day We Fight!' and 'How the Story Ends', which were both inspired by The Lord of the Rings.^[113] German folk metal band Eichenschild is named for Thorin Oakenshield, a character in The Hobbit, and naturally has a number of Tolkien-themed songs. They are not to be confused with the '70s folk rock band Thorin Eichenschild.

In 1988, Dutch composer and trombonist Johan de Meij completed his Symphony No. 1 'The Lord of the Rings', which encompassed 5 movements, titled 'Gandalf', 'Lothlórien', 'Gollum', 'Journey in the Dark', and 'Hobbits'. In 1989 the symphony was awarded the Sudler Composition Award, awarded biennially for best wind band composition. The Danish Tolkien Ensemble have released a number of albums that feature the complete poems and songs of The Lord of the Rings set to music, with some featuring recitation by Christopher Lee.

Enya wrote an instrumental piece called 'Lothlórien' in 1991, and composed two songs for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring—'May It Be' (sung in English and Quenya) and 'Aníron' (sung in Sindarin).

Impact on popular culture[edit]

The Lord of the Rings has had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture, beginning with its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, during which time young people embraced it as a countercultural saga.^[114] 'Frodo Lives!' and 'Gandalf for President' were two phrases popular amongst United States Tolkien fans during this time.^[115]

Parodies like the Harvard Lampoon'sBored of the Rings, the VeggieTales episode 'Lord of the Beans', the South Park episode 'The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers', the Futurama film Bender's Game, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode 'Lights! Camera! Danger!', The Big Bang Theory episode 'The Precious Fragmentation', and the American Dad! episode 'The Return of the Bling' are testimony to the work's continual presence in popular culture.

In 1969, Tolkien sold the merchandising rights to The Lord of The Rings (and The Hobbit) to United Artists under an agreement stipulating a lump sum payment of £10,000^[116] plus a 7.5% royalty after costs,^[117] payable to Allen & Unwin and the author.^[118] In 1976, three years after the author's death, United Artists sold the rights to Saul Zaentz Company, who now trade as Tolkien Enterprises. Since then all 'authorized' merchandise has been signed-off by Tolkien Enterprises, although the intellectual property rights of the specific likenesses of characters and other imagery from various adaptations is generally held by the adaptors.^[119]

Outside any commercial exploitation from adaptations, from the late 1960s onwards there has been an increasing variety of original licensed merchandise, from posters and calendars created by illustrators such as Pauline Baynes and the Brothers Hildebrandt, to figurines and miniatures to computer, video, tabletop and role-playing games. Recent examples include the Spiel des Jahres award-winning (for 'best use of literature in a game') board game The Lord of the Rings by Reiner Knizia and the Golden Joystick award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar by Turbine, Inc..

The Lord of the Rings has been mentioned in numerous songs including 'The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins' by Leonard Nimoy, Led Zeppelin's 'Misty Mountain Hop', 'Over the Hills and Far Away', 'Ramble On', and 'The Battle of Evermore', Genesis' song 'Stagnation' (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum, Rush included the song 'Rivendell' on their second studio album Fly by Night, and Argent included the song 'Lothlorien' on the 1971 album Ring of Hands.

Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter) of British rock band T. Rex took his name from the hobbit Peregrin Took (better known as Pippin). Took later recorded under the pseudonym 'Shagrat the Vagrant', before forming a band called Shagrat in 1970.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

Lord Of The Rings Fallen Realms Pdf File

1. ^This is made clear in the chapter The Council of Elrond, where Glorfindel states: '[E]ven if we could [hide the Ring], soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power towards it.'^[2]
2. ^Tolkien created the word to define a different view of myth from C. S. Lewis's 'lies breathed through silver'. Mythopoeia was also the title of one of his poems, first published in Tree and Leaf in 1988.^[7]
3. ^Although Frodo referred to Bilbo as his 'uncle', the character is introduced in 'A Long-expected Party' as one of Bilbo's younger cousins. The two were in fact first and second cousins, once removed either way (his paternal great-great-uncle's son's son and his maternal great-aunt's son).

References[edit]

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89. ^Bower, Jody G. ''The Lord of the Rings' – An Archetypal Hero's Journey'. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
90. ^Drout 2006, p. 15.
91. ^See also interview in 'Show' magazine vol. 1, Number 1 1970
92. ^'Beatles plan for Rings film'. CNN. 28 March 2002. Archived from the original on 9 April 2002.
93. ^Taylor, Patrick (19 January 2014). Best Films Never Made #8: John Boorman's The Lord of the Rings.'OneRoomWithaView.com. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
94. ^Masters, Tim (30 April 2009). 'Making Middle-earth on a shoestring'. BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
    Sydell, Laura (30 April 2009). 'High-Def 'Hunt For Gollum' New Lord of the Fanvids'. All Things Considered. NPR. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
95. ^Lamont, Tom (7 March 2010). 'Born of Hope – and a lot of charity'. The Guardian. London, England: Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
96. ^Axon, Samuel (13 November 2017). 'Amazon will run a multi-season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series'. Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017.
97. ^Gonzalez, Sandra (13 November 2017). 'Amazon announces 'Lord of the Rings' TV show'. CNN. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017.
98. ^Koblin, John (13 November 2017). ''Lord of the Rings' Series Coming to Amazon'. The New York Times. New York City: New York Times Company. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
99. ^'Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' Will Be the Most Expensive Television Show Ever Made'. Fortune. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
100. ^Walls, Jason (2 July 2019). 'Announcement on Amazon producing the Lord of the Rings TV show in NZ is 'imminent''. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 24 August 2019.Italic or bold markup not allowed in: publisher= (help)
101. ^'NZ nearly lost Amazon's Lord of the Rings production after Christchurch attacks'. Stuff.co.nz. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
102. ^ISBN1-4025-1627-4
103. ^Carter, Lin (1978). The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 4. New York: DAW Books. pp. 207–208.
104. ^Gygax, Gary. 'Gary Gygax – Creator of Dungeons & Dragons'. The One Ring.net. Archived from the original on 27 June 2006. Retrieved 28 May 2006.
105. ^'The Gamasutra Quantum Leap Awards: Role-Playing Games'. Honorable Mention: Dragon Warrior. Gamasutra. 6 October 2006. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
106. ^Kalata, Kurt. 'The History of Dragon Quest'. Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
107. ^Douglass, Perry (17 May 2006). 'The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames'. IGN. New York City: News Corp. Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
108. ^Martin, Brett A. S. (6 September 2012). 'Using the Imagination: Consumer Evoking and Thematizing of the Fantastic Imaginary'(PDF). Journal of Consumer Research. 31. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 136–14. Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 September 2012.
109. ^Tolkien had recorded a version of his theme on a friend's tape recorder in 1952. This was later issued by Caedmon Records in 1975 as part of J.R.R. Tolkien reads and sings The Lord of the Rings (LP recording TC1478).
110. ^Tolkien, J.R.R.; Swann, Donald (1967). The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle. New York City: Ballantine Books.
111. ^Tolkien, J.R.R.; Swann, Donald (1967), Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (LP recording), New York City: Caedmon Records, TC1231/TC91231
112. ^ ^abSnider, Charles (2008). The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock. Strawberry Bricks. pp. 120–121. ISBN0-615-17566-X.
113. ^Greene, Andy (16 August 2017). 'Ramble On: Rockers Who Love 'The Lord of the Rings''. Rolling Stone. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017.
114. ^Feist, Raymond (2001). Meditations on Middle-earth. New York city: St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-30290-8.
115. ^Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN0-618-05702-1.
116. ^'Tolkien sold film rights for £10,000'. London Evening Standard. 12 July 2001. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
117. ^Pulley, Brett (15 July 2009). ''Hobbit' Heirs Seek $220 Million for 'Rings' Rights (Update1)'. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
118. ^Harlow, John (28 May 2008). 'Hobbit movies meet dire foe in son of Tolkien'. The Times Online. London: The Times. Retrieved 24 July 2008.
119. ^Mathijs, Ernest (2006). The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context. Wallflower Press. p. 25. ISBN1-904764-82-7.

Further reading[edit]

• Carter, Lin (1969). Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings. Ballantine Books. ISBN0-345-27539-X.
• Day, David (2004). The World of Tolkien: Mythological Sources of the Lord of the Rings. Gramercy Books. ISBN978-0-517-22317-8.
• Drout, Michael D. C. (2006). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-96942-0.
• Foster, Robert (1978). The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth: from 'The Hobbit' through 'The lord of the Rings' and Beyond. Rev. and enl. ed. Ballantine Books. N.B.: An alphabetical dictionary of personages and lore in this body of works by J. R. R. Tolkien. ISBN0-7394-3297-4 hdbk.
• Hammond, Wayne G.; Christina Scull (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN0-618-64267-6.
• Glyer, Diana Pavlac (2007). The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. Kent State University Press. ISBN0-87338-890-9.
• Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006), ISBN0-618-39113-4
• Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The History of The Lord of the Rings, 4 vols (1988–1992).
• J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories

External links[edit]

• Tolkien website of Harper Collins (the British publisher)
• Tolkien website of Houghton Mifflin (the American publisher)

The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (abbreviated to LotR SBG), previously marketed as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Strategy Battle Game and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Strategy Battle Game and now as The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Strategy Battle Game, is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is based on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and the book that inspired it, written by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The game was initially released in 2001 to coincide in with the film The Fellowship of the Ring. New box sets with updated rules were also released for The Two Towers and The Return of the King films. Later, beginning with the Shadow and Flame supplement, Games Workshop began to add content that was featured in the original book but not in the film adaptations: e.g. Tom Bombadil, Radagast and Glorfindel. Games Workshop has also expanded its license with original material on areas such as Harad and Khand, with mixed reactions. The most recent complete edition of the rules, often called The One Rulebook to Rule them All, was released by Games Workshop in September 2005, while a compact edition entitled The Mines of Moria was also released.

In early 2009, Games Workshop also released an expansion to the original game called War of the Ring which, according to the company, allows players to emulate the large battles included in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by streamlining the game system.^[2] This expansion differs from the main game in several ways. Firstly, War of the Ring uses a larger number of models but the models are placed on movement trays with two cavalry models or eight infantry models on each. This allows for much easier and quicker movement of large numbers of models at once. These are called 'companies'. Larger creatures such as Ents and Trolls are treated as separate models and do not use movement trays. Combat within the game is also treated differently. In the original game players both roll dice to determine who wins the fight and then the victor rolls to see how much damage is done. In War of the Ring only dice to determine damage are rolled. Also, in War of the Ring, heroes are treated more like upgrades for their company rather than individual models, as they are in the original game.

In addition to gaming, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game includes other common elements of the miniature wargaming hobby. These include the collecting, painting and conversion of miniature figures used in play, as well as the modeling of gaming terrain from scratch. These aspects of the hobby are covered in Games Workshop's monthly White Dwarf and on various gaming websites, as well as formerly in the fortnightly Battle Games in Middle-earth.

In 2015 Forge World, a division of Games Workshop focused on specialist resin miniatures and conversion kits as well as the Specialist Games ranges, assumed production of The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and all supplements.

• 1Development
• 2Hobbyist community
• 3Current state of play
  • 3.1Overview of rulesets
• 4Troop types

Development[edit]

Background[edit]

In the 1980s, Games Workshop produced a range of miniatures for The Lord of the Rings, using original character designs based on fantasy art popular of the time. This was the first range of Lord of the Rings miniatures that Citadel created, taking over from Grenadier Miniatures in 1985, before the license passed to Mithril Miniatures around 1987.^[3] The earliest releases were semi-solid base, having a small solid base; later releases were slot based.^[3]

Current licensing[edit]

The current Lord of the Rings range stems from Games Workshop's rights to produce a skirmish war game based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books and films, in the 25mm miniature scale.^[4] (The rights to produce a role playing game version of the films were sold to another firm, Decipher, Inc.) They also have the rights to produce Battle of Five Armies, a game based on the battle of similar name from The Hobbit, using smaller miniatures to enact larger battles (more akin to the Warmaster system).^[5] Under this separate license, the game was done using a 10 mm scale for the normal warriors, and a larger 'heroic' scale for the named characters.

Games Workshop has not acquired the rights to The Silmarillion, which is still the exclusive property of the Tolkien Estate, but has the right to develop its own derivative intellectual property to fill in the gaps in The Lord of the Rings universe. This is particularly true of Harad, which has a range of invented places (such as 'Kârna', 'Badharkân', 'Hidâr', 'Nâfarat', 'Abrakân', and 'Dhâran-sar'^[6]) and characters (such as the Hasharin^[6] and 'Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar'^[7]).

Designers and Peter Jackson[edit]

Four of the game's designers were in the extended Return of the King film as Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields: Alessio Cavatore, Brian Nelson, and Alan and Michael Perry.^[8] They can be seen near the Oliphaunt when Peregrin Took goes searching for Meriadoc Brandybuck among the debris from the battle, and are also on the base of Games Workshop's Mûmak miniature.^[9] Games Workshop created two miniatures of Peter Jackson, based on his appearance as a Breeland man during the Fellowship of the Ring:^[10] one is owned by the director, and the other is kept on display at Warhammer World in England.^[11] Games Workshop has also released a model of Peter Jackson as one of the Corsairs of Umbar from The Return of the King.

Hobbyist community[edit]

Collectors[edit]

Similar to Warhammer Fantasy Battle players, Lord of the Rings players commonly collect and paint one army (or more) of their choice and find opponents (with similarly collected armies) to play against.^[12] Armies can be built up from through the purchase of boxed sets (usually having 10 or 12 plastic miniatures in each) or 'blister packs' (usually containing no more than four finely detailed metal or resin miniatures) to build up a reasonable-sized fighting force. Others simply collect the miniatures because they like the way they look. One popular way of collecting was through Battle Games in Middle-earth — a De Agostini magazine that came with one or more free miniatures (some of which were initially exclusive to the publication) and contained detailed hobby guides.^[13]

As such, there are a wide variety of miniatures in the ever-growing range, including promotional miniatures, such as 'Gimli on Dead Uruk-hai'. Games Workshop began to discontinue some of their metal miniatures, so that they could replace them with plastic miniatures. However, there was much complaint when they retired the popular 'Boromir Captain of the White Tower' miniature, and it was later brought back into production.^[14]

There are a large number of differences from Warhammer in The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, which makes it unique and more realistic, accounting for its popularity as Games Workshop's third core system.^{[citation needed]}

Modelers[edit]

Lords Of The Realm Online

Since the models are hand-painted and assembled by the player, players are often encouraged to design their own paint schemes, such as coloring them differently and so on, as well as using the pre-designed ones displayed in the various books. They are also encouraged to further modify their miniatures using parts from other kits and models (known as 'Bitz' to players), modeling putty, or whatever the modeler can scrounge up.^[15] These conversions are often entered into contests at sponsored tournaments and similar gaming events, such as the Golden Demon or the One Ring Awards.

Terrain is a very important part of play.^[16] Though Games Workshop makes terrain kits available, many hobbyists prefer to make their own elaborate and unique set pieces. Common household items and hobby materials such as balsa wood, cardboard, and polystyrene can be transformed into ruins from the Second Age, woodland terrain, or the rocky wild of Middle-earth with the addition of plasticard, putty, and a bit of patience and skill.^[17]

Dioramas, often depicting scenes from the film and books, bring terrain and conversion skills together.^[18] However, due to the licensing agreements between New Line Cinema and Games Workshop, pieces of models for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game are not allowed to be combined with other model lines for official tournaments or conversion awards.^[19] The same is true for pieces from other manufacturers.^[19]

Current state of play[edit]

Overview of rulesets[edit]

As of September 2005, the rules for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game are in their fourth edition. The first three editions of the rulebooks were released with The Lord of the Rings films, but Games Workshop used the magazine White Dwarf and various supplements to 'go beyond what is presented in the films of The Lord of the Rings and delve into the rich material of J. R. R. Tolkien's books.'^[20] The current edition, The One Rulebook to Rule them All, contains the entire set of rules updated and presented in a single large volume, including those of previous supplements. The three older editions are to be re-released in updated supplements, while the compact Mines of Moria edition contains the updated rules only for what was shown in the films. In February 2012, preceding the release of The Hobbit movies, all of the characteristic profiles from the old sourcebooks and White Dwarf were concluded in 5 sourcebooks: Mordor, The Fallen Realms, Moria & Angmar, Kingdoms of Men, and The Free Peoples. These also contain minor edits to the rules as written in The One Rulebook to Rule them All. Currently, the official editions of rulebooks and supplements include:

For materials done under the previous iteration of the rules, there exist errata and FAQ files, to ensure potential rules conflicts between editions are resolved universally.^[21]

In addition to the official rulesets, Games Workshop has also encouraged the writing of unofficial 'house rules' by wargamers.^[22] As such, there have been a number of unofficial fan supplements and other supplementary material on the internet; the most notable of which was The Age of the King, made by The One Ring.^[23] Although some of its subject matter was later covered by official rulesets,^[24] it is still considered 'the benchmark against which all others are measured'.^[25] In many cases, supplements are written for areas where Games Workshop's license does not extend, such as The Silmarillion.^[26]

Legions of Middle-earth[edit]

As of August 2006, Games Workshop released a new expansion entitled Legions of Middle-earth, centering on theming and army building.^[27] It is not a supplement or rulebook, as it contains no rules; instead, it provides army lists for players to theme their forces around, and scenarios which are designed to work in conjunction with them. However, Games Workshop also released supplement summaries online in conjunction with Legions of Middle-earth, so effectively a player only requires Legions of Middle-earth and the main rulebook in order to use the rules of the supplements.^[28][29] According to one review, the army lists would transform the game 'from what has essentially been a scenario-based game that appealed mostly to collectors to a genuine tournament-compatible game system,' although in this it 'could have been a little bit more restrictive.'^[27] Some of the miniatures for the point values listed have not yet been released; in this way, the book was not to become obsolete with future releases for some time.

Variants and derived games[edit]

All at Sea is an adaptation of the rules for naval conflicts. The official rules were a modified version of the Warhammer Boat rules, adapted by Nick Davis and first presented in Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine (US issue 295).^[30] The game's mechanics centered on boarding parties, with options for ramming actions and naval artillery in the form of ballistae and other siege engines.^[30] Model ships are built by hobbyists, just as normal miniature terrain, such as 'great ships' of Pelargir, cogs of Dol Amroth and Corsairgalleys.^[31]

Game systems[edit]

The standard game is played with two or more armies on a board generally 4 feet long and 4 feet wide (16 square feet, or 1.486 square meters), usually deployed within 6 inches of opposite board edges.^[32] Similar to Warhammer Fantasy, the game uses a 'points-system' to assign values to each miniature, allowing players to ensure that their armies are evenly matched. The game is primarily a skirmish game, but can be played in varying scale:

• Scenario - These are based on an event in the book or film, and the armies are predetermined and fought using Special Scenario-specific Rules.^[33]
• Points Match - These are played between two forces of equal size, generally of 500 Points each (which is usually no more than 50 miniatures per side).^[34]
• War Party - This is a stricter form of the Points Match, using forces of no more than 250 Points.^[35]
• Battle Company - This is an experience-based system which is played out with no more than 25 miniatures.^[36]

The turn-system game was played using four phases originally, but is now played using five under the current rules:

• Priority Phase - The players roll dice to see who gets to take their Turn first.^[37]
• Move Phase - The players move their miniatures (to a maximum distance that is usually 6 inches).^[37] 'Magic' (e.g. 'Compel') is also used during this phase.
• Shoot Phase - Missile-armed miniatures can shoot.^[37]
• Fight Phase - Dice are rolled for each group of miniatures in base contact with each other to see which wins the combat.^[37]
• End Phase - Reinforcements arrive, as well as general book-keeping

While the game is designed usually for play by only two players (as the force lists are divided into 'Good' and 'Evil'),^[34] very large battles (generally with more than 100 models each side) become easier to manage with multiple players working together on teams.

Troop types[edit]

There are two types of troops: Warriors and Heroes.^[38] Heroes have characteristics which set them apart from the Warriors they lead, and can be named or unnamed characters: Aragorn, Frodo, Captains, etc. Warriors are the core of the army: Warriors of Harad, Riders of Rohan, Men of Gondor, etc. Each army must be either Good or Evil, and can only include miniatures from that side (each model is named in the rules as being either Good or Evil).

As Tolkien's world is very rich in detail, players generally prefer to base their armies around one of the following themes:

The Free Peoples (Good)[edit]

• The Fellowship of the Ring (Good) – Most scenario-based games require at least one member of the Fellowship. Whilst not a real army, they are effective as a skirmish force, due to their high points-values and limited numbers.^[39]
• Elves (Good) – The Quendi are the oldest of the races of Middle-earth, and the majority of armies are either Wood Elves, High Elves or Galadhrim, often allied with Men of Númenor from the Last Alliance. Individually, Elf Warriors are among the most powerful and bravest of available races, with high Courage and Fight values.^[40] Also Elven armies have the best archers in the game, and are also notable for their potent powers of healing and foresight among Heroes such as Galadriel and Elrond.^[41] In earlier editions of the rules, Games Workshop kept the two kinds of Elves separate, and although the One Rulebook merges the two 'races', they are most often kept separated into the two main themes:.^[42] The Galadhrim are the most developed of the three elven kinds, they have Galadrim warriors including spearmen, archers and warriors with elven blades/glaives, cavalry in the form of Galadrim Knights (which can be archers), and the elite Guards of the Galadrim Court led by a newer elven hero, Rumil, kinsmen of Haldir and includes the heroes; Galadriel, Celeborn, Haldir and Rumil.

• Elven Havens – The Elves of Eriador are considered the 'High Elves' of the Last Alliance, and are not commonly seen in Third Age games.^[43] Their powerful Heroes include Gil-galad and Elrond, with the latter sometimes used outside the Second Age.
• Woodland Realms - Originally, the Wood Elves were limited to a small range of metal miniatures,^[44] but with the release of The Fall of the Necromancer Supplement, a boxed set of plastics was released. Wood Elves include the Lothlórien Elves (also known as Haldir's Elves) as their elite troops, but the bulk of their armies consist of the Taurdirim of Mirkwood. These armies can also include the members of the White Council, and Ents such as Treebeard.^[45]

• Gondor (Good) – The Kingdom of the White Tree has the widest range of warriors and heroes available. It can be divided into three main themes: Minas Tirith, Ithilien and the Fiefdoms of Gondor. Minas Tirith's key strength is in its armoured infantry, but it also has available mounted knights and the finest siege engines in the game: trebuchets and 'bolt throwers'. Minas Tirith armies often include elements from Ithilien armies, which has accurate archers. The fiefdoms represent three main forces: Dol Amroth, Lossarnach and Lamedon. Dol Amroth boasts heavy cavalry and pikemen(the only such available to Good armies) and courageous warriors, led by Imrahil. In addition, fiefdom players can also choose to field Forlong the Fat and Angbor the Fearless alongside their warriors. The fiefdoms usually only combined with Minas Tirith in a Battle of the Pelennor Fields theme. A very small number of dedicated players also build their own ships of Pelargir or Dol Amroth out of wood and other materials.^[31] Gondor is rarely allied with any armies other than Rohan. Some of its less common themes include:^[46]
  • Númenor – Númenor is one of the smaller good armies related to Gondor, representing also the Númenórean Realms in Exile (i.e. the Arnor and Gondor of the Second Age). Whilst it could be considered part of Gondor, it is only really used in Scenarios set in the Second Age (although sometimes its warriors can be used to represent Wardens of Pelargir). Númenor has a relatively limited range of warriors, but they are amongst the best warriors in the game, having access to the mighty heroes Isildur and Elendil. However, a note in the rulebook bans Númenórean armies to be used outside Second Age scenarios, so they are rarely seen in battle. Númenor is most frequently used with Elves, in Last Alliance-themed armies.
  • Army of the Dead – Perhaps the smallest Good army available, the Army of the Dead offers only one Hero and one Warrior type and one Cavalry type. They were accidentally omitted from the One Rulebook, so their rules can be downloaded through the Games Workshop website.^[47] They are usually allied with Gondor or Dúnedain, and led by Aragorn and the King of the Dead for a Pelennor Fields theme.
• Rohan (Good) – Armies of the Riddermark tend to focus on light cavalry, which are its core unit (though Rohan infantry are often used in Helm's Deep scenarios). These are armed with throwing spears, unique to Rohan, bows and shields. Earlier editions of the rules made these especially powerful, but the current edition has balanced the game by increasing the points cost. On the other hand, Rohan still has Royal Guard and medium heroes such as Éomer and Háma; in addition, it has benefited from release of Eorl the Young, and a number of new releases to the Rohan range such as Erkenbrand were included in the more recent The Two Towers Supplement.^[48]
• Dwarves (Good) – Although the Dwarves move an inch slower than the average man-sized warrior (making them easy to outmanoeuvre), their powerful bows and the highest defence in the game can make them a hard opponent. Their elite warriors are the Khazad Guard, and they have powerful heroes such as Gimli, Dáin and Balin. With the Khazad-Dûm Supplement, Vault Wardens, Iron Guard and Dwarf Ballistae were introduced, along with the tactics such as the 'wall', 'rock' and 'flying axe' formations.^[49] They make few alliances, and even then usually only with Men of Dale.^[50]
• Hobbits (Good) – Armies of the Shire are more oriented around skirmishes, as points-wise they have the most inexpensive warriors and heroes in the game. Their archers are unmatched by all but the Elves, but their Hobbit militia are the slowest and weakest warriors in the game. Aside from the Fellowship of the Ring, they never ally with other armies because of their fear of the outside world. Their heroes include Frodo of the Nine Fingers and Samwise Gamgee.^[51]
• Dúnedain and Arnor (Good) – All Dúnedain and Rangers of the North are Heroes, making them expensive and rarely used. They are the prime example of an army that was excluded from the films, but was well-adapted by Games Workshop in a way that fit in with both the style of the films and their original mention in the books.^[52] Their main named Heroes are Aragorn and Halbarad, who are often allied with Gildor Inglorion and the Elves of Rivendell,^[52] or indirectly with Hobbits in some Scenarios. In the One Rulebook, the Dúnedain are classed in the same section as Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, though Tom and Goldberry are not allies but Scenario-specific characters from the Barrow-downs. They were expanded in the supplement, The Ruin of Arnor, allowing players to field Arnorian infantry, as well as heroes such as King Arvedui and Malbeth the Seer.^[52] Another common theme for the Dúnedain is the Grey Company.^[52]
• Drúedain (Good) – Whilst the Drúedain are never described in battle, in the book their leader Ghân-buri-Ghân aids Théoden's army on their way through Drúadan Forest. They were eventually released alongside the updated 'Return of the King' supplement.
• The Wanderers in the Wild (Good) – The Wanderers in the wild are individuals that travel Middle-earth, for several purposes, be it exploring or protecting others. They include popular characters such as Glorfindel and Sméagol, but also characters invented by Games Workshop, like Múrin and Drár. They can ally with most armies. Other related smaller armies include:
  • Eagles of the Misty Mountains, led by Gwaihir, and usually allied with Gondor or The Elves.
  • Ents are similar in that they are expensive, rarely used warriors.
  • The Beornings, led by Grimbeorn, have also been announced in Legions of Middle-earth.
• The Wizards (Good) – The Wizards represent the Istari that fought for the Free Peoples during the Third Age. In addition to the more obvious Gandalf and Radagast, there is also a 'good' Saruman from the time of the White Council. Radagast usually allies with the Dwarves or the Woodland Realms, while Gandalf usually allies with Rohan, Gondor or the Fellowship.

The Forces of Darkness (Evil)[edit]

• Angmar (Evil) – The dark land of Angmar is built on the ruins of the Lost Kingdom of Arnor, terrorised by Nazgûl and Spectres. Its army had no official rules until early 2007, except for the Ringwraiths and Barrow-wights (which are nonetheless potent magic-users) and wild Wargs, led by Warg chieftains. It never allies with other armies, although Orcs and Goblins are sometimes included in it. Angmar received official rules in The Ruin of Arnor Supplement, including Games Workshop's invented Hill Troll Chieftain 'Buhrdûr'.^[52] The earlier rules are still available to use in friendly games on Games Workshop's website.^[53]
• Moria (Evil) – The subterranean realm of Khazad-dûm used to be infested by the Dwarves, but it was liberated by Evil. Now it is populated with Goblins and Cave Trolls, and more frightening creatures such as the Balrog are the centerpiece of Moria forces.^[50] Goblins are weak but inexpensive to field, making them numerous in games, and can be strengthened by Goblin Drums and Goblin Shamans. Moria allies with Isengard in the books and Games Workshop have also added Angmar, Dol Guldur, and Barad-dûr, and the Nazgûl to their allies list.^[7]
• Isengard (Evil) - The Army of the White Hand is a reliable and varied force to collect, featuring a number of unique warrior and siege options, such as crossbows (the most powerful bows in the game), pikes and a primitive form of explosive. Typical Isengard armies feature the Uruk-hai pikeblock, though they are often supported by light infantry such as Uruk-hai scouts, medium cavalry in the form of Wargs, or spellcasters in the form of Uruk Shamans or even Saruman himself. Games Workshop has also been criticised for The Two Towers Supplement allowing Isengard the option of a White Mountains Troll.^[54] Isengard only ever allies with Moria, the Nazgûl and Dunland, which rarely fights on its own and is almost always classed under Isengard anyway.^[55] Players can also choose to represent Saruman's army after the fall of Isengard, complete with Rogues: the upcoming Bill Ferny miniature adds some depth to such a force.
• Mordor (Evil) – Legions of the Eye are made up of various warrior types. Their core unit is the Orc warrior on foot, bolstered by Morannon Orcs and Mordor Uruk-hai. They also offer Siege Catapults and ballistae with mantlets, led by Gothmog; these siege engines are often operated by Mordor Trolls, which can also be used as shock troops. Mordor armies can field a variety of troops to diversify their armies, including Morgul Knights and Black Numénórean Warriors, Orc Trackers,which provide a rare form of accurate archery, Morgul Stalkers, Warg Riders and even Shelob. However, the most dreaded element of Mordor armies is the Ringwraith on Fell-Beast, which, as a flying creature, can move around the board unimpeded and strike with dark magic. Mordor can be allied with any Evil army except Angmar or Isengard. Sauron is only ever fielded in person in campaigns set around the Last Alliance (or in Dol Guldur armies).^[56]
  • The Nazgûl (Evil) – Although primarily Mordor-themed, the Nine were sent all over Middle-earth, and have been classified as a separate army list accordingly. The Nazgûl consist of the Witch-king of Angmar, Khamûl the Easterling and seven unnamed Ringwraiths, although Games Workshop has created titles to differentiate each: The Tainted, the Undying, the Shadow Lord, the Dark Marshal, the Betrayer, the Knight of Umbar and the Dwimmerlaik.
• Dol Guldur (Evil) – Dol Guldur armies form Sauron's troops from the time that he was hiding in Southern Mirkwood, and went under the name of the 'Necromancer'. There are two general themes by which players usually construct their armies. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is based around the fortress garrison of Dol Guldur, containing Sauron himself as the Necromancer, backed up by Castellans of Dol Guldur, and usually Orcs and the occasional Troll. The other way is actually more of a general evil army of Mirkwood, containing Giant Spiders led by the 'Spider Queen'. Both armies can include swarms of Giant Bats, and can be allied. Other themes include Spiders allied with wild Wargs to form an army of wild creatures, or allied with Moria to represent a force from the Mountains of Mirkwood. Their biggest enemy are the Elves - the Taurdirim and the Galadhrim.^[45]
• Harad (Evil) – The lands to the south are only briefly mentioned by Tolkien, and much of its forces and place-names have been invented by Games Workshop or Weta. Harad offers warriors and light cavalry that are inexpensive to field, and have poison arrows increasing their effectiveness against armoured warriors. Their most devastating miniature, however, is the Mûmak: at one point the largest plastic Games Workshop miniature ever (it has since been surpassed in size), which in the game can trample enemy foot soldiers. Their invented heroes include Suladan and the hasharin. Players wanting to add variety can add the Mahûd of Far Harad, which include cavalry on camels, warriors with blowpipes and even Halftrolls.^[57]
• Corsairs (Evil) – Another alternative to the usual Harad army is that of Umbar, which can use Harad Warriors but also involves corsairs. Until recently Corsairs were unavailable, and only existed as player-made conversions. However, with the release of the Harad sourcebook, Games Workshop released some new Corsair miniatures; including metal Arbalesters and a new character: Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar. Based on Legions of Middle Earth, a Corsair War Machine will be released in the future along with 'Corsair Reavers', most likely to be elite Warriors.
• Easterlings (Evil) – In previous forms of the rules, the Easterlings were pitifully weak, offering only three warrior types cast in metal, and not even appearing until the third edition of the rules. However, their range has been increased enormously with the release of A Shadow in the East. Games Workshop's Easterlings represent the Balchoth, and have been based on a combination of imagery from the New Line films and history of the Sassanid Empire. They offer the unique phalanx (the first army to have pikes since Isengard), and are the only Evil army to feature heavy cavalry, referred to as 'kataphracts'. They frequently ally with Khand or Mordor.^[58] As of Legions of Middle-earth, the Easterlings were given a King unit of their own, a Dragon Guard unit that the model for was not made until the War of the Ring battle game was released (entitled 'Dragon Knight'. (Dragon Knights and Dragon Guards may not be the same troops. They also received a Siege Bow machine from Legions of Middle-earth, and War of the Ring gave them a Shaman unit called 'Easterling War Priests', and a battlefield musician, the 'Easterling Drummers'. They were given a Named Hero 'Amdûr, Lord of Blades'. He and the Dragon Knights have a melee skill of 7, which is an indicator that Games-Workshop's Easterlings are based on both the Achaemenid and Sassanid Persians, whereas Tolkien's seem to be based on mostly the Achaemenid and Parthian ones (hence the 'bowmen upon horses'). They are not given the Chariots they had in the books, but they can be given chariots by putting an Easterling footman miniature into a Persian War Chariot miniature from another company, and use the Khandish Chariot rules.
• Khand (Evil) – Tolkien wrote even less about Khand than he did about Harad, though we know that the only thing implied about them is that the armor they wore covered - literally - their entire bodies ('Variags who hated the sun'), and that their weapons may be their own design of Haradrim and Easterling weapons. Games Workshop has based their Variags of Khand on the Mongols and the Japanese, featuring sashimonos and the unique chariots, despite the Easterlings being the only culture in Middle-earth with chariots in Tolkien's writings. It was suggested that the Gondorians were unaware of the lands further east, and thus the names of the Variags and Wainriders had been mixed-up.^[59] Khand allies with the Easterlings (and the Haradrim) frequently.
• Monsters of Middle-earth (Evil) – This applies to individual models that do not fit into other armies; in this case, the five creatures that each 'represents a fantasy archetype - stone giant, dragon, cave drake and fire demon (the Balrog).'^[52] The fifth was a purely Games Workshop creation: 'Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor' - a 'vampire' demon of Morgoth, but lesser than a Balrog.^[52] The Monsters of Middle-earth can ally with most evil forces.^[7]

Additional characters[edit]

Games Workshop has taken the liberty to fill in gaps in Tolkien's works by creating new heroes and units alike. Some are heavily criticized, such as the Isengard Troll,^[54] having been described as 'not thematically correct';^[60] whilst others have been popular additions.

• Cirion – Named after the steward of Gondor that gave Rohan to Eorl the Young, Game Workshop's interpretation of Cirion is the lieutenant of Amon Barad.
• Mardin – Mardin is King Durin's life ward. Normally the role of the king's personal protector is offered to a member of the Khazad Guard, but Mardin, a veteran Vault Warden, has proven his level head and strong arm in many a battle and there is no more dependable companion to be found.
• Múrin and Drár – In the Third Age, few Dwarves are prone to wanderlust. Murin and Drar are two exceptions to this rule, having travelled far and wide beyond their home in the Iron Hills.
• Durbûrz, Goblin King of Moria – The Goblin King of Moria, has ruled the underground lands for many years with an iron fist of brutality and strength. Feared mightily (and rightly so) by his goblin subjects. While not the cleverest of Goblins, he is as fiercely territorial as the rest and reacts to his realm's invasion by raising a powerful army to oppose Balin and his Dwarves. Durbûrz is believed to be an interpretation of a descendant of the Great Goblin. In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II by EA Games, a similar character named Gorkil The Goblin King appears; this may or may not be an interpretation of the same character.
• Buhrdûr, Hill Troll Chieftain – He is the leader of the Trolls that were part of The Ruin of Arnor. While the troll himself is an actual character in Tolkien's Lore, Buhrdûr is the name Games-Workshop writers identified him as. Buhrdûr is a creature of pure benevolence, spawned in the darkest caves of the Misty Mountains. Possessing cunning over and above that usually encountered in others of his Trollish kind, Buhrdûr has gathered to him all manner of fell beings. In The Rise of the Witch-king by EA Games, a similar character named Rogash appears; this may or may not be an interpretation of the same character.
• Vraskû – Vraskû commands the legions of the White Hand Scout Uruk-hai. A cunning and resourceful leader, Vraskû is utterly ruthless and heedless of the lives of his followers.
• Keiseimu, Ravager of Ithilien – The Khandish named hero. So far, all that is known about him is his name and the fact that he can be given a chariot to ride to battle. He may need to use a King profile with a Might, Will, and Fate of 3, 1, and 1; and a Courage of 4 in the Skirmish game. As for War of the Ring, he may need to use the Khandish King profile with a Melee skill of 6
• Suladân, the Serpent Lord – In truth, Suladan's name passed out of use long ago when he took the name of a revered hero at the time he claimed leadership of his tribe. Since then the name of the Serpent Lord has once more become a famous one throughout Harad, and his own legend grows with each victory. A Haradrim chief analogous to one whom Théoden faces at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Tolkien left him unnamed; his name and title are invented by Games Workshop although his name is likely an altered form of Saladin; the Muslim leader during the Third Crusade.
• Hâsharin – The despotic lords who rule Harad exercise their will through the Hasharii assassins, an order founded in Sauron's name. To question or contradict the will of a Hasharin leads to death, whether by public execution or through the quiet application of their murderous skills. On the battlefield, the Hasharii act as assassins, seeking out enemy leaders and slaying them with poisoned blades. The Hâsharin seem to be a dark parody of the infamous Hashshashin order from the middle-east and southern Asia.
• Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar – A notorious figure in the land of Harad, Dalamyr has been one of the foremost fleetmasters for many long years.
• Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor – Gûlavhar is a being from an earlier time that should have perished long ago - a winged demon with a hunger for blood. How he came to survive the terrible wars against Morgoth will never be known, yet survive he did, sleeping through countless centuries.
• Drûzhag, the Beastcaller – Drûzhag is vile, even by the standards of other Goblins - so much so that he was exiled long ago from Durbûrz's squalid kingdom of Moria. Yet Drûzhag did not perish in the wilderland. He prospered, and learnt how to bend to his will all manner of dark beasts.
• The Shadow Lord – The Shadow Lord was once the king of a small and insignificant kingdom. When Sauron offered him one of the Nine Rings, the promise of its power proved irresistible. Now, his physical being all but gone, and his will enslaved to Sauron, the Shadow Lord wears his dark pride like a cloak, blotting the sun from the sky and dimming the sight of his foes. The Shadow Lord is a name applied to one of the nine Ringwraiths, representing the aspect of their dimming, shadowy influence on their environment. In-game, The Shadow Lord shrouds his allies in darkness, making it more difficult to fight against them.
• The Dark Marshal – In the centuries since the Dark Marshal and his fellow kings became Ringwraiths, he has become even more sadistic and malicious. The most black-hearted and unrelentingly cruel of all the Nazgûl, his name is a byword for misery and death. Where the Dark Marshal passes, Evil creatures fight harder, fearful of their lives whilst Good warriors feel the icy touch of death upon their hearts. The Dark Marshall represents another one of the unnamed Ringwraiths, embodying their more martial side, (pun not intended,) and brings it to bear that Sauron's soldiers fear his commanders far more than the enemy they fight.
• The Undying – The Undying has endured long where others have fallen. He is said to be the oldest of the Ringwraiths, and the last to succumb to the wasting influences of the Rings of Power. Through an obsessive mastery of evil magics, the Undying has learnt to draw sustenance from the magics of others, fortifying himself with the magical energy that flows around him. Tolkien repeatedly wrote of the Nazgûl as being powerful sorcerers, and The Undying was added into the game in the wake of those statements. His model is unique, in that he carries a staff and not a sword.
• The Tainted – Where the other Nazgûl were slowly swallowed by the taint of their rings, the Tainted gave himself wholly and willingly to Sauron. Now all natural things rebel in his presence, vegetation withers, animals sicken and bold warriors cower. He is an abomination whose merest presence is poison to life, honour and hope. The Tainted is one of the Nazgûl, representing their withering, abhorrent nature. His mounted model is built to look as though his horse were sickened and dying by merely being near him.
• The Betrayer – A Nazgûl who was cursed long ago for yielding the Southlands to Sauron's rule, the Betrayer is driven by malice and self-hatred that knows no bounds. Of all the Nazgûl, the Betrayer is amongst the lowest of Sauron's lieutenants, for even the Dark Lord is leery of placing faith in one who betrayed his kin so readily. The Betrayer is another addition to the nine Ringwraiths by Games Workshop, depicted wearing Haradrim armor and a turban around his hood, although his weapon is a western longsword, instead of a Southron's weapon.
• The Knight of Umbar – Like all of the Nazgûl, the Knight of Umbar's past is shrouded in mystery. If the rumours pertaining to him hold any truth, he was once one of the great Númenórean kings who ruled the Southlands prior to the days of the Last Alliance. He was added to close the circle with the seven non-canonically named Nazgûl, probably representing the leader of the Black Númenóreans who settled in southern Middle-earth, founding the port-city of Umbar.
• The Dwimmerlaik – The Dwimmerlaik is possibly the most mysterious of all the Nazgûl, for scant record of his past deeds exist in the tomes of the Wise. Yet in Rohan, this particular Ringwraith is feared beyond all others, for he has been a blight upon that realm for centuries untold, directing the Dark Lord's minions against the Sons of Eorl
• Kârdush, the Firecaller – Orc Shamans are a peculiar breed who practice a primitive and brutish form of sorcery. The Wise believe Kârdush of Barad-dûr to have been schooled in more learned sorceries by one of the Nazgûl - doubtless for the Ringwraith's own twisted ends, though the Orc surely remains ignorant of it.
• Amdur, Lord of Blades – The Lord of Blades leads the Easterling Dragon Knights, and is the most skilled of that noble order. Amdûr has already carved a fearsome reputation in the lands beyond Mordor, and now has come to test his skills on the blood-soaked Pelennor.
• The Golden King of Harad – A figure depicted being carried on a litter and wearing a golden mask and turban. Likely added into the game to give another edge to the Haradrim. He is protected by a unit of Abrakhân guard; Abrakhân may be a non-canonical kingdom or Harad, which was said to have been made of many realms.
• Black Guard of Barad-dûr – The Black Guard of Barad-dûr are considered the most fearsome of all the Orc breeds to march in Sauron's armies. Not only are the warriors of the Black Guard much stronger than ordinary orcs, they are led by Captains whose loyalty to Sauron renders them almost insensate to fear. These troops are considered a Games-Workshop creation.
• Thrydan Wolfsbane – Thrydan Wolfsbane is the first true warchief of Dunland in centuries. A giant of a man, he leads through brute force rather than deftness of tongue and blade, yet he has shown cunning enough to forge an alliance with Saruman.

Online community[edit]

Prior to the closure of Games Workshop's official forum in November 2006, the site had 3000 forum posts per day and well over 300,000 registered users.^[61][62] Since then, the online community has moved onto a large number of unofficial websites and forums for Lord of the Rings players, many of which were already in existence before the closure of Games Workshop's forums: these include 'The Last Alliance', with over 6400 registered members (rebuilt in 2009 due to the host deleting their server for financial reasons), 'The One-Ring', with over 5000, and 'The Palantir', with over 2400 members.^{[citation needed]} Collectively, the members of these websites have produced high-quality articles for the public, namely on The One-Ring, whose acceptance standards are very high,^[63] in greater quantity than on the official site, and White Dwarf has commented on the community as having a 'huge wealth of material'.^[64]

On 1 June 2005, Games Workshop launched their annual UK-based Worldwide Campaign under the name 'The War of the Ring Online Campaign', featuring The Lord of the Rings for the first time. The campaign was deemed 'a fantastic rollercoaster', with 3007 registered participants.^[65] Games Workshop also introduced the 'Wrath of Umbar Roadshow', with custom-built Corsair models and gaming boards being brought to various cities in the United Kingdom.^[66] When the campaign formally ended on 8 September, Good emerged the victor.^[65] The combined total of the 14 weeks was 27239 recorded wargames.^[65] The forum closed shortly after, giving way to a smaller Canada-based campaign with the same name.^[67]

Hobby websites have been key in organising sides in the Worldwide Campaigns, and indeed in creating their own campaigns and competitions,^[68] such as the 'Campaign of LoTRs', a collaboration between the two websites 'The Dark Council' and 'Cheeseweb'.^[69][70]

Another notable side of the community is the influence of its reaction to the company's products: many Tolkien purists, for example, reacted against the company's rendition of the Swan Knights of Dol Amroth, with some choosing to convert their own,^[71] impacting the hobby and the sales of the products.^[72] When Games Workshop subsequently showed the planned release of the Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth, it was suggested that they had taken the response of the community into account.^[73]

Footnotes[edit]

1. ^'Many of the special or detailed rules only apply in rarefied situations… [but] Although the basic game system might seem beguilingly simple, you will find it requires considerable skill to employ it effectively.' (The Two Towers Strategy Battle Game Rulebook, page 5, 2002).
2. ^'War of the Ring'. War of the Ring. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
3. ^ ^ab'The Lord of the Rings'. The Stuff of Legends. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
4. ^'Note that these figures are 25 mm and not the 28 mm figures that are more popular today'; 'Painting the Lord of the Rings Mines of Moria Game'. 2005-11-23. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
5. ^'Games Workshop Online Store'. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
6. ^ ^abThe Battle of the Pelennor Fields Supplement
7. ^ ^abcLegions of Middle-earth
8. ^'Perry Miniatures'. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
9. ^'Painting a Mûmak'. Article. Games Workshop. Archived from the original on 2007-07-07. Retrieved 2007-06-18.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
10. ^Peter Jackson, as a Hobbit in Bree.
11. ^UK White Dwarf 265
12. ^'The Lord of the Rings Army building articles'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
13. ^'Battle Games in Middle-earth'. Website. DeAgostini. Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
14. ^'Boromir, Captain of the White Tower'. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
15. ^'The Lord of the Rings Modeling articles'. Article. Games Workshop. Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2007-06-16.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
16. ^Mines of Moria, p 8
17. ^'The Lord of the Rings Terrain articles'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
18. ^'The Lord of the Rings Diorama articles'. Article Library. The One Ring. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
19. ^ ^ab'Golden Demon Competitor's Guidelines'. Competition Rules. Games Workshop. Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2007-07-17.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
20. ^Alessio Cavatore, Shadow and Flame, page 3 (2003).
21. ^'The Shrine of Knowledge'. Rules Errata. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
22. ^'Games Workshop Intellectual Property'. 2005-11-12. Retrieved 2007-06-16.:
    'We encourage fellow hobbyists to invent rules that work for them. There is no need to stick precisely to the published rules. However, if you are thinking about making your own Codex [eg.] for your Space Marine chapter (in addition to following the other guidelines in this policy), please avoid making it look official as this may confuse gamers and amount to a challenge to our trademarks. Also, do not copy our official publications or documents.'
23. ^'The Age of the King'. Unofficial Rules Supplement. The One Ring. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
24. ^Compare with Games Workshop's A Shadow in the East Supplement
25. ^Dagorlad (Alan Harrison) (2005-06-20). 'How to Write Supplements'. Forum Sticky Topic. The One Ring. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
26. ^Supplements have been made depicting the Fall of Gondolin, 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2005-12-29.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)[1] based on The Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales respectively, as well as about the Kinslaying at Alqualondë and the War of Wrath. [2]
27. ^ ^abCraig Woodfield. 'Legions of Middle Earth Book Review'. Review. Area 52. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
28. ^'Profiles of Middle-earth'. Rules Summary. Games Workshop. Archived from the original on 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2007-07-03.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
29. ^With the exception that the summaries do give access to a model's basic wargear, available 'Magic' or the Movement rate.
30. ^ ^abNick Davis. 'All At Sea Part One'. Ruleset. White Dwarf. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-06-14.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
31. ^ ^ab'The Ports of Pelargir'. Website. Archived from the original on 2007-03-13. Retrieved 2007-06-14.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
32. ^For example, see The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, p 34-35
33. ^Mines of Moria, p 70-75
34. ^ ^abMines of Moria, p 74
35. ^'War Party'. Rules. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
36. ^'Battle Companies'. Rules. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
37. ^ ^abcdThe Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle Game: The Mines of Moria, p 13
38. ^The Two Towers, p 11 & 42
39. ^Mines of Moria, p 76-81
40. ^Mines of Moria, p 89
41. ^Mines of Moria, p 82-83
42. ^'Elves'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
43. ^Note that Gil-galad was omitted from The Two Towers Rulebook, set in the Third Age.
44. ^The Two Towers, p 71 & 78
45. ^ ^ab'The White Council'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
46. ^'Gondor'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
47. ^Although the Army of the Dead Profiles were included in the compact 'Mines of Moria' edition of the rules, they were accidentally omitted from the 'One Rulebook'. Because they were unavailable through what was supposed to have been the defining ruleset, they are available online for download: 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2006-05-17.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Golfimbul had been intentionally replaced with the standard Orc Captain Profile.
48. ^'Rohan'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
49. ^Adam Troke. 'Tunnel Fighting Tactics'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
50. ^ ^ab'Dwarves'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
51. ^'Hobbits'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
52. ^ ^abcdefgUK White Dwarf 326
53. ^'Vassals of the Witchking'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
54. ^ ^ab'Isengard Troll -- A Debate, not an Argument'. 2006-06-01. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
55. ^'Vassals of the Witchking'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
56. ^'Mordor'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
57. ^'Harad'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
58. ^'Vassals of the Witchking'. Article. Games Workshop. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
59. ^'A discussion from the Games Workshop forum'. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
60. ^'Cheeseweb Newsletter'(PDF). Cheeseweb Monthly; E-zine. Cheesweb. 5: 49. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
61. ^'Online Community'(PDF). The Tengwar Beacon; E-zine. Cheesweb. 2: 5. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
62. ^'Online Community'(PDF). The Tengwar Beacon. Archives. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
63. ^Article Submission Guidelines:
    
    • The One-Ring.org GuidelinesArchived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
    • The Last Alliance.com GuidelinesArchived 2007-10-24 at the Wayback Machine
64. ^UK White Dwarf 300, UK White Dwarf 282
65. ^ ^abcAlessio Cavatore, 'Victory for the Free Peoples'. UK White Dwarf 312, p 98-99
66. ^'The Wrath of Umbar'. Games Workshop. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-03.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
67. ^'War of the Ring Canada'. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-03.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
68. ^For example: 'One Ring Awards'. Competition. The One Ring. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
69. ^'Online Community'(PDF). The Tengwar Beacon; E-zine. Cheesweb. 1: 5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2008-11-23.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)
70. ^'Online Community'(PDF). The Tengwar Beacon. Archives. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
71. ^Revolutionary. 'Alternative Knights of Dol Amroth'. Article. The Palantir. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2007-05-14.Cite uses deprecated parameter dead-url= (help)
72. ^2005 Report
73. ^'Discussion of Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth'. Forums. The Last Alliance. 2007-05-11. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2007-05-14.Cite uses deprecated parameter dead-url= (help)

References[edit]

• Cavatore, Alessio; Rick Priestly (2002). The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers Strategy Battle Game. Games Workshop. ISBN1-84154-285-7.
• Cavatore, Alessio (2003). The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King Strategy Battle Game. Games Workshop. ISBN1-84154-431-0.
• Cavatore, Alessio; Mathew Ward; Adam Troke (2005). The Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle Game: Rules Manual. Games Workshop. ISBN1-84154-665-8.
• Cavatore, Alessio; Mathew Ward; Adam Troke (2005). The Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle Game: The Mines of Moria. Games Workshop. ISBN1-84154-670-4.

External links[edit]