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alt title(s): Lord Of The Rings
"Are We There Yet?" "Almost, give or take another 1000 pages."

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the Darkness bind them.

With those words, Sauron forged the One Ring, the vessel of his power and the pivot on which the fate of Middle-earth would turn for five thousand years — until the most unlikely of heroes did the one thing Sauron could never have imagined, and brought his dark tower tumbling down.

The story was originally intended as a shorter sequel to The Hobbit, but as its author famously remarked, "the tale grew in the telling." The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is too well-known, and too complex, to be summarised in full, but in brief, Frodo Baggins, one of the hobbit gentry, learns that the magical trinket he inherited from his uncle Bilbo is actually the One Ring, Sauron's masterpiece. While it exists, Sauron cannot truly be destroyed; should Sauron ever regain it, ultimate victory will be his.

Frodo, his cousins Merry and Pippin, and his gardener Sam take the Ring to the Elves of Rivendell, where the elven-lord Elrond fills in the rest of the Back Story. There it was decided that the Ring cannot be kept there since Sauron would stop at nothing to reclaim it and its malignant influence would threaten to corrupt all who would attempt to guard it and especially those who would attempt to wield it. However, it was decided that one thing Sauron would not expect would be for his enemies to destroy it in the only way possible: in the fiery bowels of Mount Doom in the Land of Mordor, the Dark Lord's province.

The hobbits are joined by five more characters, that represent the races of Middle-earth: Legolas, an elven archer from Mirkwood; Gimli son of Glóin, a dwarf of Erebor; Aragorn, a Ranger of Eriador and heir to the throne of the human kingdom of Gondor; Boromir, heir to the Steward of Gondor; and the wizard, Gandalf the Grey.

Before long, Gandalf is lost in combat against an ancient evil, leaving the Fellowship following Aragorn. When Boromir succumbs to the lure of the Ring, Frodo decides to complete the quest alone. Sam manages to catch up with him, but the others are unable to, due to being embroiled in a battle with the minions of Saruman, the first among wizards — and traitor to the forces of good. Boromir dies a Karmic Death.

Guided by Gollum, a previous victim of the Ring, Frodo and Sam sneak into Mordor, Sauron's realm, making their way towards the only place where the Ring can be destroyed: the volcanic fire in which it was originally created. Meanwhile, Gandalf has returned from the dead as Gandalf the White and leads Aragorn and the Fellowship in a series of epic battles which keep Sauron distracted from the real threat until it's too late.

When the hobbits return home, they find that Saruman has taken over their homeland, but after they defeat his minions, Saruman is killed by his Renfield, Gríma.

There have been several adaptations. Among them:

In addition, there has been a BBC radio adaptation, two Tabletop RPGs set in Middle-earth, and several video games, from early text adventures to the latest Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

The first attempt to make a screen version was made in 1958 by a certain Zimmerman, who wrote a film script for “The Lord of the Rings”. J.R.R. Tolkien looked through it and in his letter to Forrest Ackerman heavily criticized this feeble attempt. It turned out that the script didn’t reflect many of Tolkien’s thoughts and some of the characters lost their appeal.

There was another aborted attempt by John Boorman to adapt the books in the 70's. It would've been live action and the notes from it might have suggested that adaptation might have looked like Zardoz. The Harvard Lampoon published a parody titled Bored Of The Rings in 1969, which manages to cover the entire journey in under 200 pages.

The majority of tropes used in LotR are well-explained, unlike in the majority of its imitators. Mordor, for example, has large fertile areas, and the Ring is more than just a convenient MacGuffin — its effects matter too much for that. This is largely due to the immensely elaborated Back Story and his life-defining experiences in The Great War.

There were, though, some tropes JRR Tolkien couldn't justify to his satisfaction. He spent years trying to decide how orcs could be Always Chaotic Evil without being born evil or soulless (options he didn't think Morgoth, their corrupter, had the power to achieve), but never found any answer he liked. It was philosophical niggles like this that stopped him publishing the The Silmarillion in his lifetime. His son Christopher did it anyway.

Named The Following Tropes:

Provides Examples Of:

  • Achey Scars: Frodo Baggins' wounds received from the Morgul blade and Shelob often pain him afterwards and make him ill, especially on their anniversaries. He actually sails to the True West with the elves because of this, in the hope of finding a way of reducing the pain.
  • Action Girl: Éowyn
  • Adventure
  • All There In The Appendices, including the love story. Tolkien's way of implying that the story of LotR, despite being one of the most important things to happen in Middle-earth, was not the only thing happening.
  • All Trolls Are Different
  • Alternative Calendar: The different peoples have their own calendars, with varying degrees of difference between them. The books generally use the Shire (Hobbit) calendar.
  • Always Chaotic Evil (In one possible Back Story, orcs were magically corrupted from elf stock to be Morgoth's minions. Tolkien's own thoughts on this suggest that this may not entirely be the case, though.)
  • Amplifier Artifact: All of the rings, especially the One.
  • Amusing Alien: Gimli the Dwarf, in the live-action movies.
  • An Axe To Grind: Gimli carries an axe.
  • Ancient Tomb: The Barrow-downs. The barrows of the Kings of Rohan and the tombs in Minas Tirith are also Ancient Tombs, but not haunted by anything.
  • Ancestral Weapon: The shards of Narsil.
  • Annoying Arrows: Subverted; Boromir does get shot by several arrows, and does pull them out, but is still weakened and wounded to death and definitely cannot continue fighting.
  • Anti Villain: Gollum (to the extent that he isn't "the real hero"; also doubles as The Woobie)
  • Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Used in a heroic example during the Scouring of the Shire.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The Book of Mazarbul, chronicling Balin's failed attempt to retake Moria up until their last stand.
  • Applicability: Read the entry for details.
  • Arcadia: The Shire.
  • Arc Number: 9 - Nazgul, Fellowship
  • Artifact Of Doom: The One Ring.
  • Author Avatar: Faramir. An early version of him explained in depth about the Elves.
  • Averted Trope
    • Cain And Abel: Averted with Boromir and Faramir.
      • But played straight with Smeagol and Deagol.
    • Elemental Baggage: Averted, Gandalf "cannot burn snow".
    • You All Meet In An Inn: Only Aragorn is met this way. The rest are met at political conferences.
    • No Cure For Evil: Averted, the Orcish medicine is made to heal the wounded as fast as possible but it tends to be very painful and it leaves scars.
    • Black And White Morality: Really. For example: Sam wonders if Sauron's human soldiers are truly evil at heart, or manipulated or forced to go to war. Similarly, Merry and Pippin say Saruman's own human troops are not truly evil compared to Orcs. (After battle, human enemies are offered mercy and given it, if accepted.) The Rohirrim have a history of hunting the Wild Men of Drúadan Forest for sport (which happened with Elves and Petty-dwarves in The Silmarillion). In the Appendices, it is related how the Gondorians have a civil war over the blood purity of their king, with a pure-blood usurper villain. And so on...
    • Weird Moon: Tolkien got the moon-phases all mapped out, so when they come up in the text they always fit.
  • Awesome Moment Of Crowning: Aragorn at the end.
  • Babies Ever After: Sam marries his longtime sweetheart the year after the end of War, and the next year sees the birth of little Frodo Elanor. He goes on to have many more, although, as the epilogue was cut, this is revealed in the Appendices instead of in the narrative.
  • Back From The Dead: Gandalf
  • Backstory (And plenty of it)
  • Badass Boast: Éowyn
  • Badass Bookworm: Faramir is considered the 'nerdy' one of the brothers, but is quite capable of fighting.
  • Badass Normal: Boromir, Éowyn, and all the hobbits, but especially Sam.
  • Barbarian Horde: The Orcs as well as most varieties of Eastern Humans.
  • Batman Gambit: Gandalf used one of these to distract Sauron from the true location of the One Ring, convincing him that the Free People were planning to use it against him. Of course, the whole thing was a diversion to allow the hobbits to enter Mordor unnoticed.
  • Battle Gardener: Sam
  • Bearer Of Bad News: Gandalf has quite a reputation for this in many places. The Riders of Rohan don't like him much because of it.
    • They probably like Shadowfax a whole lot more, just for being Shadowfax.
      • But that just means they hate Gandalf more for taking him, so, swings and roundabouts...
  • Being Watched: Being eavesdropped on by Sam (for the most heart-warming conspiracy ever) and several times with Gollum.
  • Beneath The Earth: The dwarven realm of Moria Khazad-dûm.
  • The Berserker: Éomer
  • Big Bad: Sauron
    • Big Bad Diumvirate: Subverted. Saruman seems to consider himself Sauron's equal partner and has full plans of double-crossing him, but Sauron is both phenomenally more powerful and smart enough to be fully aware of his pawn's ambitions. It's quite clear to everybody else that there is only one Big Bad in Lord Of The Rings.
  • Big Badass Wolf: Wargs
  • Big Damn Heroes: Several times— Gandalf at Helm's deep, the Rohan army at Pelennor and later Aragorn and the Dead Army in the same battle.
    • The Dead Army doesn't appear at Pelennor in the book, only in the movie. In the Book, Aragorn uses the Dead Army to take out the Corsair fleet (which by the way were descendants of Numenorean colonists, so should have looked more like Aragorn). He then uses the fleet to transport a large army of Gondor allies that previously couldn't send many troops for fear of leaving their lands open to said fleet. He brings with him Elrond's sons, 30 Dunedain Rangers, Legolas, Gimli and a good few thousand fresh men.
  • Big Good: Gandalf.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The whole Tom Bombadil thing.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows: Gandalf
  • Bilingual Bonus: Most of the Meaningful Names. Generally speaking, the rest have translations given.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Although Sam, Merry and Pippin have long happy lives, Frodo can't go back to enjoying life and leaves for the Undying Lands.
  • Black Blood: Orcs have it.
  • Black Cloak: The unusually powerful Nazgûl.
  • Body Count Competition: Gimli owns Legolas 42:41 at the Battle of the Hornburg.
  • Break The Haughty: Saruman
  • Bullet Proof Vest: Frodo's mithril chainmail shirt.
  • Call A Rabbit A Smeerp: Pipe-weed, Oliphaunts/Mûmakil
  • Camp Cook: Samwise is always the cook, but he is neither bad nor comic relief.
  • Capital City: Minas Tirith
    • Somewhat Subverted in that Osgiliath is the actual capital of Gondor and Minas Tirith was merely the western most military fort. Denethor wastes a lot of resources trying to keep Osgiliath, though that fact isn't as prevalent in the books as it is in the movies.
      • In this case, though, Osgiliath is important not because as the former capital, but as a front line against Mordor because it is the best point to cross Anduin.
  • The Cavalry: The Riders of Rohan and Aragorn, Rangers of Eriador and troops from southern Gondor. They are also, literally, the cavalry.
  • Cave Behind The Falls: Henneth Annûn.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: LOTR is much darker in tone than The Hobbit. The early parts of Fellowship of The Ring still bear signs of pre-Cerebusness.
    • Not a genuine example, as the Hobbit was written independently of his "serious" Middle-earth stories, and the story integrated into the previously existing Middle-earth continuity, upon which he took on its tone.
  • Chessmaster: Several, but Denethor's "he uses others as his weapons" is probably the main doctrine of Chessmastery.
  • Chess Motifs: See previous entry.
  • Children Are Innocent: Theoden manages to break free of Saruman's charming voice because of the dead children (and the mutilation of a corpse).
  • City Of Spies: Bree
  • Clingy Mac Guffin: The One Ring — justified.
  • Come To Gawk: Saruman's accusation, when found on the road.
  • Con Lang: Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin. And other less detailed ones, like Khuzdul, Black Speech, etc..
  • Cold Blooded Torture: Orcs do it to anyone they can get away with doing it to, including each other.
  • Collectible Card Game: two, Middle Earth in the 1990s and [one of] The Game[s] Of The Movie.
  • Collapsing Lair: Barad-dûr
  • Color Coded Wizardry: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown.
  • Compelling Voice: Saruman
  • Constructed World: Set in the world of Tolkien's legendarium, on the continent Middle-earth.
    • Which is actually just ancient Europe, or parts thereof.
  • Contemptible Cover: In the first authorised American paperback, Tolkien complained about the creative artwork for the covers. It supposedly had a "tree with bulbous fruit" and "lions and emus" on the covers. This edition is nicknamed the "Hippie Edition".
    • What you say! The Ballantine artwork is awesome. Also, Hippies are awesome. And Hippies buying the Ballantine edition is what popularised the book to begin with.
    • The 50th Anniversary edition is worse: The heroes look like 70's porn stars.
  • Cool Chair: The throne of the King of Gondor and Steward's chair.
  • Cool Horse: Shadowfax
  • Cool Sword: Gandalf has Glamdring, Frodo has Sting, and Aragorn has Anduril. The Witch King of Angmar wields a flaming sword at the Siege of Gondor, and the Balrog of Moria uses a burning sword as well.
  • Cosmic Horror: In the backstory, the Dwarves Dug Too Deep and connected with the tunnels of 'nameless things' which are older than Sauron, where the Balrog was hiding; later Gandalf falls into their territory via the abyss below Durin's Bridge, and says that he will not speak of what he saw there.
  • Cosmopolitan Council: The Council of Elrond, possibly also The White Council.
  • Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: Inflicted on the series by the Writer's Almanac.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Pretty much every character has at least one.
  • Crystal Ball: The Palantíri
  • Dark Is Evil, Dark Is Not Evil: Different nations and peoples on both ends of the good-evil-spectrum have used black as their color, or have black hair.
  • Death Glare: Aragorn to the Ambassador at the Black Gate.
  • Death Of The Author
  • Death Seeker: Éowyn.
    "He caught the glint of clear grey eyes; and then he shivered, for it came suddenly to him that it was the face of one without hope who goes in search of death."
  • Denouement
  • Despair Event Horizon: Denethor during the Siege of Gondor, which leads to him trying to immolate himself and his son on a funeral pyre.
  • Die For Our Ship: Poor, poor Arwen. Both Aragorn/Legolas and Éowyn/Aragorn fanbrats hate and bash her like there's no tomorrow.
  • Dirty Business: When Frodo lures Gollum into the hands of Faramir's men.
  • Divided For Publication
  • The Dog Bites Back: Gríma
  • Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Every major battle begins with one or more, and Sam, in the movies at least, is the master of these.
  • Doomed Hometown: The Shire, though it's sort of inverted. And it gets better eventually.
  • Doorstopper: Despite being called a trilogy, it's really just one giant book. Which the publisher divided into three volumes because of its size.
    • And, supposedly, postwar paper shortages. There wasn't enough to print a full run of the whole book.
  • The Dragon: The Witch-king of Angmar to Sauron. Sauron himself was The Dragon to Morgoth.
    • Actually, Ancalagon the Black was The Dragon to Morgoth. Sauron was more of The Assassin or The Vizier
    • Really, Morgoth had a bunch of Dragons- which one was the Dragon depends on which particular story from The Silmarillion you're looking at. Sauron is definitely The Dragon in Beren and Luthien.
  • Dressing As The Enemy: Frodo and Sam in Mordor.
  • Driven To Suicide: Denethor
  • Due To The Dead: Good guys bury corpses, or at least keep them out of orcish hands; evil guys mutilate them, and even use their heads as siege weapons(for psychological warfare).
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Easing Into The Adventure: The beginnings in the Shire.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Shelob, though technically she's the daughter of a full-on Eldritch Abomination and an "ordinary" Giant Spider. The creatures that Gandalf and the Balrog encounter beneath Moria are implied to be this as well.
  • Elephants Child: Pippin during the ride with Gandalf to Minas Tirith. Gandalf tries answering questions, but finds each answer just leads to more questions. Exposition nicely done.
  • Elite Mooks: Saruman's Uruk-hai and Sauron's specially bred sun-proof Trolls. Heck, Morgoth essentially created all the evil races on Middle-earth through dark magic and breeding.
  • Elves Vs Dwarves: They don't get along. Possibly the originator of the cliche.
  • Emotion Bomb: Evil things, especially the Nazgûl, are cloaked in Fear and Despair. This may also be (at least part of) how Denethor was Driven To Suicide.
  • End Of An Age: Set at the end of the Third Age.
  • Ending Fatigue: Some consider the end to be too long. Tolkien wasn't eager to pawn off a pat "happy-ever-after" ending. Instead, the heroes' homecoming is just as important a part of the journey as it was in the old epics it emulates.
  • Enemy To All Living Things: The Nazgûl; their horses have to be specially bred and trained just to stand being near them, let alone serving as their mounts.
  • Engagement Challenge: Elrond gives this to Aragorn in the backstory. If he wants Arwen's hand in marriage, he's got to become King first.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Glorfindel and Prince Imrahil.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Given the fact most of the major characters are guys, this shouldn't be surprising.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The whole plan hinges on the fact that Sauron can't even conceive of someone trying to destroy the Ring and get rid of that kind of power.
    • In all fairness, he was right. At the moment of truth, instead of throwing the One Ring into Mount Doom, Frodo claimed it for his own. The Ring was only destroyed when Gollum tried to steal it back, succeeded, and fell into the lava still clutching his "precious".
  • Evil Overlord: Sauron.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Saruman, and Sauron.
  • Evil Tower Of Ominousness - Barad-dûr, Minas Morgul, Orthanc, Dol Guldur, and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Saruman was constantly plotting against Sauron.
  • Expansion Pack World: Not directly, more like The Hobbit got transplanted very neatly into Middle-earth during the writing of LotR.
  • Face Heel Turn: Saruman seduced into evil by the perceived superiority of Sauron's power; Denethor driven mad due to his imperfect understanding of how a Palantír works; The Scouring of the Shire, the ultimate result of a few hobbits wanting to bring in "outside ways" to do things "better" and "faster".
  • The Faceless: The Nazgûl
  • The Fair Folk: Not exactly... The Elves in LOTR are all nice and good... but the Rohirrim think the Lorien elves are these.
  • Famed In Story
  • Fantasy World Map: Yet another Tolkien example, also Left Justified Fantasy Map.
  • Fellowship: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • Female Success Is Family
  • Fighting A Shadow: The reason Sauron keeps coming back, until the Ring is destroyed.
  • Fighting For Survival
  • The Film Of The Book: Several, see bottom of page for tropes.
  • Final Battle
  • Friend Or Foe: The fleet
  • Flaming Sword: The Balrog and the Witch-king.
  • Follow The Leader: It started the fantasy genre as we know it, and indirectly started role playing games as we know them too. The live action movies led the way for more film adaptations based on epic fantasy books.
  • Forbidden Zone: The Paths of the Dead, and of course Mordor.
  • Ghibli Hills - Most of Middle-earth fits, especially in the films.
  • Giant Flyer - The Ringwraiths' flying steeds, and the Eagles.
  • Giant Spider - Shelob.
  • Goddamn Orks - Orcs mainly, but the Dunlendings, Easterlings and Haradrim as well to a lesser extent.
  • God In Human Form: The group of so-called "wizards", while appearing as old human men, are actually five Maiar, a kind of angelic spirit, who are themselves incorporeal but can usually clothe themselves in any form they like. The five have been sent on a mission to help the peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron, during which they are bound in their physical form, unable to change it, and also limited in their powers and knownledge.
  • Gods Hands Are Tied: The Valar
  • Gondor Calls For Aid
  • Good Hurts Evil
  • Good Is Not Nice: Denethor. Also, Frodo threatening Gollum.
    • Big Good Gandalf himself, who has a short temper and a caustic sense of humor.
  • Gotterdammerung: The War of the Ring signals the passing of the Elves in Middle-earth.
  • Gray Eyes
  • Green Eyed Monster
  • Half Human Hybrids: Elrond and his family are half-elven, Aragorn's ancestors had elven blood (his ancestor was Elrond's brother), and the Uruk-hai are rumoured to be part-human part-orc.
    • Actually, if you trace the bloodlines of the Nûmenorians back to Luthien and then look at HER parents, you find that her father was an Elf Lord and her Mother was a Maia. As such, Aragorn, Elrond and company are part spirit/angel as well as elf.
  • Hate Plague: The Ring
  • Healing Hands: Aragorn, as well as Elrond and other powerful Elves.
  • Healing Potion: The Uruk-hai use this with Merry.
  • Herald: Gandalf
  • Here There Were Dragons: To us the War of the Ring takes place in such a world. To the characters, the earlier Ages were this.
  • Heroic Lineage: Elrond and Aragorn are descended from many of the Elven and Human heroes/protagonists from earlier Ages.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Frodo and Sam, Gimli and Legolas, Merry and Pippin.
  • Hidden Elf Village: Rivendell, Lothlorien.
  • HoYay: Hi, meet the fandom. Read the books. Go on the Internet in general.
  • Hobbits
  • The Horde: The orcs.
  • Humans Are Special: Intersting twist on this, because the whole thing usually revolves around either their negative qualities or their mortality.
  • I Am Not Shazam: The "Lord of the Ring(s)" is Sauron. People get it wrong and are corrected in the book, as well as in real life.
  • I Call It Vera: In spades...which are probably also named.
  • I Can Fight: Éowyn tries this.
  • I Have Many Names: Gandalf, Aragorn, the Witch-king, and Sauron all have many names.
  • Internet Backdraft: Everyone stand back... "The Balrog has no wings!" Watch the explosions!
  • It's For A Book
  • It Was His Sled: Gandalf comes back. The Ring is destroyed.
  • Jumped At The Call: Sam is even described as "springing up like a dog invited for walk" when Gandalf tells him to go with Frodo.
  • Just Eat Gilligan: A few of these are ripe topics for fan squabbling, including easier ways that the Ring might have been taken to Mordor and ways that Sauron might have guarded against the one thing that could defeat him, such as, I don't know, installing a door with a lock on it in the tunnel to the Cracks of Doom. Naturally, bringing something like this up among serious Ringers is at least as dangerous as making a statement about whether Balrogs have wings.
  • Karmic Death: Boromir, Saruman
  • Kill It With Fire: The Ringwraiths, Shelob. Depending on how you want to look at it, the Balrog inverted the trope.
  • Lady Of War: Éowyn
  • Lawful Evil: Sauron (and by extension the Nazgul) is of the highly organized tyrant variety. Saruman starts out the Well Intentioned Extremist variety before decaying into a tyrant as well, and then into a Chaotic Evil revenge-obsessed psycho in the Scouring of the Shire.
  • Least Is First: Frodo offering to take the Ring at the Counicil of Elrond, immediately joined by Sam.
  • Lemony Narrator: Mostly in the early chapters in the Shire and till Bree; again in the later chapters on the way back.
  • A Light In The Distance: The will-o'-the-wisps seen in the Dead Marshes.
  • Literary Agent Hypothesis: The author claims that The Lord of the Rings is translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, which was written by the hobbits (mainly Bilbo and Frodo).
    • This Troper never heard before that Tolkien actually came out and said that, but it seemed obvious given the changing nature of the narrator's voice from section to section. Starting with Frodo's over-thinking, scholarly descriptions in the first part and ending with Sam's down-to-earth humble descriptions towards the end. Personally, I kind of wish that Merry had more impact on the narrating than he did. He's got a wonderful eye for detail and consequence that strikes quickly to the heart of matters.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters
  • Load Bearing Boss: The fall of Barad-dûr coincides with Sauron's death.
    • Justified because he created it using the Ring. Once the Ring's power was no longer holding it up, the whole unwieldy thing just fell in.
  • The Lone Dalek: Gollum
  • The Lost Woods: The Old Forest, Fangorn Forest, and Lothlórien
  • Lowest Common Denominator: The positive version of this trope.
  • Mac Guffin: Frequently described as such, the Ring was originally intended to be a sequel hook to The Hobbit until Tolkien decided it was actually an Artifact Of Doom.
  • Mac Guffin Escort Mission: Escort the Ring to Mount Doom.
  • Made Of Indestructium: Quite possibly the origin of this trope. The One Ring can only be destroyed at Mt. Doom where it was made.
    • Somewhat subverted in that it is implied that the Valar could destroy it if they wanted to break their own rules and that the main reason for the indestructibility is that no one has a full mastery of how it was made except Sauron.
      • I personally feel that Sauron only destroyed the Elf-Smiths of Eregion because, after they made the Three, he realized that they might eventually figure out how to unmake the One. I think he originally intended to use the Rings to ensalve that nation and then spread from there. The Three put a bump in his plan.
  • The Magic Goes Away: Elves sail off to the West, wizards leave (or otherwise drop off the radar), no more magic- although Tolkein was extremely loath to use the word "magic" to refer to any of that in the first place.
  • Magic Mirror: Galadriel's mirror, which is just water in a silver bowl.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Sauron, especially if you read his backstory in the appendixes and realize how magnificent a bastard he was.
  • Mayfly December Romance (Aragorn and Arwen)
  • Meaningful Funeral: The funerals of Boromir and Theoden.
  • Meaningful Name: Most names in the books have other meanings and are often based on obscure words. Mordor, for example, comes from the old English word for "mortal sin" or "murder".
  • Meaningful Rename
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: This happened to Gandalf. He's feeling much better now.
  • Miles To Go Before I Sleep: Sam and Frodo's hopeless persistence as they travel through Mordor.
  • Monogender Monsters: The movie's portrayal of Orcs, being all male and spawned from mud pits.
  • Mooks
  • More Hero Than Thou
  • Mythopoeia: The Ur-example.
  • Narrative Poem: "Eärendil Was a Mariner"
  • Near Villain Victory: Tolkien basically coined the word 'eucatastrophe' that describes this trope, and happens plenty of times throughout the novel.
  • The Necrocracy: The kingdom of Angmar in the Back Story and Minas Morgul.
  • Never Accepted In His Hometown
  • No Man Of Woman Born: After ''Macbeth'', the best-known example, like, ever.
    • Word Of God once mentioned that this case of the trope, as well as the whole idea of the Ents, was directly inspired by Macbeth. Tolkien said he was disappointed that Macbeth wasn't just killed by a woman and that Birnham Wood didn't actually get up and march against Macbeth.
  • No One Could Survive That: Pippin and the troll.
  • The Obi Wan: Gandalf, mentoring Aragorn, Frodo, and Faramir.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Everything done with the rings, including Mordor and Lothlórien.
  • Nose Tapping
  • Not A Game
  • Obviously Evil: Sauron.
  • Odd Friendship: Legolas and Gimli.
  • Offing The Offspring: Denethor, after he went into full-blown insanity and despair, tries to burn both himself and his feverish son Faramir on a pyre.
  • Oh Crap: Several of these, such as when the heroes are confronting the latest spawn of darkness (the Black Riders, the Balrog, the witch-king, etc). The best, though, is when Sauron spots the Ring near the Cracks of Doom and it finally dawns on him just what his enemies are up to, and how close they are to bringing about his utter ruin. "And Barad-dur trembled from the depths of its foundations to its proud and bitter crown."
  • Older Than They Look: Aragorn, and those descended from the Númenóreans in general. For instance, Aragorn is in the prime of his life when the war of the ring occurs- age 87. It is mentioned that his is a reduced lifespan compared to his ancestors.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Morgoth, in the backstory
  • One Gender Race: The Ents, although not by design, as there originally was a distinct female gender - only those wandered off, and haven't been seen since. If they did not have such long lifespans, they would be extinct already for lack of children. (situation is elaborated upon in the trope entry).
  • One Sided Battle
  • Orcus On His Throne: Tolkien does this with his villains, but only towards the ends of their careers - he had a theme of deliberate Villain Decay and Motive Decay, with smart people with real goals turning to evil but evil itself corrupting them and gradually turning them into cardboard cutouts. Together with this, they start out going out and kicking arse by themselves (e.g. Morgoth fights Tulkas personally at the dawn of time, Sauron comes out to fight Huan in the Silmarillion) but eventually becoming throne-bound. Often after one too many of such direct interaction had a painful outcome (e.g. Morgoth after his duel with the elven king Fingolfin, Sauron after his defeat/half-death and loss of the Ring in the War of the Last Alliance).
  • Our Elves Are Better: Originator of the trope, with at least two groups inside the book. A rather different view of them is revealed in the Back Story, however.
    • Anybody that's read the Silmarillion knows that the House of Feanor and many of their Noldor followers were just as bad as Morgoth or Ungoliant's spawn and minions.
  • Our Founder: The Argonath, two statues of Isildur and Anárion, founders of Gondor.
  • Our Orcs Are Different: Yet another Tolkien-created trope.
    • It's worth noting that Tolkien's orcs are actually quite different from the standard Chaotic Evil barbarian orcs when you look beyond the superficial level. They're actually a technologically advanced race (surpassed only by the humans of Nûmenorean descent, the elves and the dwarves) who are generally of human-level intelligence and have a sophisticated appreciation for others' pain. The problem is, they're usually not working together in huge groups unless forced to do so by an outside force.
  • Overly Long Name: The Ents, combined with the fact that they talk really, really slowly.
    • Add to that their immortality, their isolated civilization and how generally hard to kill they are. Keep in mind that an Ent's full name is essentially his entire personal history.
  • Overshadowed By Awesome: Celeborn by his wife Galadriel.
    • Note that Galadriel is one of the few Noldor that escaped Feanor's curse and actually predates the day-night cycle. If she and Elrond weren't stuck maintaining the safety of their realms, the story would have been a bit different. After all, they're not bound by the stricture to inspire rather than champion like Gandalf is.
  • Pals With Jesus: Gandalf and darn near anyone who's good.
  • Papa Wolf: Everyone is this to the hobbits. Even the hobbits get to be this on occasion because of The Power Of Friendship.
  • Parental Favoritism: Boromir (the elder son) is heavily preferred to Faramir by their father, Denethor. It's especially emphasized in The Movies, where Denethor is shown as blatantly unfair; in the book, Gandalf at least believes that it is partly that Denethor is still grief-stricken over the death.
  • Pirates: The Corsairs of Umbar.
  • Playing Possum: A scene with Uruk-hai during Helm's Deep in the novel.
  • Playing With Fire: Gandalf
  • Poisoned Weapons: The Morgul blade and the arrow that hit Faramir.
    • Orcs in general are said to be fond of this.
  • Popcultural Osmosis: LotR's influence is widespread and isn't limited to the fantasy genre.
    • High Fantasy: It popularized the genre and is generally credited with creating it, although high fantasy in the novel format is actually older than Tolkien. The demand for novels similar to Lord of the Rings was so great that many imitators joined in to feed the demand. The term "Tolkienesque" has been used to describe the literature of his many imitators. A few writers actually tried to go in a different direction than Tolkien, such as Ursula K. Le Guin with her Earthsea novels. Even today, Tolkien's shadow is so big that it's difficult for a writer to escape it.
    • Role Playing Games: The Fellowship can be seen as the prototypical RPG party. It established many archetypes and tropes that are seen RPGs like "rangers", warrior dwarves, the Balrog and Mithril. The Fellowship's trek through the dwarven city of Khazad-dûm might have been the basis for Ruins For Ruins Sake. It inspired D&D and many of the RPGs that came after it.
    • War Gaming: Before LotR, war games were limited to historical wars like WWII, the Napoleonic Wars, and the American Civil War. LotR popularized the idea that war gaming can take place in a fictional land with fictional races and nations. It influenced such games as Warhammer, War Craft, and Star Craft.
      • Which came full circle when Games Workshop made a tabletop wargame based on LOTR, inspired partly by Warhammer.
    • Heavy Metal: Many of the earliest metal bands were influenced by Tolkien. They use many of his themes and events as a basis for numerous songs. Led Zepplin is a band that shows a lot of Tolkien influence. There's even a subgenre called Tolkien Metal.
  • Posthumous Character: Boromir.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Uglúk, to some extent Sauron.
  • Prophecy Twist: The Witch-king
  • Prophetic Fallacy: Denethor and the Corsairs
  • Psychic Dreams For Everyone: Faramir, and Boromir once
    • Frodo too.
  • Publisher Chosen Title: The publisher meddled with the titles of the three volumes. Tolkien wanted the last one to be named The War of the Ring to avoid spoilers, but it didn't get through.
  • The Quest: Frodo's quest is a double subversion. So much so, it might called an Anti Quest
  • Ransacked Room
  • Redemption Equals Death: Boromir
  • Red Eyes Take Warning: Sauron, while not red-eyed himself, uses a red eye on black as his symbol.
    • Although in the movie, he takes the form of a giant red eye.
  • Regent For Life: Denethor
    • Though he actually has a good precedent for not accepting Aragorn's claim - especially since he has reason to believe Aragorn won't act in Gondor's best interest - and we don't know what he would have actually done had he not been Driven To Suicide. So it's certainly not a clear-cut example.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old
  • The Renfield: Wormtongue
  • Roar Before Beating (cave troll)
  • Robe And Wizard Hat: Gandalf
  • Royal Blood
  • Samus Is A Girl: Dernhelm aka Éowyn
  • Sapient Steed: Gandalf's steed Shadowfax.
  • Sealed Army In A Can: The Oathbreakers from the Paths of the Dead.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: The Balrog of Moria
  • Second Hand Storytelling: Gandalf's escape from Saruman, Treebeard's attack on Isengard, and Aragorn's adventures in southern Gondor. Justified by Word Of God that the story is mostly seen from a hobbit POV, since it was hobbits that wrote the tome professor Tolkein translated
  • Secondary Character Title: The Lord of the Rings refers to Sauron not Frodo as some believe. The full title of Frodo's book about the war is The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Almost every modern fantasy copies from it to some extent or another; so much of the genre is aimed at children that by the time a reader gets to the Real Thing, they've seen it before...
  • Sensitive Guy And Manly Man: Faramir and Boromir.
  • Simultaneous Arcs: The main continuity splits off into two branches when the Fellowship breaks up near Rauros - one arc following Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the journey to Mordor, the other one following everyone else and the wars in Rohan and Gondor.
  • Single Line Of Descent: Surprisingly, subverted. Aragorn is descended from the northern branch of the kingly line; the Gondor branch of the Numenorean kings diversified into several potential claimants, endured a civil war over the question of inheritance, and eventually no viable successor could be found (All explained in the appendices). Also there are other people appearing and mentioned who also descend from the same ancestor as the "main descendant" of that line.
    • Further subverted in that although the Gondorian and Arnorian branches claim direct descent from Elros, first king of Numenor, they are not descendants of the last king, as their ancestor branched off around king 13 or so. Also found All There In The Manual.
  • Sleeping Dummy: The hobbits pull this off at the Prancing Pony in Bree.
  • Soul Jar: The One Ring
  • Spanner In The Works: Gollum
  • Speak Friend And Enter
  • Split Personality: Gollum/Sméagol
  • Sssssnaketalk: Gollum
  • Stay On The Path: Averted. Gandalf tells the hobbits to stay off the roads on their way to Bree.
    • Though in The Hobbit it's played straight, again by Gandalf. The dwarves run off the path anyway, and get captured by wood elves for their trouble.
  • Stealth Pun: Merry is given the name "Holdwine" by Éowyn and Éomer once, and it's never mentioned again. It means "loyal friend" in Old English, but in Modern English ...
  • A Storm Is Coming: When Gandalf came bearing news of Saruman's plans to the Rohirrim. Wormtongue mocks him by calling him a "stormcrow".
  • Storming The Castle: Subverted
  • Story Breaker Power: Gandalf in both The Hobbit and LoTR.
  • The Strategist: Gandalf
  • Succession Crisis: Gondor had a brutal civil war over who should inherit the throne, a half breed or a pureblood. A generation later, when the last king of Gondor foolishly walked into captivity and (presumed) death, there was no one left willing to take the throne, for fear of a second civil war.
  • Super Soldier: Uruk-hai, Olag-hai. Not really super though, just Elite Mooks.
  • Supervillain Lair: Barad-dûr and Isengard
  • Swamps Are Evil: The Dead Marshes and the Midgewater Marshes.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: Éowyn
  • Take That Critics: In the Foreword: "Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works."
  • Tear Jerker: Lots
  • The Three Faces Of Adam
  • The Law Of Scarcity: The Ring seems to allure and tempt others partially due to the fact that it's beautiful, rare and powerful. It is "the precious."
  • The Magnificent: Merry
  • The Power Of Friendship: Especially the friendship between Sam and Frodo.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Frodo and Sam
  • Time Abyss: Tom Bombadil, Treebeard, Elrond; the Ents and Elves overall
  • Translation Convention: Technically, they aren't speaking English. All "real world"-languages are used as a translation/stand-in for a language spoken in-world. The languages are not chosen randomly, but to represent the relation between the languages, or a certain image. Westron is translated with English, while Rohirric, which is supposed to appear vaguely familiar to the Hobbits, is represented by Anglo-Saxon aka Old English, etc. If you read the appendices you also find out that the "original language" version actually has features which influence the plot, but which are not rendered in the English "translation". One of such is the contributing factor to the rumor in Minas Tirith that Pippin was a Prince of high status and power: hobbits do no longer have/use a formal address, so Pippin's informal address to Denethor made the listeners think he would have to be of high status indeed.
  • Treacherous Advisor: Gríma
  • Trope Maker: And how! The ISO Standard Fantasy Setting started here.
  • The Unfavorite: Faramir
  • Ugly Cute: Gollum
  • Unfortunate Implications: The pure, noble, European-looking races do battle against the genetically inferior, dark-skinned, Always Chaotic Evil races. Awkward, guys.
    • Your Mileage May Vary. According to Word Of God, the orcs represent what would happen to anyone forced to live as they did and serve a tyrant for countless generations- hardly 'genetically inferior'. As for the Haradrim and Easterlings (dark-skinned, or just foreign in the Easterlings' case, humans), its pretty explicitly stated that they're not all evil, just their leadership (and even they were just puppets for Sauron). One of Aragorn's first acts as king was to make peace with all these guys, something most Gondorian rulers had never bothered to try before.
      • It is not said that most Gondorian rulers had never bothered to try this and making peace is less easy then it sounds. In fact, in the appendix it is later made clear that Aragorn later had to fight these same peoples quite a bit. What Aragorn did was treat prisoners decently and negotiated an end to that particular war.
      • Since Gondor making peace with Haradrim and/or Easterlings in any event other than as conquerer and subservient state is never shown (in a very detailed fictional history) one can assume it didn't happen in any major way. And neither the Haradrim nor the Easterlings are a unified kingdom- Aragorn made peace with some of them and had to fight others. It's still rather too nuanced to be straight Unfortunate Implications, though you can choose to read it that way. I also direct you to Gondor's civil war, where the guy for Dunedain blood purity would be a definite Complete Monster if he ever got fleshed out, while Tolkien's sympathy is clearly with the mixed-blood contender.
    • Also, Gondorians descended from the indigenous population are described as having dark ("swarthy") skin, and the Corsairs, some of Sauron's main allies/servants, are "pure," fair-skinned Numenoreans. In the appendices, it's revealed that they rebelled, took over, then split off from Gondor when the son of the previous king and a non-Numenorean woman took the throne. In general, the Unfortunate Implications are lessened the more you get into the backstory, e.g. the Numenoreans also ended up working for Sauron in the Second Age. Of course, you have to get that far without being too put off by the initial Unfortunate Implications.
    • This troper is more worried, Unfortunate Implications-wise, about genetic determinism than actual racism. In Tolkien’s world everyone who is kingly, heroic, strong, a good leader etc. is so because it runs on the family. Your “proper” position in the world is dictated by your ancestry, and the “good” characters often remind themselves of their place (e.g. Sam). Even the hobbits are like this — the Baggins and Tooks traits are often evoked to explain the character of Biolbo/Frodo or Pippin. “Good blood” is often said to have been “diluted” resulting in loss of positive traits. The racism in Tolkien is not so bad as the Victorian-style belief in aristocracy.
      • Again, not true on a deeper reading. Frodo was actually more closely related to the Sackville-Bagginses than to Bilbo himself; and Lotho Sackville-Baggins was one of the most prominent servants of Saruman during the Scouring of the Shire espisode. The S-Bs shared an "aristocratic" status equivalent to that of Bilbo and Frodo. The Tooks were the only true aristocracy of the Shire, and are not treated as "above" the other Hobbits; but rather somewhat "outside" them due to the Tookish "oddness" or "wildness".
      • Add to that the Dark Numenoreans, greatest human servants of Sauron, of whom the Witch-King of Angmar came. "Dark" referrs not to dark skin, since they were complexioned l8ike any other Numenorean; but rather their fall into the "darkness" of Sauron. Indeed, the line of the High Kings of Numenor, the same line that spawned Aragorn, also spawned kings who were obsessed with immortality and gratifying their own lusts; and who caused the destruction of the great isle. No biological determinism there.
      • Also, Sam reminding himself of his simple life? Is actually the point of it all. Tolkien himself said that Sam ist probably the most important character, and the one who gets it all in the end. A home, a wife and children, honest work and a good life: that's what they fought for.
  • Universe Chronology
  • Vestigial Empire: Gondor
  • Vindicated By History: The book wasn't really popular until the Vietnam war and then the reading public started seeing parallels between Vietnam and the War of the Ring.
  • We Can Rule Together: Saruman pulls this on Gandalf. He turns down the offer and ends up being a prisoner.
  • Well Done Son Guy: Faramir
  • What Could Have Been: Previously unpublished materials has a lot of examples of what could have been. Aragorn being a ranger hobbit was one of them.
  • When Trees Attack: Ents and Old Man Willow
    • Huorns in general, which are described as either being "Tree-ish" Ents or "Ent-ish" trees. More mobile and vocal than trees while not being as active as Ents.
  • Where It All Began: Mordor and the Shire count.
  • Where Are They Now Epilogue: LotR did originally have one, which it was cut for the original publication, but its three versions have since been published in the Ho Me 10: Sauron Defeated. The first two versions are almost identical: It shows an evening seventeen years after the Ring's destruction, with Sam just having finished reading the story to his children, and answering their questions about the story and what happened after. The third version skips ahead a bit, and begins with Sam writing down the Q&A session with his children and talking to Elanor, who is allowed to stay up after the other children because she's oldest and it's her birthday. All versions end with a scene of Sam and his wife standing outside at night.
  • Where There's A Will There's A Sticky Note: Bilbo, after he vanishes in The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • Whip It Good: The Balrog, the nonsexual example.
  • The Wise Prince - Faramir
  • Wizard Beard: Gandalf
  • Wizards Live Longer: Justified with the "wizards" who are explained to be divine beings on the level of Biblical archangels.
    • Played with in the Nazgul. Their rings of power enhanced their lifespans far beyond that of ordinary mortals while simulateously giving them magical powers, but the ultimate price was the loss of their souls, humanity, and free will to Sauron. In Middle-Earth, unless you're and Elf or Physical God and therefore naturally immortal, prolonging your life always comes with a cost.
      • Even the Elves have a choice as demonstrated by some few of their greater heroes. Basically, the sort of death experienced by Man is considered a gift of Eru that has been propagandized as a terrible thing. The Elves immortality comes at the price of having to leave Middle-Earth as the elder days fade. Some say this is because of how Feanor and his Noldor spread their curse so efficiently. Others say this was always intended. My personal thought, those elves that stayed behind after the West closed (probably Legolas's kin) eventually dwindled into a mortal race themselves over time, losing their immortality. In the long run, I expect that Elves, Orcs, Men interbred into one species. It was already happening with Elves and Men, as could be seen in the differentiation of High Men and Half Elves. Saruman probably kickstarted orcs joining into the mix. Trolls being an imperfect imitation of Ents probably didn't fare as well and Dwarves having a different manner of creation might have stayed seperate.
  • The Woobie: Gollum
  • Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Averted when Bilbo, Frodo and finally Sam take pity on Gollum, ensuring the Ring's destruction.
  • Word Of God: The appendices are only the start; Tolkien's son has edited together and published fifteen volumes from his notes.
  • World Building: The Ur-example
  • Xanatos Gambit: the whole War of the Ring is used to distract from the attempt to destroy the ring
    • Also Xanatos Roulette declined. The history of the Second and Third Age including the forging of the Great Rings through Sauron's encouragement was a complex attempt to enslave the peoples of Middle-earth.
  • You Shall Not Pass: Gandalf facing the Balrog, although the films named the trope.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: Speak Friend And Enter.