While the first two books in the trilogy feel like full novels, Return of the King doesn’t really stand on its own. When reading the first two novels I didn’t think much of this note, but upon reaching Return of the King it becomes a lot more obvious.

It suddenly makes a lot more sense as to why the movie seemed to have so many endings – because there are so many little vignettes that Peter Jackson was trying to cover.Ģ) I see what Tolkien meant about his series in the prologue – At the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien states that his series was meant actually as one book but they had to break it up for publication due to size. Frodo casts the ring into the volcano at around 55% in my version of the book, and the rest of the story is showing the happily ever after.

I never realized as a child how early in the book they destroy the ring (spoilers). This is the third and final entry on The Return of the King, our thoughts on The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers can be found here:ġ) RotK is 50% epilogue – Literally. Instead, I thought I would instead do a compilation of some of the more amusing observations people had about the book, usually having to do with things not being as we remember. I initially thought about doing a review piece, but no one needs to hear another review about LotR to know it is amazing. The Quill to Live team is currently doing a reread of Lord of the Rings because for many of us, it has been awhile since we read it (on average about a decade).

Lotr the return of the king book