Myth
and Magic introduced a range of studies based the Lord of the Rings
in the 1990s. Always a popular range it became more high profile
when the film trilogy was released.
Lord of the Rings Synopsis
Vol. I - THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING:
The story starts with the twentieth birthday-party for Frodo Baggins,
a Hobbit who lives with his brother Sam in a mythical land called
the Shire. Frodo owns a magic Ring which makes him invisible when
he wears it, a gift from his cousin Bilbo who stole it from the
hoard of a Dragon years ago.
One day the old wizard Gandalf comes to the Shire, and he tells
Frodo of an evil being named Sauron who wants to capture the Ring
for himself. In ages long past Sauron stole the Ring from the
Elves, to protect him from the Powers of Good; but the Ring was
stolen from him by a creature named Gollum,and then stolen from
Gollum by the Dragons, and then from the Dragons by Bilbo, who
finally gives it freely to Frodo. "Sauron has been searching
for the Ring for years," Gandalf tells Frodo, "and now
he has sent his ally, the evil Witch-king, to the Shire to look
for it." Frodo and Sam consult with their loyal friends Merry
and Pipsqueak, and when the evil Witch-king appears with his nine
servants the clever hobbits trick them into going into a mushroom-patch,
disorienting the witches just long enough to escape the Shire.
But the tone of the book rapidly becomes more serious as the Witch-king
and his evil servants pursue the hobbits through the forest. Frodo
discovers that the witches have destroyed the village of Bree,
and the Witch-king uses a magic spell to burn down the home of
their old friend Tom Bombadil. Frodo, horrified, wants to go back
and fight the evil witches, but at a hill called Weathertop he
meets a noble man named Aragorn who convinces him to go to the
city of Rivendell. "In Rivendell you will be safe from their
magic," Aragorn tells him, "for Elrond is a sensible
man, and does not believe in it." With that Aragorn leads
them rapidly to Rivendell, with the witches in hot pursuit. As
they ford the last river between them and Rivendell the Witch-king
casts a spell on the river-water, causing it to rise up and try
to drown them; only Frodo's quick thinking can save them, and
he uses the power of the Ring to make all the water evaporate
into fog. The fog is so thick that the Witch-king and his servants
become hopelessly lost, and our heroes make it to the safety of
Rivendell.
At Rivendell, Elrond holds a Council where the fate of the Ring
is discussed. The only way to keep Sauron from recovering the
Ring, they decide, is to throw it into the volcano of Mount Doom
where it will be destroyed. During the Council Gandalf arrives
late, saying that he had been held prisoner in the tower of Orthanc,
the Wizards' Tower. Curiously, he refuses to describe how he escaped.
"But it is more important than ever that we destroy the Ring,"
Gandalf says, "for now the other Wizards know of it, and
seek it as well." He tells of how the dark wizard Saruman,
once an ally of the forces of Good, has turned to evil and now
controls Orthanc with an iron hand, and how the other Wizards
are roaming the countryside seeking the Ring for themselves. They
all agree to set out to destroy the Ring at once.
Gandalf and Aragorn agree to go with the four Hobbits, as does
Glorfindel, a descendant of the ancient ruler Ar-Pharazon, and
Boromir, from the Royal House of Gondor; also joining them are
an Elf and a Dwarf who don't really do much in the story but are
there for comic relief. Together Gandalf and his nine companions
- the "Fellowship of the Ring", as they call themselves
- set out for the dark land of Mordor.
On the way, their path is repeatedly beset by evil forces. First
they are attacked by evil Orcs in the woods; next they are driven
into the dark forest of Lothlorien, where they are imprisoned
by the beautiful but evil Queen Beruthiel. They make their escape
when Beruthiel's good sister, Galadriel, frees them from their
prison-cell and floats them down the river in barrels. After that
they think it best to leave the woods and head to Moria, the secret
city under the mountains; here, however, they face a terrifying
setback when they are found by the evil wizard Radagast. Gandalf
sacrifices his life to destroy Radagast the Balrog, and the others
escape the mountains while the battle rages. At the end of the
book, however, the Fellowship is destroyed from within; Glorfindel,
lusting for power, tries to kill Frodo for the Ring. Aragorn stops
Glorfindel by shooting him through the throat with a black arrow;
Glorfindel dies, but not until he maliciously sets fire to the
grasslands. In the resulting smoke and confusion the Fellowship
of the Ring is hopelessly scattered.
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Vol. II - THE TWO TOWERS:
Well, everybody ends up running around Middle-earth in different
directions. Aragorn and that Dwarf and Elf whose names I can't
remember go to this place with lots of horses, but inexplicably
they have no racetrack. Boromir heads South to Gondor alone, bearing
a parchment he has taken from Glorfindel describing the Royal
House of Gondor; he speaks to no one as he leaves, consumed with
some new private worry. Merry and Pipsqueak get kidnapped by forty-foot-high
walking trees, but as the story goes on they convince the trees
that it's best to be kind to strangers; the lesson is well-learned,
and when Aragorn and the others arrive the trees welcome them
with open limbs. Just as this reunion is taking place Gandalf
reappears, having ultimately defeated the evil Radagast; he reveals
that there were actually two of him all along, and the other one
is still trapped at Orthanc, now under the control of the wizard
Saruman, Gandalf's half-brother. Everybody goes to Orthanc and
frees Gandalf's twin, but the first Gandalf dies fighting Saruman
at the top of Zirak-Ziogi, the great mountain of Japan. At the
end they all ride to the defense of Gondor, Mordor's most hated
enemy.
Meanwhile Frodo and Sam are captured by the evil Gollum, but they
are rescued by Faramir, Boromir's cousin, who has escaped the
people of Gondor. Faramir reveals that he had to leave Gondor
because Boromir and his brother Denethor have ordered that he
be killed; Faramir is the true heir to the kingdom, but Boromir
and Denethor wish to go on ruling Gondor themselves. Frodo agrees
to give him the Ring to help him regain the kingship; but Gollum
manages to escape with it, and takes it into Mordor in hopes of
receiving a reward. Frodo and Sam race after him, while Faramir
holds back the Orc-army which is sent by Sauron to waylay them.
Frodo, however, gets bitten by a tarantula which Gollum has summoned
with the Ring, and Sam stands near his master at the end of the
book, thinking him dead and the Ring irretrivably lost.
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Vol. III - THE RETURN OF THE KINGS:
Everyone except Frodo and Sam arrives at the kingdom of Gondor,
and though the people of Gondor are amazed and frightened at first
by the huge army of walking trees that accompany them, everyone
smiles and accepts them when Gandalf and Aragorn reveal themselves.
The brothers Denethor and Boromir, however, see that Aragorn brings
knowledge from the North which will give their kingship over to
Faramir, the true King, and so they secretly conspire against
him. And so later on, when the forces of Mordor arrive to attack
Gondor, they successfully plot to have Aragorn positioned so he
must face the Witch-King in single combat. The battle is too much
for Aragorn, and just as he is about to die he is saved by Eowyn,
a woman of Rohan who loves him, and Merry, who slays the Witch-king
in single combat by using ancient hobbit-magic and so reveals
himself to be the lost Thain of the Shire. Even as the forces
of Mordor retreat, they are swept into the Sea by great ships
brought by Faramir, the true Prince of Dol Amroth, from the hidden
city of Osgiliath further up the Great River.
Meanwhile Sam chases the tarantula back to the lair of Ungoliant,
the Queen of Spiders, and after a tense argument about the nature
of good and evil she finally reveals to Sam the cure for the spider's-venom
which holds Frodo in thrall. Sam thanks Ungoliant for her mercy
and wisdom and revives Frodo, and they set off into Mordor to
find Gollum. "Oft help will come from the weak when the Wise
are foolish," Gandalf once said, and sure enough all the
spiders of Mordor are willing to help Frodo and Sam in their quest.
Their course leads them to Mount Doom, where just as they arrive
they find Gollum claiming the Ring for himself. The Dark Lord
Sauron then becomes aware of them, and leaves the Dark Tower to
come forth and destroy them; but just them Frodo and Sam rush
Gollum and force him backwards into the Cracks of Doom. The Ring
is destroyed, and without it Sauron is destroyed by the sunlight.
Frodo and Sam leave the Mountain just in time to see the great
armies of Aragorn and Faramir coming across the plains of Mordor
to greet them.
Boromir and Denethor are driven away from Gondor forever, but
mercifully spared by King Faramir, and Aragorn is revealed to
be the long-lost King of Arnor, the North-Kingdom of old. "Yet
you may still rule the Shire," he says to Merry the Thain,
"for with Mordor fallen, there may be kingships enough for
all." The heroism of Frodo and Sam is sung in Gondor and
Arnor for long ages, and even Pipsqueak finds honor in his new
role as Faramir's bootblack. "There's room for advancement
in this job," he tells the other hobbits knowingly, his eyes
on Faramir's crown. Faramir smiles at Pipsqueak's jest and tells
him he will always be welcome wherever he goes. (Indeed, the Appendices
note that Pipsqueak's journeys take him far and wide in later
years, and he becomes the best-known hobbit of them all.)
The other hobbits eventually return to the Shire, only to find
it corrupted and in chaos because of an onslaught of evil Men;
they eventually find the evil brothers, Denethor and Boromir,
trying to set themselves up as dictators of the Shire. Frodo and
Merry fight the evil brothers hand-to-hand and slay them at the
very door of Bag-end. Merry takes up the Thainship, and at the
end they all go West to the shores of the Sea, there to bid Gandalf
farewell as he sails back across the Sea and into Heaven, for
he was an Elven-king all along who was trying to improve the relations
between Elves and Men long-sundered, and now he had found his
reward.
The Lord of the Rings Collection.
The lord of the Rings collection
comprises of 27 pieces featuring Characters such as Gandalf, Bilbo,
Gollum, Galadriel, Frodo, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Boromir, Treebeard,
Saruman, Merry, Theoden, Sam, Elrond, Wormtongue, The Balrog,
Eowin, Arwen, Faramir, Shelob, Black Rider and an Orc.
To view the Lord of the Rings collection please use the link below
Lord
of The Rings
Lord of the Rings
Chess set
The collection also includes
a complete Chess Set where the forces of good combat the dark
side of Middle Earth.
To view the Lord of the Rings Chess Set please use the link below
Lord
of the Rings Chess Set
