The Return of the King

Hear you now...

...a story of good against evil.

An epoch that has its beginning

at an ending...

...and ends at a beginning.

Listen, as we speak of the fall

of a lord of darkness...

...and the return of a king of light.

Concern yourselves

with armies and wizards...

...phantoms and emperors...

...cloud-capped towers

and bloodied fields of horrendous carnage.

Consider no less...

...than the cataclysmic transformation...

...of that ancient world

of wonder and magic...

...to the world we know now, of Man.

What mighty lord, you may ask,

is hero enough...

...to evoke such cosmic metamorphosis?

Why, no lord at all,

but the littlest of fellows...

...Frodo the Hobbit...

...and his faithful squire, Samwise.

Who, beginning at the ending,

now approach Rivendell...

...the Elvish home of Elrond...

...there to help celebrate

the 129th birthday...

...of Frodo's aged kin...

...Bilbo Baggins,

renowned tormentor of dragons.

Bless my soul!

You're a match for Smaug himself.

All of us, Frodo and Samwise...

...their Hobbit companions,

Merry and Pippin...

...Elrond the Elf-Lord, and I, Gandalf...

...wished Bilbo only the best.

But as we celebrated

far into the Elvish night...

...we found it difficult

to keep our aging guest of honor awake.

Nay, Pippin. Not till Bilbo has cut it.

Blast. What a time to fall asleep.

Who's asleep?

Just resting my eyes...

...and remembering.

There And Back Again...

...and what happened after.

Remembering, sir?

So many things.

Old Smaug...

...dear Thorin...

...that terrible Gollum chap...

...the Ring of Invisibility.

What's become of my ring?

That ring I gave you and you took away.

Yes.

I've lost it, Bilbo dear.

I got rid of it, you know.

Pity. I should have liked to see it again.

But...

...now, how silly of me.

That's what you went for, wasn't it?

To get rid of it.

But why destroy a thing

of such wondrous magic?

It was an evil thing, sir.

Nay!

Without its powers...

...I could never have faced

the worm, Smaug.

You unwittingly used its

evil forces for good, dear Uncle.

Your innocence protected you.

But had you continued to wear it...

...instead of keeping it

above your mantle as a trophy...

...its ever-growing malignancy

would have consumed you...

...as it almost consumed Samwise and me

and the whole of Middle-earth.

But this is all so confusing.

So confusing.

- Will he never cut the cake?

- Patience, Merry.

Me for a good smoke, while we wait.

- What say, master?

- Good notion, Sam.

Bless my soul!

You are missing a finger!

You not only lost my ring...

...you lost the finger on which it rode?

Frodo, you must explain.

We have brought with us someone...

...who has written a ballad

about the adventures of Frodo:

The Minstrel of Gondor.

"Frodo of the nine fingers

"And the Ring of Doom"

It has its beginnings two ages past...

...when Bilbo set forth to reclaim

the Dwarves' gold...

...from the dragon, Smaug.

While on his quest,

Bilbo stumbled into a deep, dank cave.

This part I remember.

"When Bilbo found that shiny ring

"In Gollum's cave of gloom

"He never thought

"That it would turn into a ring of doom

"The dragon Smaug

The spiders too

"The Goblins, the Elven-king

"They came to know the power

"Of the Hobbit and his ring

"Frodo of the nine fingers

"And the Ring of Doom

"It started with a Hobbit

"In Gollum's cave of gloom

"The power of the Ring, it grew

"And Gandalf sat in thought

"He knew that it must be destroyed

"In fires where it was wrought

"For if in evil hands it fell

"The Earth would know its end

"No force of arms would win the day

"No army could contend"

For evil flourished everywhere...

...and lay on the land

like a festering malignancy.

There was one hope, though:

In a distant land, the noble Aragorn...

...heir to the empty throne of Gondor...

...awaited with a small band

to return and become king.

But he could not triumph

until the Ring was destroyed.

So went the prophecy.

"Frodo of the nine fingers

"And the Ring of Doom

"Accepted a heavy burden

"For the fires to consume"

Frodo and his gallant

companion, Samwise...

...had many brave adventures...

...until finally they reached

the rocky border of Mordor...

...domain of the Black Lord, Sauron.

There, Frodo was captured and imprisoned

in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

Samwise vowed to enter

the Orc-infested tower alone...

...to save him.

The Ring of Doom was missing...

...from 'round Frodo's neck!

"Frodo of the nine fingers

"And the Ring of Doom

"Why does he have nine fingers?

"Where is the Ring of Doom?"

One tiny Hobbit against all the evil

the world could muster.

A sane being would have given up.

But Samwise burned

with a magnificent madness...

...a glowing obsession

to surmount every obstacle...

...to find Frodo, destroy the Ring,

and cleanse Middle-earth...

...of its festering malignancy.

He knew he would try again,

fail perhaps and try once more...

...a thousand, thousand times, if need be.

But he would not give up the quest.

You cannot die, Master Frodo!

I'll get to you somehow!

You. I can feel you

throbbing with excitement!

You know the gates to the land

of Mordor and your dark lord, Sauron.

Now I must bear your loathsome weight.

But I do it for he who lies

in that accursed tower...

...Cirith Ungol:

My sweet master, Frodo.

And, 'tis Sting...

...Master Frodo's sword.

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