The Lord of the Rings

He reckoned, however, without the wisdom and subtle perceptions of the Elves. The moment he assumed the One, they were aware of it, and of his secret purpose, and were afraid. They hid the Three Rings, so that not even Sauron ever discovered where they…

‘People wanted him back when the Normans landed,’ he says. ‘And again, in Maud and Stephen’s war. And in Cromwell’s war, and every war since. We did all right without him. Managed to keep things ticking over. We’ll manage this time as well.’ ‘Ah, but this time it’s the realm that’s suffering, not just the people,’ says Herne. ‘And I don’t care abou

The chief of the stories of The Silmarillion, and the one most fully treated is the Story of Beren and Lúthien the Elfmaiden. Here we meet, among other things, the first example of the motive (to become dominant in Hobbits) that the great policies of world history, ‘the wheels of the world’, are often turned not by the Lords and Governors, even god

Isildur claims the Ring as his own, as ‘the Weregild of his father’, and refuses to cast it into the Fire nearby. He marches away, but is drowned in the Great River, and the Ring is lost, passing out of all knowledge. But it is not unmade, and the Dark Tower built with its aid still stands, empty but not destroyed. So ends the Second Age with the c