The back story begins thousands of years before the action in the book, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent reincarnated deity who possessed great supernatural powers and who later became the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor. At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survived the catastrophic defeat and chaining of his lord, the ultimate Dark Lord, Morgoth (who was formerly counted as one of the Valar, the angelic Powers of the world). During the Second Age, Sauron schemed to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In the disguise as "Annatar" or Lord of Gifts, he aided Celebrimbor and other Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of magical Rings of Power which conferred various powers and effects on their wearers. The most important of these were the Nine, the Seven and the Three (which he did not touch or know of the three.) called the Rings of Power or Great Rings.
Lord Of The Rings Book Summaryl
However, he then secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring, by which he planned to enslave the wearers of the other Rings of Power. This plan failed when the Elves became aware of him and took off their Rings. Sauron then launched a war during which he captured sixteen and distributed them to lords and kings of Dwarves and Men; these Rings were known as the Seven and Nine respectively. The Dwarf-lords proved too tough to be enslaved, although their natural desire for wealth, especially gold, increased; this brought more conflict between them and other races, and fed a dangerous greed. The Men who received the Nine rings were slowly corrupted over time and eventually became the Nazgûl, Sauron's most feared servants. The Three Rings Sauron failed to capture, and remained in the possession of the Elves (who forged these independently). The war ended as Men of the island-kingdom of Númenor helped the besieged Elves, and Sauron's forces were practically destroyed. At this time he still held most of Middle-earth, excluding the coasts, Imladris (Rivendell) and the Gulf of Lune.
The Tolkien machine keeps on trucking with this new volume of Second Age tales, due out in November. Is it any coincidence that this book should hit shelves right as Amazon brings this era of Middle-earth to the small screen? Surely it's not, but there's no such thing as too much Tolkien. The author famously described the Second Age as "a dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told," but clearly, there was more story than first met the eye. Stitched into one comprehensive volume by editor Brian Sibley, along with new illustrations by frequent Tolkien flyer Alan Lee, this book will be an invaluable resource for fans eager to dig deep on Rings of Power.
The book begins with Aragorn, who finds a dying Boromir. Boromir tells him that they were attacked by Orcs, who took Merry and Pippin with them. Boromir says he is sorry for everything and dies. Legolas and Gimli arrive. As a funeral, the three put Boromir's body in one of their boats, which they let fall down the waterfall Rauros. They find out that Frodo and Sam left them to go to Mordor, and that the Orcs that attacked them were Saruman's Orcs, who have taken Merry and Pippin. They decide to follow the Orcs westwards to save Merry and Pippin. West of the Emyn Muil they come into the land Rohan, home of the Rohirrim, the Horse-lords. They meet a group of Rohirrim led by Éomer, nephew of King Théoden of Rohan. Éomer and his men have killed the Orc group on the border of the forest Fangorn, but did not see Merry or Pippin. Éomer gives them two horses, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride to the Fangorn forest.
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