When The Lord of the Rings Draws To A Close
I want to discuss the ending of The Lord of the Rings for a moment, and not the one in the movies. For those of you unaware, in the books, when the four Hobbits return home, their home is in ruins. The evil wizard, Saruman, has come and essentially enslaved their people, ruining their beautiful green fields, and instilling fear in everyone. The land is torn apart, it is dark and desolate, the huge beautiful party tree that stood a year before and became the center of the biggest birthday party the whole Shire had attended was cut down without a thought. The four returning Hobbits had to lead a rebellion against the wizard and ultimately kill him before they could even entertain the thought of restoring their land, and even once they had, it took them a long time. Things weren't magically fixed. I'm recounting this, because as I see it, the end of the Return of the King held a very real, raw truth, and that truth was removed from the movies. The ending of the books hit home fo