In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, storytelling is presented in many different ways. Stories are told by various characters, each sharing their own limited perspective, as well as by a narrator who knows all details. Tolkien combines these stories in a style similar to a medieval tale with many connected parts. The book includes a lot of dialogue, poems, and other stories within the main plot. Additional elements, such as family trees and notes, are also included. These features create the impression that Tolkien is acting as an editor and translator, adding a frame that includes a version of himself within the story.
Context
J. R. R. Tolkien was an expert in English literature and a specialist in languages and poetry from the Middle Ages, especially those of Anglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe. His deep understanding of Beowulf, a story about a non-Christian world told by a Christian storyteller, helped him create his fictional world, Middle-earth. His goal to build "a mythology for England" led him to design a complete world, Middle-earth, with its own languages, people, cultures, and history. He is most famous for writing the imaginative stories The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both set in Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings, once described by Lykke Guanio-Uluru as "dismissed by the literary establishment on generic terms" as unimportant fantasy, is now recognized through literary analysis as "as complex as a critic's analytical tools allow for."
Points of view
About half of The Lord of the Rings includes dialogue, poetry, songs, and stories told by characters. Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann compare this to the long poems of ancient writers like Homer and Virgil, which also have a similar amount of dialogue. They contrast this with modern novels, where dialogue usually makes up about a quarter of the text. The other half of Tolkien’s book is narrative, which often shows the story from the perspective of a character. Most of the time—85%—this perspective comes from one of the four main Hobbit characters: Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Each of these characters has their own limited knowledge and understanding of the world, shaped by their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. However, the story also includes parts told by an all-knowing narrator, which provides a broader view. Kullmann and Siepmann note that the emotional depth of the story becomes clear early on, when Frodo’s perspective is first shown in the first chapter. They say this emotional focus continues throughout the novel. They compare this to English novels from the late 18th century, such as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which also focus on characters’ personal experiences. Additionally, the Hobbits act as a bridge between the everyday modern world and the magical fantasy world of the story, making The Lord of the Rings easier for readers to understand.
Descriptions of landscapes are often told from the Hobbits’ perspective. Sometimes, natural features are described as if they have feelings, showing what a character is thinking or feeling. For example, a road might be described as “climbing to the top of a steep bank in a weary zig-zagging sort of way.” A paragraph can also switch between an all-knowing narrator and a character’s perspective. For instance, when Aragorn appears after a long night, the story might first describe him objectively and then focus on how Merry sees him: “Merry had eyes only for Aragorn, so startling was the change that he saw in him, as if in one night many years had fallen on his head.”
Tolkien does not only use character perspectives to describe people. He can also use Frodo’s limited view to explore big ideas, like whether people have free will or are controlled by forces beyond their control. When Frodo stands on Amon Hen, he sees signs of war and realizes he is being watched by two powerful forces: “The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly balanced between their piercing points, he writhed, tormented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger.”
While the parts of the story told from the Hobbits’ perspective resemble 19th-century novels, the rare sections with an all-knowing narrator use different styles. A section about Hobbits imitates the way ancient scholars wrote about people and cultures, similar to writings by 18th-century figures like William Stukeley or Thomas Percy. Descriptions of places like Bree resemble travel guides: “Bree was the chief village of the Bree-land, a small inhabited region, like an island in the empty lands round about.” These descriptions are similar to those in ancient Greek literature, such as the romance Aethiopica by Heliodorus. These parts of the book do not move the story forward, but they help make the world of Middle-earth feel real and objective, not just imagined.
Other sections with an all-knowing narrator use an ancient, poetic style to describe characters like Aragorn as heroic figures: “The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths, and on its blade was traced a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun.” Kullmann and Siepmann note that this style and the theme of sword-making highlight Aragorn’s heroism. These passages appear during key moments, such as the Battle of Helm’s Deep, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the destruction of the One Ring in the Cracks of Doom. Tolkien also uses this style when describing the Riders of Rohan. The epic style uses old-fashioned language, simple sentence structures linked with “and,” vivid imagery, and poetic descriptions.
Kullmann and Siepmann explain that The Lord of the Rings and fantasy stories in general do not follow the usual rules about how stories use perspectives. In realist novels, the rule “show, don’t tell” suggests that describing something is less vivid than showing it through action. However, Tolkien uses an ancient, all-knowing narrator to create vivid scenes, such as when describing the Riders of Rohan: “The host rode on. Need drove them. Fearing to come too late, they rode with all the speed they could, pausing seldom.” When Tolkien uses a character’s perspective, it is to show their inner feelings, not to describe action. The outer story is set in the fantasy world, while the inner story—about spiritual and emotional growth—feels more like the real world. Literary theory usually says that an all-knowing narrator represents the author’s voice, while a character’s perspective gives a sense of the fictional world. However, Tolkien can make the all-knowing narrator feel very real, as in the Riders of Rohan passage. Characters like Tom Bombadil, Elrond, and Gandalf, who are not the main focus, can also deliver important messages, such as when Gandalf says, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?”
Weaving a complex story
George Thomson explains that the story of The Lord of the Rings could have been told as a simple tale about Frodo’s journey to complete his mission. However, J.R.R. Tolkien created something more complex, which Thomson calls "a tapestry romance in the Medieval-Renaissance tradition." Northrop Frye said that a romance has six stages. In the novel, Frodo’s story begins with his unusual birth, as his parents drown. As a child, he lives peacefully in the Shire. Later, he embarks on a dangerous quest to destroy the Ring. The fourth stage includes Éowyn killing the Nazgûl and his monstrous horse near the fortress of Minas Tirith, which echoes a traditional fairy tale about a castle under siege and a monster defeated by a woman. After their victory, the heroes return, Aragorn marries Arwen, and Sam marries Rosie Cotton. The Third Age ends, Sam becomes Mayor of the Shire, and he and Rosie have many children. Frodo writes about his experiences. Thomson notes that Tolkien wove many stories together, similar to the way Edmund Spenser did in his 1590 poem The Faerie Queene. In romances, main characters often represent ideas rather than real people, so Tolkien used pairs of characters to show contrasts, such as Gandalf with Sauron and Saruman, Aragorn with Denethor, and Frodo with Gollum. The clear good-and-evil structure is softened by the Hobbits, who help connect the medieval-style story to modern readers. Thomson concludes that Tolkien created a powerful fantasy story by combining elements from old northern myths, fairy tales, and epics.
The novel contains about 45 to 50 stories, told by 23 characters. These stories vary in length, from short ones with only ten lines to long ones that take up many pages. Tom Bombadil tells the Hobbits about "many remarkable stories" involving bees, flowers, trees, and creatures, but these tales are not written down. In the chapter "The Council of Elrond," many characters share stories, though some have already been described earlier. Other stories include accounts of recent events, events before Frodo left the Shire, and mythological tales about the Ring’s history, such as the story of Lúthien told by Aragorn and the tale of Nimrodel told by Legolas. Stories about the Ents, Númenor, and Sauron are also considered mythological because they describe ancient events.
Tolkien’s characters not only tell stories but also discuss storytelling itself. For example, Frodo and Sam, resting on the pass of Cirith Ungol before entering Mordor, joke about whether their story will be read in the future. Kullmann and Siepmann note that this moment shows how literature can bring comfort. Mary Bowman explains that Tolkien used metanarrative techniques, such as characters discussing their own story. For instance, Sam realizes that the Phial of Galadriel contains light from the Silmarils, linking his journey to a larger story. Bowman points out that this technique fits Tolkien’s lifelong work with stories, including teaching, writing, and editing narratives.
Framing
After The Hobbit became popular in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien faced a challenge: readers wanted another story about hobbits. However, The Hobbit ended with a clear conclusion: the main character, Bilbo Baggins, lived a long, happy life. This made it hard to write a sequel. To solve this, Tolkien created a frame story for The Lord of the Rings. He imagined that both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were ancient tales written by Bilbo and preserved over time. These stories were found in a fictional book called The Red Book of Westmarch. This idea placed The Hobbit and its ending inside a story within a story, as one writer explained. Bilbo, acting as the author, became focused on ending his tale, even while others, like the Council of Elrond, had more urgent matters to discuss. He mentioned that he was working on a "happily ever after" ending, but this plan was later disrupted by the events of The Lord of the Rings. A writer named Bowman noted that Bilbo’s desire for a clear ending contrasts with Samwise Gamgee’s joy in being part of a larger, ancient story. This connection is shown through the Phial of Galadriel, which contained light from the Silmarils, a key element in the tale of Eärendil. Bowman also pointed out that Tolkien’s 1938 essay On Fairy-Stories directly states that "there is no true end to any fairy-tale."
In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien went beyond a simple frame story. He claimed that the book was a translated version of an ancient manuscript written in the language of Westron, not his own creation. This made him appear as an editor rather than an author. He added detailed editorial materials, such as appendices, which included a fictional figure similar to himself. This figure described translating a manuscript that had survived thousands of years. Tolkien called the book a "heroic romance," giving it a medieval feel and setting it in a distant past. To make the world of Middle-earth believable, he created detailed maps, histories, languages, and cultures, which were later published in The Silmarillion. These additions, along with editorial commentary, helped readers understand the world as real.
Tolkien told a meta-story by presenting The Lord of the Rings as a translated text, not his own work. He used a wide range of editorial materials to support this idea, showing that he was acting as an editor, not the original author.