Lord of the Rings on Film

Lesson 5: The Return of the King

What happened afterwards -- the LOTR appendices

The text of The Lord of the Rings has detailed appendices on the history and languages of Middle-earth, and gives details of what happened to the main characters after the War of the Ring.

Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond, Celeborn and Galadriel all sail west three years after the end of the war.

Sam becomes Mayor of the Shire and has thirteen children with Rosie. She dies after sixty-two years of marriage, and Sam probably sails west to be reunited with Frodo – as he bore the Ring for a short time in Mordor he is allowed to go.

Merry becomes Master of Buckland, head of the Brandybuck family, inherited from his father and lives happily in the Shire with his wife. He travels with Pippin in his later years, eventually settling in Gondor.

Pippin also marries and lives in the Shire, where he is appointed Thain, the military leader of the area. He traveled to Rohan and Gondor with Merry in his later years, and stayed in Gondor until his death.

Aragorn becomes king of Gondor and rules for 120 years, uniting the kingdom once more with Arnor in the south (it becomes known as the Reunited Kingdom). He decrees that areas like the Shire are self-governing and that no-one must enter without the hobbits’ permission. He has a son and daughters with Arwen.

Arwen bitterly repents her mortality when Aragorn dies, and leaves her children in Gondor to go to Lothlórien. It is empty as the elves have departed years before, and Arwen finally lays herself to rest.

Gimli founds a kingdom in the mountains near Rohan, the Glittering Caves, which are also declared as self-governing by Aragorn. He has great friendship with Gondor, and forges the new gates of Minas Tirith. He may have gone to the Grey Havens with Legolas, the only dwarf ever to do so.

Legolas remains in Middle-earth until the death of Aragorn, living with elves in Faramir’s kingdom Ithilien. He builds a ship and sails west 120 years after the end of the war, probably taking Gimli with him.

Faramir become Steward after Denethor, and was given the kingdom of Ithilien, lands east of Gondor, by Aragorn. He married Eowyn and lived to 120.

The Lord of the Rings deals with the Third Age, the age of elves, which passes with the destroying of the One Ring (this means that the three elf rings also lost their power). As LOTR is set seven thousand years ago, the world now is the Fourth Age, the age of men. Although there are rumours that a few elves remain here still…

Diolla le! I hope you enjoyed the lesson. Onto the next...

Bibliography

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Return of the King. Houghton and Mifflin (one volume edition), 2001.
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings -- Appendices
. ibid. Peter Jackson (dir.), The Return of the King. New Line Cinema, 2003.