History TheLordOfTheRings / TropesDToF

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The heroes' only hope hinges on the fact that Sauron can't even conceive of someone even ''wanting'' to destroy the Ring and give up that kind of power, let alone actually setting out to try. He just could not conceive that the creature holding the Ring would not chose to be a world conqueror (See EvilIsPetty). He easily fell for Aragorn's bluff of using the Ring against him, but it never occurred to him that the real intention was to take it to Mount Doom and melt it.

* TheFlameOfLife: Gandalf identifies himself as "servent of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anar" and reveals at the end he has been entrusted with one of the Three, Narya (sometimes called the Ring of Fire). His task on Middle-earth is to encourage, inspire, and fill men with the right sort of fire to confront evil, and after his fall on Durin's Bridge the text describes it as his light going out.

* TheFlameOfLife: Gandalf identifies himself as "a keeper of the Sacred Flame of Udun" and reveals at the end he has been entrusted with the Ring of Flame. Background information in the Appendices explains that his task is to encourage, inspire, and fill men with the right sort of fire to confront evil.

%%* DarkerAndEdgier: When seen as a sequel to ''Literature/TheHobbit''.

* TheFairFolk: Not exactly -- the Elves are all on the side of good -- but the Rohirrim ''think'' the Lórien elves are these. For that matter, Galadriel herself isn't 100% sure she's not one. Men and Hobbits have an irritating (by Elvish standards) tendency to group elven works and Sauron's dark arts under the umbrella term of "magic". And the Wood Elves, as seen in The Hobbit, are also much closer to this than the High Elves.

** Sam's cousin spots a giant walking tree in the Shire, but his tale is considered unbelievable.

** When Frodo questions Bilbo's mercy with Gollum, Gandalf differs and anticipates Gollum still having a role to play in the quest, somehow. Gollum ultimately proves him very right.

--> '''Frodo:''' For I have become very fond of Strider. Well, fond is not the right word. I mean he is dear to me; [[GoodIsNotNice though he is strange, and grim at times]]. [[YouAreACreditToYourRace In fact, he reminds me often of you. I didn't know that any of the Big People were like that]]. [[InnocentBigot I thought, well, that they were just big, and rather stupid:]] [[DumbIsGood kind and stupid like Butterbur]]; or [[StupidEvil stupid and wicked like Bill Ferny]]. [[CaptainObvious But then we don't know much about Men in the Shire, except perhaps the Breelanders.]]\\

"I feel sick," said Sam. Frodo said nothing.''

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The four main hobbits -- Pippin (choleric), Sam (melancholic), Frodo (leukine), and Merry (sanguine).

* DramaPreservingHandicap: The Istari (Gandalf and co.) were explicitly told not to match themselves 'power for power' against Sauron. Their job was to inspire and enable the Free Peoples and thus they had to limit a lot of their own natural power.

** Frodo is unable to cast the Ring into the fireplace at Bag End when Gandalf is looking for its runes.

* DoomedPredecessor: Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas find the corpse of a Lord of Gondor who previously attempted to brave the Paths of the Dead, who died horribly trying to find the way out again. Aragorn identifies him as somebody who was trying to win an ill-advised wager.

* DramaPreservingHandicap:
** The Istari (Gandalf and co.) were explicitly told not to match themselves 'power for power' against Sauron. Their job was to inspire and enable the Free Peoples and thus they had to limit a lot of their own natural power.
** Sauron left the door to Mount Doom unlocked. No matter how else fate/chance conspired against him, if there had been some sort of physical obstacle at the entrance to the Sammath Naur, the Ring could not have been destroyed. Partly justified by the fact, as Gandalf points out at one point, that Sauron is almost incapable of even thinking of the very ''concept'' of anyone destroying the Ring, rather than trying to use its power for themselves. Further justified in that it is in the heart of his domain, surrounded by armies, he would have sensed any being of power approaching (the hobbits being beneath notice on a cosmic scale) and that they had recently been damaged by an earthquake.

* FantasticAesop: The Ring has been accused of working this way. Why is Frodo the perfect choice for delivering the Ring to Mount Doom when there are so many stronger, smarter, worldlier, more powerful, and more versatile characters available? Because the Ring has a very strong ability to tempt its bearer, and [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman Frodo is the only one pure enough to resist its lure.]] While he's not quite in IncorruptiblePurePureness territory, and even [[spoiler:deconstructs the trope near the end when he finally does succumb to the Ring's influence]], the "purity is the best trait" Aesop is a heavy-handed one.

** Saruman's Uruk-hai and Sauron's specially bred sun-proof Trolls, the Olog-Hai.
** The Southron chieftain with the black serpent banner.

* EndOfAnAge: Set at the end of the Third Age.

* EvilSorcerer: Saruman, and Sauron, which, combined with the above, add up to SorcerousOverlord. Even more so in the backstory, when Sauron was playing TheDragon to Morgoth as the sorcerer lord of the Isle of Werewolves. The Lord of the Nazgûl (AKA the Witch-King of Angmar) was also this after (and possibly before) he became a Ringwraith.

* ExploringTheEvilLair: Sam and Frodo in Shelob's lair, and in Mordor in general.

* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Both Frodo and Faramir. The latter even has the recurring dream of Atlantis' (Númenor's) fall that JRRT had in real life.

* DrivenToSuicide: Denethor, by despair and [[spoiler:the lies Sauron worked into his head via the Minas Tirith Palantí­r.]]

* EasingIntoTheAdventure: The beginnings in the Shire.

** The tentacled thing that trapped them in Moria, the Watcher in the Water, is another unexplained abomination - unless it is, perhaps, linked with the ones mentioned above.

* EldritchLocation: Morgul Vale. And if we're talking just 'eldritch' and not 'spooky, filled with death and decay' as well, then Lothlórien and Rivendell would qualify due to the use of the Elven Rings to alter the perception and flow of time. Keeping track of time there becomes a complete MindScrew for anyone who isn't an Elf. Tom Bombadill's wood also qualifies, as it's impossible to navigate safely without his help, and has old and evil living tree spirits similar to the ones in Fangorn.

* DadTheVeteran: Gimli's father Glóin would qualify, being a veteran of both the Battle of Azanulbizar and the Battle of the Five Armies.

* DarkIsEvil[=/=]DarkIsNotEvil: Different nations and peoples on both ends of the good-evil-spectrum have used black as their colour, or have black hair. It seems that Sauron likes this trope, as Éomer mentions in ''The Two Towers'' that agents of Sauron routinely steal black horses, to the point where there are practically none left in Rohan.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the more conventional heroic fantasy in which TheHero gains power to overthrow [[BigBad evil]] and [[HappilyEverAfter achieve happiness]]. In Tolkien's story, [[BigGood anyone]] [[WomanInWhite strong]] [[SupportingLeader enough]] to use the One Ring to defeat Sauron would themselves become, in the process, [[TheDarkSide as evil as Sauron]] (or worse[[note]]In one of his letters, Tolkien stated that Gandalf claiming the ring would lead to a worse situation than Sauron recovering it, because at least Sauron was openly evil, whereas Gandalf with the Ring would do evil in the name of good, thereby corrupting even the idea of good[[/note]]). The main protagonist is a ClassicalAntiHero who is TheOnlyOne for the job for this very reason, and his mission is to ''throw away'' the only weapon powerful enough to defeat their Enemy (several characters [[LampshadeHanging comment on]] the seeming folly of this). Moreover, at the end of the story, [[spoiler: Frodo]], rather than finding happiness, [[spoiler: suffers from physical and spiritual wounds that will not heal]], and must eventually [[spoiler: leave Middle-Earth altogether]].\\

Although deconstruction wouldn't be around in name until a decade and a half after ''The Lord of the Rings'' was published (and then only in French), Tolkien's [[WordOfGod letters]] clearly show that he did intend his book to interrogate conventional ideas about heroism. [[spoiler: Frodo Baggins]]'s fate in particular was inspired by Tolkien's [[ShellShockedVeteran own experiences]] in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne First World War]].

* {{Denouement}}: "The Grey Havens."

* DespairSpeech: Denethor gives several, each more long-winded than the last.

Tolkien himself said in a letter than he realized they were a Deus Ex Machina, hence why he didn't like using them often because they make solving problems too easy. He also mentioned that ''the Eagles themselves'' are aware of being an easy Deus Ex Machina and would never stoop to being Middle-earth's taxi service.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Two moments, both called out and remarked on for their extreme heroism. Éowyn and Merry destroy the Lord of the Nazgûl: Sam mutilates Shelob, an ancient being that doesn't answer to Sauron.
* DidntSeeThatComing: The fact that his foes actually want to destroy the Ring never entered Sauron's mind until it was too late. See EvilCannotComprehendGood.

** In the appendices, it is mentioned that after the battle between dwarves and orcs at the gates of Moria there were too many dead dwarves for them to all be entombed as was the dwarven custom, so they burned them instead. A dwarf can say of his ancestor "he was a burned dwarf" and all dwarves present will know exactly what battle the ancestor died in.