The Lord of the Rings the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, not only the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise "Sam" Gamgee, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took, but also the hobbits' chief allies and travelling companions: the Men, Aragorn, a Ranger of the North, and Boromir, a Captain of Gondor; Gimli, a Dwarf warrior; Legolas Greenleaf, an Elven
The History of The Lord of the Rings Númenor), a draft of the Drowning of Anadûnê, and the only extant account of Tolkien's fictional language Adûnaic. Some paperback editions of the fourth volume, retitled "The End of the Third Age", include only the materials for "The Lord of the Rings". The original idea was to release "The History of The Lord of the Rings" in three volumes, not four. When "The Treason of Isengard" was first published in paperback Volume 8 was to be called "Sauron Defeated" and was to be the last volume. The titles of the volumes derive from discarded titles for the separate books of