Howard Shore's composition does not utilize motifs from other scores he had written previously, or from passages of existing film or stage music, with the exception of one intentional nod to Richard Wagner's ring cycle over the end-credits of the third film. Shore wrote a long series of interrelated leitmotifs that were used, developed, combined or fragmented throughout the three scores. The motifs are attached to places, cultures, characters, objects and occurrences, and are divided into sets and subsets of related themes.