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Aragorn, Arathorns son, heir of Isildur and Anarion, Dunadan of the North and ranger, bearer of the broken blade and King Elessar of Gondor and Arnor. This was Aragorns full name after the War of the Ring but in former days he was only called 'Strider'. He lived the life of a ranger in the wilderness and had no home and no friends save his natives, the other Dunedain who dwelt in the wilderness. He travelled long in the wilderness and fell in love with Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, Eveningstar of her folk. But he could not marry her for he had no title and no land. So he had to wait until the Dark Lord was defeated and he was king. Then Elrond was satisfied and let his daughter marry him. They lived a long life together after the war.
Frodo, Sam and the hobbits are very important in the War of the Ring. Frodo was the Ringbearer and so he had the most important duty in the whole company of the Ring. He was chosen to bear the Ring until it was destroyed. He got the Ring from Bilbo, who was the former bearer (and knew nothing of its real identity!) and he found it in a cave where Gollum had possessed it long. Sam, who was also a Ringbearer a short time, was also very important, because without his aid, Frodo had never managed the way to Mount Doom.
Merry and Pippin, despite no Ringbearers, had their own important roles to play. Merry in the destruction of the Lord of the Nazgûl and Pippin in Minas Tirith and the two hobbits were very important in the fall of Saruman, for nobody else had roused the Ents!
Legolas and Gimli took a major part in the company for they represented the other free folks of Middle-Earth - elves and dwarfs. They first had the same problems with each other, every elf has with a dwarf but they later became the best friends and years after the War of the Ring Gimli journeyed with Legolas in the west and he was the only dwarf who ever saw the shores of Valinor.
Gandalf was one of the strangest members of the company. He was much more powerful than mentioned in the book. He was sent by the Gods from Valinor to help the peoples of Middle-Earth in their war against Sauron (who was in fact also a Half-god of Valinor!). With Gandalf came also Saruman the white and three lesser wizards who were not mentioned in the Lord of the Rings (and had no part in the war). After his battle with the Balrog (who was also another Half-god of Valinor...), Gandalf was roused again as Gandalf the white - he was, like Saruman should have been. So Gandalf was the mightiest weapon against the Dark Lord and the only living being to withstand Sauron. After the War of the Ring he went back to Valinor for his task was done.
Boromir was a grate warrior among the folks of men, but his greed for the Ring was his downfall. He saw the war as a strategist and so he saw in the Ring the most powerful weapon against Sauron. So he wanted it to unite all the armies of free people under his banner and destroy Sauron and his army in the open battlefield. His illusions were destroyed by his death at the borders of Gondor. But Boromir was not really evil - he had only another point of view!
The Nazgûl, who were also known as Black Riders or Ringwraiths, were the most powerful and most terrible beings under Saurons command. Only the name of the second of them was known - it was Khamûl, the shadow of the east. The name of their Lord was unknown but he was also known as Witchking of Angmar, because before his fall he had ruled the Kingdom of Angmar.
The Nazgûl fell under the shadow of Sauron after the completion of the Masterring. The first thing Sauron did was taking command over the weak (in his opinion) minds of the men. For the ghosts of the dwarf were stronger he was not able to enslave them so the four Dwarvenrings he got there was no great use. The three other Rings of the Dwarfs were consumed by the fire of the dragons so Sauron never got them.
After the destruction of the Masterring the ghosts of the Nazgûl were free and they vanished from the realms of Middle-Earth.
Sauron, the most evil of all living beings of whole Middle-Earth, was the great Overlord of the forces of evil. He himself was but a servant of a much mightier being in the former ages of men. He was the first servant of Morgoth, the Black, the Dark God who had chosen Middle-Earth as his home ages ago. But when Morgoth was withdrawn from the other Gods Sauron began to make his own empire. So he worked very hard on his lands but in the end he fell down by the great deeds of the little hobbits.
The Ring himself was also a very important character (yes, I really mean "Character"!) The Ring was forged an age ago by Sauron after he had ingratiated himself to the elves. He taught Celebrimbor how to forge Rings of Power and so Celebrimbor made the nine Rings for mortal men. This nine were only tests and they had less power than the others. Then he forged the seven Rings of the dwarfs and they were more powerful but in the end, when he had mastered his skill, he forged the three Rings for the elves - Narya, the Ring of Fire, Nenya, the white Ring and Vilya, the Ring of Air. They were given to the most powerful people in the whole realm of Middle-Earth, so Gandalf wore Narya in the later time, Elrond wore Vilya and Galadriel Nenya. And in the same time when the Rings where forged, Sauron made his own Ring in the fires of the Orodruin, who was later called Mount Doom, and in the moment when he declared his rulership over all the rings, Celebrimbor became aware of him and hid the three Rings. Sauron killed him for this but he learned not where the Rings were hidden. So he later got the other Rings, that of the mortals and four of the Dwarvenrings, but he never touched the three. The great problem was now, that all the Rings were bound to the one Ring, for he was the most powerful. So if the Masterring should be destroyed, all the power of the other Rings should vanish and they should lose their power. But if Sauron ever would get his Ring back, the others would have been lain free to his look and he would have destroyed them. So it was a serious decision of the council for, what ever they decided it, would have been bad for them. So they chose the bitter way and decided to destroy the ring at all, so he never could create any evil.
The Ring himself had some kind of evil life inside himself. Everyone who found him, thought of a lucky chance but it was all planed by the Ring. For he could not grow old he counted in centuries and so noone became suspicious. First he left Isildur in the greatest need and he was killed. Then Sméagol found him by chance and took him under the mountains. There he lived as Gollum a long time, perhaps a century or more, when by chance Bilbo came and found it. He took it to the Shire and there he gave it to Frodo and nobody knew of the real identity of the Ring. No one knew the danger of the Ring for it was a very useful item. It was very helpful to become invisible at will and, although no one ever noticed it, the Ring also lengthened the life of its bearer. It could have been undiscovered for much a longer time, for he knew: its master everytime searched for it and one day he would find it. So the last attempt to escape its destruction was Gollum who suddenly appeared at the Crack of Doom. But also Gollum had no chance to avoid the destruction. He fell in the Crack and the Ring with him. So the Ring was destroyed and also every evil power it had ever got over his bearers.
Saruman was one of the wisest of all the wizards. He was the well-versed person in Ring-lore who ever dwelt in Middle-Earth and first his deeds where surely noble. But his mind changed with the times and in the end he was only a small servant of the Dark Lord, who thought he could get the Ring for himself. So his fall was pre-programmed and in the end it was very deep!
The Eagles are mentioned seldom in the book but they are not only animals, but they are some kind of good foreshadowing. The Eagles are some ancient folk who had ever aided the forces of good in their battle against evil and so they did their part in the War of the Ring. They are also mentioned in the ancient ages, when the living beings battled against the almighty God Morgoth. They are some kind of dragons for the good. The greatest among them in the first age of men was Thorondor with the gigantig wingspan of 50 metres! The Eagles have shrunken until then, but they had kept their good foreshadowing.
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