WK7

 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy follows the famous template of stories known as the hero’s journey or monomyth on which a lot of stories are based on. The hero’s journey is basically a cycle, broken into twelve stages.

The journey begins and ends in the hero’s ordinary world, as Frodo is living in the peaceful Shire amongst a village of the Hobbits. Then, he is called to adventure by his friend Gandalf, who is also the archetype of the wise old man and the mentor. First, Frodo refuses the call, but is convinced by Gandalf that only he can save Middle Earth. He leaves the Shire. Along his journey, Frodo is aided by many allies: Sam, who is the ultimate support character, Aragorn, the knowledgeable ranger and ideal hero archetype, and the duo of sarcastic fighters, Legolas and Gimli. Their mission is to deliver the MacGuffin, the One Ring to rule them all, to Mount Doom and to destroy it by throwing it into the mountain’s belly. They also face many enemies, trials, and tribulations, the final of which is the climax of the story, or the abyss in the monomyth – Frodo, with the help of Sam, has to fight the villain archetype, Gollum, for the possession of the Ring so that he can destroy it, while also fighting back the urge to keep the Ring for himself. In the end, they succeed, and are rewarded for their bravery, and life turns back to normal.

In my opinion, the reason why these movies are so popular these days is because every one of us can identify themselves with one of the character archetypes, which makes the story more enjoyable.