The Lord of the Rings/Tropes M-Z


 * Tropes from The Lord of the Rings (the book)


 * See also: Tropes A-L

M
"But don't forget: the enemies don't love us any more than they love Him, and if they get topsides on Him, we're done too."
 * MacGuffin: Frequently described as such, the Ring was originally intended to be a sequel hook to The Hobbit until Tolkien decided it was actually an Artifact of Doom.
 * MacGuffin Escort Mission: Escort the Ring to Mount Doom.
 * Made of Indestructium: Quite possibly the origin of this trope. The One Ring can only be destroyed at Mt. Doom where it was made.
 * Somewhat subverted in that the Word of God states that anyone better at smithcraft than Sauron could destroy it. This includes some of the Valar, if they wanted to break their own rules, and Feanor, who was imprisoned in the halls of Mandos after he died. However, even if anyone did manage to get the Ring to Feanor for him to unmake he would be too easily tempted to take it for his own.
 * Gandalf muses that dragons can destroy ordinary rings of power, but no dragon currently living has the firepower to do the job, nor did even the greatest dragon of antiquity. And, it'd be really hard to find a dragon to ask, who would be willing to help.
 * The Magic Goes Away: Elves sail off to the West, wizards leave (or otherwise drop off the radar), no more magic- although Tolkien was extremely loath to use the word "magic" to refer to any of that in the first place.
 * Magic Is a Monster Magnet: Wearing the One Ring lights you right up on Mordor's radar. Also, Gandalf is hesitant to use his magic while traveling with the fellowship for fear of attracting attention from both Mordor and Saruman.
 * Mage Tower: Orthanc while occupied by Saruman.
 * Magic Mirror: Galadriel's mirror, which is just water in a silver bowl.
 * The Magnificent: Merry
 * Manly Tears: In most Middle-earth societies crying seems acceptable, and there are many instances of manly men weeping. (A point on which Tolkien significantly differs from the old sagas that inspired him.)
 * When Eomer discovers, he improvises a verse (of course) where he says that they need to keep fighting, and there will be time for the women to weep later. But the narrator mentions that Eomer himself wept as he spoke.
 * In the words of Gandalf: "I do not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil."
 * Mayfly-December Romance: Aragorn and Arwen
 * Meaningful Echo: There is an example that lampshades Not So Different and War Is Hell, since both sides knew that their enemies will destroy them ruthlessly:
 * In the second book, the orc Gorbag says to Shagrat:

"''For a while the hobbits sat in silence. At length Sam stirred. "Well, I call that neat as neat," he said. "If this nice friendliness would spread about in Mordor, half our trouble would be over." "Quietly, Sam," Frodo whispered. "There may be others about. We have evidently had a very narrow escape, and the hunt was hotter on our tracks than we guessed. But that is the spirit of Mordor, Sam; and it has spread to every corner of it. Orcs have always behaved like that, or so all tales say, when they are on their own. But you can't get much hope out of it. They hate us far more, altogether and all the time. If those two had seen us, they would have dropped all their quarrel until we were dead."''"
 * In the third book, after Frodo and Sam saw a little orc kill another of their own:


 * Meaningful Funeral: The funerals of Boromir and.
 * Meaningful Name: Virtually all Tolkien's names, whatever language they are in, have a meaning, though sometimes this changed over the years as Tolkien's languages evolved. Characters also acquire names over their lives which reflect personal qualities or great deeds. See the trope page for more details.
 * Meaningful Rename: There's a number of times when people get names/titles added to them at are meaningful but a true example would be when Gandalf comes back as Gandalf the White. He's taking Saruman's place and doing what Saruman should have been doing except that Saruman went over to The Dark Side.
 * Medieval Stasis: And when they're not standing still, they're going backwards. Justified by the dwindling population of the West, and the steady procession of wars and plagues engineered by Sauron, but also by more metaphysical concerns. The grass really was greener in the Second Age, and the physical world less recalcitrant. As Morgoth slowly regains his power over the eons, matter is becoming ever more hostile to mind. (Yes, every time your shoe lace breaks, or your pen leaks, or your computer dies and takes all your information with it -- or someone in your family gets cancer -- it's Morgoth's fault. It wouldn't have happened in the Second Age; things, including human bodies, were more reliable back then.)
 * Many like to imagine the look on Sauron or Morgoth's face after seeing their armies crushed by artillery and bolt action rifles. Then again, they'd probably just do what Sauron did to the Numenoreans, or reverse-engineer the technology (Sauron was a Maia of craft) but it'd be worth it just to see that look on their faces.
 * Initially, Tolkien did toy with the idea that Morgoth had more advanced technology. Drafts telling the Siege and Fall of Gondolin describe Morgoth's forces using crawling iron machines that sound suspiciously like the early tanks Tolkien had seen in World War I. (And in The Lost Road, Sauron ends up providing the Numenoreans with not only aircraft but the medieval equivalent of V-2 buzz bombs.)
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard: This happened to Gandalf. He's feeling much better now.
 * Messianic Archetype: Several partial examples: Gandalf suffers a Jesus-like death to save his companions from a demonic threat complete with transfigured resurrection; Frodo's role as the defeater of evil by suffering a great evil; and of course Aragorn is the descendant of a fallen royal house, returning to reclaim his throne and restore his kingdom to glory. (The former two fitting the Christian notion of the Messiah, and the latter fitting the Jewish version.)
 * Mid-Season Upgrade: Gandalf suffers Heroic RROD after killing only one Balrog. His bosses de-nerf him a bit to make sure that doesn't happen again.
 * Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Sam and Frodo's hopeless persistence as they travel through Mordor.
 * Mooks: Rather a lot of them.
 * Mortality Ensues: In the end, Arwen gives up her immortality to be with Aragorn.
 * Multinational Team: The Fellowship, which brings together heroes from across Middle Earth.
 * The Musical: A rare (possibly unique) literary case. Expect any important event to inspire someone to improvise a song, or at least a poem. Among those listening, someone will often join in -- especially if they're an Elf. There is actually a musical too, on the West End, but it is not considered good.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Boromir after he tried to take the Ring from Frodo.
 * Galadriel has a rare prospective one of these when Frodo offers her the Ring.
 * Mythopoeia: The Ur-example.

N
"Gandalf: I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of the left-hand way: there is foul air down there, or I am no guide."
 * Named Weapons: Glamdring, Sting, Anduril; those are the main ones.
 * Aeglos, the spear of Gil-Galad.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Mordor the Black Land, for one, ruled by the the Dark Lord Sauron, guarded by the Morannon, the Black Gate, and Minas Morgul, the Tower of Black Sorcery...
 * A more minor example: Grima Wormtongue.
 * Narrative Poem: Many. Among them are: "Eärendil Was a Mariner" and an excerpt from the lay of Beren and Luthien.
 * National Weapon: Axes for dwarves -- the association is strong enough to make it into their standard battle-cry. Tolkien is probably also responsible for the standard fantasy association of bows with elves, though he doesn't really use it (Legolas habitually uses a bow, but elves in general are just as likely to use swords).
 * Eucatastrophe: Tolkien basically coined the word 'eucatastrophe' to describe this trope; it happens plenty of times throughout the novel, being a particular favorite trope of his.
 * The Necrocracy: The kingdom of Angmar in the Backstory and Minas Morgul.
 * Never Accepted in His Hometown: Frodo Baggins goes unappreciated back in the Shire. Sam, who could have ended up as an unsung, thankless hero, gets elected Mayor of the Shire; Frodo's ordeals are overlooked by the oblivious Hobbits.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/ What the Hell, Hero?: Isildur just had to keep the ring. Evil in Middle Earth made a career of enduring because the hero(es) wind up doing something selfish or stupid upon triumph.
 * Frodo almost has one when he nonchalantly offers to give the ring to Galadriel. Well-meaning and it would have solved the Sauron problem...
 * No Man of Woman Born: After Macbeth, the best-known example, like, ever.
 * Word of God once mentioned that this case of the trope, as well as the whole idea of the Ents, was directly inspired by Macbeth. Tolkien said that, as a child, he had been disappointed that Macbeth wasn't just killed by a woman and that Birnam Wood didn't actually get up and march against Macbeth.
 * Non-Linear Character: Galadriel and her magic mirror.
 * No One Could Survive That: Pippin and the troll.
 * No Ontological Inertia: Everything done with the rings, including Mordor and Lothlórien.
 * Not a Game: Pippin has to be reminded that the Quest is Serious Business a few times.
 * Not So Different: Both the Free People and Mordor factions know that any of their enemies will destroy them ruthlessly (see Meaningful Echo for the quotes).
 * Nothing Is Scarier: Deliberately invoked by the author in the case of Sauron himself. Only three characters -- Pippin and Aragorn, via the palantir of Orthanc, and Gollum, presumably during his Mordor torture -- have actually seen Sauron's face, and none of them is inclined to describe him. The nearest we get to any physical description is Gollum mentioning the Black Hand, which only has four fingers after Isildur cut one of them off.
 * Also this bit, from Moria:


 * Nude Nature Dance: After the Hobbits have been extricated from the Barrows Tom Bombadil removes the clothing the Wights had placed on them and invites them to "run naked in the grass" while he retrieves their ponies.

O

 * The Oathbreaker: The Dead. Isildur cursed them when they swore to help him fight and then refused; three thousand years later, they break the curse by helping Aragorn -- the Heir of Isildur -- instead.
 * The Obi-Wan: Gandalf, mentoring Aragorn, Frodo, and Faramir.
 * Obviously Evil: Sauron.
 * Odd Friendship: Legolas and Gimli.
 * Offing the Offspring: Denethor, after he went into full-blown insanity and despair, tries to burn both himself and his feverish son Faramir on a pyre.
 * Oh Crap: Several of these, such as when the heroes are confronting the latest spawn of darkness (the Black Riders, the Balrog, the witch-king, etc). The best, though, is when Frodo puts on the Ring at the very edge of the Crack of Doom: Sauron sees and senses Frodo, and it finally dawns on him just what his enemies are up to, and how they tricked him, and how close they are to bringing about his utter ruin... and he is so terrified that he completely forgets there's a war on right outside his gates. "And Barad-dur trembled from the depths of its foundations to its proud and bitter crown."
 * Old Windbag: Many of Bilbo's neighbours and relatives seem to see him as this.
 * The Older Immortal: This often happens due to several long-lived and immortal races, from which the respective older ones either survive their peers or simply happen to live a among a different group whose members are younger and less powerful.
 * Older Is Better: The swords from Númenór are much better than their present day counterparts.
 * Older Than They Look: Aragorn, and those descended from the Númenóreans in general. For instance, Aragorn is eighty-seven and in the prime of his life when the War of the Ring begins. It is mentioned that his is actually a reduced lifespan compared to his ancestors.  Men are not the only ones affected, either, since other races develop at different speeds. Elves take 50 years to become adults, and Hobbits attain their (legal) majority at the age of 33 rather than 21.
 * Bilbo and Frodo are a special case of this, since their youthful appearances ("well-preserved") are actually an effect of the Ring. It's considered outright bizarre that Bilbo, at the ripe age of 111, looks about fifty-five years old.
 * Dwarves, taking their longer lifespan into account, have a system similar to that of the Hobbits. Gimli, while being 62 years old at the time, was considered too young to accompany Thorin and Bilbo on the quest to retake Mt. Erebor. At the time of the War of the Ring he was 139 and, again, in the prime of his life. If you don't count Gandalf -- who, as a Maia, is older than Middle-Earth itself -- Gimli is the second-oldest member of the Fellowship, with Legolas as the oldest, though the latter's actual age is never stated (usually estimated at anywhere between 500 and 3000 years).
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Morgoth, in the Backstory
 * The Omniscient: Galadriel, particularly in Fellowship Of The Ring
 * One-Gender Race: The Ents, although not by design, as there originally was a distinct female gender - only those wandered off, and haven't been seen since. If they did not have such long lifespans, they would be extinct already for lack of children. (The situation is elaborated upon in the trope entry).
 * One-Man Industrial Revolution: Saruman.
 * One Sided Battle: The battle at the Black Gate was this until the Ring was destroyed.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted; the Appendices reveal that a number of significant names have been reused throughout history, including Beren, Aragorn, Denethor, and Boromir.
 * Orcus on His Throne: Tolkien does this with his villains, but only towards the ends of their careers - he had a theme of deliberate Villain Decay and Motive Decay, with smart people with real goals turning to evil but evil itself corrupting them and gradually turning them into cardboard cutouts. Together with this, they start out going out and kicking arse by themselves (e.g. Morgoth fights Tulkas personally at the dawn of time, Sauron comes out to fight Huan in the Silmarillion) but eventually becoming throne-bound. Often after one too many of such direct interaction had a painful outcome (e.g. Morgoth after his duel with the elven king Fingolfin, Sauron after his defeat/half-death and loss of the Ring in the War of the Last Alliance).
 * There's also the fact (according to "Morgoth's Ring"), that Melkor/Morgoth and Sauron spent much of their power controlling their "agents". They were not exactly lazy: using their physical incarnations to go into battle would have been simply foolish (especially for Morgoth, who "at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently incarnate" trying to control physical matter and who as a result could be killed in battle.)
 * Note that the last time Sauron personally took part in battle was at the end of the Second Age, during the Elves and Men's attack on Mordor, when he steps out of the tower and displays his badass powers, but ends up losing his physical body -- which in turn has its finger cut off, and the Ring with it.
 * Order Versus Chaos: This is played out in the race of Ents: male Ents loved the wilderness and forests, nature untamed, while the Entwives cultivated gardens and loved orchards and farmlands. The two genders drifted apart over the years, and the Ents have since lost the Entwives completely.
 * Our Founder: The Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings: two monumental statues of Isildur and Anárion, founders of Gondor.
 * Our Orcs Are Different: Yet another Tolkien-created trope.
 * It's worth noting that Tolkien's orcs are actually quite different from the standard Chaotic Evil barbarian orcs when you look beyond the superficial level. They're actually a technologically advanced race (surpassed only by the humans of Númenorean descent, the elves and the dwarves) who are generally of human-level intelligence and have a sophisticated appreciation for others' pain. The problem is, they're usually not working together in huge groups unless forced to do so by an outside force.
 * It's also worth noting that orcs are literally a corrupted species of elves. They actually have the elves ability to learn, but their masters prevent them from doing so. They also have to be kept under constant control to ensure that they will actually carry out their evil overlord's plan. A prime example of this is when Sauron falls for the last time. They immediately react with pain to the sun and scatter in the face of their enemies.
 * Overly Long Name: The Ents, combined with the fact that they talk really, really slowly.
 * Add to that their immortality, their isolated civilization and how generally hard to kill they are. Keep in mind that an Ent's full name is essentially his entire personal history, and they are quite old.
 * Treebeard also implies that the full Entish name for Orcs is several years worth of insults strung together.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Celeborn by his wife Galadriel, "greatest of elven women".
 * It's mentioned in the Appendices that after Dol Guldur (Sauron's former stronghold) was cleansed of its stain of evil, it was Galadriel who tore the place down.
 * Overwhelming Obsession: The major threat behind The One Ring is its ability to corrupt the minds of those who wear it, and in a few cases, see it. One only has to look at the friendly hobbit Smeagol's transformation into the utterly insane and twisted Gollum to see how deep its corruption runs. Gollum is consumed by his obsession with the Ring and lovingly refers to it as "my precious", a trait that Bilbo shares in the modern day which further convinces Gandalf that he's in danger of having his mind destroyed by it.

P

 * Pair the Spares: Faramir and Eowyn.
 * Pals with Jesus: Gandalf and darn near anyone who's good.
 * Panacea: The Athelas plant, with the right usage, though the exact extent of its healing properties is never explored.
 * Papa Wolf: Everyone is this to the hobbits. Even the hobbits get to be this on occasion because of The Power of Friendship.
 * The Paragon Always Rebels: Morgoth, Saruman.
 * Parental Favoritism: Boromir (the elder son) is heavily preferred to Faramir by their father, Denethor. It's especially emphasized in The Movies, where Denethor is shown as blatantly unfair; in the book, Gandalf at least believes that it is partly that Denethor is still grief-stricken over the death of their mother.
 * And being Mind-Warped by the palantír.
 * Parental Marriage Veto: When Elrond finds out that Aragorn and Arwen are in love, he sets down what seems to be a impossible set of restrictions on their marriage (Sauron must be vanquished, Aragorn must unite the ancient kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor and become High King once again). Needless to say, Aragorn helps fulfill every single one of these conditions, and Love Conquers All.
 * Not really so much a Veto as just a traditional dowry: the daughter of an elven lord of Elrond's stature can only be married to a very important person, after all, and in the book Aragorn's final goal was to become king anyway, so it wasn't that tall an order. Who wouldn't want to provide the safest and best environment for their kid's future?
 * It also harkens back to The Silmarillion when Thingol tasked Beren with retrieving a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown before marrying Luthien. Since Aragorn and Arwen are both descendants of Beren and Luthien it seems appropriate; at least to Elrond.
 * Past Victim Showcase: What the Mouth of Sauron hints at when he
 * Pet the Dog: Gollum has a rare moment of humanity when he catches Frodo and Sam asleep on the stairs of Cirith Ungol. He even attempts to pet Frodo's knee. Unfortunately, the moment doesn't last.
 * Peaceful in Death: Boromir.
 * Subverted in the Dead Marshes.
 * Perma-Shave: Hobbits and all but the oldest of elves.
 * Perpetual Motion Monster: The ringwraiths, the Watcher in the Water.
 * Phosphor Essence: As Frodo succumbs to the Nazgûl blade, he perceives Glorfindel as "a shining figure of white light".
 * Sam notes that, at times, it seems as if a light is shining through Frodo.
 * Physical Religion: the Valar.
 * Pirates: The Corsairs of Umbar.
 * Playing Possum: A scene with Uruk-hai during Helm's Deep in the novel.
 * Playing with Fire: Gandalf
 * Please Wake Up: Sam to Frodo after Frodo is stung by Shelob.
 * Plunder : Merry and Pippin feasting in the ruins of Orthanc.
 * Pluralses: Gollum speaks like this all the time.
 * Poisoned Weapons: The Morgul blade and the arrow that hit Faramir.
 * Orcs in general are said to be fond of this.
 * Poke in the Third Eye: Using a Palantir.
 * Popcultural Osmosis: LotR's influence is widespread and isn't limited to the fantasy genre.
 * High Fantasy: It popularized the genre and is generally credited with creating it, although high fantasy in the novel format is actually older than Tolkien. The demand for novels similar to Lord of the Rings was so great that many imitators joined in to feed the demand. The term "Tolkienesque" has been used to describe the literature of his many imitators. A few writers actually tried to go in a different direction than Tolkien, such as Ursula K. Le Guin with her Earthsea novels. Even today, Tolkien's shadow is so big that it's difficult for a writer to escape it.
 * Hippies: The slang term "weed" sprang from a certain common misconception / bit of Fanon concerning Hobbit horticultural habits (Jossed by Tolkien himself).
 * A justifiable error, nevertheless. Cannabis was relatively rare in Europe, but tobacco was completely unknown until Europeans found it across the Atlantic. If no-one from Middle-earth had ever sailed west to the Americas, where the hell did they get the pipeweed??
 * This is actually explained in the Appendix: The Numénorians sailed around the world and found all the modern continents in trying to search remains of their lost homeland, and brought back plants like galenas, which the hobbits dubbed "pipeweed".
 * Role-Playing Games: The Fellowship can be seen as the prototypical RPG party. It established many archetypes and tropes that are seen RPGs like "rangers", warrior dwarves, the Balrog and Mithril. The Fellowship's trek through the dwarven city of Khazad-dûm might have been the basis for Ruins for Ruins Sake. It inspired D&D and many of the RPGs that came after it.
 * War Gaming: Before LotR, war games were limited to historical wars like WWII, the Napoleonic Wars, and the American Civil War. LotR popularized the idea that war gaming can take place in a fictional land with fictional races and nations. It influenced such games as Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warcraft, and StarCraft.
 * Which came full circle when Games Workshop made a tabletop wargame based on LOTR, inspired partly by Warhammer.
 * Heavy Metal: Many of the earliest metal bands were influenced by Tolkien. They use many of his themes and events as a basis for numerous songs. Led Zeppelin is a band that shows a lot of Tolkien influence (see page quote). There's even a subgenre called Tolkien Metal: See, for instance, Blind Guardian.
 * Possession Implies Mastery: Heavily, heavily subverted. About the only thing you with do with more possession of the ring is to become invisible. It may not even be possible for most ordinary beings to master.
 * Post-Climax Confrontation: The One Ring has been destroyed along with Sauron and the armies of Mordor, Aragorn has been crowned the king of Gondor, and the members of the Fellowship have separated to return to their homelands. When the hobbits return to The Shire, however, they discover it has been taken control of by Saruman, and they have to fight one last battle against him.
 * Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: Merry and Eowyn after defeating the Witch-King, Sam after defeating Shelob, and Frodo and Sam when they finally achieve their goal (though they do manage to make it down the mountain first).
 * The Power of Friendship: Especially the friendship between Sam and Frodo.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: Uglúk, to some extent Sauron.
 * Preemptive Declaration: Gandalf says "Saruman, your staff is broken", and the staff is split asunder.
 * Prophecy Twist: The Witch-king
 * Prophetic Fallacy: Denethor and the Corsairs
 * Proud Warrior Race: Rohirrim, Uruk-hai
 * Merry and Pippin are kind of lampshaded Proud Warrior Race Guys . Tooks and Brandybucks have a reputation among other Hobbits for being more adventurous and warlike as Hobbit clans go, but Merry and Pippin just act like Hobbits. At least at first. Later both kind of go native and become something like Hobbit Swashbucklers. Yeah, I know, what would a Hobbit Swashbuckler be like?
 * A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Aragorn
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Faramir, and Boromir once
 * Frodo too.
 * Publisher Chosen Title: The publisher meddled with the titles of the three volumes. Tolkien wanted the last one to be named The War of the Ring to avoid spoilers, but it didn't get through.

Q

 * The Quest: Frodo's quest is a double subversion. So much so, it might called an Anti Quest

R

 * Rags to Royalty: Aragorn, sort of. He was already the leader of the remaining Dunedain in the north, but they collectively appeared to be this to most other humans. Among the elves, however, he and his people still had fairly high status. And when his father died early in his life, he was taken in and raised by one of the most important elven leaders still in Middle Earth.
 * Ransacked Room: Happens to Frodo's house in Crickhollow after he leaves.
 * Ravens and Crows: The crows in the story serve Saruman.
 * Given that Wormtongue had Gandalf tagged as "Stormcrow", that little fact implies Grima was trying to put Gandalf in his place under Saruman... soul of a used car salesman, that guy.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Aragorn is 87 and still going strong, Gandalf is...well he's old.
 * Every last named elf is this as well, with Cirdan being the oldest of all elves that haven't set sail to Valinor. (It's probably relevant that Cirdan is the only Elf in the entire story who's explicitly stated to have grown a beard, let alone a long white beard.)
 * Recurring Dreams: Faramir, twice. One of these is based on the 'great wave' dream that both Tolkien and his son Michael had.
 * Red Eye, Take Warning: Sauron, while not red-eyed himself, uses a red eye on black as his symbol.
 * Although in the movie, he takes the form of a giant red eye.
 * Red Right Hand: There are only four fingers on the Black Hand, but they are enough. (especially with today's prosthetics.)
 * Redemption Equals Death: Boromir
 * Reforged Blade: Narsil, sword of Elendil, which was shattered - but the hilt-shard cut The One Ring from the finger of Sauron, thus winning the war. Much later, they were reforged for Aragorn's use and renamed Anduril. He never does anything 'special' with the sword, but since it serves as a symbol of his status as the Returned King, and since the reforging was part of a series of prophesied events leading up to the final fall of Sauron, it qualifies as a Sword of Plot Advancement.
 * Regent for Life: Denethor
 * Though he actually has a good precedent for not accepting Aragorn's claim - especially since he has reason to believe Aragorn won't act in Gondor's best interest - and we don't know what he would have actually done had he not been Driven to Suicide. So it's certainly not a clear-cut example.
 * The Remnant: Saruman qualifies in a round-about sense, in that he is a former 'Evil Overlord', but reduced to a pathetically small scale after his armies are routed and he is cast out from Isengard. He spends the remainder of the book running the Shire into the ground, turning into a sort of bandit leader with a mob of 'ruffians'. He is stabbed in the back (completely literally) by his servant at the end.
 * The Renfield: Wormtongue
 * Right Under Their Noses: Sauron would never expect something so small to sneak right past him!
 * River of Insanity: The voyage down the Anduin.
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: Gandalf
 * Rousing Speech: Given by Aragorn at the Stone of Erech and Theoden before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Subverted in Eomer's speech during the same battle after he finds the bodies of, which is known to fans as the "Let's All Go And Get Killed" speech.
 * Royal Blood: Flows in Aragorn's veins and is rather important.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Aragorn again, as well as Theoden, Eomer and Eowyn. Legolas and Imrahil are princes, and Boromir and Faramir are sons of the steward, Denethor, who is in turn descended from Anarion, brother of Isildur.
 * The same goes for Brand, King of Dale and Dain II. Ironfoot, whose deeds are mentioned only in the appendices.
 * It's worth noting that three kings fight at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, one of whom is dead.

S
""Even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).""
 * Samus Is a Girl: Dernhelm aka
 * Sapient Steed: Gandalf's steed Shadowfax.
 * Merry and Pippin hitch a ride on Treebeard, and also the eagles when they.
 * Presumably some of the mounted orcs' steeds in the battle scenes were sentient Wargs.
 * The Savage South: The land south of Gondor, called Harad, is considered savage land. Sauron musters an army from there.
 * Sealed Army in a Can: The Oathbreakers from the Paths of the Dead.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Balrog of Moria
 * Second Hand Storytelling: Gandalf's escape from Saruman, Treebeard's attack on Isengard, and Aragorn's adventures in southern Gondor. Justified by Word of God that the story is mostly seen from a hobbit POV, since it was hobbits that wrote the tome professor Tolkien translated
 * Also note that parts of the story with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli traveling away from the rest of the Fellowship (the majority of The Two Towers and the Paths of the Dead) are known to the Hobbits because they shared their stories with them at Isengard and Minas Tirith respectively.
 * Secondary Character Title: The Lord of the Rings refers to Sauron not Frodo as some believe. The full title of Frodo's book about the war is The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.
 * It is a particularly strange error to ascribe such a title to Frodo, as there is a scene where Pippin says, "Make way for Frodo, Lord of the Ring" and is quite strongly corrected about it by Gandalf.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Faramir and Boromir.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Ring's effect on Frodo.
 * Shining City: Minas Tirith.
 * Shown Their Work: Tolkien's understanding of Mythology, Linguistics, Geography, Geology and Climatology are masterful.
 * Shrug of God: Tom Bombadil. In response to a question from a fan about his true nature:

"Gimli: That was the sound of a hammer, or I've never heard one. Gandalf: Yes, and I do not like it. It may have nothing to do with Peregrin's foolish stone; but probably something has been disturbed that would have been better left quiet."
 * Siege Engines: The assault on Minas Tirith.
 * Simultaneous Arcs: The main continuity splits off into two branches when the Fellowship breaks up near Rauros - one arc following Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the journey to Mordor, the other one following everyone else and the wars in Rohan and Gondor. The second arc itself splits, rejoins (at Isengard), and then splits into three (with Pippin and Gandalf to Minas Tirith, with Merry and the Rohirrim, with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli through the Paths of the Dead).
 * Single Line of Descent: Surprisingly, subverted. Aragorn is descended from the northern branch of the kingly line; the Gondor branch of the Numenorean kings diversified into several potential claimants, endured a civil war over the question of inheritance, and eventually no viable successor could be found (All explained in the appendices). Also there are other people appearing and mentioned who also descend from the same ancestor as the "main descendant" of that line.
 * Further subverted in that although the Gondorian and Arnorian branches claim direct descent from Elros, first king of Numenor, they are not descendants of the last king, as their ancestor branched off from the eldest daughter of the 4th king. Also found All There in the Manual.
 * Sleep Cute: Gollum has a fleeting Pet the Dog moment when he catches Frodo and Sam doing this on the stairs of Cirith Ungol.
 * Sleeping Dummy: The hobbits pull this off at the Prancing Pony in Bree, with the help of Barliman the innkeeper.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Heavily on the idealistic side. Evil may triumph temporarily, but in the long run it's made very clear that evil is nothing but a hollow mockery of good and is destined to lose in the end. That does not, of course, mean that in the immediate term Sauron is any less of a threat.
 * Well, sort of. Gandalf makes it clear that fighting evil is a constant thing, and that plenty of evils will come after Sauron is defeated.
 * Even then, however, the nature of Good and Evil in Middle Earth is heavily influenced by Tolkien's Catholicism. Good and Evil are not equals, and while the latter may dominate for a time and seem unstoppable, when all is said and done the former is stronger.
 * Some essays point out that the combination of Earn Your Happy Ending, the general hopelessness of conventional victory, the Norse "Theory of Courage" one could equate to Knight in Sour Armor -ness at times, and the fact that Frodo is so physically and emotionally beaten by the Quest to the point that he can no longer continue to live on the Middle-Earth he saved makes this work, while still decidedly idealist, hardly a super-happy-Tastes Like Diabetes ending.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Pipe weed.
 * Gandalf catches himself getting excessively tetchy with Pippin in the Mines of Moria, and eventually realizes what the problem is -- he hasn't had a decent smoke in a week.
 * Sneaky Departure: Frodo embarking on a solitary trip to Mordor (though followed by Sam).
 * So Much for Stealth: Moria in particular.

""...with that name his voice seemed to grow stronger: it had a full and lively sound, and the dark chamber echoed as if to drum and trumpet.""
 * Soul Jar: The One Ring
 * Spanner in the Works: Gollum
 * Speak Friend and Enter
 * Split Personality: Gollum/Smeagol. It's highlighted even more in the films.
 * Spontaneous Reverb: When Frodo is trapped in a burial mound on the Barrow Downs, he sings a rhyme to summon Tom Bombadil:


 * Sssssnaketalk: Gollum
 * Staff of Authority - The Istari, including Saruman and Gandalf have staffs that seem to be symbolic as well as practical.
 * Standard Fantasy Setting: The Trope Maker, or at least the Trope Codifier.
 * Starfish Language: The language of the Ents is implied to be this. Even the simplest words are very long and elaborate, and so even the shortest conversations probably last several hours.
 * The Starscream: Saruman.
 * Stay on the Path: Averted. Gandalf tells the hobbits to stay off the roads on their way to Bree.
 * Stealth Pun: Merry is given the name "Holdwine" by Éowyn and Éomer once, and it's never mentioned again. It means "loyal friend" in Old English, but in Modern English ...
 * Steel Mill: Saruman runs one at the basement of Isengard. Instead of coke, he uses charcoal made from trees as the iron reducing agent. Which, of course, the Ents find less than amusing, considering the sheer number of trees he's cut down.
 * A Storm Is Coming: When Gandalf came bearing news of Saruman's plans to the Rohirrim. King Theoden (still under Saruman's influence by way of Wormtongue) calls him "Stormcrow", and Wormtongue mocks him: "Lathspell I name you, Ill-news; and ill news is an ill guest, they say."
 * Storming the Castle: Subverted.
 * Story-Breaker Power: Gandalf in both The Hobbit and LoTR.
 * Stranger in a Familiar Land: When they return home after the War and the Shire is back to normal after its occupation, all of the four hobbits do feel this effect to varying degrees. While the other three are coping with it, Frodo, with the additional burdens of the Ring and his other wounds, cannot "return home" or find peace again; he leaves the Shire to sail to the West with the Elves.
 * The Strategist: Gandalf
 * Succession Crisis: Gondor had a brutal civil war over who should inherit the throne, a half-breed or a pureblood. A generation later, when the last king of Gondor foolishly rode off toward captivity and (presumed) death, there was no one left willing to take the throne, for fear of a second civil war.
 * Something similar led to splitting up the realm of Arnor into three smaller and weaker parts, ultimately leading to its fall at the hands of the Witchking of Angmar. Again, it's All There in the Manual.
 * It's mentioned several times that Aragorn is specifically trying to avoid this by waiting until the end of the war to take the throne.
 * Suicide Mission: Aragorn leads a hopeless march against the gates of Mordor, to draw the orc armies out of Frodo's way.
 * Frodo believes his own mission is this, since he holds very little hope that he and Sam will make it to Orodruin and is certain that there won't be a return if they do.
 * Supernatural Aid: Galadriel's gifts to the Fellowship.
 * Super Soldier: Uruk-hai, Olog-hai. Not really super though, just Elite Mooks. Then there are the Rangers and the Knights of Dol Amroth on the side of the heroes, playing it more straight.
 * Supervillain Lair: Barad-dûr and Isengard
 * Swamps Are Evil: The Dead Marshes and the Midgewater Marshes.
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Éowyn

T

 * Take Our Word for It: Gandalf's description of the "nameless things" that dwell beneath Moria; Tolkien's description of many of the Orc's family-unfriendly habits, and of Sauron himself and his hideouts. If it's something of which Gandalf or Aragorn "will not speak... to darken the light of day", you know it's bad.
 * Aragorn seems to have encountered the Ringwraiths personally at least once before he met the hobbits in Bree; the only description he can bear to give is simply: "They are... terrible." And as he says it, his hands are clutching the arms of his chair so tightly that his knuckles turn white.
 * Take That, Critics!: In the Foreword: "Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kind of works that they seem to enjoy."
 * Take Up My Sword: Isildur takes Narsil from his dead father, and 3000 years later Aragorn uses the same sword re-forged in the War of the Ring.
 * A literal, unspoken example when Sam, believing Frodo dead from Shelob's poison, takes Sting (and the Ring).
 * Tangled Family Tree: The Hobbits. Thanks to generations worth of intermarrying between the Tooks, Bagginses, Bolgers, and Brandybucks (all of them among the most respected families in the Shire), Frodo is Bilbo's first and second cousin, Pippin's second and third cousin, Merry's first, second, and third cousin, and his own third cousin! Sam, in fact, is the only major hobbit character who isn't related to any of the others.
 * Talking in Your Dreams
 * Talking in Your Sleep: Frodo seems especially prone to doing this. It also applies to Merry, Eowyn and Faramir in the Houses of Healing.
 * Terrain Sculpting: The Ents divert a river in order to flood Isengard. Once this is done, they put it back again.
 * That Was the Last Entry: The Book of Mazarbul ends with a hurriedly scrawled "They are coming."
 * "There and Back" Story: One of the longest ever written, covering a several-volumes-long journey from Hobbiton to Mordor in search of a means to destroy the One Ring.
 * Thermal Dissonance: The One Ring.
 * This Is Reality: Apparently halflings and Ents are no more than myth.
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Frodo and Sam.
 * Technical Pacifist: Hobbits in general.
 * Time Abyss: Tom Bombadil, Treebeard, Elrond; the Ents, Maiar and Elves overall.
 * Title Drop
 * Together in Death: Arwen chose a mortal fate (much like her ancestor Lúthien in The Silmarillion) so that she could die soon after Aragorn and follow his spirit out of the world.
 * Translation Convention: All of our real-world languages do not exist in Middle-earth, and so the common Translation Convention applies. When not convention-translated, names and speech make use of either Tolkien's constructed languages, or of a real-world language used as stand-in for a fictional one. The latter ones are not chosen randomly, but to represent the relation between the respective 'proper' languages, or a certain image. Languages regularly replaced by stand-in languages in the text are: "Westron" aka the "Common Speech" is always rendered as English (as it is the Third-Age-novel's POV-character's language), the Rohirric language by Anglo-Saxon aka Old English (to appear vaguely familiar to the hobbits' Westron-English), and the language used by the Dwarves and the Men of Dale by Old Norse. Information on the 'translation' and what these languages 'really' look like, can be found in various appendices and additional texts.
 * If you read the appendices you also find out that the "original language" version actually has features which influence the plot, but which are not rendered in the English "translation". One of such is the contributing factor to the rumor in Minas Tirith that Pippin was a Prince of high status and power: hobbits no longer have/use a formal address, so Pippin's informal address to Denethor made the listeners think he would have to be of high status indeed. It's better implied in some of the foreign translations, in languages that do still have formal and informal variations of "you" (the hobbits simply don't use the formal ones).
 * Treacherous Advisor: Grí­ma Wormtongue
 * Trope Maker: And how! The ISO Standard Fantasy Setting started here.
 * True Companions: The Fellowship of the Ring
 * The appendices only reinforce this; it's strongly implied that when Legolas finally sailed West, Gimli went with him, the only Dwarf ever to sail out of Middle-Earth.

U
"Gandalf: "The courtesy of your hall is somewhat lessened of late, Théoden son of Thengel.""
 * Understatement:


 * Unfamiliar Ceiling: Several examples: Frodo waking up in Rivendell in the first book, a bunch more in the third.
 * Ultimate Evil: Sauron himself, of course is this trope incarnate (see trope description). Although he is not the first.
 * The fact that there's a Bigger Bad in the Backstory is thus Beyond the Impossible. Then again, Tolkien states that Sauron at the height of his power was more powerful than Morgoth during the War of the Jewels. Interestingly enough, he's not motiveless Evil Incarnate: his Start of Darkness was motivated by a desire for order and control, not destruction.
 * Depending on which version you favor, Morgoth started out far more powerful than Sauron but graually became weaker as he spent his power damaging the world. (At the start of The Silmarillion the combined powers of all the other gods/ archangels can barely hold him off; but towards the end of the War of the Jewels one single Elf challenges him to a duel and manages to wound him seven times.)
 * Undead: The Nazgul, the Dead of Dunharrow. The barrow-wights however, are evil spirits possessing the remains in the barrows, so are functionally undead.
 * The Unfavorite: Faramir
 * Unintentional Backup Plan: Gandalf and Aragorn's Batman Gambit pays off in getting the One Ring to Mount Doom, but the One Ring itself spans their plans by finally corrupting Frodo at the last crucial moment. Fortunately, Gollum shows up to take the ring for himself before accidentally falling into the volcano and destroying it.
 * Universe Chronology: more so in The Silmarillion but the Appendices give a lot info too.
 * Unstoppable Rage: After seeing Eowyn apparently dead on the Pelennor fields, Eomund takes up the Battle Cry of "Death! Death!" and he and his men become an unassailable force of vengeance for the rest of the battle.
 * The Usual Adversaries - Orcs mainly, but the Dunlendings, Easterlings and Haradrim as well to a lesser extent.

V

 * The Verse: Arda
 * Vestigial Empire: Gondor
 * Villains Want Mercy: Wormtongue begs for mercy when his plot with Saruman is discovered and defeated, claiming that he was working for the greater good of Rohan. He's allowed to live, a decision that costs quite a few lives and considerable grief.

W
""Alas for the folly of these days!" said Legolas. "Here all are enemies of the one Enemy, and yet I must walk blind, while the sun is merry in the woodland under leaves of gold!" "Folly it may seem," said Haldir. "Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.""
 * Wacky Wayside Tribe: The whole Tom Bombadil episode almost certainly counts. Its arguable status as Padding, as well as its mixed reception among readers meant that it got skipped by The Movies.
 * A more literal example would be the Woses, led by Ghan-buri-Ghan. Also skipped by The Movies.
 * War Elephants: The Southrons ride to battle on "Oliphaunts" (as the hobbits call them) or mûmakil (as they're referred to by the Men of Gondor). Sam is very excited when he gets to see one at a distance -- he and Frodo are now the only living hobbits ever to have seen a live Oliphaunt. (The others could have seen them at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, but Pippin was too busy dealing with Faramir, Denethor, and Gandalf to bother watching from the walls of Minas Tirith, and Merry -- having come with the Rohirrim -- was too far to the west of the battlefield.)
 * War Is Hell: Even when the Free Peoples (Elves, dwarves, hobbits, ents and good men) have We ARE Struggling Together! and the orcs, nazgul, trolls and evil men have an Enemy Civil War, both sides knew that any of their other band enemies will destroy them ruthlessly.
 * Warrior Poet: Applies to many characters, who are both capable fighters and cultured. The Elves are particularly brilliant at it, but the vast majority of the characters can and do improvise verses at the drop of a hat.
 * Special mention goes to Gimli, despite his gruff nature, whose long, blissful monologue on the caves of Helm's Deep is eloquent enough to convince Legolas, a Wood Elf, that stones have majesty to rival any forest. After Gimli actually takes him to see the caverns, Legolas admits that he is completely lost for words by comparison.
 * Warrior Prince: Most of the main characters, since the only major character not descending from a high (or at least respectable) bloodline is Samwise, whose ancestors always were just ordinary people -- gardeners, ropemakers and such.
 * Was Once a Man: The Ringwraiths. Also, Gollum (once a hobbit...)
 * We ARE Struggling Together!: The elves, dwarves, and men are constantly squabbling with each other when they should be joining forces to fight the Evil Overlord. The Lothlorien elves distrust Gimli the dwarf, and so all the Fellowship must go blind into the path to Lorien:

"Frodo: But do you remember Gandalf's words: Even Gollum may have something yet to do? But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam."
 * We Can Rule Together: Saruman pulls this on Gandalf. He turns down the offer and ends up being a prisoner.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Denethor, for Faramir
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Boromir wants the One Ring to protect Gondor, and by extension the rest of the free world, but his eventual attempt to take it from Frodo doesn't go well at all. This trope is also mentioned as how all good people who deliberately set out to wield the Ring will begin their unavoidable Start of Darkness: Both Gandalf and Galadriel say that if they wielded the Ring they would begin with doing good, but that's not how things would end as its evil power corrupts them.
 * Sauron started off as one, desiring to establish order in Middle-Earth, which decayed into a desire for tyranny. Tolkien portrays tyranny as the corrupted mockery of order just as chaos is the dark counterpart of freedom. Some tyrants just want power at any cost from the beginning; Sauron originally intended to use that power to create his own order, but kind of forgot it on the way. By the time of the book though all that was ancient history and he had evolved into something not far from an Omnicidal Maniac. "Nothing is truly evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so."
 * What a Senseless Waste of Human Life
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Painstakingly averted, to a point where even the fates of stolen ponies are usually accounted for in the narration.
 * What You Are in the Dark
 * When Trees Attack: Ents, Huorns, and Old Man Willow. Ents are ancient spirits which had grown tree-like in appearance after having been around them for thousands of years. Huorns are described as either "Tree-ish" Ents or "Ent-ish" trees, being less active than Ents but more awake than trees. They seem to be formed from Ents who had "gone to sleep" or trees which had "woken up".
 * Where It All Began: Mordor and the Shire count.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: LotR did originally have one, which was cut for the original publication, but its three versions have since been published in the HoMe 9: Sauron Defeated. The first two versions are almost identical: It shows an evening seventeen years after the Ring's destruction, with Sam just having finished reading the story to his children, and answering their questions about the story and what happened after. The third version skips ahead a bit, and begins with Sam writing down the Q&A session with his children and talking to Elanor, who is allowed to stay up after the other children because she's oldest and it's her birthday. All versions end with a scene of Sam and his wife standing outside at night.
 * Where There's a Will, There's a Sticky Note: Bilbo, after he vanishes in The Fellowship of the Ring.
 * Where There's A Whip There's A Will: The Balrog, the nonsexual example.
 * O rly?
 * Also, the orcs whipping the hobbits to keep running (Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers on their run that ends in Fangorn Forest, and Frodo and Sam in The Return of the King, when they're mistaken for orcs in Mordor).
 * The Wise Prince: Faramir
 * Wise Tree: Treebeard
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The One Ring tends to have this effect.
 * Wizard Beard: Gandalf
 * Wizard Classic: Gandalf is a Trope Codifier for newer examples.
 * Wizards Live Longer: Justified with the "wizards" who are explained to be divine beings on the level of Biblical angels.
 * Played with in the Nazgul. Their rings of power enhanced their lifespans far beyond that of ordinary mortals while simultaneously giving them magical powers, but the ultimate price was the loss of their souls, humanity, and free will to Sauron. In Middle-earth, unless you're an Elf or Physical God and therefore naturally immortal, prolonging your life always comes with a cost. (The one exception being the Kings of Numenor, whose lives got shorter the more evil they got - justified since their long lives were originally derived from their half-Elvish nature, which they were increasingly abandoning.)
 * The implication is that the mortals can't get any more life than they naturally have; they just spread it thinner and thinner, until they are little more than pseudo-living shadows.
 * Woman in White: Galadriel is described as fully clad in white.
 * Also Éowyn's color of choice. She is also known as the White Lady of Rohan.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Invoked when Bilbo, Frodo, and finally Sam take pity on Gollum, ensuring the Ring's destruction. Gollum (and Frodo) practically become this, however.
 * This mainly applies to Gollum, since the Ring would have prevented the actual bearer from throwing it in, regardless of motivation, as he actively tried to prevent the Ring's destruction after centuries of misery and torment, because of a Deadly Change-of-Heart...
 * Although he was destined to destroy the Ring and so the quest would have failed without his attempt to prevent it. Literally Bilbo, Frodo and Sam taking pity on him was necessary for the Ring's destruction; and expressly choosing not to attack and kill him on four separate occasions, including on the slopes of Mount Doom.


 * Word of God: The appendices are only the start; Tolkien's son has edited together and published fifteen volumes from his notes.
 * Words Can Break My Bones: The basis of what we call magic in the setting. Spells are just that, words or snatches of verse or song that have inherent power. Names are also important, as are vows and promises made.
 * World Building: The Ur-example

Y
"Frodo, after finding that the front gate to Mordor is shut, and that Gollum knows another way in: You didn't tell me about a secret way in! Gollum: You didn't ask."
 * You Can't Fight Fate
 * You Can't Make an Omelette: Discussed. "He who breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom."
 * You Didn't Ask: Quoted by Gollum.


 * You Shall Not Pass: Gandalf facing the Balrog, although the films named the trope. (In the book it's "You cannot pass!")
 * You Should Have Died Instead: Denethor to Faramir.
 * You Were Trying Too Hard: Speak Friend and Enter.
 * You Will Know What to Do: "Take this. May it be a light for you in dark places when all other lights go out."