Personally I think that Gollum is the Key character. Without him the journey that Frodo makes would not have happened and the ring wouldn't have been the destroyed. What I love about the story line with Gollum is he is the only character that truley sticks out in Middle Earth as good and evil.
Tolkein designed LOTR wonderfully as a world of extreme good and extreme evil. And in one character the extremes of each are working against each other. I think it is brilliant!
Interesting topic....
As for a Key Character...I would have to say it would be the One Ring
Without the ring itself, Gollum would not have so quickly turned bad from good...nor would Frodo and others been effected by it.
The Ring itself is linked to each and every of the characters in the book and movies, and without it, would make the story pointless and uneventful.
I think that Tolkien has many messages in his books, and if you sit back and think about certain things...they all become clear.
isn't it interesting how in the prolouge that it states that Sauron created the One Ring to bind them all, into the darkness...
And during the entire length of the books, isn't everyone binded together by the Ring itself ?
Originally posted by A.D. Skinner
I think that Tolkien has many messages in his books, and if you sit back and think about certain things...they all become clear.isn't it interesting how in the prolouge that it states that Sauron created the One Ring to bind them all, into the darkness...
And during the entire length of the books, isn't everyone binded together by the Ring itself ?
Yes, indeed, like in ROTK elrond says: ''arwens fate is now tide to the fate of the ring''
Originally posted by DanielLB
The One? Iluvatar is the key character!He made everything happen! Without him......well nothing wouldve happened......................
Yes he is the key character in ME but he had no control over the making of the ring or of the events that happened after.
I think that in a way Eru was fooled, he had ME all planned out and sent the Valar to design and prepare it. But from the begining things were done w/o his knowledge and permission.
But he contrlled who was born and everything didnt he? If we take it on a whole scale then Eru would be the key character beacuse if he had done soemthing diff. everyhting wouldve changed.
On a smaller scale, maybe Gollum and the One Ring were key characters but were all made under the original influence of Eru, even though he was not directly involved
Originally posted by DanielLB
But he contrlled who was born and everything didnt he? If we take it on a whole scale then Eru would be the key character beacuse if he had done soemthing diff. everyhting wouldve changed.
I disagree. He might have in the long run controlled when they were reborn but he did not create the Dwarf.
I agree that Eru is a key character but on a larger scale. On a smaller scale was my aim. 😄
Originally posted by Aurora
I disagree. He might have in the long run controlled when they were reborn but he did not create the Dwarf.I agree that Eru is a key character but on a larger scale. On a smaller scale was my aim. 😄
lol, sorry i like jumping in and making bigger things😄. well on smaller scale..........the ring or gollum deffiantly. also possible Samwise the Brave, as Frodo wouldve not been able to achieve his mission without sam
Imo, the key character of a book doesn't necessarily have to be extraordinarily important for the story per se, but should rather represent the basic question of the oeuvre as an abstract idea;
In the case of LoTR, one of those characters is Arwen; in the book even more than in the movie, she's marginal, her personality is hardly outlined and she doesn't really have direct impact on the storyline. Still, she stands for the most fundamental conflict in Tolkien's work - death and life, or more precisely the topos of immortality. Power, as it is often named as the major 'topic' of LotR, is merely an aspect of this complex of questions arranged around the immortality-sujet.
I suppose it's not really necessary to elaborate Arwen's (or rather, Lúthien's) role on a LotR board 🙂 - just sum up all the elements settled around their roles and you basically get a list of what a key char in Middle-earth would have to represent.
The negative-like counterpart to Arwen's/Lúthien's part is for example portrayed by Ar-Pharazôn or maybe also the Nazgûl.
From the purely event-oriented point of view, central characters are of course eg Morgoth (without him, stories would indeed be few), Earendil (in whom everything sort of runs together - all the lines and houses and peoples and... generally everything) or Feanor (...)
I will have to say the key character is Frodo Baggins. Tolkien showed everyone through the actions of Frodo that you don't have to be a great warrior like Aragon or a powerful wizard like Gandalf to save the world. Even the smallest of us can change the fate of an entire world. Not to mention Frodo has had to endure more throughout the books/movies then the other members of the fellowship (expect for maybe Samwise).