Not All Heroes are Warriors

Red - Absolutes

Blue - Participles

Purple - Appositive

Pink - Adjectives out of order

This is a paper I wrote for my Lord of the Rings class back in my community college, although it is only the first three paragraphs. The topic of the essay was to describe who the hero of the story The Lord of the Rings is/are. ENJOY!

Not All Heroes are Warriors

            The generic hero is a warrior type, tall, strong and handsome; someone that is often seen hacking off some tyrant king’s head, but how about a three foot or so tall Hobbit from the Shire? Being strong and valiant are not the only qualities that describe a hero. It takes a stupendous amount of courage to be a true hero. In The Lord of the Rings there is not one hero, but two: Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.

             Frodo Baggins, a hobbit from the Shire, carries the heaviest burden among anyone in the Fellowship; he carries the one Ring. He is the only one who can take the Ring to Mordor and that takes an unbelievable amount of courage. When this task was first appointed to Frodo by Gandalf back in the Shire he says, “And I suppose that I must go alone, if I am to do that and save the Shire” (Tolkien 61). Frodo would have embarked on his quest alone if he had to, that takes real guts especially since Gandalf just finished giving him all the details about the Ring and how the Enemy will be after him. The most obvious situation where Frodo shows his courage is when he was faced with Shelob. Marching bravely up to meet Shelob, a ginormous vicious spider, without any regard to his own safety, and she, terrified and alarmed, sped off into the gloomy darkness of Ephel Duath, her lair. Hobbits really are one of the most amazing creatures.

            Samwise the Brave is another chief character in this story. He may not be the one carrying the burden, but he sure does help his master all the way to Mordor. There are so many examples of Sam’s loyalty to his master Frodo; one such example is when they were nearing Mount Doom, Sam began to ration the meals so that he hardly ate and drank anything at all to make sure Frodo could have enough strength to bear his burden. One of Sam’s many acts of courage is when he carries the Ring for Frodo when he thinks he is dead. Sam finds out Frodo is still alive after listening to the Orcs; mind racing, fear rising, Sam makes his choice: he marches over to the tower of Cirith Ungol where Frodo is held captive by thousands, if not millions of Orcs, to rescue him. Sam knew the odds: one Hobbit versus a multitude of Orcs, which takes a serious amount of courage. Sam would do anything to protect his master Frodo and to make sure he accomplishes his mission to destroy the Ring.