
Tolkien's epic finale where kingdoms fall, heroes rise, and Middle-earth's fate hangs by a thread. The trilogy that sold 150+ million copies inspired Peter Jackson's film adaptation to win 11 Oscars. What secret power makes this fantasy masterpiece resonate across generations?
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The final battle for Middle-earth begins as darkness spreads from the east. In Minas Tirith, the gleaming white city of seven concentric levels carved into a mountainside, Pippin serves as a guard of the Citadel while citizens whisper "Prince of the Halflings" as he passes. The atmosphere grows increasingly tense as reinforcements arrive-far fewer than hoped. All told, fewer than three thousand men have come to defend a city built for tens of thousands. In the highest tower, Lord Denethor broods, his mind poisoned by visions seen through a palantir-an ancient seeing stone through which Sauron has manipulated him. When his son Faramir returns and reveals his encounter with Frodo and the Ring, Denethor erupts in anger, wishing aloud that his favored son Boromir had lived instead. As the Nazgul begin their assault, their fell beasts circling overhead like vultures, their otherworldly shrieks sap courage from even the bravest defenders. When Faramir falls wounded and the massive wolf-shaped battering ram Grond breaches the main gate, the Lord of the Nazgul himself enters. Gandalf alone stands in the ruined gateway. "You cannot enter here," he declares. As these ancient powers face each other, wild horns sound from the north-the Rohirrim have arrived at dawn, just as foretold.