One book to rule them all!!
25 December 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Kings, Tough Travelling
Every Thursday Nathan from the Fantasy Review Barn invites us to go tough travelling through the tropes of fantasy. This week the topic is KINGS:
KINGS come in four kinds: Puppet Kings, Bad Kings, Good Kings (rare), and Long Lost Kings
So, let’s face it – there are no shortages of Kings in epic fantasy. To narrow it down I’ve tried to get an example of each from the same book. Yes, Lord of the Rings! It had to be done!!
Puppet king – Theoden – King of the Mark or King of Rohan – endured a brief spell as a puppet with Grima Wormtongue seemingly having the majority of sway in the kingdom. Of course Grima operated under instructions from Saruman.
Bad king – The Witch King of Angmar. Leader of the Nazgul, formally a king of men, one of the nine kings given a ring of power by Sauron and eventually became corrupted by it’s power.
Good king – Elrond King of the Elves – the elves are a singular bunch of characters and quite single minded but I’m putting Elrond as a good King because he fought in the last alliance of elves and men that originally destroyed Sauron and he tried to convince Isildur to destroy the Ring.
Lost king – Aragorn or Strider – starts the story as a ranger but concludes the story as king. Heir of Isildur.
Books and travelling with Lynn 
I’ve not read this one. 😦 (I know, bad fantasy fan! I should be ashamed I guess. But, I’m kinda not.) Oh well 🙂
I really don’t think it makes you a bad fantasy fan – there is so much out there that I haven’t read it’s actually quite scary! And, there’s no way I’m going to go back and catch up. Plus, fantasy writing has changed and so reader’s expectations have as well – there’s a post in there somewhere!! LoTR was from my earlier reading days when I used my dad’s book collection which meant I read everything from Kidnapped to The Scarlett Pimpernel, to The Hound of the Baskervilles!
Lynn 😀
Damn. I had the same idea but not all from the same series. That will get it done.
I’ve struggled to get in my honorary mentions for LoTRs in the last few weeks!! So, when I saw ‘kings’ I pounced on it!
Lynn 😀
Ha! I want to say Tolkien’s The Hobbit also has all 4 kings!
Never thought of The Hobbit. You have two elven kings and a dwarf king – who’s the fourth – is the witch king in The Hobbit??
In the book, there is a ruler of Lake Town that isn’t really mentioned, though in the movie we see Lake Town is run badly. By the end of the book, we have a legitimate ruler of Lake Town (so that could be a our hidden king).
And there are 2 dwarf kings in the book. Oh, and king of the eagles.
King of the Eagles – that’s the good king right there!
Lynn 😀
I love The Lord of the Rings! I never thought about the different kinds of kings it had though, this is awesome 🙂
Thanks. There are more kings to be honest but I was just looking for an example for each descriptor.
Lynn 😀
Yes! ❤
Haha 😀
Way to go using LotR for all of them! 😀
I couldn’t decide if that was incredibly lazy or not – but I’ve missed my honorary mentions so felt it had to be done!
Lynn 😀
I love how you covered them all with Lord of the Rings 🙂
Never miss an opportunity – that’s what I always think. I could have used The Hobbit as well!
Lynn 😀
Great idea, using only one book! Tolkien provides lots of great tropes 🙂
He’s been a fairly consistent addition on most of my lists until the last few weeks when I’ve struggled a bit! It was nice to get him back in on the act!
Lynn 😀
Fun post! If i get ambitious, maybe I’ll try to do one featuring only kings from George R.R. martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. Hmmm….
Yes, it can be done!
Lynn 😀
Wow, when you miss a few weeks of LOTR you really make up for it! The Witch King is such a classic baddie.
Well, I figured you were totally kicking my arse with Tamora so I had to get Tolkien back on the scene!
Lynn 😀