By Deirdre Liebman
He flung himself into a patch of long grass at the side of the road. As he lay there, paralyzed with fright, breathing in the stench of rotting leaves, an enormous black horse, with a menacing, cloaked figure in its saddle, came into sight on the road, inches from his hiding place.
Oh why had he traded his comfortable, cozy home for this damp patch of grass?!
Just a few weeks earlier, he had been like any other person. Slightly overweight, fond of taking long walks through the bucolic countryside surrounding his home, he had enjoyed a quiet, comfortable life, surrounded by friends. His biggest worry? A group of unfriendly relatives who coveted his house.
Everything changed for him when he inherited a gold ring, the knowledge that it was both magical and dangerous and the responsibility of taking it to the terrifying land of Mordor, the only place where the ring could be destroyed – a perilous journey he probably wouldn’t survive.
This is the situation that Frodo Baggins finds himself in in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
One of the many reasons that The Lord of the Rings is so popular is that the hero is both relatable and admirable. He is an ordinary person who changes the world. Readers can admire the fact that he is willing to sacrifice his own life by embarking on a dangerous journey to rid the world of evil, teaching us that we are capable of more than we realize. Indeed, a seemingly insignificant person can make all the difference.