The Words of the Rings

For this project, I used Voyant to analyse common themes that appear in  J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium of The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings; The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King. I wanted to look at how the word frequency equates importance in the themes of Lord of the Rings, as well as examine the relationship between frequent characters and their associated words and ask; What is the relationship between the frequency of the word and the story of each book? After studying Voyant’s data concerning word frequency in the Lord of the Rings books, it is clear that Tolkien’s carefully-chosen words are representative of each book’s narrative.

I created this research site because I wanted to show that word frequency does equate importance and prove my thesis by using Voyant to display the frequencies with the related books and the relationship between the frequency and the story of each book. In creating this site, I wanted fans of Tolkien, as well as those interested in The Lord of the Rings to visualize that Tolkien’s way of writing is delicately vital to each book’s story. My intent was to examine if word frequency equates importance in the Lord of the Rings, and what would the relationship be between the frequency of those words and the story being told of each book.

I wanted to make a project that either hasn’t been done before or wasn’t common. I did a bit of googling and couldn’t find any website that analyzed the word frequency and its relation to the book’s story, so this idea was perfect. Tolkien is very precise with his writing and therefore frequently-used words would naturally be of more importance. Voyant was a perfect tool to find the relationship between the word frequency and the story. Having a digital visualization can guide the reader towards information that is important and can lead to a deeper understanding of the texts. Using Voyant, I was able to have this visualization of frequent words and where they could be found so I could create an analysis for their connection with my associated texts. With the use of Voyant, I was able to see how the frequent words showed a connection with the narrative of the Lord of the Rings. Both the digital visualization and the physical narrative text have significance to how the reader understands the literature. With the physical text, readers can enjoy the story that Tolkien has created and analyze it from what they interpret from the text. With the digital visualization, readers can see data and connections that appear in the novel and draw a connection with the text, which is what my project is about.

I decided to use my vast knowledge of Tolkien’s Legendarium in my project, so I chose an Unessay blog, where I could analyze the data from Voyant in order to prove my thesis. Voyant was a perfect and easy tool that could detect frequent words found across all three books and show data about the frequency of a word per book, relationship between frequent words, and much more. If you are interested in viewing the Voyant page of my data, please be sure to visit this link.

If I had ten more weeks to work on this project, I believe I would examine less frequent words and their relationship to each book’s story. I thought about including it in this project, but I wouldn’t have enough time to conduct the research needed to do it justice.

While making this project, I discovered the pleasure of merging my own passions with my coursework. I found that I enjoy research more when it includes a topic that is of great interest to me. 

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo is tasked with destroying the One Ring by taking it to Mordor, the place of the Ring’s creation, and casting it into the fires of Mt. Doom in Mordor. After a long journey from his home place in the Shire, Frodo sets out from the elvish safe haven of Rivendell with the Fellowship consisting of Aragorn, Boromir, Samwise, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Legolass, Gimli and Gandalf. I was curious about the total distance traveled throughout their journey due to how large and vast Middle Earth is, so I found an interactive distance and time chart for the Lord of the Rings which shows the total amount of distance traveled thanks to Lotrproject.com. I highly recommend visiting their site here.

In this novel, Frodo travels a total of 1269 miles, whereas he only travels 531 miles in the second and third novel combined. It’s fair to say that The Fellowship of the Ring is focussed on the journey of the Fellowship and specifically Frodo. Looking at the frequency of the word Said in Voyant, it’s the least frequent in the Fellowship of the Ring compared to the second and third novel. This is because of how far the Fellowship of the Ring has to travel in the first book, whereas the second and third book are less focused on the journey and more about the politics, battles, and the leadup to Mordor attacking the city of men, Gondor. Looking at the name Frodo in the terms tab in Voyant, it’s also twice as frequent in the Fellowship of the Ring than the second and third book. This is due to how the first book’s focus is on Frodo leaving the Shire and meeting up with the Fellowship and setting out to destroy the Ring in Mordor. In the second book: The Two Towers, the fellowship is divided as the stories follow the split groups of characters, explaining why the word Frodo becomes less frequent. Frodo is the second most frequent word in all three novels, and the most frequent in the Fellowship of the Ring than any of the other novels. The frequency of the word Frodo in the first book verifies that he is the principal character of The Fellowship of the Ring and that the story focuses on Frodo’s adventure from his comfortable home in the Shire to the desolate ash-covered lands in Mordor. This high-frequency word informs the reader of Frodo’s importance in The Fellowship of the Ring’s narrative.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s  The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Characters like Aragorn are mentioned twice as frequently and Merry and Pippin are slightly more frequently mentioned in this novel than any of the other novels. The frequency of these character’s names increases from the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers due to how the story shifts from Frodo’s quest to the individual quests of all of the Fellowship members. The Fellowship of the Ring focuses on the importance of Frodo and his journey to destroy the One Ring. In the Two Towers, the fellowship separates into three groups. Frodo and Sam continue on their journey to destroy the ring; Merry and Pippin, who were captured by Orcs and taken to Isengard; and Aragorn, Gimli and Legolass, who are hunting the Orc party that kidnapped the two hobbits on their way to Isengard. Aragorn, along with Legolass and Gimli, is  tasked with finding the kidnapped hobbits Merry and Pippin. During their long trek across the horse-lord lands of Rohan, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolass run into the Rohirrim whose corrupt King Theoden has left his kingdom in the hands of the enemy. The story shifts to the three characters aiding Rohan throughout the novel and eventually leading to the battle of Helm’s Deep in which the Orc armies of Saruman attack Rohan’s defensive keep. Simultaneously, Merry and Pippin run into an Ent (also known as a Tree herder, which is a lifelike walking tree) who protects the forest of Fangorn. Merry and Pippin beg the Ents to help the Fellowship defend Rohan against Saruman’s armies, but have trouble convincing them. Since the story shifts from Aragorn, Legolass and Gimli to Merry and Pippin, as well as Frodo and Sam, we see detailed stories written from each character from their perspectives instead of the first book primarily focussing on Frodo’s quest. The overarching narrative of The Two Towers reflects this shift in narrative as the book drifts from Frodo’s journey to destroy the ring to the three different groups each having their own quests. This is why the word said is the most frequent in this book. The Two Towers is heavily focused on the politics of Rohan and Gondor before the ring is destroyed and deals with communication between the fellowship members, and the leaders and men of Rohan and Gondor to ensure that Middle Earth can stand against Sauron and his legions of Mordor. In the passage below from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers the word said appears 6 times in one passage and is the part of the narrative where this word is seen most frequently.

“’We have come at last to a hard choice,’ he said. ‘Shall we rest by

night, or shall we go on while our will and strength hold?’

‘Unless our enemies rest also, they will leave us far behind, if we

stay to sleep.’ said Legolas. ‘Surely even Ores must pause on the march?’

said Gimli. ‘Seldom will Ores journey in the open under the sun. yet these

have done so,’ said Legolas. ‘Certainly they will not rest by night.’

‘But if we walk by night, we cannot follow their trail,’ said Gimli.

‘The trail is straight, and turns neither right nor left, as far as my eyes can see,’ said Legolas” (Tolkien, The Two Towers).

In this passage, Legolas and Gimli converse about finding the orc part which kidnapped the hobbits Merry and Pippin. This type of conversation is repeated throughout the novel, and establishes the theme of communication. The story shifts from Frodo’s narrative in the first novel to the narratives of each individual character in the fellowship and that shift is reflected in the higher frequency of each character’s name. In addition, the word said is the most common in this novel due to the increased volume of communication between the aforementioned characters.

In Tolkien’s The Return of the King, Tolkien wraps up the story with the destruction of the One Ring. While in the movies the story comes to a conclusion after the demise of  Sauron, the books have many different events following the Ring’s destruction. Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and leader of men, as well as marrying his beloved Arwen of Rivendell. The Hobbits also return to the Shire to see that Saruman has taken over their homeland and enslaved all their people. An entire chapter of the book called The Scourging of the Shire shows the four Hobbit heroes rise up and start a rebellion in their homeland to end Saruman’s rule. After some small political decisions such as Aragorn going into the East to stop the continued worship of Sauron, Frodo sets out with Bilbo to visit the Undying lands of Valinor in the West. The many different conclusions of each individual character’s story explains the overall lack of frequent words in this novel compared to the first or second. In the terms tab in Voyant, it is apparent the word men is extremely frequent in this novel because Middle Earth was being recreated for the race of men. In the Lord of the Rings, men refers to the race of man or humans, not to the gender of the beings of Middle Earth. After the Ring’s destruction, the Elves leave Middle-Earth to Valinor, never to return; and the Dwarves eventually dig themselves deep into the mountains never to be heard of again. This leaves Men and Hobbits left in Middle Earth which are the primary races remaining in Tolkien’s world. The kingdoms of Men are restored in this novel when Aragorn is crowned, and when he liberates the easterling Men from Sauron’s tyranny, as well as setting up bastions to protect the Shire after the Scourging of the Shire when Saurman takes rule. This novel concludes the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and has stories dense in lore that create a realistic fantasy environment that makes it such a lovable series. It is no surprise that the word men is frequently used in this novel to display the importance of the race of men to the ending of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium.

Word frequency clearly equates importance in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. An image of the Cirrus tab shows the most commonly-appearing words used throughout Tolkien’s three novels. Some obvious names that a reader of the Lord of the Rings would expect such as Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. Frodo is the main focus of the three books and his quest to destroy the One Ring and Sauron, so a reader would expect this word to come up due to his importance throughout the novels. Gandalf is the all knowing wizard that guides the fellowship from Rivendell through Moria where he falls to the Balrog, but since Gandalf’s task in Middle Earth wasn’t finished, he was sent back stronger than before as Gandalf the White to finish his efforts in aiding the destruction the Ring, but also an advisor to Aragorn. For Aragorn’s importance, he is one of the long descendants of King Anarian, and furthermore King Isildur who faced Sauron and cut the One Ring from his finger. The line of Kings in Gondor ended many years ago during the 2nd age and the stewards continued to rule Gondor through the War of the Ring so Aragorn’s role in the novels is to do what his ancestor Isildur couldn’t by aiding in the Ring’s destruction as well as restoring the line of kings in Gondor. Aragorn is also the protector of the Fellowship and a protector of his people. The frequency of these characters is proof that they are vital to the story of the Lord of the Rings.

Looking through the links tab in Voyant, it is apparent that Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels are heavily related to Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring… although he fails his quest and the ring is destroyed only by Gollum slipping off the rock into Orodruin (Mt. Doom). It is apparent that the characters that Frodo has the most conversation and relationship with are Gandalf and Sam. After the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and Sam are split from the rest of the fellowship at the Falls of Rauros East of Rohan, and eventually meet up again in the Fields of Cormallen in North Ithilien after the Ring was destroyed. I’m actually quite surprised that Gollum or Smeagol (the same character, but Smeagol was his Hobbit’s name and Gollum is the name he is given based on the coughing sounds he makes) wasn’t found anywhere easily in Voyant. Gollum/Smeagol does not as frequently due to the fact that he was called both names many times throughout the novels. He is called Gollum at first due to the Gollum sounds he makes when clearing his throat, but as Frodo grows compassionate for him he starts to call him by his original name of Smeagol. Looking at Aragorn, there is no connection to Frodo due to these two characters only being in the same vicinity as each other in the Fellowship of the Ring, but that doesn’t mean Aragorn is not vital to the story. Aragorn is one of the more important characters though and the series’ focus is more about how Aragorn takes up his ancestor’s role of restoring the line of Kings in Gondor, and how the overall story is setting up the world to be led by Men since the Elves depart to Valinor shortly after the One Ring is destroyed. Aragorn alone is mentioned a total of 582 times across all three of the novels. Frodo who is the main character of the novels is mentioned 1429 times. Although Frodo is the main character and his quest to destroy the Ring is vital to all books, the narrative of all three novels is centered on the explanation that Middle Earth is left for Men. As mentioned, the high-frequency use of the word men affirms the importance of the race of men’s story on Middle Earth.

The Cirrus and Terms tab in Voyant can be used to examine the relationship between the word and story from each novel as well. In the Cirrus part of Voyant, the word Said is the most common word in all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. The word is said 3,071 times throughout all three books. Looking through the Terms tab, we can see the trend that words have throughout the novels, and their relative frequency for each novel. The relative frequency for the word said in the Fellowship of the Ring is around 7,929 while it has a much higher frequency in the Return of the King at 8,493 and the highest in the Two Towers at 9,920. One possible explanation as to why it is much lower in the Fellowship of the Ring than any of the other books is due to how much travelling is done in that book compared to any other. The Fellowship of the Ring glosses over speech much more than the other two books due to how much of the story is set up at the beginning of the novel as well. The reason why the frequency for said is highest in the second book compared to the third is because of how the third book has many descriptive endings to it that are stories being told rather than the characters experiencing them themselves, whereas in the second novel, we see the most communication between characters. It is also apparent that the character names Frodo, Aragorn and Pippin are all heavily linked to the word Said, but not to each other. This is due to how each of these characters are separated after the first novel, but still heavily linked to the story and their communication with the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth. In The Fellowship of the Ring the story of the three novels is established and the vast majority of the travel is from the Shire to the river Anduin, which is approximately 1,200 miles away. The Two Towers and the Return of the King focus more about what happens in Rohan, Gondor and Mordor and are less about the journey and more about how the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth will band together to defeat the armies of Mordor.  Many commonly-seen words also include came, went, and away. Some may believe that The Lord of the Rings is mostly about the battles and war, which is partly true. While there are some great battles in the novels such as the Battle of the Hornburg and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the books focus more on the politics of the provinces such as Rohan, Gondor and Eriador as well as the Fellowship’s goal of defeating Sauron through the destruction of the One Ring. In layman’s terms, the Lord of the Rings is a book about a group of people walking from one side of the world to the other while having some inconveniences along the way. Deeper examination of Tolkien’s texts and with the help of Voyant, it is evident that there is a connection between the frequency of words in each novel and the narrative. 

Works Cited

“Time and Distance Travelled in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit – LotrProject.” The Lord of the Rings Family Tree Project, lotrproject.com/timedistance/.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. the Return of the King. HarperCollins, 1996.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring. HarperCollins, 2001.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. Harper Collins Publishers, 2012.

“Voyant Tools.” Voyant Tools, voyant-tools.org/.

“Ring, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Dragon, Magic, Metallic, Gollum, Tolkien, Shiny, Reflective.” Pxfuel, www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-xdlyb.