Lord Of The Rings: Most Tragic Characters

The Lord of the Rings franchise is filled with fascinating lore and intriguing characters. However, despite the happy ending and defeat of Sauron, there was a lot of pain that came along with the victory. A lot of people had to suffer before the evils of Mordor were finally banished.

Many of these characters suffered multiple tragedies during the battles that took place throughout The Lord of the Rings. Others were influenced by Sauron and suffered greatly as a result. Many different characters had to deal with dire consequences, and that leaves a long list of people that fans may not like, but they should have some kind of sympathy for them as well.

8 Theoden

Embattled Leader Of Men

• Killed By The Witch King Of Angmar
• Suffered Many Personal Losses While Leading Rohan, Including The Death Of His Son

The King of Rohan himself, Theoden dealt with a lot of tragedy throughout his life. He married young to a wife who had died giving birth to his son, and never remarried, leaving him a lonely monarch in a troubled time. Then, during the events of Lord of the Rings, his only son was slain in the First Battle of the Fords of Isen.

Worse still, Theoden was unable to help because he had fallen under a spell of Saruman’s, enacted by Grima Wormtongue. When Gandalf broke the spell, Theoden found his kingdom in ruins and his heir dead. He marshaled his forces and saved Rohan, then rode to aid Gondor quickly after, but fell in the battle to the Witch King of Angmar, dying after a tumultuous and tragic life, despite always seeking to rule as a good man.

7 Thorin Oakenshield

Fell Ill To Greed

• Killed In A Battle He Was Responsible For Starting
• Couldn’t Step Away From Greed After Finally Returning Home

Thorin was one of the protagonists of the Hobbit trilogy, and he was a complex character. Absorbed as many tragic characters were by an external factor, Thorin became obsessed with the gold of the Lonely Mountain and reclaim his homeland, which led to his downfall as he and his dwarves isolated themselves and kick-started the battle of the five armies.

Stubborn to a fault, Thorin met his end during the battle which he was at least partially responsible for starting. The tragedy that he spent his entire life being beloved and leading his men towards this goal, only to achieve his victory and be too stubbornly focused on it to survive the fallout, helped make him one of the more tragic characters in the franchise.

6 Boromir

Redemption Only In Death

• Killed By Uruk-Hai Protecting The Hobbits
• Spent Years Fighting Mordor, Still Eventually Fell To The Power Of The Ring

Boromir had a generally good life, being beloved by all in Gondor. The closest thing the people there had to a beloved leader before Aragorn returned to take the throne, Boromir was his father’s favorite, but being a soldier of Gondor meant clashing constantly with the forces of Mordor throughout his life.

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To be denied the victory he so desperately sought for Gondor by the Council of Elrond was a harsh blow for a man who had watched his friends die in battle to Mordor for many years. It makes sense that he was easily led by the ring to the edge of betraying Frodo. Even then, he managed to come back to his senses quickly and helped protect Frodo and Sam’s escape, dying defending Merry and Pippin in one last great battle against the forces of darkness. A thankless life, and an end that left him better remembered for his failures than his successes, Boromir was tragic in a truly heartbreaking way.

5 Denethor

Consumed By Depression & Madness

• Killed By His Own Madness & Depression
• Kept Gondor Strong For Years In The Face Of Mordor

Denethor was one of the few characters in Lord of the Rings depicted as being too strong to fall to the will of Sauron, despite the incredible amount of pressure placed on him by the forces of Mordor. Denethor’s wife died when their sons were ten and five, leaving him already a much more grim man than before.

This was followed by his use of a Palantir, which didn’t corrupt him with Sauron’s power as it did to Saruman, but still depressed him further due to it showing him the true might of Sauron’s strength. Finally, Denethor gave in completely to the years of fighting, the loss of his family’s power in the face of Aragorn’s return, and most of all the loss of his beloved son Boromir. This led to Denethor’s suicide during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, leaving his legacy tarnished beyond repair, despite the many years he led Gondor and kept it strong in the face of the rising power of Mordor.

4 Elrond

Heartbreak Weighs Heavy On The Immortal Elf

• Left For The Gray Havens Of His Own Choice
• Suffered More Loss Than Most Elves Can Imagine

Elrond had a difficult and long life. Living for thousands of years before the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was one of the few still alive who had witnessed first-hand the events of Sauron’s first defeat. Before that, this half-elf saw his parents leave him, his brother chose a human life, and then his wife was inflicted with a wound that forced her to the gray havens early to wait for him.

Not only that, Elrond had to see the deaths of Gil-Gilad and Elendil happen in vain since Isildur refused to destroy the One Ring after taking it from Sauron. Finally, Elrond was forced to take his leave of Middle Earth and return at last to his wife, only to inform her that their daughter Arwen would never join them there, having also chosen to live and die a mortal life. This consistency of heartbreak shows how hard a life Elrond had.

3 Saruman

The Greatest Of The Wizards Fell To Dark & Twisted Power

• Killed By Grima Wormtongue
• Sent By The Gods To Protect Middle Earth From Sauron

Saruman is a complex character, one cannot turn on all principles and ideals after thousands of years without a great deal of complexity being involved. The first of the Istari, emissaries sent by the Valar to help Middle Earth during the Third Age, Saruman was one of the greatest forces in the world, but his ambition and lust for power led to him falling to Sauron.

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His use of the Palantir was too much for him to resist, and he joined Sauron and became his greatest asset, almost overwhelming Rohan and delivering the realms of men to Sauron on a plate. Saruman’s tragedy was in going from the greatest hope of light to a pawn of darkness, but his ending, after failing to see that he was using Gríma as a pawn just as Sauron was using him and being killed by him, was all the more tragic.

2 Frodo Baggins

Bearer Of The One Ring, The Greatest Burden

• Left For The Gray Havens Without Choice
• Suffered More For Middle Earth Than Anyone

Frodo Baggins was a happy hobbit living in the Shire who was taken on a grand adventure due to his relation to Bilbo. While his uncle chose the adventure he was taken on in The Hobbit, Frodo was given much less choice in the matter. He took on the burden of the one ring for himself because he wanted to spare others the feeling of it after he’d realized the strength of its power.

Frodo was stabbed on Weathertop by a Nazgûl, early in his journey, and that wound never fully healed. He had to leave his friends and his home to go to the Grey Havens, not experiencing the full joy of Middle Earth after the destruction of Sauron as his friends got to. He suffered for them all but never got the recognition for his sacrifices.

1 Gollum

Twisted Into A Monster For The One Ring’s Power

• Killed By His Own Design Jumping After The Ring In Mount Doom
• Suffered Hundreds Of Years Of Possessing The Ring

Sméagol or Gollum was a creature bathed in tragedy. His immediate falling to the ring showed a lack of willpower to resist it, which became apparent as it twisted him over hundreds of years of possession, turning him into a creature of madness that didn’t even remember who he was before the ring.

Worse still, Gollum was tortured for information on it after it was taken by Bilbo. By the end of his life, which he gave attempting to grab the ring one last time, he had proven beyond all doubt that he was a slave to the will of the one ring and could not be saved from its clutches. This was the ultimate tragedy in Lord of the Rings, that this poor being was unable to break away from forced enslavement after hundreds of years.

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