In this season finale of The Classical Mind, Father Wesley Walker and Dr. Junius Johnson bring their epic journey through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy to a close with The Return of the King. Picking up from the alternating structural threads of the narrative, Junius and Wesley delve into why Book Five stands out as a high-water mark for epic storytelling. They unpack Tolkien’s mastery of war narrative—drawing comparisons to Homer’s Iliad—showing how Middle-earth’s sweeping macro-level conflicts are fundamentally decided by micro-level acts of individual courage and moral choice.
Endnotes:
Junius: Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Wesley: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King video game
