i take this quote from ROTK, at Aragorn's coronation, and because this quote has always lingered with me, i have to admit i have always thought of Gandalf as the Hero, as he also does do very Heroic acts.

well guys, you have to not just take these three characters into your view. You have to take the entire books into porportion.

i.e. If Aragorn wasn't there at Weathertop to head off the Nazgul, Frodo would have perished, and no one else would truly of had the will to carry the ring to Mordor.

If Glorfindel hadn't of rode Frodo to the Bruinen, Frodo would've died.

If Gandalf didn't take down the Balrog, the company would've perished.

If Merry and Pippin didn't distract the Orcs away from Frodo, they would've chased after him and captured him.

The the Ents hadn't of assaulted Isengard and if Gandalf hadn't brought Eomer to Helm's Deep, the world of men would have failed.


I can point out so many more reasons.

If Smeagol went against his word and took the ring in Frodo's sleep (very easily I might add), he could've ran off with the ring, soon to be caught by Orcs, but, it was because Frodo went against Sam's plead and trusted Smeagol that Smeagol overcame Gollum (his other personality) and restrained himself from taking the ring. (At first).

AND, if Tom hadn't of saved the four Hobbits from the Barrow-Wight, then they would've all been screwed.

Almost every character in the books were the heroes, (except for Grima, Saruman, Sauron, etc.)

Hope my advice was helpful.

Merry and Pippin didn't distract any orcs in the book, their last contact with Frodo was right before he went for his little walk so he could think.

Gandalf didn't bring Eomer to Helm's Deep, he brought Erkenbrand and the scattered men of Westfold, who had been routed by the march of the Uruks of Isengard.

Yes I agree. Only PJ thinks that Eomer was brought by Gandalf to Helm's Deep, sigh sigh, he should have asked me to be a consultant... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Effectively, most characters were heroes but not many can be catalogued as The True Hero of the LOTR.

I will proclaim J.R.R Tolkien as that one person, and regret for ever not having been able to meet him and talk through the book with him.

I agree with what most of you wrote, that there is no single hero but many heroes in LotR.
But as for the main character... I can't decide between Frodo and Sam. In any case the whole tale is seen with the eyes of the hobbits! In the beginning, certainly I see Frodo as the main character. It maybe as Lyta says, that in the last part of the book Sam "takes over" because we wouldn't be able to follow Frodo. But on the other hand, as Lindil wrote, Sam is really the character with whom we can relate best. None of the others reveals so much of their thoughts or feelings.
As early as 1944 Tolkien wrote in letter #93:

I think to create the 'hero' of the trilogy you would have to mix all the characters together and that is what perhaps Tolkien intended. With reference to Harry Potter (sorry guys!) there are 3 'main' characters; Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry is perhaps considered the most brave but Hermione has the brains and Ron has the sense of humour- mix these qualities together and you would have the perfect person BUT it would be a false representation. This is perhaps what Tolkien thought. Therefore, the hobbits (whom not many have heard of eg Treebeard) are the unlikely heros as someone pointed out. There are almost perfect men such as Aragorn and lesser such as Boromir although they have the ability to reject their faults. Then Legolas and Gimli are hard working and ready to forget past differences. Finally, there is Gandalf- he has great wisdom and guides the fellowship onwards.

The whole Fellowship contain certain qualities such as the ability to hope, to strive onwards and work together. Although each have their faults. Without these faults there would be no story, as there would be no ring or dark lord in the first place. Tolkien has used human faults but just extended the idea.

Like several people have implied (or gone a long ways about saying), I hold that Tolkien, rather than making a clear and central hero, or even just one character with heroic traits, instead made a lot of characters who show the aspects of a hero. So perhaps:

Frodo
Aragorn
Pippin
Sam
Eowyn
+Boromir
_________

Hero