[Firefoot]

Fordim, another great thread topic!

I agree with Essex that the story is too complex to call just 'linear' or just 'circular'. I suppose that depending on your perspective it could be either or. But the way I see it is that it is both. It is linear in the fact that the characters go from point A to point B and they take these steps to get there and they change in these ways. However, it is also circular in that points A and B are the same point, for the Hobbits anyway: the Shire (though I suppose for Frodo it is more like a lasso: the Shire.... the Shire, and then the Undying Lands).

Or is the story circular? But if this is so, then is it in some manner like the Ring in that it closes in on itself and “goes nowhere”?

I would say that yes the story is in some respects circular, as I outlined above, but that doesn't mean it "goes nowhere." The characters (I'll stick with the hobbits for now) go on a life-changing journey and come back very different. They have all changed, and grown, from what they were previously. They are not the same hobbits that left a year ago. I don't see how you can call that going nowhere, even if they end at the same spot. If I was to walk around my block, I would end up back at my house. I have gone in a complete circle. Have I gone nowhere? One might argue that I have: I am at the same place I started, and unless something happened on that walk, I have probably not changed a bit. However, the hobbits' journey is not a walk around the block: they have all gone through hardships (some greater than others) and come back stronger from it. Brings to mind the saying "What does not kill us will make us stronger."

is it a linear story that moves from beginning, through the middle, and toward the end? If this is so, then presumably we are working toward some kind of resolution and conclusion. But then, if this is the case, then is it not at the very least ironic that this “straight road” leads back to the very place where it began?

It that way, yes it is linear. You have a beginning, a middle, and an end, each going through several steps to get us there. It does conclude itself with Frodo etc going to the undying lands and Sam returning to the Shire. As you pointed out, the events of the story are also cyclical, so maybe you end up with a figure shaped like a spring? Point A to Point B, but the events in some ways repeating themselves. I suppose you might say that it is ironic that this road goes back to where it started, though perhaps JRRT did that on purpose? In that case, it would be ironic for the characters inside the story, but not necessarily for the story itself.

So in conclusion, I will say that it is impossible to fully describe a complex, 3-dimensional story like LotR with flat figures like circles and lines. There is too much going on, too many characters and events, or "rings and roads" as you so well put it.