Why the Lord of the Rings?

[the phantom]

"The Quest of the Ring," I suppose, is a possibility, but somehow that isn't as mysterious and alluring as "The Lord of the Rings." Somehow that title -- to me, anyway -- implies something dark, and epic.

That's exactly what I was going to say before I read your post.

The Lord of the Rings is an awesome title- the kind that makes you stop when you are scrolling through a list of books. It makes you think ooh- what's that book about?

The longer title... it just gives too much away. There are too many known things in the title.

Downfall- we know what that means
King- we know what a king is
Return- we know what it is to return

Where as the short title...
The Lord of the Rings- Umm, what's a Lord of the Rings? Is it some guy? Is he bad? Why does he rule rings?

The title definitely makes the book sound more mysterious.

Plus, the long version of the title would just be too much to stick on a book cover.