In The Return of the King, Tolkien provides the reader not only with satisfactory conclusions to a multiplicity of story lines, but also with a general sense of completion, as if something real has been accomplished, something beyond reading a book. Not only has Tolkien created something, but he has found a way for the reader not only to appreciate his creative act, but to take part in it. Like Gandalf chanting a magic spell, Tolkien has succeeded in creating through words what can only be thought of as another world, one that seems very much real in many respects. That he was able to do so, or at least that so many different readers from several generations could come to believe that he had done so, can hardly be questioned. Nor can we question the simple fact that Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings changed...