The Lord of the Rings

"The Lord of the Rings": Sign of the King

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, characters interpret ancient lore and rhymes in order to discern events in the present in much the same way that Christians interpret Old Testament prophecies to predict the coming of Christ.

In the third book of the trilogy, The Return of the King, the hero, Aragorn, who is the rightful claimant to the throne of Gondor, returns to the city Minas Tirith. He is victorious in the battle against the dark lord Sauron, but he's not yet able to claim the throne.

He enters the city in disguise in order to go to the Houses of Healing. There he seeks to heal his friends who were struck in battle. As he performs this healing, one of the attendants repeats an ancient verse: "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known."

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings; submitted by F. Bradford Townley, Dover, Massachusetts