‘Lord of the Rings’ has always been beloved. The pandemic reminded us just how great it is

They weren’t meant to be heroes.

But when a mission that would determine the fate of their little world and the much wider one was foisted upon them, they heeded the call.

“Lord of the Rings” is the story of unlikely heroes who rise to the occasion, who give up the joys of first and second breakfasts to do what’s right.

But it’s also a story that is ours — we who have lived through a pandemic that’s irrevocably changed the world as we knew it, forcing us to make choices and upend our lives in ways we likely never considered.

Peter Jackson’s theatrical adaptation of “The Fellowship of the Ring” was released 20 years ago this month, just three months after the September 11th attacks.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” And, as a fictional road map for how to live throughout unprecedented times, “Lord of the Rings” is one that will endure.

“Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home?” he wrote.

Tolkien started writing while recovering in a hospital bed from an illness he contracted during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

She wanted to finally understand the memes she’d been seeing everywhere — remember when it was impossible to escape variations of Sean Bean’s Boromir saying “one does not simply walk into Mordor”? And so she read “The Hobbit,” a prequel novel that follows Frodo’s uncle Bilbo and his own dalliance with the One Ring , and the “Lord of the RIngs” and then watched all six films based on the books.

Even when the ring’s corrosive power starts to wear down his dear “Mr. Frodo,” Sam is his staunchest supporter, saving his life and restoring his faith to finally destroy the One Ring.

In January 2020, on a whim, he started a YouTube channel — “Nerd of the Rings” — where he dissects esoteric elements of “Lord of the Rings” and the wider world of Middle-earth.

“As a father who has experienced the heartbreak of miscarriages, Théoden’s grief at the loss of his son and his declaring ‘no parent should have to bury their child’ cuts directly to my core,” Graf said.

It’s a testament to the strength of the story that all of them still hold up — and that new members are still being drawn to its substantial fellowship.

Graf found a community of like-minded Tolkienites with “Nerd of the Rings,” which has now grown to more than 400,000 subscribers.

The results are giddy and delightful — in one episode, Astin, Monaghan and Boyd collapsed into giggles remembering how excited Jackson was to show them a CGI preview of Middle-earth’s foliage when the jetlagged cast first landed in New Zealand.

Olsen, meanwhile, is leading classes on Tolkien’s works at Signum University and hosting weekly programs that dissect the books.

And Astin is embarking on his fourth “cover-to-cover journey” through Middle-earth, this time with members of his book club on the app Fable.

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