<P> Another kind of courage was defined by Tolkien in the difference between humility and the arrogant desire for glory . While Sam follows Frodo out of loyalty and would die for him, characters like Boromir are driven by pride and would risk the lives of others for their personal glory . Likewise the rejecting of the ring by Sam, Faramir, and Galadriel can be seen as a courageous rejection of power and glory and of the personal renown that defeating Sauron would have brought about . Tolkien has commented on this theme in an essay on The Battle of Maldon . </P> <P> From the beginning of Tolkien's mythos, there has been a consistent theme of great beauty and joy failing and disappearing before the passage of time and the onslaught of the powers of evil . Fëanor, prince of the Noldor, first loses his father and then his greatest creations, the Silmarils, through the machinations of the evil Morgoth . By his fault Elven blood is for the first time spilled on the ground of Eldamar, and the Noldor give away both their home and their innocence . Mandos proclaims judgement over the Noldor and reveals to them that none of them shall find peace or rest until their oath has been fulfilled or their souls come to the House of Spirits . </P> <P> In one of the appendices to The Return of the King, after more than two hundred years of life Aragorn dies in his deathbed, leaving behind a lonely and now - mortal Arwen, who travels to what is left of Lothlórien to herself die on a flat stone next to the river Nimrodel, having returned to one of the few places of true happiness she knew in her life . </P> <P> This theme is seen in the weight of the past borne in the language of the whole novel and in specific portions, such as Gilraen's linnod and the Lament of the Rohirrim . </P>

What is the theme of lord of the rings