The Gondor of The Lord of the Rings was a shell of its former self. In J. R. R. Tolkien's novels, he explained that Gondor's halcyon days took place over 2,000 years before the events of The Lord ...

It's fitting then, that The Return of the King ends with his ascension to the throne, tempered by wisdom and experience and, above all, humility, as the Fourth Age of Middle-earth begins.