The Steward of Gondor, ruling the great city of Minas Tirith in the absence of a king. A man of formidable intellect and iron will, Denethor has spent decades holding Gondor's defences together against the growing shadow of Mordor. The cost of that long vigil has left him proud, suspicious, and increasingly brittle.

Boromir is the eldest son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, and the most conventionally heroic member of the Fellowship - a great warrior and captain who has spent his life defending his city against Sauron's forces. He joins the Fellowship representing Gondor's interests but is increasingly drawn to the Ring's power, believing it could be used to save his people. His attempt to take the Ring from Frodo at Amon Hen is the act that breaks the Fellowship, but his immediate remorse and his sacrificial last stand defending Merry and Pippin from the Uruk-hai redeem him. Boromir's struggle - the good man who falls to temptation but dies trying to make it right - is one of Tolkien's most human and compassionate portraits.

The younger son of Denethor, Captain of the Rangers of Ithilien. Where his brother Boromir was a warrior first, Faramir is a soldier who would rather be a scholar - thoughtful, gentle, and possessed of a moral clarity that his father mistakes for weakness.

Aragorn is the heir of Isildur - the last descendant of the ancient line of kings who once ruled the united kingdom of Arnor and Gondor. Raised in secret among the Elves of Rivendell under the name Strider, Aragorn has spent decades as a Ranger of the North, protecting the peoples of Middle-earth from the shadows without recognition or thanks. He joins the Fellowship of the Ring as its most experienced warrior and leader, carrying the shards of Narsil - the sword that cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand in the Second Age. Aragorn's journey from a wandering ranger to the crowned king of Gondor is one of the great arcs of The Lord of the Rings, intertwined with his love for the Elf Arwen Undómiel, whose choice to forsake immortality for him echoes the most famous love story in Tolkien's mythology.