Which volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was published in 1955?

The Return of the King was the volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings published in 1955.

George Allen & Unwin published The Return of the King on 20 October 1955. It was the third and final volume of the work, following The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954 and The Two Towers in 1954.

The volume covers the final stages of the War of the Ring, including the siege of Minas Tirith, the destruction of the One Ring, and the consequences for the surviving characters. Its title refers to Aragorn’s return to the throne.

Tolkien originally conceived The Lord of the Rings as one continuous work, not three independent novels. The three-volume format was adopted for publishing and production reasons, which is why the volumes are often called books rather than separate novels.