My two cents on the discussion about Witch-king vs. Eowyn/Merry: it seems to me (and I'm new at this) that teamwork (aka fellowship) was a major theme of the story, so perhaps the Witch-king was defeated by a pair of brave souls rather than one hero. That's one of the differences about this story that appeals to me so much. Besides, perhaps courage is not the absence of fear but the presence of "guts" in spite of almost losing bladder control. Both Eowyn and Merry faced an enemy who seemed far more powerful than either of them, and that is seriously cool. I think the reason they defeated him was the-sum-is greater-than-its-parts phenomenon called friendship.
Personally, I give cool points to Bilbo, who, from my limited knowledge, was the only ring-bearer to voluntarily give up the ring (not counting Sam who held it for 5 minutes
). Perhaps it's more a matter of Bilbo's virtuousness, but still pretty cool. Now, for just plain "wow-factor" my vote for the coolest character would be Galadriel. Being able to accurately size someone up in an instant would be very cool indeed. Besides, she could have grabbed the ring and didn't... whata woman!