The Iron Ring follows an epic structure. Epics were originally poems that told stories; they would follow at length the fortunes of war or the fabulous adventures of people caught in events much larger than themselves.

The central characters nearly always grow in some significant way. In Homer's Iliad, Achilles grows from a pouting, spoiled, and childish man into a warrior with the stature to make the moral choice between a lifetime of honor and a premature death that will save the lives of many Greek warriors; in Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus endures many travails, as Tamar does, before arriving at his goal. The Iron Ring features an epic journey, many obstacles that must be overcome, a goal to be reached, and like the Iliad and Odyssey, a concern with the issues of leadership and moral behavior.