I loved returning to Middle-Earth <3
Everything is so lovingly crafted in The Lord of the Rings and has such background and history, like a perfect clockwork.
Some random observations per book below, if one has never read the books or seen the movie don't dive in.

Prologue:
- Interesting how the prologue is an info dump on hobbits and smoking, far from a traditional setup of a large adventure
- The last prologue says a lot about the fourth age, and sons of characters we well known from LotR

Book 1:
- How old do hobbits become normally that 33 is the threshold of adulthood?
- 22 september is Bilbo/Frodo day!
- If that’s queer, we could do with a bit more queerness in these parts

n  Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I clutched at books…

-Richard Wright, Black Boyn

If you want a purely enraptured detailing all of and only of love provoked by these pages, look elsewhere. If you desire an analysis of the fundamental roots of fantasy and how this book fits in within the wider scope of the literary genre, it is not here. If you crave a complete and utter breakdown of all the faults this novel begets on the larger realm of reality, you will be unsatisfied. I have nothing that goes fully one way, or the other, or even some objective mixture of the three. Instead, I have a story. Perhaps you wish to read it.

For better or for worse, I never found a home within the house and its mortal constituents that I was brought up in. Mind you, every sort of physical sustenance was assured, and there was never a lack for the more mercantile requirements of a modern upbringing. However, financial stability is no substitute for emotional well being, and my younger self found the latter only through those curiously tied together stacks of paper, often very weighty and filled with all manner of tiny squiggles and the occasional picture. The most powerful of these objects, the ones that granted the sort of comforting balance of the familiar and the novel, were the three battered and yellowing paperbacks of The Lord of the Rings. I have faint memories of my first devouring, but can still clearly recall my feeling of surprised gratification upon watching the 2001 live-action of The Fellowship of the Ring and finding it worthy of the book it sought to portray.

I was ten years old at the time, and still had much to learn.

For this book of my childhood, this book that formulated my love for literature that has only increased as the years go by, is not perfect. This book spoke as easily as it did to my younger self for reasons of both personal upbringing and dominant culture, the kind of English values and European sensibilities that I am descended from and sways the world in an obstinately oppressive manner to this day. It is not surprising, then, that this novel has proved to be so popular and so overwhelmingly powerful in is influence, to the point of it being credited with spawning the fantasy genre by the more fanatic of its upholders. An unlawful accreditation, to be sure, and a dangerously attractive one, to swallow wholesale the attributes utilized and commended by this one piece of work. A work that, through a combination of its monumental following and easy moralizing, promotes upon the world today a view of life that is vicious in its intolerance of all of those who did not fit within Tolkien's privileged sensibilities.

Slowly but surely, I matured from a young child enamored with this single literary achievement into an adult for whom this one work, no matter how lengthy or detailed, is not enough. And somewhere along the way, I had to make a choice. Whether to hold fast to this one work in an everlasting fit of idolatrous sentiment, or to strike out on my own past this one set of pages in search of something more. Whether to reconcile to the work, or to reconcile the work to myself. For as much as the work is treacherous and blind to the wider realities, it was also the origin of my passion for the written word in all its esoteric and long winded forms. To deny that would be to not only deny the history of my self, but also to deny the history of the world entire, a world whose beginnings were not just, were not kind, were not welcoming to each and every soul brought into its plains of varied existence.

And so, I love The Lord of the Rings. I love its valuing of the good and the righteous in the larger scheme of things, as well as its caring for the happy and peaceful lives of the small. I love the winding descriptions through hill and dale, over crag and cranny, the swift sailing across the mighty rivers and the painful treks across barren slag, a delighting in the natural world and all its tangible glory that I feel today's modern sense should not do without. I love the page after page of sights, and sounds, and most of all the strains of knowledge threading and shaping their way through every rock and field, the sheer amount of history that this world has seen, the ancient events that have trickled their way down and lead the insatiably wondrous journey for further erudition ever on. I love the fearful superstitions that give way to enlightened respect, the long bred enmities that slowly but surely are broken down into new-found bonds of mutual understanding, the persistent and rarely rewarded effort to restrain from killing when there is a chance of further life leading to something more.

What I hate is when those who have read the book seek to impose the letter of the matter onto the experience of every reader, using the book as bigoted shield against the natural progression of time. What I hate is when those who profess to love the work have made such a mockery of loving it that the only humane response to such an outburst is to hate the work wholesale. What I loathe and utterly despise is the poisonous formation of sides when it comes this book and indeed any work of literature, a refusal to consider a book as a mix of both good and bad that can never be fully or easily reconciled in the mind of those insistent on thinking in terms of black and white. Indeed, much of what I hate in relation to this book can be applied to the world at large, still trenchant in fumbling antagonism when those who oppress wonder at the violence of the oppressed, again and again choosing shoddy half measures of solutions cloaked in lies and, worst of all, complete lack of interest in seeing past the lies.

I can no longer go back home, to the first opening of these pages that birthed my confidence in finding a place in terms of literature and, indeed, the world at large. If I truly wish to say I love this book, I must reconcile this love to all of that I have learned, and lived, and measure by measure acknowledge the influence of my younger years and the wisdom I will gain in the future that has yet to come. I must come to terms with the fact that Tolkien, this author to whom I owe so much, would likely despise me, a member of that so called fairer sex that throughout these pages was constantly placed on a domestic and debilitated pedestal, a member who has the engraving of the One Ring tattooed upon her back. For he hated to see the image appropriated for wider use, and saw it as a symbol of evil that did not deserve to be venerated for the intricacy of its design or the connotations of its formation.

To that I say, too bad. The author created this world out of a passionate love for language and all its myriad veins of influence in the cultures it births and the land it names, and its lengthy prose and detailed care set the stage for my confident desire to discover further works of literature, no matter how long in script or difficult in absorption. The author also created a seductive illusion of black and white, insidious eugenics and obstinate tradition, a full embracing of which would indeed grant much power in the realm where those who love the work congregate in great numbers and often in great ignorance. When Tolkien created the One Ring, and carved out its fiery script on the pages of his monumental tome, he created the true symbol of his beloved Middle Earth, one that may have been destroyed within the pages but lives on in the hearts who prefer a complex web of blindly formulaic undertakings to the true demands of creating a fair and just reality. However, he also called for applicability when it came to the reading of the work, preferring that readers find their own way through the pages in context with their own lives. And, finally, the book ends with the passing of the Age that fueled the pages, and the ending is coupled with the knowledge that the days of this story have ended, and for better or for worse will never come again.

And so, I chose a more permanent reminder of the influence that this book has had on me, and do not claim that my interpretation has sway over any others. I simply ask that when reading this work, keep in mind all that has gone into it, as well what has yet to come. Most importantly, acknowledge the differing views and the inherent validity of each and every one, the admirable attributes that are worthy of conservation and the atrocious remnants that must be transformed but whose history of occurrence must never, ever, be forgotten. In short, use well the days.

I cannot change the first steps I took in this world of written word that has shaped my life in so many ways, nor would I want to. This love of mine in no way resembles the clean cut symbol of a heart used in so many cards and printed doings, but the incontrovertible yet fragile pulsing of my heart that, for all its bloody ugliness, is my one and only source of living. And, in the effort of living on through many days of hope, and change, reconciliation upon transformation upon ever constant growing, I wouldn't give it up for the world.

n  The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.n

Home is where the heart is. And, here, I shall ever return.

Wow - I have just stumbled on this fantastic quote about Tolkien from China Mieville (via GR friends Traveller and Cecily!) and it absolutely sums up the problem with Tolkien - even though I read him many years ago and even though I was enthralled and read him all over again, every word here is true :


"Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious - you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike - his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's clichés - elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings - have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader.

That is a revolting idea, and one, thankfully, that plenty of fantasists have ignored. From the Surrealists through the pulps - via Mervyn Peake and Mikhael Bulgakov and Stefan Grabinski and Bruno Schulz and Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison and I could go on - the best writers have used the fantastic aesthetic precisely to challenge, to alienate, to subvert and undermine expectations."

- China Mieville

Considering that The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular books of the last century, it's surprising to see how few reviews there are here. I get the impression that many people feel guilty about liking it. It's a phase you go through, and the less said about it, the better. I think this is unfair to the book, which, I am prepared to argue, is a whole lot better than it's generally made out to be; I don't think its huge success is just evidence that people have no taste. It's something that can be read at more than one level, and, before dismissing it, let's take a look at what those levels might be.

On the surface, it's a heroic fantasy novel, and quite a good one. It's a gripping, well-realized story, with an interesting fantasy world as background. Under the surface story, it's also clear that there's a moral discourse. It's not an allegory; as Tolkien points out in the foreword, he hated allegory, and we certainly don't have an in-your-face piece of Christian apology by numbers. None the less, the author has constructed some inspiring and thought-provoking symbols. The Ring confers great power, but the only way to defeat Sauron is to refuse that power, and destroy it, even at great personal cost. Frodo's self-sacrifice is quite moving. I also think that Gandalf is an unusually interesting Christ-figure; sufficiently so that many people refuse even to accept him as one, though, at least to me, the argument on that point seems convincing. He comes from Valinor, obviously the Heavenly Realm, to help the Free Peoples of the West. A central part of his message is the importance of mercy, as, in particular, shown by the memorable scene near the beginning, when he rebukes Frodo for wishing that Bilbo had killed Sméagol when he had the opportunity. As we discover, Sméagol is finally the one person who can destroy the Ring. And let's not miss the obvious point that Gandalf is killed, and then returns reborn in a new shape. I find him vastly more sympathetic than C.S. Lewis's bland Aslan, and he is the book's most memorable character.

But I don't think the morality play is the real kernel either. What makes LOTR a unique book, and one of the most ambitious experiments in literary history, is Tolkien's use of names. All authors knows how important names are, and use them to suggest character; though when you think about what is going on, it is rather surprising how much can be conveyed just by a name. Proust has a couple of long discussions about this, describing in great detail how the narrator's initial mental pictures of Balbec, Venice and the Guermantes family come just from the sounds of their names. Tolkien goes much further. Most of his names are based on a family of invented languages, linked by a vast complex of legends and histories, the greater part of which are invisible to the reader and only surface occasionally.

The astonishing thing is that the technique actually works. The interrelations between all the invented names and languages make Middle-Earth feel real, in a way no other fantasy world ever has. When some readers complain that characters and locations are hastily sketched, I feel they are missing the point. Tolkien was a philologist. He loved languages, words and names, and tracing back what the relationships between them say about their history. In LOTR, he's able to convey some of that love of language to his readers. You have to read the book more than once, but after a while it all comes together. To give just a few obvious examples, you see how "hobbit" is a debased form of the word holbytla ("hole-dweller") in the Old Norse-like language of Rohan, how the "mor" in "Moria" is the same as the one in "Mordor" and "morgul", and how Arwen Undómiel's name expresses her unearthly beauty partly through the element it shares with her ancestor Lúthien Tinúviel. There are literally hundred more things like this, most of which one perceives on a partly unconscious level. The adolescent readers who are typically captivated by LOTR are at a stage of their linguistic development when they are very sensitive to nuances of language, and programmed to pick them up; I can't help thinking that they are intuitively seeing things that more sophisticated readers may miss.

Perhaps the simplest way to demonstrate the magnitude of Tolkien's achievement is the fact that it's proven impossible to copy it; none of the other fantasy novels I've seen have come anywhere close. Tolkein's names lend reality to his world, because he put so much energy into the linguistic back-story, and before that worked for decades as a philologist. Basically, he was an extremely talented person who spent his whole life training to write The Lord of the Rings. In principle, I suppose other authors could have done the same thing. In practice, you have to be a very unusual person to want to live that kind of life.

Writing this down reminds me of one of the Sufi stories in The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mullah Nasrudin. The guy is invited to a posh house, and sees this incredibly beautiful, smooth lawn. It's like a billiard table. "I love your lawn!" he says. "What's the secret?"

"Oh," his host says, "It's easy. Just seed, water, mow and roll regularly, and anyone can do it!"

"Ah yes!" says the visitor, "And about how long before it looks like that?"

"Hm, I don't know," says the host. "Maybe... 800 years?"

4.5⭐️
حقش است. به جرات می‌گویم حقش است. خیلی از کسانی که زنده‌اند حقشان مرگ است. و خیلی از کسانی که می‌میرند حقشان زندگی است. تو می‌توانی ای زندگی را به آنها ببخشی؟ پس خیلی مشتاق نباش که به خاطر ترس از امنیت خودت به اسم عدالت مردم را به مرگ محکوم کنی. حتی خردمند هم نمی‌تواند انجام کار را ببیند.

مجموعه ارباب حلقه ها
رضا علیزاده
انتشارات روزنه

6⭐️
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
هابیت آنجا و بازگشت دوباره

5⭐️
The Silmarillion
سیلماریلیون

Tales of Middle Earth Series
4⭐️
The Children of Húrin
فرزندان هورین

Beren and Lúthien to-read
The Fall of Gondolin to-read
The Fall of Númenor to-read

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (BOOK 1)

I have been slowly rereading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien over the last few months and I’ve loved every moment of it. I read these fantasy books years ago, and I used to watch the films over and over again, so this is a series that has shaped my life.

The Fellowship of the Ring is a fantastic introduction to The Lord of the Rings. We begin the story in the Shire with Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. I love the Shire. It’s depicted in such a way that you can’t help but wish that you could live there!

It’s full of cheery hobbits who are eating, drinking, singing, growing crops, or smoking. It’s a relaxing life and makes for a wonderful few chapters.

If you read this book without knowing anything about the series then you might think that the ending of The Fellowship of the Rings doesn’t feel quite right – there isn’t an overarching plot as such.

That’s because you need to read the whole trilogy – or better yet, the full The Lord of the Rings book – as that is how the story is designed to be consumed. I’m not a fan of the structure of the individual books, but that doesn’t mean The Fellowship of the Ring is bad in any way!

The first part can feel a little slow, but as soon as Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam leave the Shire, the story really does take off. The main threat of this book is the Nazgûl, and they are terrifying! They are chasing the ring and have the name “Baggins” to search with.

History, lore, and language in The Fellowship of the Rings are incredible. Songs and poems are often told, depicting grand adventures or love stories – tales that have been told over decades. The amount of worldbuilding that J. R. R. Tolkien managed to slip into dialogue and descriptions without having huge exposition dumps is frustratingly incredible.

If you don’t fall in love with the story, then you’ll fall in love with the characters or the world or its history or the complexity of names and language. There is so much to appreciate in this book that I don’t think I could ever reread it enough in my lifetime to soak in every last detail.

THE TWO TOWERS (BOOK 2)

-possible spoilers for The Fellowship of the Ring-

Two stories are written in parallel to one another, rather than chronologically, so this review for The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien will be done in two parts.

The book begins (essentially) with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli following Saruman’s Uruk-hai
This plotline leads us to seeing and experiencing much more of Tolkien’s world than we had in The Fellowship of the Ring. This is where the story becomes epic – in every sense.

A lot of the information we get in The Two Towers is done through dialogue – whether that is the main characters talking to one another, or them overhearing other characters talking.

It’s a writing style that was a little jarring at first, but when the plot of The Two Towers starts to take over from what has been told (the “off-screen” scenes), it begins to pick up the pace and we are soon wrapped up in the adventure.

There are several moments of great character development with certain characters. It’s wonderful to see such complexity in the characters, and to watch as they grow and begin to fend for themselves.

There is a battle at one point (generalising so there are no spoilers) which is incredible. I’ve never read a battle depicted in such beautifully crafted language.

Unlike a lot of modern fantasy, the scenes are of course more classic, heroic scenes, rather than the brutal stuff we see in R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War or George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The scenes are, however, filled with tension and sometimes it’s nice to feel like we’re witnessing an epic adventure from classical myths.

The second plot arc follows Sam and Frodo as they make their way to destroy the ring
This is the slower of the two stories in The Two Towers, but it’s still fantastic as we see even more of the world and experience the wonderful friendship of the two hobbits. I think we can all agree that Sam is the best friend we all want in our lives.

The complexity of Gollum’s character was surprising as so often in fantasy from this era, the villains are just evil, but Gollum is of two minds and there are moments where we see him from Frodo’s perspective where we not only feel sorry for him too, but might also trust him.

Overall, this book has one story arc (the Aragorn plot) that feels like a complete story and the other is more of a bridging arc (Frodo and Sam) for what is to come in The Return of the King.

We see so much more of the world than in The Fellowship of the Ring and it’s wonderful to experience both the complex present and deep histories through the eyes of our main characters.

THE RETURN OF THE KING (BOOK 3)

-possible spoilers for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers-

The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the most satisfying and epic conclusions to a fantasy series. The plot splits off even more than in The Two Towers, so there are more arcs and characters to follow, and even more of the world to experience and explore.

Gandalf and Pippin’s storyline in The Return of the King is one of my favourites. Denethor – the Steward of Gondor – is an incredible character – he’s incredibly loyal to the world of men, but he’s broken and that is his greatest flaw.

I was surprised by how much I respected him, even with the events that occur. Pippin, however, manages to surpass all expectations and develops into a real heroic character through the threats that he faces.

Merry, like Perrin, also develops very quickly into an unlikely heroic character. Tolkien seemed to want his heroes to be the little guys who were full of honesty, love, and loyalty. The hobbits often surpass even Aragorn in their bravery and heroic accomplishments.

Despite Aragorn being such a strong character in the previous two books, the first third of his arc in The Return of the King was almost a disappointment in comparison.

His victory felt cheap, but he soon redeemed himself in the final third. Again, I do believe that this was supposed to be the case, with the hobbits becoming the more heroic characters. His actions after the battle at Minas Tirith really did do an incredible job of showing that he deserves the respect, loyalty, and love of his people.

Sam and Frodo’s final journey is surprisingly character driven. The plot might be driven by the events of the world around them, but it is their character arcs which make their scenes feel so real.

Frodo struggles against the power of the ring, and Sam’s loyalty to Frodo – as well as his resistance to the ring – is a remarkable work of characterisation. Their story is one of strong friendship and love – something that I feel that many books could continue to learn from.

The finale goodbyes are surprisingly emotional, but the way Tolkien wraps up every arc in The Return of the King in a satisfying conclusion is wonderful. It may not feel as realistic as some more modern fantasy, but because of the style this book is written in, it feels right.

To have it done any other way would feel jarring – this is a heroic story of epic proportions, so it’s just right when our heroes find the peace they deserve.

è stato come rivivere tutto per la prima volta.

100/5

Quite simply, the best book ever written.

The Fellowship of the Ring (21/8/22-31/8/22)
The Two Towers (13/9/22-16/9/22)
The Return of the King (17/10/22-21/10/22)

I don't know if I'll ever be able to describe this book in my mere words, but I certainly won't be able to the first time around. RTC when I reread (I will quite literally go through this book chapter by chapter and sing its praises every step of the way, just you wait!)

I have never loved something so much.

I know I read this series at the tender age of eight, when I was very impressionable and very eager to get obsessed with anything. But I think these are better than we give them credit for.

Not to show up and act like J.R.R. Tolkein was some misunderstood genius. But it’s fascinating to me that this book was foundational to modern high fantasy, a genre which I think plays a lot with cruelty: the brutal world, the betrayal of friends. Tolkein’s novels do not revolve around complex moral codes; they do not question whether there is good and evil, or who is who. The fundamental hero of this story is love.

It's no accident that the hero of this series is the most underestimated of all people: a Hobbit. There are the godly elves, but this series focuses on men's capacity to fail and triumph. The outsiders save the world.

I think, all the time, about the fact that were it not for one moment of pity Frodo takes, on someone who he knows will try to hurt him, this entire story would have been different—would have ended on a far, far darker note.

(On weekends, I also take time to think very deeply about Sam’s role in the series, and the fact that his love and loyalty saves Frodo and, by extent, the world. Within this narrative love saves the world.)

The biggest flaw is that Tolkein could not edit to save his life. I will not elaborate on that beyond to say he would dedicate at least five pages to explaining the concept. I’m going to keep it very, very real: my love for this comes partially from just how much I adore the movie adaptations. This is genuinely the #1 series in the world where I think the movie adaptation is superior in quality to the books. I’ve watched them so many times. I think every time I watch them I end up adding a few sentences to this review because I’m full of Thoughts and Tenderness. The movies are my favorite and always worth a watch.

also, if you’ve gotten this far, feel free to go watch this video series on why the Hobbit movies didn't work. it sparks the reviewer inside me

I became horrifically lazy towards the end of the LOTR re-read which was undertaken as part of my "month of the kitten squisher" and neglected to review the final two books which together make up The Return of the King. Not so much resting on my laurels as stretching out full length and having a big old snooze right on top of them. But you've all seen the film by now right? So no need to continue...

Kidding, kidding.
(and I've now put this review in the correct order so the newest bits are at the bottom)

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: BOOK ONE

Four hobbits, two men, one elf, one dwarf and a wizard. This would be the best line up ever for a reality television show.

Frodo, Merry, Pip and Sam along with Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf are the interspecies representatives that form the Fellowship of the Ring. A sort of United Nations of Middle Earth if you will, where the collective are supposed to protect and defend the freedom of all who dwell in Middle Earth and who are at threat from the growing darkness which is gradually creeping out of Mordor.

There is no denying that this collection of six books (now widely published and referred to as a Trilogy) is an epic work. Tolkien sets out his stall early on in Book One with detailed descriptions, dense prose, background histories,poetry and a whole new language. There is a lot of word furniture but given the scope of the story and size of the metaphorical room, it needs to be heavily furnished in order to make it seem real or else hobbits, elves, dwarves and men would be tramping around in a cavernously empty room. Tolkien will not be rushed. He has an end game but with five more books to get through there is no point in putting all your Hobbits in one hole. The first book is slow paced and littered with mythology, poetry and song so if you were bracing yourself for a breathless dash from Hobbiton to Rivendell then you will be disappointed.

And now, a word about the incessant singing. Hobbits like to eat and Hobbits like to sing. The descriptions of eating are fine, although they just made me hungry in turn. The singing is another matter. Much like an episode of Glee, there was far too much impromptu bursting into song and Hobbity jazz hands. You are on a serious mission Hobbits - act accordingly! With that in mind I didn't bother to read about 90% of the singing and so that made the reading of Book One a much speedier endeavour.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: BOOK TWO

Inspired by the hobbity singing - jazz hands optional (and to be sung to Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette)

Sometimes its hard to be a hobbit
Giving all your love to just one ring
You'll have bad times
And Saruman will have good times
Doing evil things that you don't understand

But with the Fellowship you'll defeat him
Even though he's hard to understand
And though you fear him
And are wary of him
You can beat him
Cause after all he's just a (Saru)man
Stand by your Sam (Wise Gamgee of the Shire)
Give him two arms to cling to
And a ring to bring too

When nights are cold and lonely
And you sleep by rick or stone or tree
Stand by your Sam
And tell Middle Earth you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your Sam
Stand by your Sam
And show Middle Earth you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your Sam!

THE TWO TOWERS: BOOK THREE

Book three is the book where the hobbity singing, skipping and general happy-go-luckiness stops and war starts. War comes to Middle Earth preceded by the felling of great trees, the scorching of the earth, the poisoning of the waters and the birthing of a new race of fighting Uruk-hai. The eye of Sauron has turned its baleful crimson gaze from the orc-ugly workings of Mordor to the realms of men. If this was not bad enough, Saruman, powerful white wizard and most senior of Gandalf's order has decided that black is the new white and effectively changed teams. Apparently black is so much more timeless and the ultimate LBR (little black robe) is something that even wizards desire.

But this book is not just the vehicle in which the hobbits travel to war... this is the book in which we are introduced to a whole host of new characters and LOTR species. Further detailed descriptions of the history and linguistic roots of both Ents and Elves are forthcoming. An even more refined version of the previous word furniture (think Louis XIVth not Ikea)is placed at strategic points around the room adding a further comfortable dimension to Middle Earth. It is this constant growth and development which, although fantastical has its routes in etymology which makes the fantasy world of Lord of the Rings much more acceptable, perhaps even believable than previous fantasy epics.

THE TWO TOWERS: BOOK FOUR

Despite not believing that Hobbits would be very useful in a battle field scenario, Merry and Pippin prove their metal and generally kick Isengard butt in the final instalment of The Two Towers. Admittedly having some giant walking trees to ride around in makes them seem a good deal more invincible but generally you have to give them kudos for having disproportionately large balls, and not the scrying kind either.

Isengard stands barren and torn asunder and Saruman is a prisoner in his own tower while the people of Rohan have made their stand against the fighting Uruk-hai at Helms Deep proving what most great generals already knew. It's not the number of men (or elves or dwarves) you have at your disposal, but how you deploy them that counts. Frodo and Sam are still toiling onwards with the fretful gollum at their heels. It was here that I began to get a little confused as the time scale is disproportionately short in relation to the number of pages employed in order to make the journey thus far. In fact it has taken me longer to read the book than it did for the whole journey to take place and I am no slouch on the page turning front.

THE RETURN OF THE KING: BOOK FIVE

So now the Fellowship is well and truly torn asunder and even all the squeaking hobbits have been effectively separated, albeit it for a short while. The funny thing about hobbits is that the less of them there are in close proximity to each other, the less annoying I find them. Book Five sees Middle Earth fighting wars on many fronts. Denethor is fighting his own inner battles as well as looking towards Mordor and wondering what the hell is about to be spewed forth into his realm, The Battle for the Hornburg is over but Rohan still have to make a stand against the Witch King of Agmar. He is taken care of utilising at bit of Tolkien-style "girl power" in the form of Eowyn who rides into battle and takes one of the hobbits along for ballast. Faramir meanwhile discovers there are many downsides to being an only son. Gandalf and Aragorn decide to play knock knock ginger at the Black Gate in the hopes that this will allow Sam and Frodo to nip in the back door.

THE RETURN OF THE KING: BOOKS SIX

On the way to the top of Mount Doom, Shelob spins Frodo a yarn and leaves Sam carrying the one ring. Cheerfully the orcs are easily distracted by a nice bit of shiny, much like my good self and Sam rescues Frodo and returns the burdensome trinket to him. After this the journey continues with a very long trek to the Crack of Doom (imagine the worst Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Challenge ever).

Despite having a clear idea of the kind of trouble the ring is capable of getting everyone into (1000 pages has got to be long enough to get a clue), Frodo still battles with the idea of chucking it into the firy pit. Cheerfully Gollum steps up and takes care of this for him but not before taking a finger-snack for good measure. Beyond Mordor, Aragorn is crowned king and everyone is soppy as the inevitable man/elf love story reaches its final climax with graceful smiles and sheepish looks (in the film anyway).

Back home in Hobbiton, not all has gone to plan and the shire is a shadow of its former self. Evil has also pervaded the shire but now that Bag Ends best known hobbit-warriors have returned it won't be there for long, oh no. Evil is expelled, Saruman is slain and Sam gets the girl.
Then there is a lot of happily ever afters, just like it should be.

Very popular and influential fantasy novel. Although alternatively a non-multi-media version of the same concerns and inspirations as Wagner's Ring cycle.

I read it six and half times by the age of thirteen, at which point I was reasonably sure that I knew what was coming next. I didn't come back to it after that because I read Maxim Gorky and then Dostoevsky and learnt that books could be explosive, shocking and powerful in other ways, you know like the old Heiniken beer strap-line -'refreshes the parts other beers do not reach'.

After the Simarillion it seems odd how little of that prior history that Tolkien brought to bear on the Lord of the Rings, curious since he had been writing those other stories since he was a teenager, his creativity it seems could be compartmentalised at times in interesting ways. And what was the point of the elvish (and other) languages that could have been used to powerful verfremdungseffekt, but no, everything significant happens in English in the story.

I am happy that I read this in the transition from childhood to teenage years, but it has come to exemplify pretty everything that I dislike about fantasy as a genre, such as a map being a substitute for a plot and narrow emotional range. Moving from this to say Njal's Saga is a step change in sophistication (for a start the latter has women  ok technically there are female characters in Lord of the Rings but in comparison to other books with characters of both genders they are pretty flat and functionless). Equally though the map driven plot is a good way to tap into creativity, if the characters must travel from A to Z through B ( a forest) and C (mountains) etc you can see how the book begins to write itself - how will the characters react in the forest, who might they meet there, what is the forest like (Spooky? Beautiful? Flora and fauna?)

Watching the films some of the changes annoyed me hugely, but above all particularly noticing how much work the film score does I was reminded of another fantasy of my own - that many films would be better with out dialogue, just the music and the occasional card with explanatory text like in Silent films.

Seriously? Of course there will be spoilers.

***

It's been a long time since I've reread The Lord of the Rings first page to last (as opposed to pulling down one volume or another and rereading just my favorite parts, which I do all the time). It remains as compelling and as thrilling and heartbreaking an adventure as it was when my freshman high school English teacher gave me all four books and said, "Here, I think you'll like these." How right he was.

In books I have read so many times, over, good lord, 50+ years, I still found surprises, things I'd forgotten and things I'd never noticed the first seven or eight times around. Like Tolkien's copious use of the verb "vomit" to describe the actions of all Sauron's creatures, even including Mt. Doom. That Arwen is Galadriel's granddaughter. That lembas went even farther on an empty stomach than on a full one. That the rope the Elves gave Sam not only unknotted itself at need but lightened in weight and compacted in size when stowed in a pack and glowed in the dark. (It might also have become the length necessary to the task, as when Sam and Frodo climb down that cliff out of Emyn Muil into the Dead Marshes.) That Treebeard took out the Orcs that tried to invade Lothlorien. That Mt. Doom took out the remaining Nazgûl. That Bill Ferny would naturally gravitate to Sharkey's service in the Shire. Like Tolkien's affection for alliteration, in both Westron and Eldarin, in prose or in verse.

...a slinking shadow among the stones.

I'm still annoyed that there is only one female character of any stature, and grateful that Tolkien allowed Gandalf at least to understand her.

...you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, and watch him falling into a mean dishonored dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on.

That scene where Merry and Eowyn, a hobbit and a woman, slay the Nazgûl King, a wraith invulnerable to any weapon wielded by a man, remains my absolute favorite. And then I got annoyed all over again when Tolkien fobs her off on Faramir because Aragorn's already taken. (By a woman whose only real contribution to the narrative is to sew a banner and die for love. Bleah.)

The staredown between Gandalf and the Nazgûl King at the gates of Gondor is a perfect callback to Gandalf confronting the Balrog in Moria. Tolkien was just so good at this. And then that electrifying moment immediately afterward, when the cock crows and the horns answer. Rohan had come at last.

For the first time on this reread I realized that Tolkien wasn't only writing fantasy, he was writing horror, as no other word can possibly describe Frodo and Sam's journey into Mordor. Shelob. Shagrat. Sauron. *shudder* Even as many times as I've read these books I could feel the tension ratcheting up with every turn of the page. Tolkien was masterful at continually upping the stakes for characters he has made you love and fear for.

There is so much craft here for a writer to admire, plot, character, setting, and dialogue. Frodo's capture by the Orcs and Sam's eavesdropping allows them to catch up with what is happening elsewhere in the story. There is always humor.

"Very well, Mr. Baggins," said the leader, pushing the barrier aside. "But don't forget I've arrested you."

"I won't," said Frodo. "Ever."

Not to mention Sam's nicknames for Gollum, Slinky and Stinky.

The Lord of the Rings is without question the most fully realized world ever created in epic fantasy, one for which an atlas is useful and fortunately there is one, The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Fonstad's book wasn't written yet at my first reading but I used it a lot on this one.

And for the first time ever, on this reread I realized that Tolkien ended both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings on a line of deliberately banal, post-adventure dialogue, each spoken by a hobbit, a race little regarded by the rest of the peoples of Middle Earth. Until two of them carry the One Ring to Orodruin and cast down the Dark Lord finally and forever.

Yeah, you'll have to go look that up for yourself. Don't worry. It'll be worth it.