“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under
the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their
halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark
throne
In the Land of Mordor where the
Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One
Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all and in
the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the
Shadows lie.”

This is epic fantasy at its best without a doubt.

I don't know why I waited for so long to finally read this beauty because I've loved the movies and the world for as long as I can remember. The Lord of the Rings has been an integral part of my childhood and growing up and I should have picked the books as soon as I started to read.

Ok, to be honest, I think I may have... As I was reading the book I kept having these deja-vu feelings, like what I was reading I had already read -and I say this of the parts that are different from the movies- and it took me a while to recollect that I read like half of it before -and that wasn't easy to remember- and then abandon it. I'm a bit ashamed of that.

Really that just shows me how unprepared I was to really appreciate the world that Tolkien created until now when I'm more mature. All in all a good thing.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

I really love the pacing of the book. Fast and always plunging on. Always adding a bit to the world and building in itself something that you already know is there but have yet to see. The only slightly dull part was probably the first chapter, though it was very necessary to have that information given to us.

Before I read the books one of the first things I heard was that Tolkien gave to many details and descriptions and, yeah, he does. He's very detailed in describing his world but I think he manages perfectly creating such a vivid painting on my mind that I could almost feel it and touch it if only I had extended my hand.

I think that's part of the beauty that he creates, just how detailed, how much he knows his own world that he can even create these songs and many stories. It just blows my mind away.

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not
wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the
frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be
woken,
A light from the shadows shall
spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was
broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

The characters as just so delightful to read. Especially the hobbits.

For so long I had Pippin and Merry as this pair of jokesters and immature people that joined Frodo just by chance and whatnot and seeing the dept and real reasons for them to go with Frodo was a shock. It really touched my heart.

Then we have Sam who is probably and quickly becoming my favorite of them all. He's just too precious and needs to be protected. I can't even start to express how much I've fallen in love with him. He's just so sweet. And to think that I never saw him, like really saw him, before. Shame on me.

All the characters that are introduced to us are really amazing and I could probably talk about them for hours but I'm not gonna do that right now. Rest it to say that they are so incredibly written that I know they're real. Somewhere. Sometime. But they're real.

“I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.”

Tolkien's writing style is so unassuming on away and yet so rich and lyrical and just full of splendor. It enchants me.

I have highlighted some quotes that if written by almost anyone else would have been very plain but the way he wrote them was just, almost, too pretty. I can get lost in his words forever and I would be the happiest person ever.

And the way he shaped his mythology is perfect.

He really started my love for Elves. They're just so... fairy tale-ish, I don't have a better way of describing them.

“’ Yet such is oft the curse of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’”

Something that I discovered about this book though is that it really is better if you read The Hobbit first.

I mean, you can totally still understand this story if you haven't but there are just so many little nods and allusions to it that you couldn't appreciate if you have not read that book. Which is exactly what I was gonna do. It would have been such a great mistake.

Having read Beren and Luthien and The Hobbit beforehand helped me to get used to Tolkien's writing style and know the world better and feel more at home while reading the book.

Knowing myself I would have gotten so lost if I had started my incursion on Tolkien's works with this book.

“’ I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.’”

Will I re-read it? Definitely. Need I say more?

Well, in that case, lets just say that I think I've found a new favorite author.
______________________

What a great beginning.

I have so many emotions right now and I can't find the right words to describe how much this book means to me and how much I liked it but I will just give a bit of time.

For now, let it be enough to say that I truly believe this is a masterpiece that deserves every bit of the appreciation and praise it gets and more.

RTC.
______________________

Finally, after what felt like years, because it was years, I'm gonna dive right into this wonderful piece of art.

After having read two other of Tolkien's works I think I'm slightly ready for what is to come, prepared and not gonna be completely lost. I'm sure I'm still gonna be awe-struck with it, just more prepared to be it.

So, with tears in my eyes and completely jittery I can say... Let's go.

This was my fourth or fifth read through, and to be frank, it was most definitely the best read through.

A review of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, by Sauron

Hello. You may remember me as the title character of the Lord of Rings. I go by a lot of names: Dark Lord of Mordor, Sorcerer, Red Eye, Dark Power, Lord of Barad-dûr, Ring-maker and Base Master of Treachery (I use that one in my band). I actually object to Tolkien's chosen name of Sauron, which I understand originates from an adjective that means "foul, putrid" in his crappy invented language. What can I say, the showers in Mordor are sketchy at best. On weekends, my poker buddies call me Sauron the Destroyer of Nacho Platters.

Because Tolkien intentionally failed to give a proper description of me in his books, allow me to give you an idea. I have a bit of a dark look. My quest for world domination having been thwarted, I watch a lot of TV these days. My body is roughly equivalent to the "The Situation" on Jersey Shore. Oh, no I don't watch that, but the Witch-king of Angmar is obsessed. He won't shut up about Snowcone or some bimbo on that show. I'm missing a finger, which while preventing me from raining down carnage on Middle Earth, allows me to collect decent EI. Plus the best lawyer in Mordor got me covered under the dismemberment clause on my insurance, so I'm riding the double dip gravy train. Much has been written about my terrible Lidless Red Eye, blah blah blah. It freaked out that little twat Frodo pretty good. I'll have you know that conjunctivitis is no laughing matter. Having to keep it open 24/7 to look for hoodlums skulking around Mordor is murder on my hydration. The Nazgul have enough lift and aim to get up there to toss a bucket of Visine at it, but it's just temporary relief. Regardless, I'm still more of a looker than your precious King Elessar or Aragorn or whatever he's calling himself these days. He's never met a brooding look he didn't like. Buy a razor. Get a real job.

Someone sent me Peter Jackson's movies in the mail. The package had no return address but it was postmarked "Hobbiton", where ever the hell that is. As I watch these movies over and over (I never even finished the books) I was reminded of all my mistakes...

Perhaps a ring was not a good choice. Some buddies have suggested that maybe I shouldn't have tied all of my terrible powers to something as easy to misplace as the One Ring. In retrospect, I should have forged The One Gas Station Bathroom Key Chain of Power. It would have been a lot harder to tief. I even could have pimped it out by making it from an Ent branch or Saruman's foot, for all the good that old fart did me. Maybe a ring would have been just fine if it had been a toe ring. Then it wouldn't glow in the dark like a target for every freaking Man on the battlefield. I heard that the guy who beat me was named "Isildur"!!?? WTF. Maybe I could have worn tougher gloves, I don't know. Perhaps the door to the Fires of Mount Doom should have had a better lock. ADT could have hooked me up with motion detectors but I hear that even cats can set those off. They claim they can calibrate them but I'm not so sure. The Uruk-hai are always jumping up on the table, so they would set it off for sure. Maybe just the alarm that goes off if something hits the lava, like pool alarms for kid. Although I guess it would have been too late by then. "My preccciioouussss!". Learn some balance a-hole.

Frodo. That little prick. I'd rather not discuss how my quest for utter dominion was defeated by something I could poop out unnoticed.

I'm getting off track. I'm supposed to discuss the events of the first book, the Fellowship of the Ring. Good times! I was on a comeback! Then the withered up senior citizen Gandalf had to go to the library and do a little research and figure out that my Ring was not some cracker jack prize. My Ringwraiths tried to track down the Ring but apparently taking it away from children was too difficult. If I had put the Nazgûl on fell beasts rather than bloody horses from the start I might have tracked down Frodo (prick) and his three buddies in the bloody woods. Don't horses have a good sense of smell!? Anyways, the fell beasts would have at least avoided drowning in a river. Sweet Mary. Then those Elves suggest a damn "fellowship". Could you have come up with a lamer group name?? Why not call it the "Loose Association of People Who Share Common Beliefs or Activities…of the Ring". That Balrog almost did me the biggest favour, he was always one of my peeps. "You shall not pass!!" What a line Gandy! How cow. I heard that one took like 15 takes because Pippin kept making everyone laugh by adding in the word "gas". Fool of a Took!

Anyways, by the end of the Fellowship of the Ring, I still had a fighting chance. Great book. Anyways, The Two Towers won't be as fun to review. Sh*t hits the fan.

(A note from Sauron's agent: full credit for the idea of this review goes to Kemper and his awesome review of Drood)

If you want to truly understand what JRR was up to in creating his epic fantasy then get ahold of the book that compiles many of his best letters. JRR talks all about it to the people he was writing. Especially during WW2 when his sons served.

Other than that, I find it amusing when a person reviewing another fantasy harumphs that they took their ideas from LOTR. Where do you think Tolkien took his ideas from? Norse mythology. Where do you think Christians took the Christmas tree from? The pagans who venerated their gods and spirits with it. A great deal of literature and belief is about taking and remaking and refashioning ideas to suit your own stories and worlds.

So yes there is a powerful tale here and part of that is because of the Norsemen and part of that is because of his Catholic faith. Biographies make the latter, in particular, clear as crystal.

A ten star read.

2024 Re-Read: The below 1 star review has haunted me for a few years. I have left it below for posterity and because it was an honest reaction to a difficult book.

Since that time, I have read other books and have listened to a few Tolkien courses with Great Courses and alike. After doing so, my recent attempt to read and enjoy this book was much easier. I understand the scholastic and historical context better and even what Tolkien may have wanted to accomplish. It definitely made the songs more tolerable.

That being said, I shouldn't have to do all that. It may have been Tolkien's point to force us to learn about Medieval literature traditions and culture, but it's still kinda of a douchy thing to do

This book still miffs me a bit, but I can now see it's worth.

I return the R to my name.


Original Review:

FUCK! This is just too mind numbingly boring for me. I want to say that I understand why this book is so influential and beloved and though it made me puke my guts out I can see and understand it's importance but I can't. This book is boring and sucks so many dicks that it should be retitled THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE COCK GOBBLERS.

Grievance the first - The first hundred pages catalogue the worst episode of MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEEN ever, following Dildo Baggins as he does 500 boring things and the narrator tells you about 5 million boring things. When I turn eleventy-one I'll do everyone a favor and skip the party and just kill myself.

Grievance the second - Once Frodork is finally on his way the book continues to be boring. He walks boringly through the woods with his three cum buddies singing horrible song after horrible song and nothing happens. Even meeting elves and being chased by black riders is told with such little drama or revelation that it is just as entertaining as hearing about which Hobbit inherited what from ol' Dildo.

Grievance the third - Anytime a Hobbit does something they have to sing a song about. Taking a walk, sing a song, take a bath, sing a song, eat some food, sing a song, shit your pants. sing a song. All the while nothing is still happening.

Grievance the fourth - Hobbits just suck and I defy anyone to intelligently counter that.

This was the worst book ever. Some people add an R to their names as a homage after reading this. I will subtract an R from mine as a show of undying hate. I will hence forth be called Ma k.

FUCK you.

(Book 494 from 1001 books) - The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of The Rings, #1), J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien.

It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first volume of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings, an epic novel set in the fictional world of Middle-earth.

The title Lord of the Rings actually refers to a creature called Sauron or Lord of Darkness, who long ago lost the "only ring" on which most of his power depends. He does his best to find the ring again and use it to capture all the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

ارباب حلقه‌ ها - جی.آر.آر. تالکین (نگاه، روزنه، ...) جلد نخست یاران حلقه

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «خداوندگار حلقه ها»؛ «فرمانروای حلقه ها»؛ «ارباب حلقه ها»؛ «سالار انگشتریها»؛ نویسنده: جی.آر.آر تالکین؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه ژوئن سال 2002میلادی

عنوان: خداوندگار حلقه ها؛ نویسنده: نویسنده: جی.آر.آر تالکین؛ مترجم: تبسم آتشین جان؛ تهران، حوض نقره، 1381، در شش جلد؛ عنوان جلد نخست رهروان حلقه ها؛ شابک 9649305491؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا-سده 20م

عنوان: سالار انگشتریها؛ نویسنده: نویسنده: جی.آر.آر تالکین؛ مترجم: ماه منیر فتحی؛ تبریز، فروغ آزادی، 1381، در سه جلد؛ عنوان جلد نخست دوستی انگشتری؛ جلد دوم دوتا برج؛ جلد سوم بازگشت پادشاه؛ شابک دوره ایکس - 964697130؛

عنوان: فرمانروای حلقه ها؛ نویسنده: نویسنده: جی.آر.آر تالکین؛ مترجم: رضا علیزاده؛ تهران، روزنه 1381؛ در سه جلد؛ عنوان دیگر ارباب حلقه ها؛ بخش نخست: یاران حلقه؛ بخش دوم: دو برج؛ بخش سوم بازگشت شاه؛ چاپ ششم 1391؛ شابک جلد نخست 9789643343224؛

عنوان: ارباب حلقه ها؛ نویسنده: نویسنده: جی.آر.آر تالکین؛ مترجم: پرویز امینی؛ تهران، دنیای نو، 1382؛ در شش جلد؛ شابک 9646564992؛

کتاب حاضر بخش نخست، از مجموعه ی سه گانه ی: «ارباب حلقه ها» است؛ در این کتاب «فرودو بگینز»، «هابیت» جوانی است، که به همراهی یارانی از اقوام دیگر از سرزمینهای افسانه ای «هابیتها»؛ سفرش را برای نابودی «حلقه شیطانی»، آغاز میکند؛ فیلمی خیال‌پردازانه و حماسی نیز به کارگردانی: «پیتر جکسون»؛ بر اساس جلد نخست رمان ارباب حلقه‌ ها، که با قلم سحرانگیز «جی.آر.آر تالکین»، نگاشته شد، ساخته شده است

عنوان «یاران حلقه»، نام بخش نخست از سه‌ گانه ی سینمایی «ارباب حلقه‌ ها» به شمار می‌رود، که دنباله‌ های آن، شامل «ارباب حلقه‌ ها: دو برج»؛ و «ارباب حلقه‌ ها: بازگشت پادشاه»؛ هستند؛ این فیلم توسط «نیولاین سینما»، نخستین بار در روز نوزدهم ماه دسامبر سال 2001میلادی، در «ایالات متحده آمریکا» نمایش داده شد، و یکی از موفقیت‌های «باکس آفیس»، با درآمد بالغ بر 871میلیون دلار، در سراسر جهان به شمار می‌رود؛ فیلم همچنین برنده ی چهار جایزه اسکار شد؛ «ارباب حلقه‌ ها: یاران حلقه»؛ آغازی بود بر طوفانی، که «جکسون» با «سه‌ گانه ی ارباب حلقه‌ ها» در جهان سینما آغاز کردند، طوفانی که پس از ده سال همچنان قابل بحث است؛ که او چطور به عنوان یک کارگردان تازه‌ کار، این چنین حماسه ی بی‌نظیری را پدید آورد؛ فیلم در دوازده رشته در اسکار نامزد شد؛ و در چهار رشته پیروز شد؛ «جکسون» با این فیلم، آغازگر سبک فانتزی معناگرا شناخته می‌شوند

عنوان فیلم: ارباب حلقه‌ ها: یاران حلقه؛ کارگردان: پیتر جکسون؛ تهیه‌ کننده: پیتر جکسون؛ باری ام آزبرن؛ تیم سندرز؛ فرن والش؛ جیمی سلکرک؛ نویسنده: فرن والش؛ فیلیپا بوینس؛ پیتر جکسون؛ براساس کتاب: ارباب حلقه‌ ها: یاران حلقه؛ اثر: جی. آر. آر. تالکین؛ بازیگران: الیجاه وود؛ ایان مک‌کلن؛ ویگو مورتنسن؛ لیو تایلر؛ شان آستین؛ کیت بلانشت؛ اورلاندو بلوم؛ جان ریس-دیویس؛ بیلی بوید؛ شان بین؛ هوگو ویوینگ؛ کریستوفر لی؛ دامینیک مانهن؛ موسیقی: هاوارد شور؛ فیلم‌برداری: اندرو لزنی؛ تدوین: جان گیلبرت؛ توزیع‌کننده: نیو لاین سینما؛ تاریخ‌های انتشار در بریتانیا و آمریکای شمالی: 19 دسامبر 2001؛ زلاند نو: 20 دسامبر 2001؛ استرالیا: 26 دسامبر 2001؛ مدت زمان نسخهٔ سینمایی: 178 دقیقه؛ نسخهٔ طولانی‌تر: 208 دقیقه؛ نسخهٔ کامل: 235 دقیقه؛ کشور: نیوزیلند؛ ایالات متحده آمریکا؛ زبان: انگلیسی؛ هزینهٔ فیلم: 93 میلیون دلار؛ فروش گیشه: 871.5 میلیون دلار؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 31/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 12/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.” 

This review is going to be more about my experience with this book rather than about the book itself . Everyone knows the story . And there already has been said much about it . So I don't need repeat it .

The Fellowship of the Ring kind of a bittersweet novel . For about 40% of the book almost put me to sleep . But the beginning and the ending were really fun . That being said , this book is best as it is .

It would be really difficult for me to talk about this book so I'd rather write the review in two categories . What worked for me and what didn't .

Pros :

⭐ The characters . I loved almost every character in the novel . Apart from the hobbits , Gandalf was definitely my favorite character .

⭐ The plot . Good vs Evil . It's still my favorite theme for any novel .

“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” 

⭐ The Setting . Ah!! How I wish I lived in Middle-Earth with all those hobbits and elves and dwarves ?! Tolkein's world has endured more than half a century . And that's saying something .

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” 

⭐ The Quotes . Sounds weird?! Maybe . But I like quotes . And Tolkein has set a benchmark in writing great quotes .(not comparing to Shakespeare)

Cons

⭐ The plot was soooo slow . Maybe this book was meant to be a slow burn adventure . But I've been spoiled . Fast paced novels and character driven tight plots have made me lazy . Half the time Tolkein was describing the trees , or the birds or the winds . These descriptions were a welcome relief at first . But then it was too much too soon .

Tolkein's writing is fairly simple . Though a bit out of fashion it's easy to understand .

And lastly , I would say , this book/series is important . I mean this book almost single handedly brought the fantasy genre into mainstream . You'd have to give that guy at least that . And thus , I respect the slowness of the book . It's appropriate for the novel . Even I'm saying this . Fans of fantasy literature should read Lord Of The Rings at least once in their life .

And a special shoutout to Frodo , Sam , Merry and  Pippin  for reading this with me . It was really fun guys how we bonded together while reading this book .

2019, Nine reads for lonely men doomed to escape into other worlds. One book to rule them all and give them indescribable pleasure!

The histories I read last year amplified the pleasure and reality of the work this time. My mind honed in on more detail. I saw some new things.

Bombadil was the "First," so bigger than Gandalf or even the highest of the Elves. And he prances around singing and dancing. Who would have figured?

Illuvitar spoke out of the sky to Boromir, giving him a prophecy about Aragorn and Frodo and the Ring to bring to the company. That's awesome! It seemed to be a high pinnacle explaining the entire work, a synopsis of the trilogy in a few verses. Also, I heard the voice of Tolkien from the YouTube video's I've seen. Splendid experience! I consider him one of my literary fathers.

I like some of the techniques Tolkien uses. They were so good I didn't pay attention to the writing until now, being absorbed in the story. One of them: In Moria, when Gandalf read the old book of Durin and Company's fate, Legolas and Gimli echo the very words the book reads with dread-inducing tension: "They are coming!" "We cannot get out."

I have to cut it short here. I'll need to leave room for every year of the rest of my life on this review.

------------------------------------------------------------------

2017, getting more bookish since refraining from the movies for years, unique earthly feel, and can feel the magic in it, as if the fiction echoes deeper, unseen reality around us. I wondered in this read if "Nazgul" sprang from the word "Nazi," and whether Tolkien meant it to be intentional. I also noticed a plethora of "suddenly"s and "all of a sudden"s but that never retracted my high opinion of the masterpiece.

2016, seventh read: I'm so happy. I love this place. I love these people. I'm in another world and I don't want to be anywhere else. It gets better every time I read it. The more I read other works, the better it gets. I haven't found anything I love more than this beauty of fiction. :-)

Update, Sixth Read 2015: I've read many authors this year and have written almost every day, so I'm growing. Having said that I must say I found a few new things about this story. I caught a few things teachers tell writers to NOT do. Tolkien often uses the words "all of a sudden," and "suddenly." The story paces slow up to Rivendell and doesn't kick in until they reach Lorien. A modern reader will quickly find this a bore, and I encourage readers to hold out until Rivendell at least. The trilogy will pay back for your time. It remains my favorite of all I've read.

2014
This is the first time I read this and paid attention to every detail. I walked every curve of wood, every slope of green, felt every gust of wind and smelled every scent in Mount Moriah. I haven’t seen the movies in a while and I’m starting to forget them. They are being replaced by the books. I always thought books would get boring after a few reads. This is the best read through I’ve had yet. There comes a point when you get into the right mental state. You kind of sit back and enjoy the long walk, savor every moment, even those you deemed boring on your last read. Those even become part of the journey. Every word spoken becomes precious to you.

I came to a point where I started to feel the story as I read it. That was when I started to find the deepest pleasure in it. The feeling is one of awe, of other-worldliness, almost the pleasure of some dream, an alternate reality in a twilight. The characters became the ones my mind created from the reading. The Hobbits became much smaller, their voices much thinner and higher. They became very sweet, lovable little creatures. Gandalf appeared before my mind’s eye as one who wields the face of a hardened Harley rider, yet is controlled in emotion and overflowing with wisdom. He also exuded the weakness of old men: impatience and the arrogance of a long life of experience. Aragorn was much cleaner and sharper faced, Legolas much brighter, Gimli much more energetic and wild. Boromir was one who was cloaked in insecurity. It was evident he was masking it by inflating his own sense of self-worth, although it appeared to be an empty-hearted boast. The Ring had that effect on him.

For the first time I made the connection of the sacrifice of Sam and Frodo, as they went to Mount Doom without the knowledge of their friend Gandalf’s fate. They were utterly alone, with only the knowledge that grieves the heart and gnaws at the soul.

I have always wondered if there is any point in reviewing a book that has thousands of other reviews. It is ridiculous to think that my review will be the one that rules them all. Then I think perhaps this is akin to uploading my rendition of My Way or Bohemian Rhapsody on YouTube, it may be subpar but it is my precious! Still, it is a monumental task to take on reviewing this entire series because:


“It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish, as my old gaffer used to say.”
Thank you, Sam!

I first read The Fellowship of the Ring in the 80s, I have to admit that while I enjoyed the early part of it I became less appreciative as the world building and the narrative became increasingly complex. In those days I was more familiar with simpler fun fantasy books like  A Spell for Chameleon and did not adjust well to Tolkien’s sophistication. Now, of course, I am more capable of appreciating the monumental world building that Tolkien did, the wonderful characterization, the plotting, the pacing, the language, I even like some of the songs!

Most of my memory of the story comes from Peter Jackson’s blockbusting 2001 movie adaptation. These movies are also the reason I have delayed reading the series for so long, I already knew the major plot points. Having just reread “Fellowship” I need not have worried really, the movie left out quite a few interesting scenes and made changes which would have been better left unchanged (especially where Arwen is concerned).

The first few chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring reads like a children’s book, tonally similar to  The Hobbit prequel (the 4 pages of intro and the preceding 20 pages infodump notwithstanding). The entire epic saga starts on a lighthearted note with Bilbo’s “eleventy-one” (111) birthday bash, his stunt with the One Ring, his interesting chat with Gandalf, and his departure from the Shire for parts unknown. As for the precious troublesome Ring, he bequeaths it to poor unsuspecting Frodo. After a time jump of more than ten years, Frodo also leaves the Shire accompanied by Sam, Merry and “fool of a Took” Pippins. Strider/ Aragorn soon joins up with the wee men and they head for Rivendell together and the now legendary “The Fellowship of the Ring” is formed by the Council of Elrond and the series epic quest to dump the Ring begins.

This book is so eventful if I put all the main plot points in I would be here all day. I find the tonal change from the first half of the book to the second quite strange (in a good way). As mentioned earlier, the first few chapters set in The Shire read like a children’s book, as we are introduced to the Hobbits characters with their twee cutesy duo-syllabic names, their love of fireworks, parties, good food and such. As soon as Frodo and friends leave the Shire the narrative switches to a darker tone.

By the time we get to the Council of Elrond, the juvenile tone has completely evaporated; any child reading this has to be extraordinarily attentive to keep up with all the names of places, people and other details.

It is often a rollicking adventure with some long-ish stretches of nicely written dialogue. In spite of the variation in the pacing, I don’t recall any dull moment, though when I read it as a young lad I was not all that appreciative of the “talky bits”. I believe this book has some of the best buildups of narrative momentum ever. Most of the highlights of the book are already anticipated from watching the more recent movie; the Ringwraith sniffing out Frodo, the Balrog vs Gandalf, the business with Boromir etc. I also particularly enjoy the scenes that were not filmed, particularly the Old Man Willow swallowing Merry and Pippin. If Peter Jackson was to be 100% faithful to the book The Fellowship of the Ring movie would have to be a musical because characters often burst into songs at the drop of a hat (also when no hats are being dropped). Most of these songs do not have any chorus (except Tom Bombadil’s chart-topping “Ring a Dong Dillo!”) so I imagine them as some kind of weird rap.

The Balrog vs Gandalf. Art by MattDeMino

A major advantage of reading the book over watching the movie is to experience the sheer beauty of Tolkien’s language. His prose is often lyrical, witty, charming and basically a pleasure to read. Better still, even with all these literary qualities, he somehow manages to make his writing accessible as well. Tolkien’s characterization is of course, top notched, that is why so many of them are popular even among non-readers, Gandalf, Frodo, Bilbo, Aragorn, Legolas etc. are all well known. Even Bill the pony is a memorable and likable character. (Ooh, I hope he’s alright!). Tolkien’s dialogue is a work of art, he is able to give each character their own distinctive voice and personality without overreliance upon verbal quirks or speech impediments.

I have run out of accolades for the moment, I will surely think of some new ones for my  The Two Towers reread. If you have (or haven’t) seen the movie do read this book, you will appreciate the movies even more. If you consider yourself a fantasy fan but have not read LOTR you’d better reconsider.

Phew! Now I need a sip of miruvor and a second breakfast, if you take my meaning.


Notes:
• Interesting to think that The Lord of The Rings trilogy is the one single series that defines the entire fantasy genre. There is no equivalent in any other genre. Talk about ruling them all!

• The four pages of introduction are quite charming and not too long. The twenty pages of background info about Hobbit architecture, what they like to eat, the type of weed they like to smoke, and where they get the weed from etc. do overstay their welcome a bit.

• Not much Gollum action in this volume, looking forward to some outrageous Sméagol mayhem in  The Two Towers.


• Samwise Gamgee is my hero, he is much cooler than Frodo. That said, the book version of Frodo is considerably more badass than the wimpish Elijah Wood version.

• Who is Aragorn's Dad again? I just need to be reminded every now and then (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
• Thug Notes' Summary & Analysis of this book is the chillest. LOL!

Quotes:
“The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.”

“But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.”

“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”
No elf reliance then.

“Since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues.”



Lego Legolas

"Que las estrellas brillen para ti hasta el final del camino."

Authors who inspire a movement are usually misunderstood, especially by those they have inspired, and Tolkien is no exception, but one of the biggest misconceptions about Tolkien is the idea that he is somehow an 'innovator of fantasy'. He did add a number of techniques to the repertoire of epic fantasy writers, and these have been dutifully followed by his many imitators, but for the most part, these techniques are little more than bad habits.

Many have called Tolkien by such epithets as 'The Father of Fantasy', but anyone who makes this claim simply does not know of the depth and history of the fantasy genre. For those who are familiar with the great and influential fantastical authors, from Ovid and Ariosto to Eddison and Dunsany to R.E. Howard and Fritz Leiber, it is clear that, long before Tolkien, fantasy was already a complex, well-established, and even a respected literary genre.

Eddison's work contains an invented world, a carefully-constructed (and well-researched) archaic language, a powerful and unearthly queen, and a central character who is conflicted and lost between the forces of nobility and darkness. Poul Anderson's n  The Broken Swordn, which came out the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, has distant, haughty elves, deep-delving dwarves, a broken sword which must be reforged, an epic war between the armies of light and darkness, another central character trapped between those extremes, and an interweaving of Christian and Pagan worldviews.

So, if these aspects are not unique to Tolkien, then what does set him apart? Though Dunsany, Eddison, and Anderson all present worlds where light and dark come into conflict, they present these conflicts with a subtle and often ironic touch, recognizing that morality is a dangerous thing to present in absolutes. Tolkien (or C.S. Lewis), on the other hand, has no problem in depicting evil as evil, good as good, and the only place they meet is in the temptation of an honest heart, as in Gollum's case--and even then, he is not like Eddison's Lord Gro or Anderson's Scafloc, characters who live under an alternative view of the world, but instead fluctuates between the highs and lows of Tolkien's dualistic morality.

It is a dangerous message to make evil an external, irrational thing, to define it as 'the unknown that opposes us', because it invites the reader to overlay their own morality upon the world, which is precisely what most modern fantasy authors tend to do, following Tolkien's example. Whether it's Goodkind's Libertarianism or John Norman's sex slave fetish, its very easy to simply create a magical allegory to make one side 'right' and the other side 'wrong', and you never have to develop a dramatic narrative that actually explores the soundness of those ideas. Make the good guys dress in bright robes or silvery maile and the bad guys in black, spiky armor, and a lot of people will never notice that all the 'good guys' are White, upper class men, while all the 'bad guys' are 'brutish foreigners', and that both sides are killing each other and trying to rule their little corner of the world.

In Tolkien's case, his moral view was a very specific evocation of the ideal of 'Merrie England', which is an attempt by certain stodgy old Tories (like Tolkien) to rewrite history so that the nobility were all good and righteous leaders, the farmers were all happy in their 'proper place' (working a simple patch of dirt), while both industrialized cultures and the 'primitives' who resided to the South and East were 'the enemy' bent on despoiling the 'natural beauty of England' (despite the fact that the isles had been flattened, deforested, and partitioned a thousand years before).

Though Tom Bombadil remains as a strangely incoherent reminder of the moral and social complexity of the fantasy tradition upon which Tolkien draws, he did his best to scrub the rest clean, spending years of his life trying to fit Catholic philosophy more wholly into his Pagan adventure realm. But then, that's often how we think of Tolkien: bent over his desk, spending long hours researching, note-taking, compiling, and playing with language. Even those who admit that Tolkien demonstrates certain racist, sexist, and classicist leanings (as, indeed, do many great authors) still praise the complexity of his 'world building'.

And any student of the great Epics, like the Norse Eddas, the Bible, or the Shahnameh can see what Tolkien is trying to achieve with his worldbuilding: those books presented grand stories, but were also about depicting a vast world of philosophy, history, myth, geography, morality and culture. They were encyclopedic texts, intended to instruct their people on everything important in life, and they are extraordinarily valuable to students of anthropology and history, because even the smallest detail can reveal something about the world which the book describes.

So, Tolkien fills his books with troop movements, dull songs, lines of lineage, and references to his own made-up history, mythology, and language. He has numerous briefly-mentioned side characters and events because organic texts like the epics, which were formed slowly, over time and compiled from many sources often contained such digressions. He creates characters who have similar names--which is normally a stupid thing to do, as an author, because it is so confusing--but he’s trying to represent a hereditary tradition of prefixes and suffixes and shared names, which many great families of history had. So Tolkien certainly had a purpose in what he did, but was it a purpose that served the story he was trying to tell?

Simply copying the form of reality is not what makes good art. Art is meaningful--it is directed. It is not just a list of details--everything within is carefully chosen by the author to make up a good story. The addition of detail is not the same as adding depth, especially since Tolkien’s world is not based on some outside system--it is whatever he says it is. It’s all arbitrary, which is why the only thing that grants a character, scene, or detail purpose is the meaning behind it. Without that meaning, then what Tolkien is doing is just a very elaborate thought exercise. Now, it’s certainly true that many people have been fascinated with studying it, but that’s equally true of many thought exercises, such as the rules and background of the Pokemon card game, or crossword puzzles.

Ostensibly, Scrabble supposedly is a game for people who love words--and yet, top Scrabble players sit an memorize lists of words whose meaning they will never learn. Likewise, many literary fandom games become little more than word searches: find this reference, connect that name to this character--but which have no meaning or purpose outside of that. The point of literary criticism is always to lead us back to human thought and ideas, to looking at how we think and express ourselves. If a detail in a work cannot lead us back to ourselves, then it is no more than an arbitrary piece of chaff.

The popularity of Tolkien’s work made it acceptable for other authors to do the same thing, to the point that whenever I hear a book lauded for the ‘depth of its world building’, I expect to find a mess of obsessive detailing, of piling on so many inconsequential facts and figures that the characters and stories get buried under the scree, as if the author secretly hopes that by spending most of the chapter describing the hero’s cuirass, we'll forget that he’s a bland archetype who only succeeds through happy coincidence and deus ex machina against an enemy with no internal structure or motivation.

When Quiller-Couch said authors should ‘murder their darlings’, this is what he meant: just because you have hobbies and opinions does not mean you should fill your novel with them. Anything which does not materially contribute to the story, characters, and artistry of a work can safely be left out. Tolkien's embarrassment of detail also produced a huge inflation in the acceptable length of fantasy books, leading to the meandering, unending series that fill bookstore shelves today.

Now, there are several notable critics who have lamented the unfortunate effect that Tolkien’s work has had on the genre, such as in Moorcock’s n  Epic Poohn and Mieville’s diatribe about every modern fantasy author being forced to come to terms with the old don's influence. I agree with their deconstructions, but for me, Tolkien isn’t some special author, some ‘fantasy granddad’ looming over all. He’s just a bump in the road, one author amongst many in a genre that stretches back thousands of years into our very ideas of myth and identity, and not one of the more interesting ones

His ideas weren’t unique, and while his approach may have been unusual, it was only because he spent a lifetime trying obsessively to make something artificial seem more natural, despite the fact that the point of fantasy (and fiction in general) is to explore the artificial, the human side of the equation, to look at the world through the biased lens of our eye and to represent some odd facet of the human condition. Unfortunately, Tolkien’s characters, structure, and morality are all too flat to suggest much, no matter how many faux-organic details he surrounds them with.

My Fantasy Book Suggestions

For the first time in my life
I knew what depression was
A cast iron cloak
Weighed heavy on my shoulders

I went to see the doctor
Who ticking boxes said
There's nothing wrong per se
Except inside your head

She gave me sunshine pills
To swallow before sleep
To stabilise the chills
That made my body weep

I’d given up on reading
And writing felt so futile
And all the things I used loved
Tasted like black bile

The world was going to hell
Dark forces were gathering strength
Evil showed its ugly head
And Hate its hidden length

But much to my surprise
I opened volume one
Of that epic enterprise
Penned by Tolkien

And read of little people
Half the size of men
Who on a giant quest embark
Not to return again

Hopeless are the odds
Against which they must fight
They're neither heroes nor great gods
No they're more prone to flight

And yet the fate of the whole land
Rests on their tiny shoulders
Who just want to tend to flowers and
Shun the fame of soldiers

The power they are up against
Seems insurmountable
Shrouded in the darkest angst
They do what they are able

Pursued by faceless horsemen
They hide in forests deep
Where trees can move their limbs
And snatch them in their sleep

Through caverns do they travel
At the roots of mountains tall
There darkness lies so thick
They can’t see anything at all

As I kept reading on
I forgot about myself
My mind was in the company
Of hobbit dwarf and elf

I climbed the highest mountain
Went down the deepest dell
I drank at Tolkien’s word-fountain
And started to get well

I had all but forgotten
That though our world is run
By men whose souls are rotten
They are not everyone

And halflings though we be
Oft overfilled with sadness
Our hearts know how to sing
Even in the darkness