Υπέροχη η Ρόουλινγκ, φοβερή φαντασία ο Μάρτιν, αλλά μεταξύ μας όταν θέλουμε να μιλήσουμε για τον κορυφαίο συγγραφέα φαντασίας, δεν νοείται σύγκριση. Ο Τόλκιν επεξεργαζόταν δεκαετίες ολόκληρες το φανταστικό κόσμο της Άρντα (κομμάτι της οποίας είναι η Μέση Γη), τις φυλές μέχρι και τις γλώσσες τους! Δε ξέρω αν μπορεί να το διανοηθεί κάποιος αλλά σίγουρα αν ο Τόλκιν είχε γράψει τη Βίβλο, σήμερα θα λατρεύαμε τον Ιλούβαταρ και θα μισούσαμε τον Μόργκοθ! Για τέτοια πληρότητα συζητάμε. Και όλα αυτά από ένα μυαλό!

Έκανα αυτή την «ταπεινή» εισαγωγή για το πρώτο βιβλίο του Άρχοντα των Δαχτυλιδιών γιατί τόσα χρόνια μετά, συνεχίζω να εντυπωσιάζομαι από την απλότητα, τη γραφή, τη φαντασία, την ιστορία, τις τοποθεσίες και το χτίσιμο των χαρακτήρων! Σε όλα παίρνει άριστα 10/10. Δεν υστερεί πουθενά το βιβλίο όσο «τεχνοκρατικά» και αν το επεξεργαστείς. Το απόλυτο βιβλίο φαντασίας. Το πρώτο από τα τρία βασικά. Ανυπομονώ να συνεχίσω το ταξίδι στο δεύτερο και να νιώσω ξανά την εφηβική αγωνία για την ιστορία του Φρόντο και του Άραγκορν!!

Ο Άρχοντας είναι το αγαπημένο μου βιβλίο. Πραγματικά, με επηρέασε σε τεράστιο βαθμό στην ίδια μου τη ζωή. Ευχαριστώ τον Τόλκιν που υπήρξε! Και την τύχη που τον διάβασα!!!

What can I say besides that rereading Tolkien's masterwork after so many years is just as full of wonder and inspiration as it was 40 years ago when I was a young man learning the ways of this old world. The Fellowship of an elf, a dwarf, two men, and four hobbits is such a incredibly beautiful tale of adventure and friendship and I savored every page while looking over my shoulder for wargs and balrogs and hiding my head from The Eye of Sauron. So many images, so many memories.

The Fellowship of the Ring takes us on another journey with hobbits - this time Bilbo's nephew Frodo, his servant and best friend Samwise, and their friends Merry and Pippin. It is, in a sense, a reverse epic journey because rather than traveling towards accomplishing something new, they are traveling in order to destroy something old - the One Ring. They are sent on this fabulous journey by Gandalf, the eternal symbol of wisdom and strength in an aged wizard always with surprising talents and unsounded depths: Frodo saw him to the door. He gave a final wave of his hand and walked off at a surprising pace; but Frodo thought the old wizard looked unusual almost as if he was carrying a great weight. The evening was closing in and his cloaked figure quickly vanished into the twilight. (p. 40)

One of the things that makes the work so timeless, universal and endearing is how Gandalf, while pushing the hobbits towards self-realization via the quest, does not give them all the pieces of the puzzle, does not warn them of all the dangers they will face, does not, in fact, coddle them. He, like an ideal parental figure, gives them principles and goals and lets Frodo&Co figure out how to accomplish them on their own. Thus, they meet Black Riders and need to learn about them first hand and ultimately will defend themselves against them.

The next major character they meet is Strider, who will later be revealed as Aragorn. He inspires wonder and mystery and helps the hobbits during their initial voyage to Rivendell during which Frodo has his first brush with death on Weathertop: they built a great watch-tower on Weathertop, Amon Sûl they called it. It was burned and broken, and nothing remains of it now but a tumbled ring, like a rough crown on the old hill's head. (p. 181). I have, unfortunately, never visited Stonehenge, but the description reminds me of the photos I have seen of the site.

Frodo is saved by his friends and brought back to health by the Elves at Rivendell, a place of dreams:Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. (p. 227) There are many passages such as this one where Tolkien gives us a magic vision of shards of paradise.

Once he is fully recovered, a large council is called to discuss the happenings in Middle Earth and formulate a plan to fight to lurking evil that is casting its growing shadow across the land. We learn that the danger is two-fold: Saruman the White has risen in power and decided to throw his fate in with Sauron, the evil one. Gandalf tells the council of his meeting with Saruman where he tries to recruit Gandalf to the dark side, but fails.
I looked and then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.
"I liked white better," [Gandalf] said.
"White!" he sneered. "It serves only as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken."
"In which case it is no longer white," said [Gandalf]. "And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
...
"The Elder Days are gone. The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are beginning. The time of the Elves is over but our time is at hand: the world of Men, which We must rule." (p. 252)
Saruman sees correctly that the Epoque of fairy tales and elves and childhood of the world in a sense is ending, and a harsher time is coming and wants to take supreme power over the change. Gandalf points out that breaking things is not the best way to gain wisdom and refuses. For Gandalf, wisdom is an entirely different thing:
It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!" (p. 262) And thus, it is decided to create the Fellowship of the Ring and have the seven companions make their way west to east, ultimately to Mordor to destroy the Ring. It is interesting to note that Tolkien rejects fatalism and seeks the unexpected in order to keep hope alive, which points to the author's deep Catholic belief system.

The Company sets out and are blocked at passing over the mountains and must use old tunnels underneath them into the old, lost Dwarf kingdom. Thus, we come to the first great combat of the trilogy - the epic fight between Dorin's Bain, the Balrog, and Gandalf. It is not very precisely described, but the Balrog must be somewhat similar to Smaug in appearance, but in a far worse mood. Gandalf breaks the bridge they were fleeing throwing the Balrog into the abyss: With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even then as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slide into the abyss. "Fly you fools!" he cried, and was gone. (p. 322) The Company is crushed by the seeming loss of Gandalf (he will not appear again for a long time) and this loss will soon precipitate a splintering in the group.

The group then reaches the elven tree village of Lothlorien where the lovely Galadriel will entertain them. Here we get another taste of Tolkien's deep love of nature: As Frodo prepared to follow him, he laid his hand upon the tree beside the ladder: never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin and of the life within it. He felt a delight in wood and the touch of it, neither as forester nor as carpenter; it was the delight of the living tree itself. (p. 342) I loved this passage as it seems to prefigure the ecological movement that has been written of in recent years, most notably in Richard Power's wonderful The Overstory.

While in Lothlorien, Lady Galadriel turns out to bear one of the three Rings of Power (one of the others having been lost in the dwarf kingdom under the mountain and the other worn by Gandalf) and is offered the Ring that binds them all by Frodo, but after looking into a famous mirror (inspiration for Dumbledore's Pensive of course) and being suddenly transformed into a formidable figure of power and beauty, she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad. (p. 356) We will meet another very strong, but very human heroine in The Return of the King, but Galadriel will ultimately fade into history: already she seemed to [Frodo], as by men of later days Elves still at time were seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of what which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of Time. (p. 364) This idea of Elves being somewhat beyond time and using the river metaphor is classic Tolkien and plays on his image of the Elves as being ancestors of the people who existed in England before the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the Middle Ages and the water metaphors are heavily influenced by Nordic mythology.

The Company now goes down the river, passes the wonderfully described Pillars of Argonath (p. 383), and following a scuffle between Frodo and Boromir, suddenly and definitively splits as the first book of the trilogy ends. Frodo and Sam are off alone on the Quest.

This first book is a wonderful story of the Quest which introduces us, finally, to both the Elves and the Dwarves. The dynamics of the group: the tight friendship of Sam and Frodo, the adventurous Pippin and Merry, the mysterious wisdom and grace of Aragorn and the wonderful and unlikely friendship between Legolas and Gimli make this delightful. The action scenes are gripping and the reader is impatient to grab the dogeared copy of The Two Towers and continue on!

Fino's Tolkien Reviews:
The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Ring (LOTR 1)
The Two Towers (LOTR 2)
The Return of the King (LOTR 3)
Lord of the Rings 1-3 - General Comments and Observations
Raymond Edward's Tolkien biography

Bueno, creo que ya todos o casi todos saben la historia de este libro, ya que la película es re-popular. Sin embargo, la magia de leer el libro es que tú te creas tu propio Frodo, tu propio Legolas, etc. Y no hay mucho que decir sobre la historia, pero quiero hablar más sobre el género de este libro: Fantasía.
Lo califiqué con 3 estrellas solamente porque pertenece a este género, el cual no es mi favorito, pero lo leí para probar, ya que me gusta leer cosas nuevas y tratar de aprender de ellas.
En mi opinión bastante personal, Tolkien es un maestro. Es increíble cómo fue escribiendo el libro y cada oración la leía con mucha atención. No solamente la leía, si no que a la vez me imaginaba a los chicos caminando a dejar el anillo y toda esa serie de aventuras que tuvieron que pasar; están clavadas en mi cabeza.
No sé, pero escritores así hay pocos, y me refiero a esos escritores que sientes que te van contando la historia mientras la vas leyendo, como que escuchas su voz al lado. Cuando terminé de leer este libro, quise continuar de inmediato con la segunda parte. Es bastante adictivo.
¿Recomendable? Absolutamente, pero hay que leerlo con calma para digerirlo y a la vez imaginarse toda la aventura que hay escrita en estas páginas.

'I cannot read the fiery letters,' said Frodo in a quavering voice.

'No,' said Gandalf, 'but I can. The letters are Elvish, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here. But this in the Common Tongue is what is said, close enough:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

It is only two lines of a verse long known in Elven-lore:

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.'

He paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: 'This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it - but he must not get it.'

Frodo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This ring!' he stammered. 'How, how on earth did it come to me?'

'Ah!' said Gandalf. 'That is a very long story. The beginnings lie back in the Black Years, which only the lore-masters now remember. If I were to tell you all that tale, we should still be sitting here when Spring had passed into Winter.

'But last night I told you of Sauron the Great, the Dark Lord. The rumours that you have heard are true: he has indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.'

'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.

'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black.'


4 1/4 stars

The Fellowship of the Ring – the group of nine companions who carry a Ring of Power on a dangerous quest – has become a fixture in world popular culture, helped along by Peter Jackson’s critically and commercially successful three-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s three-part epic novel The Lord of the Rings. Yet the novel, as director Jackson would no doubt be the first to say, offers an even deeper and richer fantasy-adventure experience than Jackson’s well-crafted films. That epic adventure starts off on a suitably attention-getting note, with The Fellowship of the Ring (1954).

The countless fans of The Lord of the Rings already know what I will mention here – that the South African-born Tolkien, a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English at Oxford University, crafted over many years an elaborate fantasy world called Middle-Earth, and chronicled with great care a tremendous battle between good and evil that raged there.

At the center of Tolkien’s world are hobbits. The hobbits of Middle-Earth are benign, pastoral “little folk” who make very fine heroes precisely because - as is stated near the beginning of the trilogy's first book, The Fellowship of the Ring - “They were, if it came to it, difficult to kill”; hobbits, as it turns out, “could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who…looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces” (p. 25). Their combination of small size, benevolence, inner strength, and resourcefulness makes them the perfect heroes for this saga.

Readers of The Hobbit who turn for the first time to The Lord of the Rings are often struck by how grim the books of the trilogy are, compared with their more light-hearted predecessor. Why the change in tone? The short answer may be that Tolkien wrote the first book in 1937; he had fought in and survived one world war, and lost some of his best friends to that war, and yet it still seemed possible that one world war might not lead into another.

Most of what became the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by contrast, was composed during and after the Second World War – a time that gave a perceptive soul like Tolkien plenty of time and opportunity to contemplate the possible depths of human evil, and to look back at when his own life was touched by the cruelty and horror of war. In his Foreword to The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien writes that

One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead. (p. 12)

The premise of the novel will be familiar to anyone who has seen the films. The Ring that Bilbo Baggins found in an underground cavern within the Misty Mountains – the one that he managed to take from the creature Gollum – turns out to have even greater powers than the ability to make its wearer vanish. Bilbo left the ring to his nephew Frodo Baggins when he left the Shire to live among the elves; and it is left to the wizard Gandalf to explain to Frodo that the ring is a completely evil creation of the Dark Lord Sauron, who now wants the ring back so he can launch his war to bring all living things under his dominion. As Gandalf tells Frodo,

“A mortal… who keeps one of the Great Rings does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness….Yes, sooner or later – later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last – sooner or later the dark power will devour him.” (p. 76)

These early passages of The Fellowship of the Ring set forth well Tolkien’s Christian-humanist ethic, as when Gandalf offers a wise, thoughtful, and humbling reply to Frodo’s lament about living in such difficult times:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us.” (p. 82)

And Gandalf offers a noble expression of an ethic of mercy and humility, of trust in some form of divine providence or higher power that works for good, when he and Frodo are discussing the creature Gollum. Gandalf warns that Gollum will always follow the Ring, driven by his need for it, and Frodo quickly expresses a wish that Bilbo, who once had Gollum at his mercy, had killed the creature rather than taking pity on Gollum and letting the creature live. Gandalf’s reply:

“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 judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least” (p. 93).

With Gandalf’s encouragement, Frodo leaves the Shire and carries the Ring east toward the village of Bree, accompanied by three fellow hobbits: Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrine Took. The plan is for Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin to meet Gandalf at the Inn of the Prancing Pony. Suffice it to say that things do not go according to plan, and that this small band of hobbits faces terrible dangers from the start.

No film, not even Peter Jackson’s, has time and scope to capture all of the magic and suspense of a book as rich as The Fellowship of the Ring. The viewer of the film never gets to meet Tom Bombadil, a forest-dweller with great and mysterious power, or his beautiful wife Goldberry. Tom Bombadil is very important to the hobbits making their way from the Shire to their planned rendezvous site at Bree, as in the chapter “Fog on the Barrow-Downs.” In this suspenseful chapter, Frodo and his companions get lost in the fog and are waylaid by barrow-wights, malevolent spirits that seek to draw living people down to a grim death in an underground barrow. Tolkien conveys well the dread that Frodo feels when he awakens from a strange state of unconsciousness and realizes what has happened to him and his companions:

When he came to himself again, for a moment he could recall nothing except a sense of dread. Then suddenly he knew that he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow. A Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably already under the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about which whispered tales spoke. He dared not move, but lay as he found himself: flat on his back upon a cold stone with his hands on his breast (pp. 193-94).

How does Frodo get himself, Sam, Merry, and Pippin out of this singularly dangerous situation? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

As the novel progresses, Tolkien puts increasing emphasis on the idea that the Ring’s power is corrupting to all who touch it. In the chapter “Many Meetings,” where the Fellowship of the Ring actually forms in the Elven town of Rivendell, Frodo meets up with his uncle Bilbo. It is a joyous reunion, but there is one very grim moment when Bilbo sees the ring that he once used to call his own:

Bilbo put out his hand. But Frodo quickly drew back the Ring. To his distress and amazement he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands. He felt a desire to strike him. (p. 306)

One sees here the malign influence of the ring on Bilbo – who, upon seeing the Ring, feels a greedy desire to have it back – and also on Frodo, who for a moment feels violently angry toward his beloved uncle. The evil of the Ring will manifest itself repeatedly throughout the trilogy.

But the Fellowship of the Ring does get going on its quest, one that is filled with twists and turns. The Fellowship consists of nine companions: the four hobbits – Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, as mentioned above; the wizard Gandalf, leading them on their journey; two men – Aragorn, heir to the long-crownless realm of Gondor, and Boromir, son of Gondor's steward; the elven princeling Legolas; and the dwarf warrior Gimli. Their mission is to travel to Sauron's grim kingdom of Mordor, and throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. Only in the place where it was crafted can the Ring be destroyed.

And the perils that the fellowship will face on the way are many. Nine Ring-Wraiths – evil spirits who were once kings of men, but who were gradually corrupted when they accepted Rings of Power from Sauron – are continually hunting for the Ring. There are plenty of orcs, goblins, and other dangerous creatures. Gollum, ever driven by his need for the Ring, is always following the fellowship. And Saruman, once a virtuous wizard who trained Gandalf, has turned traitor, joining with Sauron and contributing his own army of Uruk-hai to the search for the Ring.

A highlight, for me, is the Fellowship’s journey through the Mines of Moria, as chronicled in the chapters “A Journey in the Dark” and “The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm.” In the latter chapter, at one of the high moments of drama in the entire trilogy, the wizard Gandalf defends the company from a Balrog, a giant fire-demon from impossibly ancient times: “a dark form, of man-shape maybe, but greater….Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs….[T]he shadow about it reached out like two vast wings” (pp. 428-29).

The grimness of this battle – in which it seems, for a time, that a member of the Fellowship may be forever gone – is counterpointed with passages of lyrical beauty, as when the Fellowship finds temporary refuge in Lothlórien, the realm of the Elven queen Galadriel:

It seemed to [Frodo] that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name….He saw no colour but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring. No blemish or sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lórien there was no stain. (pp. 454-55)

As the group makes its way southward along the Great River, ever trying to reach Mordor, the evil of the Ring corrupts one member of the Fellowship, and it becomes ever more apparent that the Fellowship will have to break up, The quest to destroy the One Ring will go on, but not all members of the Fellowship will continue to carry the Ring towards Mordor. On that note of uncertainty, The Fellowship of the Ring concludes, with the story being taken up in The Two Towers, Part Two of The Lord of the Rings. Given the way in which Tolkien combines epic sweep, thoughtful characterization, thematic depth, and a suspenseful plotline, I suspect that many people who finish reading the first book immediately take up the second.

"One Review to rule them all. One Review to comment them, One Review to like them all, and in nerdiness bind them."

In the ancient times of Middle Earth, a magical ring was once forged by the necromancer Sauron to seize control over the entire world. When his plans were discovered, all the kingdoms and races of the realm allied together for one final stand. The cost was high, but the battle was won; and with the invincible dark lord defeated, the nations rejoiced, evil was destroyed. For millennia, the peoples of Middle Earth have enjoyed peace and prosperity; but the ring was never destroyed, and when it is finally found, evil starts slowly corrupting everything and everyone around it. Its undying will recalling for his long lost master, and his dormant hordes. It’s only a matter of time now, before evil resurfaces, and once again, consumes the world.

Why do I even bother? Has anyone at all not read it or watched it? And if so, what on earth are you waiting for? This is like the holy grail of Fantasy. Just get on with it already, you won’t regret it, I promise; book, movie, either one is good. An all-time classic that revolutionized the genre, and forever changed fantasy as we know it. The world Tolkien created, its characters, its boundless lore, spanning untold adaptations, and inspiring countless imitations.

How to ever forget the adventures of the Fellowship of the Ring: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas; and the incredible supporting characters, too many to count and pointless to enumerate. Don’t even get me started on the enemies. So many unbelievably awe-inspiring locations, the Shire, the Mines of Moria, Mordor, Rivendell, Isengard, Lothlórien, I could go on too.  The birthday of Bilbo, the night at Bree, the council at Rivendell, the escape from Moria, the visit to Lothlórien, the battle near Parth Galen…  A fantastic journey like no other ever; with excellently defined characters, flawless world building. completely enthralling story progression, unpredictable plot twists, and a soul shattering ending.

I remember being royally pissed with Tolkien’s never ending landscaping though. Describing pastures, rock clusters, weather, line of sight, whatnot. And of course, it is a fantasy world, you need to create it from the ground up; but GOD! I lost it when he started describing cloud formations. I mean they are freaking clouds man! Wind is going to blow them all away in minutes! And I hate that I suffered it every time through all the books in the series. Today I would’ve skimmed the hell out of those parts, without a seconds pause; but in those days I never did, and suffered every word.

Still, regardless of a few objections, like the pacing. an unmatched masterpiece in almost every way, and a cornerstone in Fantasy literature. Tolkien did not invent orcs, or elves, but he might as well have; because the legacy he left, marked a before and after, thanks to his priceless contribution. A must read, or a must watch. Having done both, I strongly support either choice. Highly Recommendable.

*** LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) is a spectacular adaptation, bringing the immortal work of Tolkien alive in a way few movies in history have ever succeed, and I dare say possibly surpass it. Mind numbingly stunning on so many levels; the casting, screenplay, cinematography, music score, special effects, and more. Truly deserving of every accolade received. Magnificent casting; McKellen, Mortensen, Elijah, Astin, Weaving, Blanchett, Bean... the list goes on. Flawless acting by all, wouldn’t change a single one. Exceptionally faithful to the book. Some parts were omitted of course, and a few licenses taken here and there, but it doesn’t really matter, not in this case imo. A near perfect book AND series adaptation, maybe one the best I’ve ever seen, considering it was the same with all three movies of the trilogy. And one of those unique exceptions where I ultimately prefer the movie rather than the book, having watched it at least a few dozen times. (9/10)



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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1954] [432p] [Fantasy] [Highly Recommendable]
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★★★★☆  A. The Silmarillion
★★★★☆  0. The Hobbit
★★★★☆  1. The Fellowship of the Ring
★★★★☆  2. The Two Towers
★★★★★  3. The Return of the King
★★★★★  1-3. The Lord of the Rings  

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"Una Reseña para gobernarlas a todas. Un Reseña para comentarlas. Una Reseña para likearlas, y en la nerdidad atarlas."

En los antiguos tiempos de la Tierra Media, una vez un anillo mágico fue forjado por el nigromante Sauron para tomar control sobre todo el mundo. Cuando sus planes fueron descubiertos, todas las naciones y razas del reino se aliaron para juntos dar una última batalla final. El costo fue alto, pero ganaron la guerra; y con el invencible señor de la oscuridad derrotado, las naciones se regocijaron, la maldad por fin vencida. Por milenios, las gentes de la Tierra Media disfrutaron de paz y prosperidad; pero el anillo único nunca fue destruido, y cuando finalmente es reencontrado, so maldad empieza lentamente a corromper todo y a todos a su alrededor. Su voluntad inquebrantable llamando por su amo perdido, y sus hordas durmientes. Es sólo cuestión de tiempo ya, para que la maldad vuelva a resurgir, y consuma todo el mundo, otra vez.

¿Para qué me molesto? ¿Hay alguien acaso que no lo haya leído o visto ya? Y si es así, pero por dios, ¿qué estás esperando? Esto es como el santo grial de la Fantasía. Sólo hacelo de una buena vez y terminala, no te vas a arrepentir, te lo prometo; libro, película, cualquiera es bueno. Un clásico de todos los tiempos que revolucionó el género, y por siempre cambió la fantasía como la conocemos. El mundo que Tolkien creó, sus personajes, su infinito lore, dando lugar a incontables adaptaciones, e inspirando infinitas imitaciones.

¿Cómo alguna vez olvidar las aventuras de la Comunidad del Anillo? Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas; y los increíbles personajes de apoyo, demasiados para contar e inútil enumerar. Ni siquiera quiero empezar con los enemigos. Tantos increíblemente asombrosos lugares, la Comarca, las Minas de Moria, Mordor, Rivendell, Isengard, Lothlórien, podría seguir también.  El cumpleaños de Bilbo, la noche en Bree, el concilio de Rivendell, el escape de Moria, la visita a Lothlórien, la batalla cerca de Parth Galen…  Un fantástico viaje como ningún otro jamás; con perfectamente definidos personajes, impecable construcción de mundo, completamente cautivadora progresión de historia, impredecibles giros de trama, y un final para romper el alma.

Aunque recuerdo haber estado enormemente fastidiado con el interminable paisajismo de Tolkien. Describiendo pasturas, formaciones de roca, clima, línea de visión, qué no. Y por supuesto, es un mundo de fantasía, y se necesita crear todo desde cero; ¡pero POR DIOS! Perdí la cabeza cuando empezó a describir las nubes. ¡O sea son malditas nubes hombre! ¡El viento las va a volar todas en minutos! Y odié que sufrí eso en cada oportunidad durante los tres libros de la serie. Hoy en día me hubiera salteado esas partes con entusiasmo, sin un segundo de duda; pero en ese entonces nunca lo hacía, y sufrí cada palabra.

Aun así, a pesar de algunas objeciones, como el ritmo, una inigualable obra maestra en casi cualquier sentido, y un hito de la literatura Fantástica. Tolkien no creó los orcos, ni los elfos, pero da igual si lo hubiera hecho; porque el legado que dejó, marcó un antes y después, gracias a su invaluable contribución. Un deber de leer, o un deber de ver. Habiendo hecho ambas, puedo firmemente apoyar cualquiera de las dos.

*** LOTR: La Comunidad del Anillo (2001) es una espectacular adaptación, trayendo la inmortal obra de Tolkien a la vida en una forma que pocas películas en la historia jamás lograron, e incluso me animo a decir que tal superó. Increíblemente Impresionante a tantos niveles; el elenco, guion, cinematografía, música, efectos especiales, y más. Verdaderamente merecedora de todos los premios recibidos. Magnífico elenco; McKellen, Mortensen, Elijah, Astin, Weaving, Blanchett, Bean... la lista sigue. Impecable actuación de todos, no cambiaría a ninguno. Excepcionalmente fiel al libro. Algunas partes fueron omitidas por supuesto, y ciertas licencias tomadas aquí y allá, pero en verdad no importa, no en este caso en mi honesta opinión. Una adaptación casi perfecta del libro Y serie, tal vez una de las mejores que vi jamás, considerando que fue lo mismo con las tres películas de la trilogía. Y una de escasas excepciones en que en última instancia prefiero la película sobre el libro, habiéndola visto al menos un par de docenas de veces. (9/10)



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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1954] [432p] [Fantasía] [Altamente Recomendable]
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نمیدونم چند بار فیلمشو دیدم و چقدر عاشق دنیایی که تالکین خلق کرده. این اولین باره کتابشو میخونم البته گوش دادم.
من همه ی کتاباشو بصورت صوتی خریدم و اجرای آقای سلطان زاده بی نظیره.

آقا! فتبارک الله احسن الخالقین که میگن همینه .
یعنی چی که این کتاب اینقدر خوب نوشته شده؟ مگه میشه یک دنیایی رو از هیچی با این جزئیات و منطق خلق کرد؟
تالکین بخدا تو آدم نیستی. یا یه چیزایی دیدی و میدونی که بقیه آدم ها ندیدن.
...
من کتاب صوتیش رو از فیدیبو دوستم گوش دادم. دمش گرم♡
بسیار بسیار انتخاب خوبی بود نسخه صوتی، چون علاوه بر لذت بردن از خود داستان جذابش، صدای خفن راوی و لحن روایت فوق العاده سکسی اش توی یه بعد دیگه ای عالی بود و کیف داد.
...
قطعا خوندن سیلماریلیون و دیدن فیلم هاش باعث شد بیشتر کتاب رو بفهمم و بیشتر لذت ببرم

Yes I did read this twice in the same year.
And yes I do love Aragorn

2nd read 2021 - 5 ⭐️
1st read 2018 - 4 ⭐️

A book read by a person three times,( I) need not say that its good , the obvious is apparent to all. Such is the first novel of the brilliant, The Lord of the Rings...The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo Baggins nephew (cousin in reality) that was adopted by Mr.Bilbo Baggins , reluctantly follows in his shaky footsteps from the peaceful Shire where nothing happens, to the little Hobbits half the size of humans, but with a bigger heart. Joins through the epic fight against the Dark Lord Sauron, under the direction of the mysterious , grand, remote wizard Gandalf the Grey, the other Hobbits in Hobbiton feel the Baggins are strange people their wanderings are not normal in the almost perfect place. Lets begin at the start... Bilbo the guardian of the magic ring he took in the original , The Hobbit, is giving a fabulous farewell party that only his "nephew" knows this fact. A great celebration, plenty of delicious food with spectacular, colors in the sky, fireworks never seen in these parts, dancing, even presents too. Puff old Bilbo disappears when he puts on the one ring (on his finger) to the quite astonishment of everyone, yet they continue to eat the wonderful vittles. Believing he will return shortly...he doesn't. A legend begins. Poor Frodo waits in vain a long , long time, years roll by until the Wizard tells him to leave .The forces of evil are searching for the powerful ring who the pure evil inhabitant of the Dark Tower needs to conquer and rule the land .Thus his friends, Sam, Pippin and Merry are companions in the dubious travels, others will come, however can they beat their fierce enemies. Over snowy mountains , through bleak valleys, thick, dim forests, inside gloomy, unlighted mines and floating on rivers with treacherous rapids some unseen under the surface, always followed hy orcs and things, the Black Riders in the night. And creepy Gollum after his precious... can "it" be far away? To the soulless domains of Mordor , where he Frodo must go , his destiny or end...The entertaining, incomparable fantasy series from a writer who knew words and how to form beautiful sentences in their proper order and makes readers feel alive in Middle-earth...A book that will be read again and again until the crack of doom or civilization ceases to exist.
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Read the review by Doc Opp; I think he covers it quite nicely. He explains how Tolkien was the forefather of fantasy writing, and why that makes his books important. He also shares his opinion that the historical importance sort of causes people to overlook that Tolkien couldn't write worth beans.

Opp posits that perhaps it has something to do with the concept of heroism being different in Tolkien's days than it is now. I'm not sure I agree with that. I mean I agree that his characters are a study in perserverance without being able to really fight or do anything but perservere, I just don't know that I buy that it's a sign of the times. I think Tolkien was just boring.

I don't disagree, also, that the Shannara series is essentially the same storyline with a better writer at the helm.

My venom towards Tolkien is greater than Opp's perhaps because we read for different reasons. I have very little patience with writers who have great ideas or imaginations when it comes to the physical world, but can't get inside the head of a person to save their lives and thus can't tell a story. This sort of writer is often found in sci-fi/fantasy, because the genre is geared to reward the most innovative and plausible inventing of a future or past timescape.

If guys like Opp were always doing the commentating I might not hate Tolkien with such a passion, but unfortunately the world is filled with people who don't read sci-fi but who recalled their lit teacher spoke Tolkien's name once and probably said something about how he was the father of modern fantasy, and those people went on to shout Tolkien's name from the rooftops to the extent that a movie even got made out of it. Now the movie I could actually stomach (a little) because Hollywood realized they couldn't completely bore the pants off of people and still make money. But I digress.

I cannot conceive of any reason one would read these novels unless they were forced e.g. for a class. And even then, it'd better be a history class and not a writing class, unless the objective was to teach how not to write. There's no pace, no character development, the focus shifts between groups of characters ala Robert Jordan without any of Jordan's redeeming qualities (although Jordan certainly has faults as well).

The most compelling reason to read these novels is so that you can rip someone a new one when they bring up Tolkien by making a point by point case where you describe all the things he does wrong.

Let me put it this way, I have read some of the most God-awful books in my time. I mean when I was younger I would read a phone book if it was handy. But I could not finish the Fellowship of the Rings.

Comparing Tolkien to Asimov is just...I mean that's like comparing me to Asimov. I have an imagination and so does Asimov, comparison ended. Asimov came up with a plausible future that was interesting, and then he wrote characters within that adventure that were compelling. Caves of Steel is brilliant because whatshisface the detective is sort of an everyman and Asimov deals with things such as embarrassment because your Dad's job doesn't rate you high enough to eat at the right hydroponics diner. I'm mangling things, but you get the point. Asimov may have been the best ever at having really cool ideas and not wasting them by forgetting to write about people.

I hate Tolkien, I blame him for his vacuous and enraging fan base, I blame him for every author that followed him that spent 5 hours describing a blade of grass, I hate him for taking a genre that I like and making me want to vomit on it, even if he was the first. It makes me want to burn my entire fantasy bookshelf down to the ground.

That's my review.