The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings, Part 1: Fellowship of the Ring Vol 1 [Paperback]

As LOTR regularly wins polls as the twentieth century's favorite work of fiction, it is now rather difficult to say anything new about it, except that professors of English who appear on highbrow chat shows to review literature rather reprehensibly still prefer so-called 'realists' of the Ernest Hemingway and George Eliot ilk. Chronologically (in Middle-Earth time and in order of publishing), 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is the first book of the great Lord of the Rings trilogy, and follows 'The Hobbit'. Of course The Hobbit itself is largely aimed at children, although its themes mature as the story matures, whereas LOTR is four-squarely adult. However, it should be realised that Hobbit is essentially, as Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis put it, 'merely a fragment torn from the author's huge myth'. The inchoate romance of the whole of Middle-Earth and its inhabitants came into being over a very long period of Tolkien's life, and formed a coherent whole well before he thought of publishing.

As an heroic romance, the book was launched into a post-war Britain that largely expected fiction to be a 'slice of reality', as in the Hemingway/Eliot tradition. We had turned our backs on books of this type. So far as romances of imagined worlds, real heroes, real villains, and epic themes went, the science fiction sub-culture of dime novels and cheap comics was the brightest spot on the literary horizon! All the greater the shock then, when this luxuriously and profligately original masterwork, a veritable new Odyssey, re-established the genre at a stroke.

The story starts quietly, and even a little childishly, in the Shire of the hobbits, who are quite English and very much the sort of creation that an Englishman of the Midlands would create, although they are not an allegory of the English (I speak as a Midlander myself). Events rapidly gather pace and the serious and high nature of the quest becomes apparent, the great master-ring created by Sauron being in the seemingly accidental possession of one Frodo Baggins, hobbit-at-large. The Ring is too terrible a weapon to be mastered for good and used against Sauron; yet the Lord of the Rings is utterly set on claiming it back so it cannot be held. Therefore, hard though the thought is, the weapon that is the Ring must be destroyed. A trusty band, a fellowship, of adventurers must be assembled to carry out the quest. There are many subtleties in this book, and the characters are not all they seem. The heroes of the fellowship have mixed motives, Boromir especially. The climax of the Fellowship of the Ring largely revolves around the chaos caused by the Boromir's inner dilemma and his unwise actions. Even Gollum the sneak is not yet entirely bad, and has the occasional good impulse. As if the Black Riders and hordes of orcs were not bad enough, the story breaks off with a classical cliff-hanger: the quest must go on even though the fellowship be riven by argument and conflict. As the plots and sub-plots multiply so does the tension. A must read? - to be sure. More than once? - certainly. But not before the next two installments...

A new wave of readers have discovered "The Fellowship of the Ring," thanks to the arrival of the epic movie hits. And that is definitely a good thing, because this trilogy not only spurred the fantasy genre into a respectable position, but also provided the template for virtually every elf, dwarf, lost king, and medieval fantasy world since. It's also a wicked good read.

We open some sixty years after the events of "The Hobbit" -- Bilbo Baggins is older, not much wiser, substantially wealthier, and quite eccentric (one not-so-affectionate nickname is "Mad Baggins"). He has also adopted his bright young cousin Frodo, who was orphaned at a young age and had led a rather fractured life since then. On his 111th birthday, Bilbo suddenly vanishes, leaving behind all his possessions to Frodo -- including the golden ring that allows its wearer to become invisible.

Seventeen years later, Gandalf the wizard shows up again on Frodo's doorstep, and informs the young hobbit that his ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron. It inevitably corrupts those who have it, and most of Sauron's power is invested in it. Trying to deflect danger from the Shire, Frodo leaves with his best friend Sam and his loyal cousins Merry and Pippin. But Frodo has only the slightest idea of the hideous and dangerous journey ahead of him, that will take him across Middle-Earth to the evil land of Mordor.

Many fantasy cliches were spawned from this book (although they weren't cliches when Tolkien used them). Orcs, elves, dwarves, halflings, sprawling medieval kingdoms, dethroned kings, gray-bearded wizards and evil Dark Lords. But no one will feel that these are stale; on the contrary, they feel fresh and unused, because that is what they were when the book was first penned.

Narrative-wise, this book begins on much the same note as "The Hobbit": it's lighter and more cheerful, since it opens in the Shire. But darker undertones begin to crop up in the very first chapter, when Bilbo begins clutching at the Ring and speaking in a Gollum-like manner. The pace is pretty slow and gradual until the hobbits reach Bree, at which point it becomes darker, faster and harsher in tone and pace. The matter in it also becomes more mature, particularly in the chilling scenes after Frodo is stabbed by a Nazgul.

One of the things that Tolkien did exceptionally well is atmosphere. With a minimum of words, he conveys the menace of the Black Riders, the beauty of the Elves, the decay of the ancient kingdom of Moria, the mystery of such characters as Aragorn. In some areas, he deliberately didn't elaborate on the such things as the Balrog, leaving the visualization up to the readers.

Another strong point is a sense of epic proportions. Too often a fantasy writer TRIES to write an epic, at the expense of individual character development. Tolkien managed to balance both of them, by focusing on the individuals in the center of epic struggles.

Frodo himself is the quintessential "little guy" hero, one of the last people whom you'd expect to be on a mission to save the world. He's prone to moods of either cheerfulness or sadness, a little immature and bored at the beginning, but incredibly brave and stout-hearted when the pressure is put on him. He has no astounding destiny or special powers to help him. He's simply an ordinary person.

We also have Gandalf, who is fleshed out from the pleasantly crabby wizard of "Hobbit" -- we see more of his hidden sides and powers here. And Frodo is surrounded by a well-rounded cast of characters, including his loyal gardener Sam and his charmingly sneaky cousins, as well as a rich fellowship of ethereal Elves, mysterious men and doughty dwarves.

Tolkien wasn't the first fantasy writer, but he can rightly be described as the first noted fantasy writer, and he remains top of the heap today. "Fellowship of the Ring" is a must-read -- and then go watch the movies again.

Never has a book been so full of joy friendship, sorrow,loyalty,courage,glowing with the absolute pleasure of nature,so much so you are there,breathing and living every moment an excellent book written by a remarkable person, thank you.
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