captaind's Full Review: J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
What can you say about what many people consider the greatest work of fantasy fiction ever? Er… they’re right?
Known commonly as a Trilogy (Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King), some people won’t realise that it’s actually made up of 6 books. (each of the above 3 volumes being split in two). So when I refer to book 2, I mean the second book of Fellowship of the Ring, not the whole of The Two Towers. Just thought I’d better warn you… :-O
Another note – I can’t find the edition I have (bound in one volume with appendices) on epinions – if you’re just after the story, that’s not a problem. I mention some of what the appendices contain later, and if they sound interesting to you it would be well worth hunting it down. But obviously the story will be the same …
The Story
Middle Earth is a mythical land filled with many different races (humans, elves, dwarves, trolls, and more…), each with their own history and personality traits. LOTR is set in the Third Age… some of the events of the previous 2 ages are summarised in the book, but for more details read “The Silmarilian”.
Long ago, the evil creature Sauron, who dwells in the land of Mordor, created 19 power rings, which he gave to humans, elves, and dwarves. These magical ring granted long life and insight to the wearers. However, he also wrought a ring to rule the others – as the ancient rhyme goes, ”One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”. He was found out and eventually defeated, but not completely destroyed... Some of the rings got destroyed, 3 were kept safe by the elves, and the 9 worn by kinds from humankinds completely corrupted their wearers, who became wraiths – or Nazgul, as they are called, among the most fearsome agents of Sauron. The One Ring survived, due to the foolishness of Isildur, the prince who cut of Sauron’s hand (and the ring with it) in the last great alliance between Men and Elves. Elrond, a great Elvish warrior, tried to talk sense into Isuldur, but the ring already had too much power over Isildur – the result of this was the beginning of the antagonism between Elves and Men. Isuldur soon perished, but the Ring ended up in the hands of a creature similar to a Hobbit, called Smeagal. The Ring gave him longevity but ravaged his soul. In time he became a creature called Gollum, and in “The Hobbit” the ring left his ownership and found a new owner: the eponymous Hobbit of that book, Bilbo Baggins.
At the start of Lord of the Ring, Bilbo is leaving his home town in Hobbiton. The grey wizard, Gandalf, attends his leaving party, partly as he is an old friend (Bilbo journeys with him in The Hobbit), but mainly because he has deduced the true origin of Bilbo’s ring.
The ring is to be taken to Rivendell, the home of Elrond (yep that’s the same chap mentioned earlier who was alive centuries earlier - Elves are immortal in Middle Earth), where its fate is to be decided. Bilbo’s nephew Frodo is assigned the task of delivering it there, along with his faithful friend (and gardener) Samwise Bangee (Sam). Two other friends, Meriadoc (Merry) and Perreguine (Pippin) also join the quest, albeit somewhat uninvited…
As the 3 of them travel to a town called Bree in order to meet the mysterious ranger, Aragorn, it becomes clear that Sauron’s apparent inactivity has ended, and that the Nazgul are searching for the Ring once more… and they’re headed to the Shire, home of the Hobbits…
After many adventures they arrive in Rivendell, where it is decided that the Ring must be taken to Mount Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed. A band of 9 comrades start out from Rivendell, representing each race of the free people of Middle Earth – the 4 hobbits, Gandalf, Aragorn and Boromir (Son of Denethoer, Steward of the kingdom of Gondor in the South) representing humans, Legolas the elf, and Gimli the dwarf (son of Gloin, who was one of the party members in The Hobbit).
I won’t let you in on any more of the plot in case you haven’t already red it. Of course, if you have seen the films, you will know the basics of the plot. However, the films, although brilliant, only really skim the surface of the plot (I mean they only have a total of 9 hours – 12 if you count the extended versions – to do it – not nearly enough for a book of this immensity and complexity), and also make a couple of changes here and there. While these changes are okay as far as they go, they are not as good as what was in the book in the first place.
The Characters
There are myriads of characters in LOTR, many of them being very memorable. Frodo is a pretty good lead character, and there’s much more to Sam than meets the eyes. Apart from the races already mentioned, there are Orcs (standard sword-fodder until the introduction of the Urak-hai, a more intelligent, engineered race of Orcs who can cope quite happily in sunlight) , Trolls (made of stone, stupid but extremely strong), Ents (living trees), and a Balrog (demon-like creature). There are others here and there, some essential to the story and some not-so. Like everything about the book, the characters are fully three-dimensional, with definite personalities, strengths and weaknesses, histories, etc. You really care about the main characters by the end of the book (I took a particular liking to Aragorn and Sam, myself). And Gollum is one of the most interesting characters in the history of fiction writing.
Locations
Middle Earth is a place you can really see and hear when you’re reading the book. Tolkein has created a wholly believable alternate world that is every bit as rich in detail, history, mythology, and intrigue as our own. (Though more like a sort of Middle-Ages Europe than today’s world, perhaps). Sometimes I found the description a bit too involved for my taste – if you can’t stand Dickens or Defoe you’ll know what I mean.
The locations range from the homely comforts of The Shire to mighty cites like Minas Tirith to the dark, menacing mountains of Mordor… the sheer immensity of Middle Earth draws you in and completely absorbs you. Despite the slightly too descriptive prose at times, the world is brilliantly described without slowing down the story too much. (At least, not in books 2-6. I found the first book rather tiresome, but perhaps only on the second reading. On subsequent readings I just skipped straight to book2… well sometimes to book3, as book 2 isn’t up to the last 4 either…)
Plot Development
The main plot develops rather slowly, since it takes the whole of the book, but there are hundreds of sub-plots along the way to keep things interesting. There is the mystery of who Aragorn really is, several prophecies to be fulfilled, personality clashes to be resolved, personal grudges to be settled, hidden agendas aplenty, destinies to be fulfilled and all that sort of thing. Apart from the first book, which is rather dull, and parts of the second (which is mostly good but sometimes dull), the action is gripping the whole way through, and full of surprises. (Well, obviously only on your first read. Unless you have a truly abysmal memory).
The way the various sub-plots interweave and correlate to each other and the main plot is masterfully done – absolutely nothing feels like it was “forced” in to make some other part of the plot work. It all flows together seamlessly.
The Writing
While as already mentioned the descriptive prose can sometimes be overbearing, and admittedly there is rather too much Elvish poetry for my liking (fortunately though it’s inset in italics so you can easily skip it without missing any of the story – though some parts of the earlier history can be gleaned from this poetry, if you want to know you’re far better off reading The Silmarilian, which in some ways I feel is actually better than LOTR), the prose is generally excellent with plenty of vitality and energy. The battle scenes are extremely well described, the language of the prophecies sounds authentic, the various different languages well-developed (scarily well, if you ask me – in the edition I have, there’s even a pronunciation guide in the appendices!), and the various baddies are described in a truly menacing way.
What the prose sometimes lacks in pace it makes up for in intrigue and development of the world as a whole. Tolkein’s hatred of the way industrialisation in his hometown of Birmingham (I can think of at least one great writer living there right now! :-D) shows through in his descriptions of Saruman’s war machines and the way the Ents are treated, and view humanity. But a love of nature is shown throught the book in a subtle way that will slowly creep up on you and leave an indelible mark.
If you can get hold of a copy with the appendices, there are several things to interest a Tolein buff – i.e. the aforementioned pronunciation guides – but of more interest is the timeline. It gives you details of major events in all four ages (LOTR is set towards the end of the third age) – which gives you a bit of background as to how Middle Earth came to the state it was in and what happens to the major characters after the events of LOTR. It’s not essential to enjoying the book, but it’s a nice extra.
The Bottom Line (before the Bottom Line...)
Well for me that’s quite a long book review, but it doesn’t begin to do Lord of the Rings justice, in all honesty. So here’s the deal:
If you like fantasy fiction and somehow haven’t read this yet, get off your backside and get a copy now.
I don’t think children under at least 14 children will be able to appreciate it much – younger children would be far better off with “The Hobbit”, which after all was written for Tolkein’s kids.
If you wouldn’t read the Harry Potter books because of the magic content, don’t read this.
If you like a complex involving story of any genre, this is one of the best.
If you have a short attention span or don’t like reading, watch the films instead.
Thanks for reading this review. Don’t forget to rate it (if you’re a member, obviously…)!
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