Jenny Fern reviewed The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Review of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is the first book I've read in 2020, the year I have the goal of reading longer books and those that intimidate me. I've read the Hobbit twice, once in fifth grade and then again last year, and I think it's a fun story, but I've never read the Lord of the Rings and haven't read much high fantasy.
I read this front to back, including the foreward and prologue - this made me very concerned that this book would be incredibly dry. It is noted that the trilogy is an attempt at "a really long story that would hold the attention of readers." Thankfully the meat of the story is usually not very dry.
I feel it reads well going into it thinking it will read like a DnD campaign rather than a "typical" novel - there are long journeys, battles, moments of rest, and I can imagine …
This is the first book I've read in 2020, the year I have the goal of reading longer books and those that intimidate me. I've read the Hobbit twice, once in fifth grade and then again last year, and I think it's a fun story, but I've never read the Lord of the Rings and haven't read much high fantasy.
I read this front to back, including the foreward and prologue - this made me very concerned that this book would be incredibly dry. It is noted that the trilogy is an attempt at "a really long story that would hold the attention of readers." Thankfully the meat of the story is usually not very dry.
I feel it reads well going into it thinking it will read like a DnD campaign rather than a "typical" novel - there are long journeys, battles, moments of rest, and I can imagine the successes, twists and turns, and failures as being controlled by a roll of the dice. (I'm not sure how typical this is for fantasy.)
There are slow moments, a lot of songs, and a lot of names of places and people, but I really enjoyed the importance of nature and the merging of human-like beings with the natural world.
Maybe it's just my current priorities in life that have colored my reading, but there were strong themes of stewardship of the land and immersion into nature. Nature is neither good nor evil in this text, rather it's shaped by the people around it. When nurtured and tended to such as Tom Bombadil and Galadriel have done, the land is abundant and nuturing back. In other regions, there is no steward for the land, and it is wild and is neither kind nor harsh.
The corrupt and imperialistc forces destory the natural world. Sam has visions of trees being felled in the Shire and smoke pouring out from a new brick building and he wishes to be home to protect it. Sam is also the character who is gifted soil with which he can garden when his journey is over. (And presumably rebuild.)
I wasn't really expecting the strength of this message of the goodness of working with the land to create bounty rather than its neglect and/or exploitation for one's personal power and gain. This message was a nice surprise because it isn't very well conveyed in the movies.
Overall, a different type of reading experience, but I enjoyed it.
