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. It takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. It was originally published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom.
The volume consists of a foreword, in which the author discusses his writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits, and other matters", and the main narrative in Book I and Book II.
On my childhood bookshelf there sits a very well-thumbed copy of Fellowship, a dog-eared but otherwise tidy copy of the Two Towers, and a pristine edition of Return of the King which I somehow never quite made it to. I'm glad to have finally made it — it made all the difference to give myself permission to skip ahead a page here and there if I wasn't into that particular ballad or lengthy description of a rock face. I haven't got anything sophisticated to say about it but I very much appreciated my time in Middle-Earth. Tolkien's exploration of good and evil, power and virtue, is one that resonates more than I'd have liked it to.
Fellowship: 5/5 - maybe my favourite of the three
Two Towers: 4/5 - the marshes are a real drag
Return of the King: 5/5
Tolkien is a master of modern fantasy for good reason! I always enjoyed the movies but never got around to reading the source material until this year. If you love the world of Middle-Earth, pick this up for more beautiful world-building. Learn about the Wild Men of the Woods, the healing herbs of Gondor, the conclave of ents, the geography of Mordor, the Scouring of the Shire, and more! Also the appendices are a lot of fun. The list of kings of Arnor and Gondor gets a little tiring, but the Lay of Aragorn and Arwen is a beautiful story showing the start of their legendary love.
I can confirm that Legolas has no dialogue to Frodo Baggins, though he is noted as joining the conversation with the Hobbits in Ithilien after the destruction of the One Ring. He presumably says something to Frodo there.
This book also fails to …
Tolkien is a master of modern fantasy for good reason! I always enjoyed the movies but never got around to reading the source material until this year. If you love the world of Middle-Earth, pick this up for more beautiful world-building. Learn about the Wild Men of the Woods, the healing herbs of Gondor, the conclave of ents, the geography of Mordor, the Scouring of the Shire, and more! Also the appendices are a lot of fun. The list of kings of Arnor and Gondor gets a little tiring, but the Lay of Aragorn and Arwen is a beautiful story showing the start of their legendary love.
I can confirm that Legolas has no dialogue to Frodo Baggins, though he is noted as joining the conversation with the Hobbits in Ithilien after the destruction of the One Ring. He presumably says something to Frodo there.
This book also fails to pass the Bechdel test, but there is more dialogue from women here than in the movies. A healer from Gondor has several paragraphs where she tells her (unnamed) relative all about King Elessar, and how magnificent he was in healing the stricken Eowyn and Merry.
Review of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
And the plot thickens...when you finish this one, you'll be moving right over to the next in series; I love how each book builds on the previous, and I have not read a fantasy series which pulls off that trope that well in a very long time. Sending 2024 out with a fantasy bang.
A couple of Australian tourists in Russia rescue an old man from drowning, and in gratitude he tells them of an ancestor of his who, during the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution, attacked a train and stole some icons that had been stolen by the Bolsheviks from the Russian royal family. One of the Australians is of Russian ancestry, and the old man tells him that if he can find the hidden icons, he can keep them, and gives him one of his own family icons, which is said to hold the key to the secret location of the icons.
The tourists, an accountant and a dentist, return to Australia and when the believe they may have found a clue to the location of the icons, decide, after many arguments, to return to Russia and look for them. Their arguments continue throughout the book. …
Amateur versus professional crooks.
A couple of Australian tourists in Russia rescue an old man from drowning, and in gratitude he tells them of an ancestor of his who, during the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution, attacked a train and stole some icons that had been stolen by the Bolsheviks from the Russian royal family. One of the Australians is of Russian ancestry, and the old man tells him that if he can find the hidden icons, he can keep them, and gives him one of his own family icons, which is said to hold the key to the secret location of the icons.
The tourists, an accountant and a dentist, return to Australia and when the believe they may have found a clue to the location of the icons, decide, after many arguments, to return to Russia and look for them. Their arguments continue throughout the book. First one is keen on the project, and the other is lukewarm, and then the one who was lukewarm becomes keen and the other is sceptical.
Their enterprise is of dubious legality and morality, and thus they need to keep it secret, but they take it in turns to boast about it and to warn against doing so. First one says too much, and the other warns him not to, and then they exchange roles. As a result of this, several others, including professional criminals, become aware of the treasure hunt, and the two amateurs find themselves in serious trouble and great danger again and again, usually because one has done something foolish that the other has warned them against.
The battle between the amateurs and the professionals goes right through the book, and I thought the theme was a little overplayed. The protagonists never seemed to learn from their mistakes, and went on making the same mistakes over and over again, and getting into similar trouble over and over again. One would take precautions that the other would get angry about, or one would neglect precautions that the other would get angry about.
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien is a book that is meant to be enjoyed slowly (but not too slowly). This is the second time that I have read the novel. The difference between the first and the second time is that when I first read the novel, I read it in the aftermath of the films. The films loomed so large over my teenage existence and you really could not get away from them. I started reading the novel and I got through the first half. Then I watched films and became annoyed at the novel because it the narrative was not linear and the images in the book did not match the ones in the film. I am saddened today by this fact – I remember the images in my mind from my reading of the first half without the film influencing my imagination. I also …
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien is a book that is meant to be enjoyed slowly (but not too slowly). This is the second time that I have read the novel. The difference between the first and the second time is that when I first read the novel, I read it in the aftermath of the films. The films loomed so large over my teenage existence and you really could not get away from them. I started reading the novel and I got through the first half. Then I watched films and became annoyed at the novel because it the narrative was not linear and the images in the book did not match the ones in the film. I am saddened today by this fact – I remember the images in my mind from my reading of the first half without the film influencing my imagination. I also read the novel for the first time over the course of three years where I would pick up one book, read it for it a bit, then set it aside for a few weeks. Because of this, I don’t think I considered the novel as a single work. And I think my reading was a bit unfair.
This time, I picked up the book because I wanted to have something that had nothing to do with my academic work – I wanted a book to get lost in. I had not watched films in years and so I thought that I might finally have enough distance to give the book another goes. I had two stipulations when reading it: I would read it in a single-volume edition and I would read it more quickly than before. I moved along steadily and read consistently but I found my second reading was a revelation. It took my about six months to reach the end of the journey. How do I feel? In a film, you can see the forest. It is immense and grand. But in the novel, you see the trees, you feel the texture of the bark, the glow of the leaves. It is the details of this novel which make it breathtaking—the imagination of one man enveloped in a world of his own creation. A mark of this prodigious imagination is how a single word or name could be underpinned by complex and well-rendered backstories. The novel is enjoyable if not the best written work but it is the work going on behind everything that makes the work truly shine. I bow to Tolkien’s joy and his craft.
I recommend reading the physical book. It is not the same as reading an electronic copy. I also recommend simple going slow and savoring the details. But one should be careful not to good too slowly and get caught up in those details—leave some of them for a subsequent reading! The novel has much more coherence than I remember from my first reading. To read such a long work at a steady pace is an exercise in patience but one I think is well-worth the effort.
You may notice that I have not really described the content of the novel. I think that would take too long and do a disservice to the reader. Go, pick it up with no expectations and enjoy the journey.
The continuing tale concerning Hobbits that would alter the course of thier world
5 stars
(Note: review based on one of numerous rereading of the book.)
What started out as a request for another story about hobbits (after the success of "The Hobbit") grew in the telling until it became an epic tale about the quest to destroy the One Ring of Sauron; and how it was the 'least of heroes', unlooked-for even by the wise, would prove to be one to fulfil the quest and free Middle-Earth from domination by the Dark Lord.
This book has been released in many editions and in many forms over the years. The one I read was a one-volume edition that celebrates the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien and includes fifty paintings specially commissioned from artist Alan Lee.
Reading it now after watching the Peter Jackson films, it is easy to put the actors in the film into the scenes from the book, modified by the illustrations of Alan …
(Note: review based on one of numerous rereading of the book.)
What started out as a request for another story about hobbits (after the success of "The Hobbit") grew in the telling until it became an epic tale about the quest to destroy the One Ring of Sauron; and how it was the 'least of heroes', unlooked-for even by the wise, would prove to be one to fulfil the quest and free Middle-Earth from domination by the Dark Lord.
This book has been released in many editions and in many forms over the years. The one I read was a one-volume edition that celebrates the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien and includes fifty paintings specially commissioned from artist Alan Lee.
Reading it now after watching the Peter Jackson films, it is easy to put the actors in the film into the scenes from the book, modified by the illustrations of Alan Lee of the various places in Middle-Earth. And after all these years, the words in the book still have the 'power' to bring the reader to Middle-Earth and put you in the footsteps of the Fellowship of the Ring as they strive to do what they can to thwart the plans of Sauron and distract him for the peril that is slowly entering his stronghold on hobbit feet.
Review of 'The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Let's be real, I'm never finishing this series and I just need to accept that. I love the lore and the world. I love the stories. But I HATE the prose. I'll stick to the extended versions of the films, thank you.
Review of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
In 1980 Heinlein published a novel called The Number of the Beast. It involved parallel universes, The World as Fiction, and dragged in Lazarus Long, as Heinlein seemed to do in most of his later books. While parts of it were fun, it was also confusing and disjointed in my opinion. I will read any Heinlein for the writing alone, so I am a fan (in fact, I was for a time the webmaster for The Heinlein Society), but I can see that some of his stuff is better than others. So when I heard there was an alternate version of this novel, I had to check it out. And The Pursuit of the Pankera keeps the same basic setting and has the same beginning as The Number of the Beast, but I think it is much better. The plot is a lot more cohesive and the novel just flows …
In 1980 Heinlein published a novel called The Number of the Beast. It involved parallel universes, The World as Fiction, and dragged in Lazarus Long, as Heinlein seemed to do in most of his later books. While parts of it were fun, it was also confusing and disjointed in my opinion. I will read any Heinlein for the writing alone, so I am a fan (in fact, I was for a time the webmaster for The Heinlein Society), but I can see that some of his stuff is better than others. So when I heard there was an alternate version of this novel, I had to check it out. And The Pursuit of the Pankera keeps the same basic setting and has the same beginning as The Number of the Beast, but I think it is much better. The plot is a lot more cohesive and the novel just flows in way the previous didn't. This is the one I will reread in the future. And as a huge fan of the Lensman universe the part of the book that goes there was quite a treat. For those who don't know, the idea of The World as Fiction is that fictional worlds are real in other universes, so the characters here visit Barsoom, Oz, and the Lensman universe. Tons of fun.
Children's friendships can be fickle. They make new friends and then abandon those friends for new friends, and some times the abandoned friends are hurt. Sometimes they have imaginary friends, but what happens when an imaginary friend is abandoned? Imaginary friends belong only to the child who imagined them, so how can they find new friends?
This is a rather touching short story of an abandoned imaginary friend.
