The Lord of the Rings is a
novel written by
J.R.R. Tolkien. It is divided into six books with notes and
appendices.
LotR was originally published in three volumes:
Tolkien started writing LotR as early as 1937, but was interrupted by WWII.
The story is set in Middle Earth, a continent in a world inhabited by a variety of different creatures: Men, hobbits, elves, dwarves and Orcs to name but a few. There are many hints that the story takes place on Earth in the distant past, e.g., the year length, which is the same as ours to the second.
Tolkien paid an extraordinary amount of attention to detail. He had previously written but not published the Silmarillion -- the history of his world from its creation onwards – which gave him an enormous wealth of memory and depth to draw upon.
He was a professor of Lingustics and invented a number of complete (and some less complete) languages for his characters to speak. Examples are the elven languages of Quenya and Sindarin, as well as Adunaic and the Black Speech. In the appendices he went so far as to give them letter-systems and styles. The books also contain maps, notes on the cultures and histories of the peoples, and a brief history of the text.
One of the ideas Tolkien tried to get across was that LotR was an ancient text, "The Red Book of Westmarch", written by Bilbo and Frodo and added to by Sam and others. In this way he constructs a whole text history, complete with variant editions. Tolkien carried on this idea by explaining he was only the translator, and had translated the Red Book from the origial Westron into English. Tolkien makes the riders of Rohan speak a varient of Old English in the book. He explains that their language bore a similar relation to Westron that Old English does to modern English, so his rendering gives the "feel" of the original.
He strenuously denied any implication that thing in his book symbolised the Second World War or his religious beliefs. He utterly rejected allegory.
Like the book, the Lord of the Rings film was made in one go, even though it produced nine hours of cinema. The first part, the Fellowship of the Ring, was a visually stunning adaptation. But it is an adaptation; things have gone, things have been added. One shouldn’t expect the film to follow the book entirely, as not everything written translates to cinema. Still worth seeing, though.
There now follows a plot summary; don’t read it if you don’t want to know!
Spoiler Space
Book one: The Ring Sets Out
The first book picks up where The Hobbit (Tolkien’s earlier work) left off. Frodo Baggins the hobbit is left a ring by his uncle Bilbo. The wizard Gandalf suspects that this is the One Ring lost by the Dark Lord Sauron who needs it to regain his powers. After warning Frodo of the danger, Gandalf goes off in search of help. Frodo leaves his home of the Shire with three other hobbits; Samwise Gangee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin). They escape pursuit by Black Riders, are rescued from a willow and a barrow by Tom Bombadil, and meet Aragorn in an inn in Bree, who they know as Strider. The five make their way to Rivendell, but Frodo gets stabbed by a Black Rider on the way.
Book two: The Ring Goes South
The second book starts with a big conference where it is decided to destroy the Ring once and for all. To do this they need to take it to the heart of Sauron’s realm of Mordor and throw it in the Cracks of Doom. The four hobbits, Gandalf, Aragorn, a man called Boromir, Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf all set out. They are forced to short-cut through Moria, an abandoned mine. The party battles Orcs and Gandalf dies in battle with a Balrog, a creature of fire. The rest of the party escape to the forest of Lorien, and rest there. They continue and are separated when Boromir tries to steal the ring. Frodo and Sam run off to Mordor.
Book three: The Treason of Isengard
Orcs attack, Boromir is killed and Pippin and Merry are taken prisoner. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli try to rescue them, but they are met by Gandalf in the woods, who has returned from death. The four go to
Rohan and convince the King
Theoden to attack
Saruman, a rogue wizard. A big battle follows and the good guys win. Meanwhile, Pippin and Merry have escaped and join the
Ents, a sort of tree-people, in attacking
Saruman. Gandalf and Pippin head to
Gondor, a friendly country at war with Mordor.
Book four: The Ring goes East
While book three has been going on, Frodo and Sam have got lost and hungry. They meet Gollum, a past holder of the Ring and now a withered mad creature. He guides them through the swamps to the Black Gate into Mordor, but they find it closed. The three are captured and released by Faramir, Boromir’s brother. They come to another entrance to Mordor. Gollum leads them into a trap and they are attacked by the giant spider Shelob. Frodo is bitten, but Sam stabs her and she flees. Sam takes the ring to carry on the quest.
In Gondor, Gandalf is given a cold reception. Merry comes down with riders from Rohan to Gondor, who just in time to take part in a massive battle. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli take a roundabout route, and arrive with reinforcements to save the day. But Theoden dies in the battle, and Merry is wounded. Denethor, the lord of Gondor, goes mad and kills himself. They all gear up for a battle they can’t possibly win, right in front of the Black Gate.
Book six: The end of the Third Age
Sam succeeds in rescuing Frodo. They painfully and slowly get as far as the Cracks of Doom. A bizarre series of events lets them finish their quest. Sauron is defeated, his fortress collapses, the battle is won. Frodo and Sam return to Gondor as heroes in time for Aragorn to take its throne. The hobbits head back north but find things bad back home. They free the Shire. After a few years, Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf head west over the sea, never to return.