The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings

Being the first part of The Lord of the Rings

Hardcover, 423 pages

English language

Published July 27, 1988 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

ISBN:
978-0-395-48931-4
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Goodreads:
77683

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4 stars (7 reviews)

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth - home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving "little people," cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature."

Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as "a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world...especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness."

The story of ths world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C.S. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.H. Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. …

58 editions

I waited too long to read this

5 stars

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 …

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 …

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Subjects

  • Fantasy