The Lord of the Rings. 3 Vol. Set
by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Book Reviews of The Lord of the Rings. 3 Vol. Set

Book Review: A World of His Own
Summary: 5 Stars

The plot of "Lord of the Rings", a novel of well over 1,000 pages, is too complex to be summarised here in any depth. At its centre is a magic ring (a motif Tolkien seems to have borrowed from Wagner). This ring can give its owner immense power, but can only be used for evil purposes. At the beginning of the work the ring is owned by the elderly hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who acquired it many years before (the story of how he did so is told in "The Hobbit") and has no idea of its power. He is warned, however, by the wizard Gandalf that the evil Dark Lord Sauron, who originally forged the ring, is trying to regain it in order to enslave Middle-Earth (the imagined world in which the story is set).

The story has two interlocking themes. Firstly, there is the journey of Bilbo's nephew Frodo to destroy the ring, something that can only be achieved by casting it into Mount Doom, the volcano in which it was eventually forged. (During the early part of his journey, Frodo has a number of companions- the "Fellowship of the Ring"- but only one of these, his faithful servant Sam, stays with him to the end). The second is the war that is waged by Sauron and his allies against the peoples of Middle Earth- humans, hobbits, elves, dwarves and ents (walking trees)- and of their courageous resistance.

The book is much more than a fantasy adventure. Many have tried to read hidden meanings into it, both religious and political, even though Tolkien explicitly stated that it was not an allegory. Certainly, it is not an allegory in the sense of "The Pilgrim's Progress" or "Animal Farm"- a book where every detail has a symbolic meaning or can be related to an actual historical event. (Sauron, for example is not simply another name for the Devil or a disguised portrait of Hitler). This does not, however, mean that there is no symbolism in "Lord of the Rings". The main symbol is the ring itself, which represents evil and its power to corrupt the human spirit. The heroes such as Gandalf and Frodo do not dare to use the ring against Sauron because they fear that if they do they will be corrupted by its power and become as evil as he is. The various races who people Middle Earth also have symbolic functions, especially the Elves and the Orcs. The former, in Tolkien's world, are not small fairy-like creatures but an ancient race, beautiful, wise and noble who represent the higher, spiritual side of human nature. The brutal and aggressive Orcs, by contrast, represent its lower, bestial side.

The theme of good versus evil is one that is capable of either a religious or a secular interpretation, but Tolkien himself was a devout Christian, and some of the themes of the book seem to be directly related to Christian ideas. There is no single Christ-figure, but three of the heroes have Christ-like attributes. Frodo, the ring-bearer, symbolically bears the sin of the world. Gandalf the wise and benevolent sage rises from the dead after dying in a struggle with an evil adversary. The final part of the book is entitled "The Return of the King"; this relates to the reappearance of Aragorn, the lost heir to the throne of the kingdom of Gondor, but can also be taken as a reference to the Second Coming.

So far, I have discussed the work in largely abstract terms, but it is not principally a book about abstractions. What sets it apart from many other fantasy works is that Middle-Earth is brilliantly imagined in all its concrete reality. It is a world that is in some respects a familiar one. Its geography, climate, flora and fauna are closely based on those of Europe. The hobbits, for all their small stature, hairy feet and habit of living in holes, are also reassuringly familiar; conservative and phlegmatic by temperament, they seem like the Middle-Earth equivalent of tweedy, pipe-smoking Englishmen. In other respects, Tolkien's world is highly exotic one. He spent many years of his life developing his ideas about the races who inhabit it, working out full details of their cultures, their histories, their mythologies and (most important from his point of view as he was an academic philologist) their languages. Many of these details are set out in the Appendices which, although they do not form part of the main story, are nevertheless a fascinating part of the work.

Against this background, Tolkien creates a cast of characters who, even when they have a symbolic function, also come to life as individuals. (Something else that sets him apart from many other fantasy writers). Besides those mentioned above, I should also mention Sam, Frodo's loyal and steadfast servant, Saruman, a former colleague of Gandalf who was tempted by cynicism and self-interest to throw in his lot with Sauron, and especially Gollum. Gollum is the mysterious creature from whom Bilbo originally won the ring, and whose life is dominated by the desire to recapture it. He is vicious and treacherous, and yet at the same time capable of arousing pity. He both desires the ring and fears its power; at the end he will play an ironic yet vital role in its destruction. From evil, good can sometimes spring.

Having read the work, I can now understand why it has such a fascination for many people, even if I have no immediate plans to read it another forty-nine times. In some literary and academic circles there may be a prejudice against the heroic fantasy genre, which is regarded (with some justification) as tending to produce shallow, one-dimensional works. The miracle of "The Lord of the Rings" is that Tolkien has taken this unfashionable genre and used it to produce a rich, multi-layered work, one which has taken its rightful place among the masterpieces of twentieth-century English literature.

Summary of The Lord of the Rings. 3 Vol. Set

Not just revolutionary because it was groundbreaking, the Lord of the Rings is timeless because it's the product of a truly top-shelf mind. Tolkien was a distinguished linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages, with strong ideas about the importance of myth and story and a deep appreciation of nature. His epic, 10 years in the making, recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth's Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade from the world and men rise to dominance. Tolkien carefully details this transition with tremendous skill and love, creating in the Lord of the Rings a universal and all-embracing tale, a justly celebrated classic. --Paul Hughes

Classics Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Classics
• Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic