The Fellowship of the Ring (the book)

I just finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring.  J.R.R. Tolkien published it in 1954.  It formed the first volume of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.  I will write about the trilogy in another post, most likely when I have finished all three book.

As I will explain in more depth when I write about The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings follows the story of The Hobbit.  However, while Tolkien wrote that book (The Hobbit) around 1932, and finally had it published in 1937, it took almost 20 years for Tolkien to write the follow-up story.  I will explain this delay when I post about The Lord of the Rings.

The Fellowship of the Rings picks up on the story of Bilbo Baggins, the hero of The Hobbit, who celebrates his 111th birthday at the beginning of the story.  Weary of life, he decides to leave the Shire, his home, and leave everything he owns to his nephew, Frodo Baggins, including the magical ring in adventures Tolkien earlier wrote about in The Hobbit (or as revised in a second edition).

Frodo eventually finds out that he has accidentally received a ring of power, devised by a powerful dark lord, Sauron. As the story develops,he finds out that the only way he can deliver the world (middle earth),

from certain domination by Sauron, is to destroy the ring in the fires where it was forged, in Mount Doom.  He knobbly undertakes an adventure to Mount Doom in order to destroy the ring with the fellowship of a wizard (Gandalf), two men (Aragon and Boromir), three hobbits (Sam, Merry, and Pippin), a dwarf (Gimli), and and an elf (Legolas) - a company called the Fellowship of the Ring.  Their adventures follows through this book to the break-up of their Fellowship.

More importantly, the book allows Tolkien to work out several themes, often with Christian elements since he was a devout Catholic, such as

the corrupting influence of power, the inevitability of decline, and how myths tend to promote the gospel message.

In addition, Tokien fills The Fellowship of the Rings with songs and singing (often as poetry), emphasizes the rewards and dangers of the road, the importance of paying attention to prophecy, the importance of symbols such as the rings of power, the sword of Elendil (the sword which long ago almost killed the Dark Lord), and the Mirror of Galandriel which shows the future, explains the present, or recalls the past.

Anyway, Tolkien, a philologist who avidly studied the stories and legends of the past, drew the best from that tradition in order to enrichen our age.  I strongly encourage the study of this book as an avid way of understanding our age, as many do - who often read it on a regular basis.  (My doctor confessed on a recent visit that she has read it four times already.)

Tolkien, along with his good friend, C.S. Lewis, believed that good storytelling was the best way to introduce a general audience to the good news of the gospel.  They worked vigorously in this endeavor.

If you haven't read The Fellowship of the Ring, I strongly urge you to read this book.

The Two Towers

The Hobbit (the book)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (film)

The Lewis Tolkien Friendship