Lord of the Rings the facts A article written in 2007
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the British academic J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book, The Hobbit, & soon developed into a much larger story. It was written in stages between 1937 & 1949, with much of it being created during World War II. It was originally published in three volumes in 1954 & 1955 — much to Tolkien's annoyance, since he had intended it to be a single volume. It has since been reprinted numerous times & translated into at least 38 languages, becoming one of the most popular works in 20th-century literature.
The action in The Lord of the Rings is set in the fictional realm of Middle-earth populated by humans & other humanoid races. The story concerns theses peoples known as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, & Orcs & centres on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in the Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth & follows the courses of the War of the Ring. The main story is followed by six appendices that provide a wealth of historical & linguistic background material, as well as an index of characters, place names, & terms of note.
Along with Tolkien's other writings, The Lord of the Rings has been subjected to extensive analysis of its literary themes & origins. Although a major work in itself, the story is merely the last movement of a mythology that Tolkien had worked on since 1917. Influences on this earlier work, & on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, industrialization, & religion, as well as earlier fantasy works & Tolkien's experiences in World War I. The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on modern fantasy, & the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words "Tolkienian" & "Tolkienesque" have been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The immense & enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, & a large number of books about Tolkien & his works being published. The Lord of the Rings has inspired (and continues to inspire) short stories, video games, artworks & musical works. Numerous adaptations of Tolkien's works have been made for a wide range of media. Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings in particular have been made for radio, theatre, & film. The 2001 – 2003 release of the widely acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy prompted a new surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings & Tolkien's other works.
Spoiler warning: Plot & /or
ending details follow.
Back story
The back story is revealed as the
book progresses, & is also elaborated upon in the Appendices & in The
Silmarillion, the latter published after Tolkien's death. It begins thousands
of years before the action in the book, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of
the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent incarnated immortal spiritual being
possessed of great supernatural powers, later the ruler of the dreaded realm of
Mordor. At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survived the catastrophic
defeat & exile of his master, the ultimate evil figure, Morgoth, & during
the Second Age Sauron schemed to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In the guise
of "Annatar" or Lord of Gifts, he aided the Elven-smiths of Eregion
in the forging of magical rings which conferred various powers & effects on
their wearers. The most important of these were the nineteen Rings of Power or
Great Rings.
He then secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring, by which he planned to enslave the wearers of the other Rings of Power. This plan partly failed because the Elves became aware of him & took off their Rings. Sauron then launched a war during which he captured sixteen of the Rings of Power & distributed these to lords & kings of Dwarves & Men; these Rings were known as the Seven & the Nine respectively. The Dwarf-lords proved too tough to enslave, although their natural desire for wealth, especially gold, increased; this brought more conflict between them & other races. The Men who possessed the Nine were slowly corrupted over time & eventually became the undead Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, Sauron's most feared servants. Sauron failed to capture the remaining Three, & so they remained in the possession of the Elves (Celebrimbor, leader of the Elven-smiths, had forged them independently of Sauron). The war ended as the Men of the great island-nation of Númenor helped the besieged Elves, & Sauron's forces retreated.
A map of Númenor (called Andor
by the Elves).Over 1,500 years later, the Númenóreans sent a great
force to overthrow Sauron, led by their powerful monarch Ar-Pharazôn the
Golden. Deserted by his minions, Sauron surrendered & was taken to Númenor
as a prisoner. However, with cunning & strength of will he began to counsel
the King, & poisoned the minds of the Númenóreans against the
Valar. He deceived their King into invading the Undying Lands, the home of the
Valar, to gain the immortality of the Elves. But upon reaching their destination,
the King & his army were buried by a landslide. The Valar called upon "the
One" (God), who opened a great chasm in the sea, destroying Númenor,
& removing the Undying Lands from the mortal world. Sauron's fair physical
body was destroyed, but his spirit returned to Mordor & assumed a new, terrible
form. Some Númenóreans (called the Faithful, for they did not join
the expedition) also managed to escape to Middle-earth. They were led by Elendil
& his sons Isildur & Anárion.
Over 100 years later, Sauron launched an attack against the Númenórean exiles. Elendil formed the Last Alliance of Elves & Men with the Elven-king Gil-galad. They marched against Mordor, defeating Sauron's armies on the plain of Dagorlad, & besieging his stronghold Barad-dûr, at which time Anárion was slain. After seven years of siege, Sauron himself was forced to come forth & engage in single combat with the leaders. Gil-galad & Elendil were killed as they fought with Sauron, & Elendil's sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. Sauron's body was also overcome & slain, & Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil; when this happened, Sauron's spirit fled & did not reappear for many centuries. Isildur was advised to destroy the One Ring by casting it into the volcanic Mount Doom where it was forged but, attracted to its beauty, he refused & kept it as weregild (compensation) for the deaths of his father & brother.
So began the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later, Isildur & his soldiers were ambushed by a band of Orcs at what was eventually called the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. The men were almost all killed, but Isildur escaped by putting on the Ring — which made mortal wearers invisible. But the Ring betrayed its wearer, slipping from his finger while he was swimming in the great River Anduin; he was seen & killed by Orc-arrows, & the Ring was lost for two millennia.
It was then found by chance by a river hobbit named Déagol. His relative & friend Sméagol strangled him for the Ring & was banished from his home. Sméagol fled to the Misty Mountains where he slowly withered & became a loathsome, slimy creature called Gollum.
In The Hobbit, set 60 years before the events in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien related the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who took it to his home, Bag End. The tale related in The Hobbit was written before The Lord of the Rings, & it was only later that the author developed Bilbo's magic ring into the "One Ring". Neither Bilbo nor the wizard Gandalf were aware at this point that Bilbo's magic ring was the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron.
The Fellowship of the Ring, The
Two Towers, & The Return of the King
The west of Middle-earth during
the Third Age.The Lord of the Rings was first published in three volumes - The
Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers & The Return of the King. The main
story is divided into six books (two for each volume), successively numbered by
Roman numerals. There is also a Foreword & a Prologue in The Fellowship of
the Ring & six Appendices at the end of The Return of the King.
The Foreword of the Second Edition includes a dedication to American fans & a statement that the book is not an allegory, as some of its readers had already supposed. The Prologue includes a few sections providing backstory on the identity & customs of Hobbits, & a brief synopsis of The Hobbit where the Ring played a seemingly minor role.
Book I in The Fellowship of the Ring begins with Bilbo's hundred-and-eleventh birthday party, about 60 years after the end of The Hobbit, & his subsequent disappearance using his magic ring. Leaving to journey once more, he left many of his belongings, including the ring, to his cousin & adoptive heir Frodo Baggins.
After seventeen years of investigating, their old friend Gandalf the Grey revealed that the ring was in fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power, for which the Dark Lord had been searching for most of the Third Age, & which corrupted others with desire for it & the power it held.
Sauron sent the Ringwraiths, in the guise of riders in black, to the Shire, Bilbo & Frodo's native land, in search of the Ring. Frodo escaped, with the help of his loyal gardener Samwise "Sam" Gamgee & three close friends, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, Peregrin "Pippin" Took, & Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger. While Fatty acted as a decoy for the Ringwraiths, Frodo & the others set off to take the Ring to the Elven haven of Rivendell. They were aided by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, & by a man called "Strider", who was later revealed to be Aragorn, the heir to the kingships of Gondor & Arnor, two great realms founded by the Númenórean exiles. Aragorn led the hobbits to Rivendell on Gandalf's request. However, Frodo was gravely wounded by the leader of the Ringwraiths at the hill of Weathertop. With the help of his companions & the Elf-lord Glorfindel, Frodo managed to enter Rivendell's borders by crossing the Ford of the river Bruinen. The Ringwraiths, in close pursuit, were swept away by an enchantment of the river when they entered its waters. The book ends with Frodo losing consciousness.
Book II in The Fellowship of the Ring reveals that Frodo managed to recover under the care of the Half-elven lord Elrond, master of Rivendell. Frodo meets Bilbo, now living in retirement, & sees Elrond's daughter Arwen, Aragorn's betrothed. Later, much of the story's exposition is given during a high council, attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-earth (Elves, Dwarves, & Men) & presided over by Elrond. Gandalf told them of the emerging threat of Saruman, the leader of the Order of Wizards, who wanted the Ring for himself. In order to fulfil an ancient prophecy about the return of the King of Gondor & Arnor, Aragorn was going to war against Sauron, armed with the royal sword Narsil, which had cut the Ring from Sauron's finger. After pondering several options, the Council decided that the only course of action that could save Middle-earth was to destroy the Ring by taking it to Mordor & casting it into Mount Doom, where it was forged. Frodo volunteered for the task, & a "Fellowship of the Ring" was formed to aid him — this consisted of Frodo, his three Hobbit companions, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, & Legolas the Elf. Since Narsil was broken, Aragorn had it reforged & called it Andúril.
The company journeyed through plains & over mountains, & ultimately to the Mines of Moria, where they were followed by the wretched creature Gollum, whom Bilbo had met in the Goblin-tunnels of the Misty Mountains years before (as detailed in The Hobbit). Gollum was once "of hobbit-kind" but the Ring had corrupted him while he had possessed it, & Gollum desperately sought to regain his "Precious". When they were almost through the mines the party was attacked by Orcs. Gandalf battled a Balrog, an ancient demon creature, & fell into a deep chasm, apparently to his death. Escaping from Moria the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, went to the Elvish realm of Lothlórien. Here, the Lady Galadriel showed Frodo & Sam visions of the past, present, & future. Frodo also perceived the Eye of Sauron, a metaphysical expression of Sauron himself, & Galadriel was tempted by the Ring, but resisted. By the end of the first volume, after the Fellowship had travelled along the great River Anduin, Frodo decided to continue the trek to Mordor on his own, largely due to the Ring's growing influence on Boromir; however, the faithful Sam insisted on going with him.
At the end of the book, the Fellowship are attacked by a new breed of orc & during the confusion, Sam & Frodo make their escape. Unknown to them, Boromir is killed & Merry & Pippin are kidnapped by the orcs because their commander, the traitor Saruman, has commanded them to capture the hobbits & bring them to him alive. He does this because he knows that one of the hobbits has the Ring.
The second volume, The Two Towers, deals with two parallel storylines in each of its books. Book III details the exploits of the remaining members of the Fellowship who aid the country of Rohan in its war against Saruman. At the beginning of the book, Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli went off in pursuit of Merry & Pippin's captors. The three met Gandalf, who had returned as "Gandalf the White." He had defeated the Balrog at the cost of his life, but had been sent back to Middle-earth, with enhanced powers, to aid the forces of good. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli helped defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of the Hornburg while Saruman himself was cornered by the tree-like Ents & Huorns, accompanied by Merry & Pippin, who have escaped from captivity. The two groups were reunited in the aftermath of the battle. After Saruman refused to repent of his folly, Gandalf cast him from the Order of Wizards. Faramir is also introduced, giving more detail on the kingdom of Gondor.
Book IV tells of Frodo & Sam's exploits on the way to Mount Doom. They managed to capture & "tame" Gollum, who showed them a way to enter Mordor secretly (as opposed to the Black Gate), albeit through the dreaded valley of Minas Morgul. At the end of the volume, Gollum betrayed Frodo to the great spider, Shelob, & though he survived, he was captured by orcs. Meanwhile, Sauron launched an all-out military assault upon Middle-earth, with the Witch-king (leader of the Ringwraiths) leading a fell host (Large army) from Minas Morgul into battle against Gondor, in the War of the Ring.
In the third volume, The Return of the King, the further adventures of Gandalf, Aragorn & company are related in the first book of the volume, while Frodo & Sam's are related in the second, as with The Two Towers. As told in Book V, the Fellowship assisted in the final battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of the tower-city of Minas Tirith in Gondor & the climactic life-or-death battle before the Black Gate of Mordor, where the alliance of Gondor & Rohan fought desperately against Sauron's armies in order to distract him from the Ring, & hoped to gain time for Frodo to destroy it.
In Book VI, Sam rescued Frodo from captivity. After much struggle, they finally reached Mount Doom itself, tailed by Gollum. However, the temptation of the Ring proved too great for Frodo, & he claimed it for himself. Subsequently, Gollum struggled with him & managed to bite the Ring off. Crazed with triumph, Gollum slipped into the fires of the mountain, & the Ring was destroyed.
Thus, Sauron was banished from the world & his realm ended. Aragorn was crowned king & married Arwen, the daughter of Elrond. However, all was not over, for Saruman had managed to escape his captivity & enslave the Shire. Although he was overthrown by the Hobbits & the four heroes helped to restore order & beautify the land again, it was not the same Shire that they left. At the end, Frodo remained wounded in body & spirit & sailed west accompanied by Bilbo over the Sea to the Undying Lands, where he could find peace.
The Appendices contain much material concerning the timeline of the story, & information on the peoples & the languages of Middle-earth. Notably, Arwen, physically absent for much of the book, is dealt with in full here; her backstory & future with Aragorn are related.
According to Tolkien's timeline, the events depicted in the story occurred between Bilbo's announcement of his T.A. September 22, 3001 birthday party, & Sam's re-arrival to Bag End on T.A. October 6, 3021. Most of the events portrayed in the story occur in 3018 & 3019, with Frodo heading out from Bag End on T.A. September 23 3018, & the destruction of the Ring six months later on T.A. March 25 3019.
Spoilers
end here.
For character information see: List of Middle-earth characters
The
Lord of the Rings
Volume I - Volume II - Volume III
The Lord of the Rings
was started as a sequel to The Hobbit, a fantasy story that Tolkien had written
for, & read to, his children, which was published in 1937. The popularity
of The Hobbit led to demands from his publishers for more stories about Hobbits
& goblins, & so that same year, at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing
the story that would become The Lord of the Rings. The story would not be finished
until 12 years later, in 1949, & it would not be fully published until 1955,
by which time Tolkien was 63 years old.
Tolkien did not originally intend to write a sequel to The Hobbit, & instead wrote several other children's tales, including Roverandom. As his main work, Tolkien began to outline the history of Arda, telling tales of the Silmarils, & many other stories of how the races & situations that we read about in the Lord of the Rings came to be. Tolkien died before he could complete & put together this work, today known as The Silmarillion, but his son Christopher Tolkien edited his father's work, filled in gaps, & published it in 1977. Some Tolkien biographers regard The Silmarillion as the true "work of his heart", as it provides the historical & linguistic context for the more popular work & for his constructed languages, & occupied the greater part of Tolkien's time. As a result The Lord of the Rings ended up as the last movement of Tolkien's legendarium & in his own opinion "much larger, & I hope also in proportion the best, of the entire cycle."
Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December 1937. After several false starts, the story of the One Ring soon emerged, & the book mutated from being a sequel to The Hobbit, to being, in theme, more a sequel to the unpublished Silmarillion. The idea of the first chapter ("A Long-Expected Party") arrived fully-formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, & the title The Lord of the Rings did not arrive until the spring of 1938. Originally, he planned to write another story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure & was looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the ring & its powers & decided to write about it instead. He began with Bilbo as the main character but decided that the story was too serious to use the fun-loving hobbit & so Tolkien looked to use a member of Bilbo's family. He thought about using Bilbo's son, but this generated some difficult questions, such as the whereabouts of his wife & whether he would let his son go into danger. Thus he looked for an alternate character to carry the ring. In Greek legend, it was a hero's nephew that gained the item of power, & so the hobbit Frodo came into existence. (Though technically Tolkien made Frodo Bilbo's cousin, because of age differences, the two were to consider each other nephew & uncle).
Writing was slow due to Tolkien's perfectionism, & was frequently interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, & other academic duties. The first sentence of The Hobbit was in fact written on a blank page which a student had left on an exam paper which Tolkien was marking — "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He seems to have abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 & only re-started it in April 1944. This effort was written as a serial for Christopher Tolkien & C.S. Lewis — the former would be sent copies of chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa in the Royal Air Force. He made another push in 1946, & showed a copy of the manuscript to his publishers in 1947. The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not finish revising earlier parts of the work until 1949.
A dispute with his publishers, Allen & Unwin, led to the book being offered to Collins in 1950. He intended The Silmarillion (itself largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with The Lord of the Rings, but A&U were unwilling to do this. After his contact at Collins, Milton Waldman, expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself "urgently needed cutting", he eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952. They did not do so, & so Tolkien wrote to Allen & Unwin, saying "I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff."
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