The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is one of the most influential fantasy books ever written and this is the first time I have read it. The tale is divided into three parts, often sold as separate volumes, and I will review them individually. Following on from the high success and popularity of The Hobbit, Professor Tolkien was commissioned to continue his tale of hobbits and wizards, which he expanded upon with more mature themes and an older readership in mind. The story continues some time after Bilbo's adventures and deals with his nephew Frodo's inheritance of the One Ring and all the troubles that come with it. Forged by the evil dark lord Sauron and possessing the ability to consume the wearer and bend them to malevolent designs, Frodo is visited by Gandalf the Grey and convinced to undertake a perilous journey to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom, all the way in darkest Mordor.

After a long reluctance to leave his comfortable home in the Shire, a location probably modelled after the South Downs of England, Frodo finally undertakes his epic journey, accompanied by his hobbit companions Samwise, Merry, and Pippin. It takes over a year for Frodo to begin his journey and it takes half of the book for him to finally reach the borders of the Shire.  They dawdle, delay, get lost in the woods, and get kidnapped by wights, and the reader is subjected to lengthy descriptions of the landscape and topography. In addition to his obsession with linguistics, Tolkien was also extremely interested in geography, and his fictitious realm of Middle Earth receives rather more attention to detail than is needed for the story. In fact, his lore and world building seems to be his main priority, and whilst no doubt endlessly fascinating for himself and his many fans, I found a lot of it a real bore. Unlike some other franchises, I am not overly invested in Tolkien's world, so it was a struggle to maintain interest.

The story does pick up a little when the gang are pursued by Ringwraiths, sinister agents of Sauron, but there are numerous other delays and digressions that are frustrating to wade through. Eventually, the fellowship of the first book's title is form, made up of hobbits, men, dwarves and elves, and the adventure begins in earnest. By that time I was too bored to care, and the constant references to the larger world continued to be an unwanted distraction. I also noticed that, although Tolkien can wax lyrical for pages about trees and hills, his descriptions of the characters and creatures that populate Middle Earth are surprisingly flimsy.

Rating: 2/5