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The Lord of the Rings

February 22, 2023

This article is about the book. For other uses, see The Lord of the Rings (disambiguation).
"War of the Ring" redirects here. For other uses, see War of the Ring (disambiguation).

The Lord of the Rings is an epic[1] high-fantasy novel[a] by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.[2]

The Lord of the Rings
The first single-volume edition (1968)
AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre
Set inMiddle-earth
PublisherAllen & Unwin
Publication date
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
OCLC1487587
Preceded byThe Hobbit 
Followed byThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil 

The title refers to the story's main antagonist,[b] the Dark Lord Sauron, who, in an earlier age, created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring, seen mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

Although often called a trilogy, the work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set along with The Silmarillion.[3][T 3] For economic reasons, The Lord of the Rings was published over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955 in three volumes[3][4] titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The work is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of background material. Some later editions print the entire work in a single volume, following the author's original intent.

Tolkien's work, after an initially mixed reception by the literary establishment, has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, Christianity, earlier fantasy works, and his own experiences in the First World War.

The Lord of the Rings is considered one of the greatest fantasy books ever written and it has helped to create and shape the modern fantasy genre. Since release, it has been reprinted many times and translated into at least 38 languages.[c] Its enduring popularity has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works,[5] and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. It has inspired many derivative works, including paintings, music, films, television, video games, and board games.

Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. It was named Britain's best-loved novel of all time in the BBC's 2003 poll The Big Read.

Plot

The Fellowship of the Ring

Main article: The Fellowship of the Ring

Prologue

The prologue explains that the work is "largely concerned with hobbits", telling of their origins in a migration from the east, their habits such as smoking "pipe-weed", and how their homeland the Shire is organised. It explains how the narrative follows on from The Hobbit, in which the hobbit Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring, which had been in the possession of Gollum.

Book I: The Ring Sets Out

 
Gandalf proves that Frodo's Ring is the One Ring by throwing it into Frodo's fireplace, revealing the hidden text of the Rhyme of the Rings.

Bilbo celebrates his eleventy-first (111th) birthday and leaves the Shire suddenly, passing the Ring to Frodo Baggins, his cousin[d] and heir. Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring's origin, but the wizard Gandalf suspects it is a Ring of Power. Seventeen years later, Gandalf tells Frodo that he has confirmed that the Ring is the one lost by the Dark Lord Sauron long ago and counsels him to take it away from the Shire. Gandalf leaves, promising to return by Frodo's birthday and accompany him on his journey, but fails to do so.

Frodo sets out on foot, offering a cover story of moving to Crickhollow, accompanied by his gardener Sam Gamgee and his cousin Pippin Took. They are pursued by mysterious Black Riders, but meet a passing group of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion, whose chants to Elbereth ward off the Riders. The hobbits spend the night with them, then take an evasive short cut the next day, and arrive at the farm of Farmer Maggot, who takes them to Bucklebury Ferry, where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck. When they reach the house at Crickhollow, Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the Ring and insist on travelling with Frodo and Sam.

They decide to try to shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. Merry and Pippin are trapped by Old Man Willow, an ancient tree who controls much of the forest, but are rescued by Tom Bombadil. Leaving the refuge of Tom's house, they get lost in a fog and are caught by a barrow-wight in a barrow on the downs, but Frodo, awakening from the barrow-wight's spell, calls Tom Bombadil, who frees them, and equips them with ancient swords from the barrow-wight's hoard.

The hobbits reach the village of Bree, where they encounter a Ranger named Strider. The innkeeper gives Frodo a letter from Gandalf written three months before which identifies Strider as a friend. Knowing the riders will attempt to seize the party, Strider guides the hobbits through the wilderness toward the Elven sanctuary of Rivendell. On the way, the group stops at the hill Weathertop. While at Weathertop, they are again attacked by five of the nine Black Riders. During the struggle, their leader wounds Frodo with a cursed blade. After fighting them off, Strider treats Frodo with the herb athelas, and is joined by the Elf Glorfindel who has been searching for the party. Glorfindel rides with Frodo, now deathly ill, toward Rivendell. The Black Riders nearly capture Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen, but upon attempting to cross the ford, flood waters summoned by Elrond rise up and overwhelm them.

Book II: The Ring Goes South

Frodo recovers in Rivendell under Elrond's care. Gandalf informs Frodo that the Black Riders are the Nazgûl, Men from ancient times enslaved by lesser Rings of Power to serve Sauron. The Council of Elrond discusses the history of Sauron and the Ring. Strider is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir of Isildur. Isildur had cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand in the battle ending the Second Age, but refused to destroy it, claiming it for himself. The Ring had been lost when Isildur was killed, finally ending up in Bilbo's possession after his meeting with Gollum, described in The Hobbit. Gandalf reports that the chief wizard, Saruman, has betrayed them and is now working to become a power in his own right. Gandalf was captured by him, but escaped, explaining why he had failed to return to meet Frodo as he had promised.

The Council decides that the Ring must be destroyed, but that can only be done by sending it to the fire of Mount Doom in Mordor where it was forged. Frodo takes this task upon himself. Elrond, with the advice of Gandalf, chooses companions for him. The Fellowship of the Ring consists of nine walkers who set out on the quest to destroy the One Ring, in opposition to the nine Black Riders: Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took; Gandalf; the Elf Legolas; the Dwarf Gimli; and the Men Aragorn and Boromir, son of the Steward of Gondor. The Fellowship thus represents the Free Peoples of the West – Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits, assisted by a Wizard.

After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass, the Fellowship take the perilous path through the Mines of Moria. They learn that Balin, one of the Dwarves who accompanied Bilbo in The Hobbit, and his colony of Dwarves were killed by Orcs. After surviving an attack, they are pursued by Orcs and a Balrog, an ancient fire demon from a prior Age. Gandalf confronts the Balrog, and both of them fall into the abyss of Moria. The others escape and find refuge in the timeless Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by the Lady Galadriel. Before they leave, Galadriel tests their loyalty, and gives them individual, magical gifts to help them on their quest. She allows Frodo and Sam to look into her fountain, the Mirror of Galadriel, to see visions of the past, the present, and perhaps the future, and she refuses to take the Ring Frodo offers her, knowing that it would master her.

Galadriel's husband Celeborn gives the Fellowship boats, elven cloaks, and waybread (Lembas), and they travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen. There, Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but immediately regrets it after Frodo puts on the Ring and disappears. Frodo chooses to go alone to Mordor, but Sam, guessing what he intends, intercepts him as he tries to take a boat across the river, and goes with him.

The Two Towers

Main article: The Two Towers

Book III: The Treason of Isengard

A party of large Orcs, Uruk-hai, sent by Saruman, and other Orcs sent by Sauron and led by Grishnákh, attack the Fellowship. Boromir tries to protect Merry and Pippin from the Orcs, but they kill him and capture the two hobbits. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas decide to pursue the Orcs taking Merry and Pippin to Saruman. In the kingdom of Rohan, the Orcs are killed by Riders of Rohan, led by Éomer. Merry and Pippin escape into Fangorn Forest, where they are befriended by Treebeard, the oldest of the tree-like Ents. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn. There they unexpectedly meet Gandalf.

Gandalf explains that he killed the Balrog. He was also killed in the fight, but was sent back to Middle-earth to complete his mission. He is clothed in white and is now Gandalf the White, for he has taken Saruman's place as the chief of the wizards. Gandalf assures his friends that Merry and Pippin are safe. Together they ride to Edoras, capital of Rohan. Gandalf frees Théoden, King of Rohan, from the influence of Saruman's spy Gríma Wormtongue. Théoden musters his fighting strength and rides with his men to the ancient fortress of Helm's Deep, while Gandalf departs to seek help from Treebeard.

Meanwhile, the Ents, roused by Merry and Pippin from their peaceful ways, attack and destroy Isengard, Saruman's stronghold, and flood it, trapping the wizard in the tower of Orthanc. Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Huorns to Théoden's aid. He brings an army of Rohirrim to Helm's Deep, and they defeat the Orcs, who flee into the forest of Huorns, never to be seen again. Gandalf, Théoden, Legolas, and Gimli ride to Isengard, and are surprised to find Merry and Pippin relaxing amidst the ruins. Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to turn away from evil. When Saruman refuses to listen, Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers. After Saruman leaves, Wormtongue throws down a hard round object to try to kill Gandalf. Pippin picks it up; Gandalf swiftly takes it, but Pippin steals it in the night. It is revealed to be a palantír, a seeing-stone that Saruman used to speak with Sauron, and that Sauron used to ensnare him. Sauron sees Pippin, but misunderstands the circumstances. Gandalf immediately rides for Minas Tirith, chief city of Gondor, taking Pippin with him.

Book IV: The Ring Goes East

Frodo and Sam, heading for Mordor, struggle through the barren hills and cliffs of the Emyn Muil. They become aware they are being watched and tracked; on a moonlit night they capture Gollum, who has followed them from Moria. Frodo makes Gollum swear to serve him, as Ringbearer, and asks him to guide them to Mordor. Gollum leads them across the Dead Marshes. Sam overhears Gollum debating with his alter ego, Sméagol, whether to break his promise and steal the Ring.

They find that the Black Gate of Mordor is too well guarded, so instead they travel south through the land of Ithilien to a secret pass that Gollum knows. On the way, they are captured by rangers led by Faramir, Boromir's brother, and brought to the secret fastness of Henneth Annûn. Faramir resists the temptation to seize the Ring and, disobeying standing orders to arrest strangers found in Ithilien, releases them.

Gollum – who is torn between his loyalty to Frodo and his desire for the Ring – guides the hobbits to the pass, but leads them into the lair of the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol. Frodo holds up the gift given to him in Lothlórien: the Phial of Galadriel, which holds the light of Eärendil's star. The light drives Shelob back. Frodo cuts through a giant web using his sword Sting. Shelob attacks again, and Frodo falls to her venom. Sam picks up Sting and the Phial. He seriously wounds and drives off the monster. Believing Frodo to be dead, Sam takes the Ring to continue the quest alone. Orcs find Frodo; Sam overhears them and learns that Frodo is still alive, but is separated from him.

The Return of the King

Main article: The Return of the King

Book V: The War of the Ring

Sauron sends a great army against Gondor. Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor of the attack, while Théoden musters the Rohirrim to ride to Gondor's aid. Minas Tirith is besieged; the Lord of the Nazgûl uses a battering ram and the power of his Ring to destroy the city's gates. Denethor, deceived by Sauron, falls into despair. He burns himself alive on a pyre; Pippin and Gandalf rescue his son Faramir from the same fate.

Aragorn, accompanied by Legolas, Gimli, and the Rangers of the North, takes the Paths of the Dead to recruit the Dead Men of Dunharrow, oathbreakers who are bound by an ancient curse which denies them rest until they fulfil their oath to fight for the King of Gondor. Aragorn unleashes the Army of the Dead on the Corsairs of Umbar invading southern Gondor. With that threat eliminated, Aragorn uses the Corsairs' ships to transport the men of southern Gondor up the Anduin, reaching Minas Tirith just in time to turn the tide of battle. Théoden's niece Éowyn, who joined the army in disguise, kills the Lord of the Nazgûl with help from Merry; both are wounded. Together, Gondor and Rohan defeat Sauron's army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, though at great cost; Théoden is among the dead.

Aragorn enters Minas Tirith and heals Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry. He leads an army of men from Gondor and Rohan, marching through Ithilien to the Black Gate to distract Sauron from his true danger. At the Battle of the Morannon, his army is vastly outnumbered.

Book VI: The End of the Third Age

Meanwhile, Sam rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol. They set out across Mordor. When they reach the edge of the Cracks of Doom, Frodo cannot resist the Ring any longer. He claims it for himself and puts it on. Gollum suddenly reappears. He struggles with Frodo and bites off Frodo's finger with the Ring still on it. Celebrating wildly, Gollum loses his footing and falls into the Fire, taking the Ring with him. When the Ring is destroyed, Sauron loses his power forever. All he created collapses, the Nazgûl perish, and his armies are thrown into such disarray that Aragorn's forces emerge victorious.

Aragorn is crowned King of Arnor and Gondor, and weds Arwen, daughter of Elrond. Théoden is buried and Éomer is crowned King of Rohan. His sister Éowyn is engaged to marry Faramir, now Steward of Gondor and Prince of Ithilien. Galadriel, Celeborn, and Gandalf meet and say farewell to Treebeard, and to Aragorn.

The four hobbits make their way back to the Shire, only to find that it has been taken over by men directed by "Sharkey" (whom they later discover to be Saruman). The hobbits, led by Merry, raise a rebellion and scour the Shire of Sharkey's evil. Gríma Wormtongue turns on Saruman and kills him in front of Bag End, Frodo's home. He is killed in turn by hobbit archers. Merry and Pippin are celebrated as heroes. Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts from Galadriel to help heal the Shire. But Frodo is still wounded in body and spirit, having borne the Ring for so long. A few years later, in the company of Bilbo and Gandalf, Frodo sails from the Grey Havens west over the Sea to the Undying Lands to find peace.

Appendices

The appendices outline more details of the history, cultures, genealogies, and languages that Tolkien imagined for the peoples of Middle-earth. They provide background details for the narrative, with much detail for Tolkien fans who want to know more about the stories.

Appendix A: "Annals of the Kings and Rulers"
Provides extensive background to the larger world of Middle-earth, with brief overviews of the events of the first two Ages of the world, and then more detailed histories of the nations of Men in Gondor and Rohan, as well as a history of the royal Dwarvish line of Durin during the Third Age.
The embedded "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" tells how it happened that an immortal elf came to marry a man, as told in the main story, which Arwen's ancestor Lúthien had done in the First Age, giving up her immortality.
Appendix B: "The Tale of Years" (Chronology of the Westlands)
It is a timeline of events throughout the series, and ancient events affecting the narrative, and in lesser detail, it gives the stories' context in the fictional chronology of the larger mythology.
It also tells that Sam gives his daughter Elanor the fictional Red Book of Westmarch – which contains the autobiographical stories of Bilbo's adventures at the opening of the war, and Frodo's role in the full-on War of the Ring, and serves as Tolkien's source for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (with Tolkien representing himself as a translator, rather than an epic novelist). It says that there was "a tradition" that after handing over the book, Sam crossed west over the sea himself, the last of the ring-bearers; and that some years later, after the deaths of Aragorn and Arwen, Legolas and Gimli also sailed together "over Sea".
Appendix C: "Family Trees" (Hobbits)
Gives hobbit genealogies – not only for Bilbo and Frodo's Baggins family, but also their relations the Tooks and Brandybucks, which connect them to Pippin and Merry.
Appendix D: "Calendars"
Describes some of the calendars used by the characters in the story, and explains that the Roman month names in the text are "translations" of the names in the hobbits' calendar. (Tolkien was a linguist, and provided Germanic-sounding names for the hobbit calendar by extrapolating names of German and Old English months forward to what he thought they might have become if all were still used in modern English, as Yule and Easter are.)
Appendix E: "Writing and Spelling"
Describes dwarves’ runes and the elvish runes use by the other peoples of Middle-earth; the names of the runes and letters incidentally give a bit of information about dwarvish and elvish languages.
Appendix F: "Languages and Peoples of the Third Age" and "On Translation"
Presented as two sections. In addition to outlines of the various languages in current use during the narrative, and mentioned or seen in the story, it discusses hobbits' names at length. It sorts out names which Tolkien affected to have translated into English, and names which said he had left in original form (since they had no meaning in hobbits' everyday language).

Frame story

Further information: Tolkien's frame stories

Tolkien presents The Lord of the Rings within a fictional frame story where he is not the original author, but merely the translator of part of an ancient document, the Red Book of Westmarch.[6] That book is modelled on the real Red Book of Hergest, which similarly presents an older mythology. Various details of the frame story appear in the Prologue, its "Note on Shire Records", and in the Appendices, notably Appendix F. In this frame story, the Red Book is the purported source of Tolkien's other works relating to Middle-earth: The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.[7]

Concept and creation

Background

Further information: Tolkien's legendarium

Although a major work in itself, The Lord of the Rings was only the last movement of a much older set of narratives Tolkien had worked on since 1917 encompassing The Silmarillion,[8] in a process he described as mythopoeia.[e]

The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to Tolkien's work The Hobbit, published in 1937.[10] The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen & Unwin, the publishers, to request a sequel. Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly, and responded with several stories he had already developed. Having rejected his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion, putting Roverandom on hold, and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham, Allen & Unwin continued to ask for more stories about hobbits.[11]

Writing

Further information: J. R. R. Tolkien and Narrative patterns in The Lord of the Rings

Persuaded by his publishers, he started "a new Hobbit" in December 1937.[10] After several false starts, the story of the One Ring emerged. The idea for the first chapter ("A Long-Expected Party") arrived fully formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the significance of the Ring, and the title The Lord of the Rings did not come until the spring of 1938.[10] Originally, he planned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the Ring and its powers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work.[10] As the story progressed, he brought in elements from The Silmarillion mythology.[12]

Writing was slow, because Tolkien had a full-time academic position, marked exams to bring in a little extra income, and wrote many drafts.[10][T 4] Tolkien abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only restarted it in April 1944,[10] as a serial for his son Christopher Tolkien, who was sent chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Tolkien made another major effort in 1946, and showed the manuscript to his publishers in 1947.[10] The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not complete the revision of earlier parts of the work until 1949.[10] The original manuscripts, which total 9,250 pages, now reside in the J. R. R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University.[13]

Poetry

Main article: Poetry in The Lord of the Rings

Unusually for 20th century novels, the prose narrative is supplemented throughout by over 60 pieces of poetry. These include verse and songs of many genres: for wandering, marching to war, drinking, and having a bath; narrating ancient myths, riddles, prophecies, and magical incantations; and of praise and lament (elegy).[14] Some, such as riddles, charms, elegies, and narrating heroic actions are found in Old English poetry.[14] Scholars have stated that the poetry is essential for the fiction to work aesthetically and thematically, as it adds information not given in the prose, and it brings out characters and their backgrounds.[15][16] The poetry has been judged to be of high technical skill, reflected in Tolkien's prose; for instance, he wrote much of Tom Bombadil's speech in metre.[17]

Illustrations

Main articles: Tolkien's artwork, Tolkien's maps, and Tolkien's scripts
 
Tolkien's calligraphy of the Rhyme of the Rings was one of the few illustrations in the first edition. It is written in the Black Speech of Mordor using the Tengwar script.

Tolkien worked on the text using his maps of Middle-earth as a guide, to ensure the elements of the story fitted together in time and space.[T 5] He prepared a variety of types of illustration – maps, calligraphy, drawings, cover designs, even a facsimile painting of the Book of Mazarbul – but only the maps, the inscription on the Ring, and a drawing of the Doors of Durin were included in the first edition.[18][T 6]

The hardback editions sometimes had cover illustrations by Tolkien,[f] sometimes by other artists. According to The New York Times, Barbara Remington's cover designs for Ballantine's paperback editions "achieved mass-cult status in the 1960s, particularly on college campuses" across America.[19]

Influences

Main article: J. R. R. Tolkien's influences
 
Beowulf's eotenas [ond] ylfe [ond] orcneas, "ogres [and] elves [and] devil-corpses" helped to inspire Tolkien to create the Orcs and Elves of Middle-earth.[20]

Tolkien drew on a wide array of influences including language,[T 7] Christianity,[T 8] mythology and Germanic heroic legend including the Norse Völsunga saga,[21] archaeology, especially at the Temple of Nodens,[22] ancient and modern literature, like Finnish 19th-century epic poetry The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot,[23] and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology;[T 9] his work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.[20] He was a gifted linguist, influenced by Celtic,[24][21] Finnish,[25] Slavic,[26] and Greek language and mythology.[27] Commentators have attempted to identify literary and topological antecedents for characters, places and events in Tolkien's writings; he acknowledged that he had enjoyed adventure stories by authors such as John Buchan and Rider Haggard.[28][29][30] The Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris was a major influence,[T 10] and Tolkien undoubtedly made use of some real place-names, such as Bag End, the name of his aunt's home.[31] Tolkien stated, too, that he had been influenced by his childhood experiences of the English countryside of Worcestershire near Sarehole Mill, and its urbanisation by the growth of Birmingham,[T 11] and his personal experience of fighting in the trenches of the First World War.[32] Moreover, the militarization and industrialization inspired the character of Sauron and his forces. The Orcs represented the worst of it as workers that have been tortured and brutalized by the war and industry.[33]

Themes

Main article: Themes of The Lord of the Rings

Scholars and critics have identified many themes in the book with its complex interlaced narrative, including a reversed quest,[34][35] the struggle of good and evil,[36] death and immortality,[37] fate and free will,[38] the addictive danger of power,[39] and various aspects of Christianity such as the presence of three Christ figures, for prophet, priest, and king, as well as elements like hope and redemptive suffering.[40][41][42][43] There is a common theme throughout the work of language, its sound, and its relationship to peoples and places, along with hints of providence in descriptions of weather and landscape.[44] Out of these, Tolkien stated that the central theme is death and immortality.[T 12] To those who supposed that the book was an allegory of events in the 20th century, Tolkien replied in the foreword to the Second Edition that it was not, saying he preferred "history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers."

Some commentators have criticized the book for being a story about men for boys, with no significant women; or about a purely rural world with no bearing on modern life in cities; of containing no sign of religion; or of racism. Other commentators responded by noting that there are three powerful women in the book, Galadriel, Éowyn, and Arwen; that life, even in rural Hobbiton, is not idealised; that Christianity is a pervasive theme; and that Tolkien was sharply anti-racist both in peacetime and during the Second World War, while Middle-earth is evidently polycultural.[45][46][47]

Publication history

A dispute with his publisher, George Allen & Unwin, led Tolkien to offer the work to William Collins in 1950. Tolkien intended The Silmarillion (itself largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with The Lord of the Rings, but Allen & Unwin were unwilling to do this. After Milton Waldman, his contact at Collins, expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself "urgently wanted cutting", Tolkien eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952.[48] Collins did not; and so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin, saying, "I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff", fearing his work would never see the light of day.[10]

For publication, the work was divided into three volumes to minimize any potential financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and modest anticipated sales: The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I and II), The Two Towers (Books III and IV), and The Return of the King (Books V and VI plus six appendices).[49] Delays in producing appendices, maps and especially an index led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped – on 29 July 1954, on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom.[50] In the United States, Houghton Mifflin published The Fellowship of the Ring on 21 October 1954, The Two Towers on 21 April 1955, and The Return of the King on 5 January 1956.[51]

The Return of the King was especially delayed as Tolkien revised the ending and prepared appendices (some of which had to be left out because of space constraints). Tolkien did not like the title The Return of the King, believing it gave away too much of the storyline, but deferred to his publisher's preference.[52] Tolkien wrote that the title The Two Towers "can be left ambiguous",[T 13] but considered naming the two as Orthanc and Barad-dûr, Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.[T 14] However, a month later he wrote a note published at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and later drew a cover illustration, both of which identified the pair as Minas Morgul and Orthanc.[53][54]

Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two-book volume, preferring instead the use of book titles: e.g. The Lord of the Rings: Vol. 1, The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South; Vol. 2, The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring and The End of the Third Age. However, these individual book titles were dropped, and after pressure from his publishers, Tolkien suggested the volume titles: Vol. 1, The Shadow Grows; Vol. 2, The Ring in the Shadow; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring or The Return of the King.[55][56]

Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed, the work is often referred to as the Lord of the Rings "trilogy". In a letter to the poet W. H. Auden, who famously reviewed the final volume in 1956,[57] Tolkien himself made use of the term "trilogy" for the work[T 15] though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single book.[T 16] It is often called a novel; however, Tolkien objected to this term as he viewed it as a heroic romance.[T 17]

The books were published under a profit-sharing arrangement, whereby Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even, after which he would take a large share of the profits.[58] It has ultimately become one of the best-selling novels ever written, with 50 million copies sold by 2003[59] and over 150 million copies sold by 2007.[2] The work was published in the UK by Allen & Unwin until 1990, when the publisher and its assets were acquired by HarperCollins.[60][61]

Editions and revisions

In the early 1960s Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books, claimed that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because Houghton Mifflin, the US hardcover publisher, had neglected to copyright the work in the United States.[62][63] Then, in 1965, Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorized by Tolkien and without paying royalties to him. Tolkien took issue with this and quickly notified his fans of this objection.[64] Grass-roots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace Books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien.[65][T 18]

 
Barbara Remington's cover illustrations for the Ballantine paperback version "achieved mass-cult status" on American college campuses in the 1960s.[19] They were parodied by Michael K. Frith's cover design for the 1969 Bored of the Rings.[66][67]

Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Houghton Mifflin to tremendous commercial success. Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would be published with his consent and establish an unquestioned US copyright. This text became the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, published in 1965.[65] The first Ballantine paperback edition was printed in October that year, selling a quarter of a million copies within ten months. On 4 September 1966, the novel debuted on The New York Times's Paperback Bestsellers list as number three, and was number one by 4 December, a position it held for eight weeks.[68] Houghton Mifflin editions after 1994 consolidate variant revisions by Tolkien, and corrections supervised by Christopher Tolkien, which resulted, after some initial glitches, in a computer-based unified text.[69]

In 2004, for the 50th Anniversary Edition, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, under supervision from Christopher Tolkien, studied and revised the text to eliminate as many errors and inconsistencies as possible, some of which had been introduced by well-meaning compositors of the first printing in 1954, and never been corrected.[70] The 2005 edition of the book contained further corrections noticed by the editors and submitted by readers. Yet more corrections were made in the 60th Anniversary Edition in 2014.[71] Several editions, including the 50th Anniversary Edition, print the whole work in one volume, with the result that pagination varies widely over the various editions.[T 19]

Posthumous publication of drafts

From 1988 to 1992 Christopher Tolkien published the surviving drafts of The Lord of the Rings, chronicling and illuminating with commentary the stages of the text's development, in volumes 6–9 of his History of Middle-earth series. The four volumes carry the titles The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated.[72]

Translations

Main article: Translations of The Lord of the Rings

The work has been translated, with varying degrees of success, into at least 38,[c] and reportedly at least 70, languages.[73] Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and made comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work. As he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators, such as the Swedish translation by Åke Ohlmarks,[T 20] Tolkien wrote a "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" (1967). Because The Lord of the Rings purports to be a translation of the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch, using the English language to represent the Westron of the "original", Tolkien suggested that translators attempt to capture the interplay between English and the invented nomenclature of the English work, and gave several examples along with general guidance.[74][75]

Reception

Main article: Literary reception of The Lord of the Rings

1950s

Early reviews of the work were mixed. The initial review in the Sunday Telegraph described it as "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century".[76] The Sunday Times echoed this sentiment, stating that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them."[76] The New York Herald Tribune appeared to predict the books' popularity, writing in its review that they were "destined to outlast our time".[77] W. H. Auden, a former pupil of Tolkien's and an admirer of his writings, regarded The Lord of the Rings as a "masterpiece", further stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of John Milton's Paradise Lost.[78] Kenneth F. Slater wrote in Nebula Science Fiction, April 1955, "... if you don't read it, you have missed one of the finest books of its type ever to appear".[79][80] On the other hand, in 1955, the Scottish poet Edwin Muir attacked The Return of the King, writing that "All the characters are boys masquerading as adult heroes ... and will never come to puberty ... Hardly one of them knows anything about women", causing Tolkien to complain angrily to his publisher.[81] In 1956, the literary critic Edmund Wilson wrote a review entitled "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!", calling Tolkien's work "juvenile trash", and saying "Dr. Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form."[82]

Within Tolkien's literary group, The Inklings, the work had a mixed reception. Hugo Dyson complained loudly at its readings,[83][84] whereas C. S. Lewis had very different feelings, writing, "here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart."[8] Lewis observed that the writing is rich, in that some of the 'good' characters have darker sides, and likewise some of the villains have "good impulses".[85] Despite the mixed reviews and the lack of a paperback until the 1960s, The Lord of the Rings initially sold well in hardback.[8]

Later

Further information: Tolkien's prose style and Literary hostility to J. R. R. Tolkien

Judith Shulevitz, writing in The New York Times, criticized the "pedantry" of Tolkien's literary style, saying that he "formulated a high-minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist, which turns out to be death to literature itself".[86] The critic Richard Jenkyns, writing in The New Republic, criticized the work for a lack of psychological depth. Both the characters and the work itself were, according to Jenkyns, "anemic, and lacking in fibre".[87] The science fiction author David Brin interprets the work as holding unquestioning devotion to a traditional hierarchical social structure.[88] In his essay "Epic Pooh", fantasy author Michael Moorcock critiques the world-view displayed by the book as deeply conservative, in both the "paternalism" of the narrative voice and the power structures in the narrative.[89] Tom Shippey, like Tolkien an English philologist, notes the wide gulf between Tolkien's supporters, both popular and academic, and his literary detractors, and attempts to explain in detail both why the literary establishment disliked The Lord of the Rings, and the work's subtlety, themes, and merits, including the impression of depth that it conveys.[12] The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury analysed Tolkien's prose style in detail, showing that it was generally quite plain, varying to suit the voices of the different characters, and rising to a heroic register for special moments.[90]

Awards

In 1957, The Lord of the Rings was awarded the International Fantasy Award. Despite its numerous detractors, the publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine paperbacks helped The Lord of the Rings become immensely popular in the United States in the 1960s. The book has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.[91] In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted in Britain by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's best-loved book". In similar 2004 polls both Germany[92] and Australia[93] chose The Lord of the Rings as their favourite book. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium".[94] In 2019, the BBC News listed The Lord of the Rings on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[95]

Adaptations

Main article: Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings has been adapted for radio, stage, film and television.

Radio

The book has been adapted for radio four times. In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 13-part radio adaptation of the story. In the 1960s radio station WBAI produced a short radio adaptation. A 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD. In 1981, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a new dramatization in 26 half-hour instalments.[96][97]

Film and television

Main articles: Middle-earth in film and The Lord of the Rings: film versus book

A variety of filmmakers considered adapting Tolkien's book, among them Stanley Kubrick, who thought it unfilmable,[98][99] Michelangelo Antonioni,[100] Jim Henson,[101] Heinz Edelmann,[102] and John Boorman.[103] A Swedish live action television film, Sagan om ringen, was broadcast in 1971.[104] In 1978, Ralph Bakshi made an animated film version covering The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers, to mixed reviews.[105] In 1980, Rankin/Bass released an animated TV special based on the closing chapters of The Return of the King, gaining mixed reviews.[106][107] In Finland, a live action television miniseries, Hobitit, was broadcast in 1993 based on The Lord of the Rings, with a flashback to Bilbo's encounter with Gollum in The Hobbit.[108][109]

A far more successful adaptation was Peter Jackson's live action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). All three parts won multiple Academy Awards, including consecutive Best Picture nominations. The final instalment of this trilogy was the second film to break the one-billion-dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars (something only two other films in history, Ben-Hur and Titanic, have accomplished), including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.[110][111] Commentators including Tolkien scholars, literary critics and film critics are divided on how faithfully Jackson adapted Tolkien's work, or whether a film version is inevitably different, and if so the reasons for any changes, and the effectiveness of the result.[112]

The Hunt for Gollum, a 2009 film by Chris Bouchard,[113][114] and the 2009 Born of Hope, written by Paula DiSante and directed by Kate Madison, are fan films based on details in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.[115]

From September 2022, Amazon is presenting a multi-season television series of stories, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It is set at the beginning of the Second Age, long before the time of The Lord of the Rings, based on materials in the novel's appendices.[116][117][118]

Audiobooks

In 1990, Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings,[119] read by the British actor Rob Inglis. A large-scale musical theatre adaptation, The Lord of the Rings, was first staged in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2006 and opened in London in June 2007; it was a commercial failure.[120]

In 2013, artist Phil Dragash recorded a full unabridged version of the book, using score from Peter Jackson's movies.[121][122][123]

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Andy Serkis read the entire book of The Hobbit to raise money for charity.[124] He then recorded the work again as an audiobook.[125][126] The cover art was done by Alan Lee. In 2021, Serkis recorded The Lord of the Rings novels.[127]

Legacy

Main article: Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien

Influence on fantasy

Further information: Middle-earth in video games

The enormous popularity of Tolkien's work expanded the demand for fantasy. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings, the genre flowered throughout the 1960s and enjoys popularity to the present day.[128] The opus has spawned many imitations, such as The Sword of Shannara, which Lin Carter called "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read,"[129] as well as alternate interpretations of the story, such as The Last Ringbearer. The Legend of Zelda, which popularized the action-adventure game genre in the 1980s, was inspired by The Lord of the Rings among other fantasy books.[130][131] Dungeons & Dragons, which popularized the role-playing game genre in the 1970s, features several races from The Lord of the Rings, including halflings (hobbits), elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintained that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the popularity the work enjoyed at the time he was developing the game.[132] Because Dungeons & Dragons has gone on to influence many popular games, especially role-playing video games, the influence of The Lord of the Rings extends to many of them, with titles such as Dragon Quest,[133][134] EverQuest, the Warcraft series, and The Elder Scrolls series of games[135] as well as video games set in Middle-earth itself.

Music

Further information: Music of Middle-earth

In 1965, the songwriter Donald Swann, best known for his collaboration with Michael Flanders as Flanders & Swann, set six poems from The Lord of the Rings and one from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ("Errantry") to music. When Swann met with Tolkien to play the songs for his approval, Tolkien suggested for "Namárië" (Galadriel's lament) a setting reminiscent of plain chant, which Swann accepted.[136] The songs were published in 1967 as The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle,[137] and a recording of the songs performed by singer William Elvin with Swann on piano was issued that same year by Caedmon Records as Poems and Songs of Middle Earth.[138]

Rock bands of the 1970s were musically and lyrically inspired by the fantasy-embracing counter-culture of the time. The British rock band Led Zeppelin recorded several songs that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings, such as mentioning Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On", the Misty Mountains in "Misty Mountain Hop", and Ringwraiths in "The Battle of Evermore". In 1970, the Swedish musician Bo Hansson released an instrumental concept album entitled Sagan om ringen ("The Saga of the Ring", the title of the Swedish translation at the time).[139] The album was subsequently released internationally as Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings in 1972.[139] From the 1980s onwards, many heavy metal acts have been influenced by Tolkien.[140]

In 1988, the Dutch composer and trombonist Johan de Meij completed his Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings". It had 5 movements, titled "Gandalf", "Lothlórien", "Gollum", "Journey in the Dark", and "Hobbits".[141]

The 1991 album Shepherd Moons by the Irish musician Enya contains an instrumental titled "Lothlórien", in reference to the home of the wood-elves.[142]

Impact on popular culture

 
"Welcome to Hobbiton" sign in Matamata, New Zealand, where Peter Jackson's film version was shot

The Lord of the Rings has had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture, beginning with its publication in the 1950s, but especially during the 1960s and 1970s, when young people embraced it as a countercultural saga.[143] "Frodo Lives!" and "Gandalf for President" were two phrases popular amongst United States Tolkien fans during this time.[144] Its impact is such that the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" have entered the Oxford English Dictionary, and many of his fantasy terms, formerly little-known in English, such as "Orc" and "Warg", have become widespread in that domain.[145] Among its effects are numerous parodies, especially Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, which has had the distinction of remaining continuously in print from its publication in 1969, and of being translated into at least 11 languages.[146]

In 1969, Tolkien sold the merchandising rights to The Lord of The Rings (and The Hobbit) to United Artists under an agreement stipulating a lump sum payment of £10,000[147] plus a 7.5% royalty after costs,[148] payable to Allen & Unwin and the author.[149] In 1976, three years after the author's death, United Artists sold the rights to Saul Zaentz Company, who now trade as Tolkien Enterprises. Since then all "authorised" merchandise has been signed off by Tolkien Enterprises, although the intellectual property rights of the specific likenesses of characters and other imagery from various adaptations is generally held by the adaptors.[150]

Outside commercial exploitation from adaptations, from the late 1960s onwards there has been an increasing variety of original licensed merchandise, with posters and calendars created by illustrators such as Barbara Remington.[151]

The work was named Britain's best novel of all time in the BBC's The Big Read.[152] In 2015, the BBC ranked The Lord of the Rings 26th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels.[153] It was included in Le Monde's list of "100 Books of the Century".[154]

Notes

  1. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien did not like it when the word "novel" was used to describe his works, but the term is commonly applied. He preferred the phrase "heroic romance".[T 1]
  2. ^ Tolkien has the wizard Gandalf say to the hobbit Frodo "the Black Riders are the Ringwraiths, the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings."[T 2]
  3. ^ a b At least 38 languages are listed at the . This number is a conservative estimate; some 56 translations are listed at translations of The Lord of the Rings, and 57 languages are listed at Elrond's Library.
  4. ^ Although Frodo refers to Bilbo as his "uncle", the character is introduced in "A Long-expected Party" as one of Bilbo's younger cousins. The two were in fact first and second cousins, once removed either way (his paternal great-great-uncle's son's son and his maternal great-aunt's son).
  5. ^ Tolkien created the word to define a different view of myth from C. S. Lewis's "lies breathed through silver", writing the poem "Mythopoeia" to present his argument; it was first published in Tree and Leaf in 1988.[9]
  6. ^ See the lead images in the articles on the three separate volumes, e.g. The Fellowship of the Ring.

References

Primary

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  3. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #126 to Milton Waldman (draft), 10 March 1950
  4. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #17 to Stanley Unwin, 15 October 1937
  5. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #144 to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April 1954
  6. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #141 to Allen & Unwin, 9 October 1953
  7. ^ Tolkien 1997, pp. 162–197 "English and Welsh"
  8. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #142 to Robert Murray, S. J., 2 December 1953
  9. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #165 to Houghton Mifflin, 30 June 1955
  10. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #19 to Stanley Unwin, 31 December 1960
  11. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #178 to Allen & Unwin, 12 December 1955, and #303 to Nicholas Thomas, 6 May 1968
  12. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #211 to Rhona Beare, 14 October 1958
  13. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #140 to Rayner Unwin, 17 August 1953
  14. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #143 to Rayner Unwin, 22 January 1954
  15. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #163 to W. H. Auden, 7 June 1955
  16. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #149 to Rayner Unwin, 9 September 1954
  17. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter #239 to Peter Szabo Szentmihalyi, draft, October 1971
  18. ^ Carpenter 1981, letters #270, #273 and #277
  19. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (2004). The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Edition. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-261-10320-7. This special 50th anniversary hardback edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic masterpiece includes the complete revised and reset text, two-fold out maps printed in red and black and, unique to this edition, a full-colour fold-out reproduction of Tolkien's own facsimile pages from the Book of Mazarbul that the Fellowship discover in Moria.
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Sources

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February 22, 2023
lord, rings, this, article, about, book, other, uses, disambiguation, ring, redirects, here, other, uses, ring, disambiguation, epic, high, fantasy, novel, english, author, scholar, tolkien, middle, earth, story, began, sequel, tolkien, 1937, children, book, h. This article is about the book For other uses see The Lord of the Rings disambiguation War of the Ring redirects here For other uses see War of the Ring disambiguation The Lord of the Rings is an epic 1 high fantasy novel a by English author and scholar J R R Tolkien Set in Middle earth the story began as a sequel to Tolkien s 1937 children s book The Hobbit but eventually developed into a much larger work Written in stages between 1937 and 1949 The Lord of the Rings is one of the best selling books ever written with over 150 million copies sold 2 The Lord of the RingsThe first single volume edition 1968 AuthorJ R R TolkienCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishGenreHigh fantasy AdventureSet inMiddle earthPublisherAllen amp UnwinPublication date29 July 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring 11 November 1954 The Two Towers 20 October 1955 The Return of the King Media typePrint hardback amp paperback OCLC1487587Preceded byThe Hobbit Followed byThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil The title refers to the story s main antagonist b the Dark Lord Sauron who in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men Dwarves and Elves in his campaign to conquer all of Middle earth From homely beginnings in the Shire a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside the story ranges across Middle earth following the quest to destroy the One Ring seen mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo Sam Merry and Pippin Although often called a trilogy the work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two volume set along with The Silmarillion 3 T 3 For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955 in three volumes 3 4 titled The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers and The Return of the King The work is divided internally into six books two per volume with several appendices of background material Some later editions print the entire work in a single volume following the author s original intent Tolkien s work after an initially mixed reception by the literary establishment has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins Influences on this earlier work and on the story of The Lord of the Rings include philology mythology Christianity earlier fantasy works and his own experiences in the First World War The Lord of the Rings is considered one of the greatest fantasy books ever written and it has helped to create and shape the modern fantasy genre Since release it has been reprinted many times and translated into at least 38 languages c Its enduring popularity has led to numerous references in popular culture the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien s works 5 and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works It has inspired many derivative works including paintings music films television video games and board games Award winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio theatre and film It was named Britain s best loved novel of all time in the BBC s 2003 poll The Big Read Contents 1 Plot 1 1 The Fellowship of the Ring 1 2 Prologue 1 3 Book I The Ring Sets Out 1 4 Book II The Ring Goes South 1 5 The Two Towers 1 6 Book III The Treason of Isengard 1 7 Book IV The Ring Goes East 1 8 The Return of the King 1 9 Book V The War of the Ring 1 10 Book VI The End of the Third Age 1 11 Appendices 1 12 Frame story 2 Concept and creation 2 1 Background 2 2 Writing 2 3 Poetry 2 4 Illustrations 2 5 Influences 2 6 Themes 3 Publication history 3 1 Editions and revisions 3 2 Posthumous publication of drafts 3 3 Translations 4 Reception 4 1 1950s 4 2 Later 4 3 Awards 5 Adaptations 5 1 Radio 5 2 Film and television 5 3 Audiobooks 6 Legacy 6 1 Influence on fantasy 6 2 Music 6 3 Impact on popular culture 7 Notes 8 References 8 1 Primary 8 2 Secondary 9 Sources 10 External linksPlot EditThe Fellowship of the Ring Edit Main article The Fellowship of the Ring Prologue Edit The prologue explains that the work is largely concerned with hobbits telling of their origins in a migration from the east their habits such as smoking pipe weed and how their homeland the Shire is organised It explains how the narrative follows on from The Hobbit in which the hobbit Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring which had been in the possession of Gollum Book I The Ring Sets Out Edit Gandalf proves that Frodo s Ring is the One Ring by throwing it into Frodo s fireplace revealing the hidden text of the Rhyme of the Rings Bilbo celebrates his eleventy first 111th birthday and leaves the Shire suddenly passing the Ring to Frodo Baggins his cousin d and heir Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring s origin but the wizard Gandalf suspects it is a Ring of Power Seventeen years later Gandalf tells Frodo that he has confirmed that the Ring is the one lost by the Dark Lord Sauron long ago and counsels him to take it away from the Shire Gandalf leaves promising to return by Frodo s birthday and accompany him on his journey but fails to do so Frodo sets out on foot offering a cover story of moving to Crickhollow accompanied by his gardener Sam Gamgee and his cousin Pippin Took They are pursued by mysterious Black Riders but meet a passing group of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion whose chants to Elbereth ward off the Riders The hobbits spend the night with them then take an evasive short cut the next day and arrive at the farm of Farmer Maggot who takes them to Bucklebury Ferry where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck When they reach the house at Crickhollow Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the Ring and insist on travelling with Frodo and Sam They decide to try to shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest Merry and Pippin are trapped by Old Man Willow an ancient tree who controls much of the forest but are rescued by Tom Bombadil Leaving the refuge of Tom s house they get lost in a fog and are caught by a barrow wight in a barrow on the downs but Frodo awakening from the barrow wight s spell calls Tom Bombadil who frees them and equips them with ancient swords from the barrow wight s hoard The hobbits reach the village of Bree where they encounter a Ranger named Strider The innkeeper gives Frodo a letter from Gandalf written three months before which identifies Strider as a friend Knowing the riders will attempt to seize the party Strider guides the hobbits through the wilderness toward the Elven sanctuary of Rivendell On the way the group stops at the hill Weathertop While at Weathertop they are again attacked by five of the nine Black Riders During the struggle their leader wounds Frodo with a cursed blade After fighting them off Strider treats Frodo with the herb athelas and is joined by the Elf Glorfindel who has been searching for the party Glorfindel rides with Frodo now deathly ill toward Rivendell The Black Riders nearly capture Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen but upon attempting to cross the ford flood waters summoned by Elrond rise up and overwhelm them Book II The Ring Goes South Edit Frodo recovers in Rivendell under Elrond s care Gandalf informs Frodo that the Black Riders are the Nazgul Men from ancient times enslaved by lesser Rings of Power to serve Sauron The Council of Elrond discusses the history of Sauron and the Ring Strider is revealed to be Aragorn the heir of Isildur Isildur had cut the One Ring from Sauron s hand in the battle ending the Second Age but refused to destroy it claiming it for himself The Ring had been lost when Isildur was killed finally ending up in Bilbo s possession after his meeting with Gollum described in The Hobbit Gandalf reports that the chief wizard Saruman has betrayed them and is now working to become a power in his own right Gandalf was captured by him but escaped explaining why he had failed to return to meet Frodo as he had promised The Council decides that the Ring must be destroyed but that can only be done by sending it to the fire of Mount Doom in Mordor where it was forged Frodo takes this task upon himself Elrond with the advice of Gandalf chooses companions for him The Fellowship of the Ring consists of nine walkers who set out on the quest to destroy the One Ring in opposition to the nine Black Riders Frodo Baggins Sam Gamgee Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took Gandalf the Elf Legolas the Dwarf Gimli and the Men Aragorn and Boromir son of the Steward of Gondor The Fellowship thus represents the Free Peoples of the West Elves Dwarves Men and Hobbits assisted by a Wizard After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass the Fellowship take the perilous path through the Mines of Moria They learn that Balin one of the Dwarves who accompanied Bilbo in The Hobbit and his colony of Dwarves were killed by Orcs After surviving an attack they are pursued by Orcs and a Balrog an ancient fire demon from a prior Age Gandalf confronts the Balrog and both of them fall into the abyss of Moria The others escape and find refuge in the timeless Elven forest of Lothlorien where they are counselled by the Lady Galadriel Before they leave Galadriel tests their loyalty and gives them individual magical gifts to help them on their quest She allows Frodo and Sam to look into her fountain the Mirror of Galadriel to see visions of the past the present and perhaps the future and she refuses to take the Ring Frodo offers her knowing that it would master her Galadriel s husband Celeborn gives the Fellowship boats elven cloaks and waybread Lembas and they travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen There Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo but immediately regrets it after Frodo puts on the Ring and disappears Frodo chooses to go alone to Mordor but Sam guessing what he intends intercepts him as he tries to take a boat across the river and goes with him The Two Towers Edit Main article The Two Towers Book III The Treason of Isengard Edit A party of large Orcs Uruk hai sent by Saruman and other Orcs sent by Sauron and led by Grishnakh attack the Fellowship Boromir tries to protect Merry and Pippin from the Orcs but they kill him and capture the two hobbits Aragorn Gimli and Legolas decide to pursue the Orcs taking Merry and Pippin to Saruman In the kingdom of Rohan the Orcs are killed by Riders of Rohan led by Eomer Merry and Pippin escape into Fangorn Forest where they are befriended by Treebeard the oldest of the tree like Ents Aragorn Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn There they unexpectedly meet Gandalf Gandalf explains that he killed the Balrog He was also killed in the fight but was sent back to Middle earth to complete his mission He is clothed in white and is now Gandalf the White for he has taken Saruman s place as the chief of the wizards Gandalf assures his friends that Merry and Pippin are safe Together they ride to Edoras capital of Rohan Gandalf frees Theoden King of Rohan from the influence of Saruman s spy Grima Wormtongue Theoden musters his fighting strength and rides with his men to the ancient fortress of Helm s Deep while Gandalf departs to seek help from Treebeard Meanwhile the Ents roused by Merry and Pippin from their peaceful ways attack and destroy Isengard Saruman s stronghold and flood it trapping the wizard in the tower of Orthanc Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Huorns to Theoden s aid He brings an army of Rohirrim to Helm s Deep and they defeat the Orcs who flee into the forest of Huorns never to be seen again Gandalf Theoden Legolas and Gimli ride to Isengard and are surprised to find Merry and Pippin relaxing amidst the ruins Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to turn away from evil When Saruman refuses to listen Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers After Saruman leaves Wormtongue throws down a hard round object to try to kill Gandalf Pippin picks it up Gandalf swiftly takes it but Pippin steals it in the night It is revealed to be a palantir a seeing stone that Saruman used to speak with Sauron and that Sauron used to ensnare him Sauron sees Pippin but misunderstands the circumstances Gandalf immediately rides for Minas Tirith chief city of Gondor taking Pippin with him Book IV The Ring Goes East Edit Frodo and Sam heading for Mordor struggle through the barren hills and cliffs of the Emyn Muil They become aware they are being watched and tracked on a moonlit night they capture Gollum who has followed them from Moria Frodo makes Gollum swear to serve him as Ringbearer and asks him to guide them to Mordor Gollum leads them across the Dead Marshes Sam overhears Gollum debating with his alter ego Smeagol whether to break his promise and steal the Ring They find that the Black Gate of Mordor is too well guarded so instead they travel south through the land of Ithilien to a secret pass that Gollum knows On the way they are captured by rangers led by Faramir Boromir s brother and brought to the secret fastness of Henneth Annun Faramir resists the temptation to seize the Ring and disobeying standing orders to arrest strangers found in Ithilien releases them Gollum who is torn between his loyalty to Frodo and his desire for the Ring guides the hobbits to the pass but leads them into the lair of the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol Frodo holds up the gift given to him in Lothlorien the Phial of Galadriel which holds the light of Earendil s star The light drives Shelob back Frodo cuts through a giant web using his sword Sting Shelob attacks again and Frodo falls to her venom Sam picks up Sting and the Phial He seriously wounds and drives off the monster Believing Frodo to be dead Sam takes the Ring to continue the quest alone Orcs find Frodo Sam overhears them and learns that Frodo is still alive but is separated from him The Return of the King Edit Main article The Return of the King Book V The War of the Ring Edit Sauron sends a great army against Gondor Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor of the attack while Theoden musters the Rohirrim to ride to Gondor s aid Minas Tirith is besieged the Lord of the Nazgul uses a battering ram and the power of his Ring to destroy the city s gates Denethor deceived by Sauron falls into despair He burns himself alive on a pyre Pippin and Gandalf rescue his son Faramir from the same fate Aragorn accompanied by Legolas Gimli and the Rangers of the North takes the Paths of the Dead to recruit the Dead Men of Dunharrow oathbreakers who are bound by an ancient curse which denies them rest until they fulfil their oath to fight for the King of Gondor Aragorn unleashes the Army of the Dead on the Corsairs of Umbar invading southern Gondor With that threat eliminated Aragorn uses the Corsairs ships to transport the men of southern Gondor up the Anduin reaching Minas Tirith just in time to turn the tide of battle Theoden s niece Eowyn who joined the army in disguise kills the Lord of the Nazgul with help from Merry both are wounded Together Gondor and Rohan defeat Sauron s army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields though at great cost Theoden is among the dead Aragorn enters Minas Tirith and heals Faramir Eowyn and Merry He leads an army of men from Gondor and Rohan marching through Ithilien to the Black Gate to distract Sauron from his true danger At the Battle of the Morannon his army is vastly outnumbered Book VI The End of the Third Age Edit Meanwhile Sam rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol They set out across Mordor When they reach the edge of the Cracks of Doom Frodo cannot resist the Ring any longer He claims it for himself and puts it on Gollum suddenly reappears He struggles with Frodo and bites off Frodo s finger with the Ring still on it Celebrating wildly Gollum loses his footing and falls into the Fire taking the Ring with him When the Ring is destroyed Sauron loses his power forever All he created collapses the Nazgul perish and his armies are thrown into such disarray that Aragorn s forces emerge victorious Aragorn is crowned King of Arnor and Gondor and weds Arwen daughter of Elrond Theoden is buried and Eomer is crowned King of Rohan His sister Eowyn is engaged to marry Faramir now Steward of Gondor and Prince of Ithilien Galadriel Celeborn and Gandalf meet and say farewell to Treebeard and to Aragorn The four hobbits make their way back to the Shire only to find that it has been taken over by men directed by Sharkey whom they later discover to be Saruman The hobbits led by Merry raise a rebellion and scour the Shire of Sharkey s evil Grima Wormtongue turns on Saruman and kills him in front of Bag End Frodo s home He is killed in turn by hobbit archers Merry and Pippin are celebrated as heroes Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts from Galadriel to help heal the Shire But Frodo is still wounded in body and spirit having borne the Ring for so long A few years later in the company of Bilbo and Gandalf Frodo sails from the Grey Havens west over the Sea to the Undying Lands to find peace Appendices Edit The appendices outline more details of the history cultures genealogies and languages that Tolkien imagined for the peoples of Middle earth They provide background details for the narrative with much detail for Tolkien fans who want to know more about the stories Appendix A Annals of the Kings and Rulers Provides extensive background to the larger world of Middle earth with brief overviews of the events of the first two Ages of the world and then more detailed histories of the nations of Men in Gondor and Rohan as well as a history of the royal Dwarvish line of Durin during the Third Age The embedded Tale of Aragorn and Arwen tells how it happened that an immortal elf came to marry a man as told in the main story which Arwen s ancestor Luthien had done in the First Age giving up her immortality Appendix B The Tale of Years Chronology of the Westlands It is a timeline of events throughout the series and ancient events affecting the narrative and in lesser detail it gives the stories context in the fictional chronology of the larger mythology It also tells that Sam gives his daughter Elanor the fictional Red Book of Westmarch which contains the autobiographical stories of Bilbo s adventures at the opening of the war and Frodo s role in the full on War of the Ring and serves as Tolkien s source for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Tolkien representing himself as a translator rather than an epic novelist It says that there was a tradition that after handing over the book Sam crossed west over the sea himself the last of the ring bearers and that some years later after the deaths of Aragorn and Arwen Legolas and Gimli also sailed together over Sea Appendix C Family Trees Hobbits Gives hobbit genealogies not only for Bilbo and Frodo s Baggins family but also their relations the Tooks and Brandybucks which connect them to Pippin and Merry Appendix D Calendars Describes some of the calendars used by the characters in the story and explains that the Roman month names in the text are translations of the names in the hobbits calendar Tolkien was a linguist and provided Germanic sounding names for the hobbit calendar by extrapolating names of German and Old English months forward to what he thought they might have become if all were still used in modern English as Yule and Easter are Appendix E Writing and Spelling Describes dwarves runes and the elvish runes use by the other peoples of Middle earth the names of the runes and letters incidentally give a bit of information about dwarvish and elvish languages Appendix F Languages and Peoples of the Third Age and On Translation Presented as two sections In addition to outlines of the various languages in current use during the narrative and mentioned or seen in the story it discusses hobbits names at length It sorts out names which Tolkien affected to have translated into English and names which said he had left in original form since they had no meaning in hobbits everyday language Frame story Edit Further information Tolkien s frame stories Tolkien presents The Lord of the Rings within a fictional frame story where he is not the original author but merely the translator of part of an ancient document the Red Book of Westmarch 6 That book is modelled on the real Red Book of Hergest which similarly presents an older mythology Various details of the frame story appear in the Prologue its Note on Shire Records and in the Appendices notably Appendix F In this frame story the Red Book is the purported source of Tolkien s other works relating to Middle earth The Hobbit The Silmarillion and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil 7 Concept and creation EditBackground Edit Further information Tolkien s legendarium Although a major work in itself The Lord of the Rings was only the last movement of a much older set of narratives Tolkien had worked on since 1917 encompassing The Silmarillion 8 in a process he described as mythopoeia e The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to Tolkien s work The Hobbit published in 1937 10 The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen amp Unwin the publishers to request a sequel Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly and responded with several stories he had already developed Having rejected his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion putting Roverandom on hold and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham Allen amp Unwin continued to ask for more stories about hobbits 11 Writing Edit Further information J R R Tolkien and Narrative patterns in The Lord of the Rings Persuaded by his publishers he started a new Hobbit in December 1937 10 After several false starts the story of the One Ring emerged The idea for the first chapter A Long Expected Party arrived fully formed although the reasons behind Bilbo s disappearance the significance of the Ring and the title The Lord of the Rings did not come until the spring of 1938 10 Originally he planned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more however he remembered the Ring and its powers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work 10 As the story progressed he brought in elements from The Silmarillion mythology 12 Writing was slow because Tolkien had a full time academic position marked exams to bring in a little extra income and wrote many drafts 10 T 4 Tolkien abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only restarted it in April 1944 10 as a serial for his son Christopher Tolkien who was sent chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force Tolkien made another major effort in 1946 and showed the manuscript to his publishers in 1947 10 The story was effectively finished the next year but Tolkien did not complete the revision of earlier parts of the work until 1949 10 The original manuscripts which total 9 250 pages now reside in the J R R Tolkien Collection at Marquette University 13 Poetry Edit Main article Poetry in The Lord of the Rings Unusually for 20th century novels the prose narrative is supplemented throughout by over 60 pieces of poetry These include verse and songs of many genres for wandering marching to war drinking and having a bath narrating ancient myths riddles prophecies and magical incantations and of praise and lament elegy 14 Some such as riddles charms elegies and narrating heroic actions are found in Old English poetry 14 Scholars have stated that the poetry is essential for the fiction to work aesthetically and thematically as it adds information not given in the prose and it brings out characters and their backgrounds 15 16 The poetry has been judged to be of high technical skill reflected in Tolkien s prose for instance he wrote much of Tom Bombadil s speech in metre 17 Illustrations Edit Main articles Tolkien s artwork Tolkien s maps and Tolkien s scripts Tolkien s calligraphy of the Rhyme of the Rings was one of the few illustrations in the first edition It is written in the Black Speech of Mordor using the Tengwar script Tolkien worked on the text using his maps of Middle earth as a guide to ensure the elements of the story fitted together in time and space T 5 He prepared a variety of types of illustration maps calligraphy drawings cover designs even a facsimile painting of the Book of Mazarbul but only the maps the inscription on the Ring and a drawing of the Doors of Durin were included in the first edition 18 T 6 The hardback editions sometimes had cover illustrations by Tolkien f sometimes by other artists According to The New York Times Barbara Remington s cover designs for Ballantine s paperback editions achieved mass cult status in the 1960s particularly on college campuses across America 19 Influences Edit Main article J R R Tolkien s influences Beowulf s eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas ogres and elves and devil corpses helped to inspire Tolkien to create the Orcs and Elves of Middle earth 20 Tolkien drew on a wide array of influences including language T 7 Christianity T 8 mythology and Germanic heroic legend including the Norse Volsunga saga 21 archaeology especially at the Temple of Nodens 22 ancient and modern literature like Finnish 19th century epic poetry The Kalevala by Elias Lonnrot 23 and personal experience He was inspired primarily by his profession philology T 9 his work centred on the study of Old English literature especially Beowulf and he acknowledged its importance to his writings 20 He was a gifted linguist influenced by Celtic 24 21 Finnish 25 Slavic 26 and Greek language and mythology 27 Commentators have attempted to identify literary and topological antecedents for characters places and events in Tolkien s writings he acknowledged that he had enjoyed adventure stories by authors such as John Buchan and Rider Haggard 28 29 30 The Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris was a major influence T 10 and Tolkien undoubtedly made use of some real place names such as Bag End the name of his aunt s home 31 Tolkien stated too that he had been influenced by his childhood experiences of the English countryside of Worcestershire near Sarehole Mill and its urbanisation by the growth of Birmingham T 11 and his personal experience of fighting in the trenches of the First World War 32 Moreover the militarization and industrialization inspired the character of Sauron and his forces The Orcs represented the worst of it as workers that have been tortured and brutalized by the war and industry 33 Themes Edit Main article Themes of The Lord of the Rings Scholars and critics have identified many themes in the book with its complex interlaced narrative including a reversed quest 34 35 the struggle of good and evil 36 death and immortality 37 fate and free will 38 the addictive danger of power 39 and various aspects of Christianity such as the presence of three Christ figures for prophet priest and king as well as elements like hope and redemptive suffering 40 41 42 43 There is a common theme throughout the work of language its sound and its relationship to peoples and places along with hints of providence in descriptions of weather and landscape 44 Out of these Tolkien stated that the central theme is death and immortality T 12 To those who supposed that the book was an allegory of events in the 20th century Tolkien replied in the foreword to the Second Edition that it was not saying he preferred history true or feigned with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers Some commentators have criticized the book for being a story about men for boys with no significant women or about a purely rural world with no bearing on modern life in cities of containing no sign of religion or of racism Other commentators responded by noting that there are three powerful women in the book Galadriel Eowyn and Arwen that life even in rural Hobbiton is not idealised that Christianity is a pervasive theme and that Tolkien was sharply anti racist both in peacetime and during the Second World War while Middle earth is evidently polycultural 45 46 47 Publication history EditA dispute with his publisher George Allen amp Unwin led Tolkien to offer the work to William Collins in 1950 Tolkien intended The Silmarillion itself largely unrevised at this point to be published along with The Lord of the Rings but Allen amp Unwin were unwilling to do this After Milton Waldman his contact at Collins expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself urgently wanted cutting Tolkien eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952 48 Collins did not and so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin saying I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff fearing his work would never see the light of day 10 For publication the work was divided into three volumes to minimize any potential financial loss due to the high cost of type setting and modest anticipated sales The Fellowship of the Ring Books I and II The Two Towers Books III and IV and The Return of the King Books V and VI plus six appendices 49 Delays in producing appendices maps and especially an index led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped on 29 July 1954 on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom 50 In the United States Houghton Mifflin published The Fellowship of the Ring on 21 October 1954 The Two Towers on 21 April 1955 and The Return of the King on 5 January 1956 51 The Return of the King was especially delayed as Tolkien revised the ending and prepared appendices some of which had to be left out because of space constraints Tolkien did not like the title The Return of the King believing it gave away too much of the storyline but deferred to his publisher s preference 52 Tolkien wrote that the title The Two Towers can be left ambiguous T 13 but considered naming the two as Orthanc and Barad dur Minas Tirith and Barad dur or Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol T 14 However a month later he wrote a note published at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and later drew a cover illustration both of which identified the pair as Minas Morgul and Orthanc 53 54 Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two book volume preferring instead the use of book titles e g The Lord of the Rings Vol 1 The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South Vol 2 The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East Vol 3 The War of the Ring and The End of the Third Age However these individual book titles were dropped and after pressure from his publishers Tolkien suggested the volume titles Vol 1 The Shadow Grows Vol 2 The Ring in the Shadow Vol 3 The War of the Ring or The Return of the King 55 56 Because the three volume binding was so widely distributed the work is often referred to as the Lord of the Rings trilogy In a letter to the poet W H Auden who famously reviewed the final volume in 1956 57 Tolkien himself made use of the term trilogy for the work T 15 though he did at other times consider this incorrect as it was written and conceived as a single book T 16 It is often called a novel however Tolkien objected to this term as he viewed it as a heroic romance T 17 The books were published under a profit sharing arrangement whereby Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even after which he would take a large share of the profits 58 It has ultimately become one of the best selling novels ever written with 50 million copies sold by 2003 59 and over 150 million copies sold by 2007 2 The work was published in the UK by Allen amp Unwin until 1990 when the publisher and its assets were acquired by HarperCollins 60 61 Editions and revisions Edit In the early 1960s Donald A Wollheim science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books claimed that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because Houghton Mifflin the US hardcover publisher had neglected to copyright the work in the United States 62 63 Then in 1965 Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition unauthorized by Tolkien and without paying royalties to him Tolkien took issue with this and quickly notified his fans of this objection 64 Grass roots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace Books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien 65 T 18 Barbara Remington s cover illustrations for the Ballantine paperback version achieved mass cult status on American college campuses in the 1960s 19 They were parodied by Michael K Frith s cover design for the 1969 Bored of the Rings 66 67 Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Houghton Mifflin to tremendous commercial success Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would be published with his consent and establish an unquestioned US copyright This text became the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings published in 1965 65 The first Ballantine paperback edition was printed in October that year selling a quarter of a million copies within ten months On 4 September 1966 the novel debuted on The New York Times s Paperback Bestsellers list as number three and was number one by 4 December a position it held for eight weeks 68 Houghton Mifflin editions after 1994 consolidate variant revisions by Tolkien and corrections supervised by Christopher Tolkien which resulted after some initial glitches in a computer based unified text 69 In 2004 for the 50th Anniversary Edition Wayne G Hammond and Christina Scull under supervision from Christopher Tolkien studied and revised the text to eliminate as many errors and inconsistencies as possible some of which had been introduced by well meaning compositors of the first printing in 1954 and never been corrected 70 The 2005 edition of the book contained further corrections noticed by the editors and submitted by readers Yet more corrections were made in the 60th Anniversary Edition in 2014 71 Several editions including the 50th Anniversary Edition print the whole work in one volume with the result that pagination varies widely over the various editions T 19 Posthumous publication of drafts Edit From 1988 to 1992 Christopher Tolkien published the surviving drafts of The Lord of the Rings chronicling and illuminating with commentary the stages of the text s development in volumes 6 9 of his History of Middle earth series The four volumes carry the titles The Return of the Shadow The Treason of Isengard The War of the Ring and Sauron Defeated 72 Translations Edit Main article Translations of The Lord of the Rings The work has been translated with varying degrees of success into at least 38 c and reportedly at least 70 languages 73 Tolkien an expert in philology examined many of these translations and made comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work As he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators such as the Swedish translation by Ake Ohlmarks T 20 Tolkien wrote a Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings 1967 Because The Lord of the Rings purports to be a translation of the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch using the English language to represent the Westron of the original Tolkien suggested that translators attempt to capture the interplay between English and the invented nomenclature of the English work and gave several examples along with general guidance 74 75 Reception EditMain article Literary reception of The Lord of the Rings 1950s Edit Early reviews of the work were mixed The initial review in the Sunday Telegraph described it as among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century 76 The Sunday Times echoed this sentiment stating that the English speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them 76 The New York Herald Tribune appeared to predict the books popularity writing in its review that they were destined to outlast our time 77 W H Auden a former pupil of Tolkien s and an admirer of his writings regarded The Lord of the Rings as a masterpiece further stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of John Milton s Paradise Lost 78 Kenneth F Slater wrote in Nebula Science Fiction April 1955 if you don t read it you have missed one of the finest books of its type ever to appear 79 80 On the other hand in 1955 the Scottish poet Edwin Muir attacked The Return of the King writing that All the characters are boys masquerading as adult heroes and will never come to puberty Hardly one of them knows anything about women causing Tolkien to complain angrily to his publisher 81 In 1956 the literary critic Edmund Wilson wrote a review entitled Oo Those Awful Orcs calling Tolkien s work juvenile trash and saying Dr Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form 82 Within Tolkien s literary group The Inklings the work had a mixed reception Hugo Dyson complained loudly at its readings 83 84 whereas C S Lewis had very different feelings writing here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron Here is a book which will break your heart 8 Lewis observed that the writing is rich in that some of the good characters have darker sides and likewise some of the villains have good impulses 85 Despite the mixed reviews and the lack of a paperback until the 1960s The Lord of the Rings initially sold well in hardback 8 Later Edit Further information Tolkien s prose style and Literary hostility to J R R Tolkien Judith Shulevitz writing in The New York Times criticized the pedantry of Tolkien s literary style saying that he formulated a high minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist which turns out to be death to literature itself 86 The critic Richard Jenkyns writing in The New Republic criticized the work for a lack of psychological depth Both the characters and the work itself were according to Jenkyns anemic and lacking in fibre 87 The science fiction author David Brin interprets the work as holding unquestioning devotion to a traditional hierarchical social structure 88 In his essay Epic Pooh fantasy author Michael Moorcock critiques the world view displayed by the book as deeply conservative in both the paternalism of the narrative voice and the power structures in the narrative 89 Tom Shippey like Tolkien an English philologist notes the wide gulf between Tolkien s supporters both popular and academic and his literary detractors and attempts to explain in detail both why the literary establishment disliked The Lord of the Rings and the work s subtlety themes and merits including the impression of depth that it conveys 12 The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury analysed Tolkien s prose style in detail showing that it was generally quite plain varying to suit the voices of the different characters and rising to a heroic register for special moments 90 Awards Edit In 1957 The Lord of the Rings was awarded the International Fantasy Award Despite its numerous detractors the publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine paperbacks helped The Lord of the Rings become immensely popular in the United States in the 1960s The book has remained so ever since ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century judged by both sales and reader surveys 91 In the 2003 Big Read survey conducted in Britain by the BBC The Lord of the Rings was found to be the Nation s best loved book In similar 2004 polls both Germany 92 and Australia 93 chose The Lord of the Rings as their favourite book In a 1999 poll of Amazon com customers The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite book of the millennium 94 In 2019 the BBC News listed The Lord of the Rings on its list of the 100 most influential novels 95 Adaptations EditMain article Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings has been adapted for radio stage film and television Radio Edit The book has been adapted for radio four times In 1955 and 1956 the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings a 13 part radio adaptation of the story In the 1960s radio station WBAI produced a short radio adaptation A 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD In 1981 the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings a new dramatization in 26 half hour instalments 96 97 Film and television Edit Main articles Middle earth in film and The Lord of the Rings film versus book A variety of filmmakers considered adapting Tolkien s book among them Stanley Kubrick who thought it unfilmable 98 99 Michelangelo Antonioni 100 Jim Henson 101 Heinz Edelmann 102 and John Boorman 103 A Swedish live action television film Sagan om ringen was broadcast in 1971 104 In 1978 Ralph Bakshi made an animated film version covering The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers to mixed reviews 105 In 1980 Rankin Bass released an animated TV special based on the closing chapters of The Return of the King gaining mixed reviews 106 107 In Finland a live action television miniseries Hobitit was broadcast in 1993 based on The Lord of the Rings with a flashback to Bilbo s encounter with Gollum in The Hobbit 108 109 A far more successful adaptation was Peter Jackson s live action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers 2002 and The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 2003 All three parts won multiple Academy Awards including consecutive Best Picture nominations The final instalment of this trilogy was the second film to break the one billion dollar barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars something only two other films in history Ben Hur and Titanic have accomplished including Best Picture Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay 110 111 Commentators including Tolkien scholars literary critics and film critics are divided on how faithfully Jackson adapted Tolkien s work or whether a film version is inevitably different and if so the reasons for any changes and the effectiveness of the result 112 The Hunt for Gollum a 2009 film by Chris Bouchard 113 114 and the 2009 Born of Hope written by Paula DiSante and directed by Kate Madison are fan films based on details in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings 115 From September 2022 Amazon is presenting a multi season television series of stories The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power It is set at the beginning of the Second Age long before the time of The Lord of the Rings based on materials in the novel s appendices 116 117 118 Audiobooks Edit In 1990 Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings 119 read by the British actor Rob Inglis A large scale musical theatre adaptation The Lord of the Rings was first staged in Toronto Ontario Canada in 2006 and opened in London in June 2007 it was a commercial failure 120 In 2013 artist Phil Dragash recorded a full unabridged version of the book using score from Peter Jackson s movies 121 122 123 During the COVID 19 lockdown Andy Serkis read the entire book of The Hobbit to raise money for charity 124 He then recorded the work again as an audiobook 125 126 The cover art was done by Alan Lee In 2021 Serkis recorded The Lord of the Rings novels 127 Legacy EditMain article Works inspired by J R R Tolkien Influence on fantasy Edit Further information Middle earth in video games The enormous popularity of Tolkien s work expanded the demand for fantasy Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings the genre flowered throughout the 1960s and enjoys popularity to the present day 128 The opus has spawned many imitations such as The Sword of Shannara which Lin Carter called the single most cold blooded complete rip off of another book that I have ever read 129 as well as alternate interpretations of the story such as The Last Ringbearer The Legend of Zelda which popularized the action adventure game genre in the 1980s was inspired by The Lord of the Rings among other fantasy books 130 131 Dungeons amp Dragons which popularized the role playing game genre in the 1970s features several races from The Lord of the Rings including halflings hobbits elves dwarves half elves orcs and dragons However Gary Gygax lead designer of the game maintained that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the popularity the work enjoyed at the time he was developing the game 132 Because Dungeons amp Dragons has gone on to influence many popular games especially role playing video games the influence of The Lord of the Rings extends to many of them with titles such as Dragon Quest 133 134 EverQuest the Warcraft series and The Elder Scrolls series of games 135 as well as video games set in Middle earth itself Music Edit Further information Music of Middle earth In 1965 the songwriter Donald Swann best known for his collaboration with Michael Flanders as Flanders amp Swann set six poems from The Lord of the Rings and one from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil Errantry to music When Swann met with Tolkien to play the songs for his approval Tolkien suggested for Namarie Galadriel s lament a setting reminiscent of plain chant which Swann accepted 136 The songs were published in 1967 as The Road Goes Ever On A Song Cycle 137 and a recording of the songs performed by singer William Elvin with Swann on piano was issued that same year by Caedmon Records as Poems and Songs of Middle Earth 138 Rock bands of the 1970s were musically and lyrically inspired by the fantasy embracing counter culture of the time The British rock band Led Zeppelin recorded several songs that contain explicit references to The Lord of the Rings such as mentioning Gollum and Mordor in Ramble On the Misty Mountains in Misty Mountain Hop and Ringwraiths in The Battle of Evermore In 1970 the Swedish musician Bo Hansson released an instrumental concept album entitled Sagan om ringen The Saga of the Ring the title of the Swedish translation at the time 139 The album was subsequently released internationally as Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings in 1972 139 From the 1980s onwards many heavy metal acts have been influenced by Tolkien 140 In 1988 the Dutch composer and trombonist Johan de Meij completed his Symphony No 1 The Lord of the Rings It had 5 movements titled Gandalf Lothlorien Gollum Journey in the Dark and Hobbits 141 The 1991 album Shepherd Moons by the Irish musician Enya contains an instrumental titled Lothlorien in reference to the home of the wood elves 142 Impact on popular culture Edit Welcome to Hobbiton sign in Matamata New Zealand where Peter Jackson s film version was shot The Lord of the Rings has had a profound and wide ranging impact on popular culture beginning with its publication in the 1950s but especially during the 1960s and 1970s when young people embraced it as a countercultural saga 143 Frodo Lives and Gandalf for President were two phrases popular amongst United States Tolkien fans during this time 144 Its impact is such that the words Tolkienian and Tolkienesque have entered the Oxford English Dictionary and many of his fantasy terms formerly little known in English such as Orc and Warg have become widespread in that domain 145 Among its effects are numerous parodies especially Harvard Lampoon s Bored of the Rings which has had the distinction of remaining continuously in print from its publication in 1969 and of being translated into at least 11 languages 146 In 1969 Tolkien sold the merchandising rights to The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit to United Artists under an agreement stipulating a lump sum payment of 10 000 147 plus a 7 5 royalty after costs 148 payable to Allen amp Unwin and the author 149 In 1976 three years after the author s death United Artists sold the rights to Saul Zaentz Company who now trade as Tolkien Enterprises Since then all authorised merchandise has been signed off by Tolkien Enterprises although the intellectual property rights of the specific likenesses of characters and other imagery from various adaptations is generally held by the adaptors 150 Outside commercial exploitation from adaptations from the late 1960s onwards there has been an increasing variety of original licensed merchandise with posters and calendars created by illustrators such as Barbara Remington 151 The work was named Britain s best novel of all time in the BBC s The Big Read 152 In 2015 the BBC ranked The Lord of the Rings 26th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels 153 It was included in Le Monde s list of 100 Books of the Century 154 Notes Edit J R R Tolkien did not like it when the word novel was used to describe his works but the term is commonly applied He preferred the phrase heroic romance T 1 Tolkien has the wizard Gandalf say to the hobbit Frodo the Black Riders are the Ringwraiths the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings T 2 a b At least 38 languages are listed at the FAQ This number is a conservative estimate some 56 translations are listed at translations of The Lord of the Rings and 57 languages are listed at Elrond s Library Although Frodo refers to Bilbo as his uncle the character is introduced in A Long expected Party as one of Bilbo s younger cousins The two were in fact first and second cousins once removed either way his paternal great great uncle s son s son and his maternal great aunt s son Tolkien created the word to define a different view of myth from C S Lewis s lies breathed through silver writing the poem Mythopoeia to present his argument it was first published in Tree and Leaf in 1988 9 See the lead images in the articles on the three separate volumes e g The Fellowship of the Ring References EditPrimary Edit Carpenter 1981 letter 329 to Peter Szabo Szentmihalyi October 1971 Tolkien J R R 1954a The Fellowship of the Ring The Lord of the Rings Boston Houghton Mifflin OCLC 9552942 book 2 ch 1 Many Meetings Carpenter 1981 letter 126 to Milton Waldman draft 10 March 1950 Carpenter 1981 letter 17 to Stanley Unwin 15 October 1937 Carpenter 1981 letter 144 to Naomi Mitchison 25 April 1954 Carpenter 1981 letter 141 to Allen amp Unwin 9 October 1953 Tolkien 1997 pp 162 197 English and Welsh Carpenter 1981 letter 142 to Robert Murray S J 2 December 1953 Carpenter 1981 letter 165 to Houghton Mifflin 30 June 1955 Carpenter 1981 letter 19 to Stanley Unwin 31 December 1960 Carpenter 1981 letter 178 to Allen amp Unwin 12 December 1955 and 303 to Nicholas Thomas 6 May 1968 Carpenter 1981 letter 211 to Rhona Beare 14 October 1958 Carpenter 1981 letter 140 to Rayner Unwin 17 August 1953 Carpenter 1981 letter 143 to Rayner Unwin 22 January 1954 Carpenter 1981 letter 163 to W H Auden 7 June 1955 Carpenter 1981 letter 149 to Rayner Unwin 9 September 1954 Carpenter 1981 letter 239 to Peter Szabo Szentmihalyi draft October 1971 Carpenter 1981 letters 270 273 and 277 Tolkien J R R 2004 The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Edition HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 261 10320 7 This special 50th anniversary hardback edition of J R R Tolkien s classic masterpiece includes the complete revised and reset text two fold out maps printed in red and black and unique to this edition a full colour fold out reproduction of Tolkien s own facsimile pages from the Book of Mazarbul that the Fellowship discover in Moria Carpenter 1981 letters 228 and 229 to Allen amp Unwin 24 January 1961 and 23 February 1961 Secondary Edit Chance Jane 1980 1979 The Lord of the Rings Tolkien s Epic Tolkien s Art A Mythology for England Macmillan pp 97 127 ISBN 0 333 29034 8 a b Wagner Vit 16 April 2007 Tolkien proves he s still the king Toronto Star Archived from the original on 9 March 2011 Retrieved 8 March 2011 a b Reynolds Pat The Lord of the Rings The Tale of a Text PDF The Tolkien Society Archived from the original PDF on 3 March 2016 Retrieved 24 October 2015 The Life and Works for JRR Tolkien BBC 7 February 2002 Archived from the original on 1 November 2010 Retrieved 4 December 2010 Gilsdorf Ethan 23 March 2007 Elvish Impersonators The New York Times Archived from the original on 5 December 2007 Retrieved 3 April 2007 Hooker Mark T 2006 The Feigned manuscript Topos A Tolkienian Mathomium a collection of articles on J R R Tolkien and his legendarium Llyfrawr pp 176 177 ISBN 978 1 4382 4631 4 Bowman Mary R October 2006 The Story Was Already Written Narrative Theory in The Lord of the Rings Narrative 14 3 272 293 doi 10 1353 nar 2006 0010 JSTOR 20107391 S2CID 162244172 the frame of the Red Book of Westmarch which becomes one of the major structural devices Tolkien uses to invite meta fictional reflection He claims in essence that the story was already written a b c Doughan David J R R Tolkien A Biographical Sketch TolkienSociety org Archived from the original on 3 March 2006 Retrieved 16 June 2006 Hammond Wayne G Scull Christina 2006 The J R R Tolkien Companion and Guide II Reader s Guide HarperCollins pp 620 622 ISBN 978 0 00 821453 1 a b c d e f g h i Carpenter 1977 pp 187 208 Carpenter 1977 p 195 a b Shippey Tom 2005 1982 The Road to Middle earth Third ed HarperCollins pp 1 6 260 261 and passim ISBN 978 0 261 10275 0 J R R Tolkien Collection Marquette Archives Raynor Memorial Libraries Marquette University Archived from the original on 19 December 2013 a b Kullmann Thomas 2013 Poetic Insertions in Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate 23 2 283 309 Archived from the original on 8 November 2018 Retrieved 15 May 2020 Higgins Andrew 2014 Tolkien s Poetry 2013 edited by Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner Journal of Tolkien Research 1 1 Article 4 Archived from the original on 1 August 2019 Retrieved 15 May 2020 Straubhaar Sandra Ballif 2005 Gilraen s Linnod Function Genre Prototypes Journal of Tolkien Studies 2 1 235 244 doi 10 1353 tks 2005 0032 ISSN 1547 3163 S2CID 170378314 Zimmer Paul Edwin 1993 Another Opinion of The Verse of J R R Tolkien Mythlore 19 2 Article 2 Holmes John R 2013 2007 Art and Illustrations by Tolkien In Drout Michael D C ed The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 27 32 ISBN 978 0 415 86511 1 a b Carmel Julia 15 February 2020 Barbara Remington Illustrator of Tolkien Book Covers Dies at 90 The New York Times Retrieved 4 September 2020 a b Shippey Tom 2005 1982 The Road to Middle earth Third ed HarperCollins pp 74 169 170 and passim ISBN 978 0 261 10275 0 a b Lee Stuart D Solopova Elizabeth 2005 The Keys of Middle earth Discovering Medieval Literature Through the Fiction of J R R Tolkien Palgrave pp 124 125 ISBN 978 1 4039 4671 3 Anger Don N 2013 2007 Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric Roman and Post Roman Site in Lydney Park Gloucestershire In Drout Michael D C ed The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 563 564 ISBN 978 0 415 86511 1 Noble Smith 2013 Chapter 5 Dealing with the Big People The Wisdom of the Shire A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life St Martin s Griffin p 46 ISBN 978 1250038296 Burns Marjorie 2005 Perilous Realms Celtic and Norse in Tolkien s Middle earth University of Toronto Press pp 13 29 and passim ISBN 978 0 8020 3806 7 Handwerk Brian 1 March 2004 Lord of the Rings Inspired by an Ancient Epic National Geographic News National Geographic Society pp 1 2 Archived from the original on 16 March 2006 Retrieved 4 October 2006 Kuzmenko Dmitry Slavic echoes in the works of J R R Tolkien in Ukrainian Archived from the original on 25 April 2012 Retrieved 6 November 2011 Stanton Michael 2001 Hobbits Elves and Wizards Exploring the Wonders and Worlds of J R R Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings Palgrave Macmillan p 18 ISBN 1 4039 6025 9 Resnick Henry 1967 An Interview with Tolkien Niekas 37 47 Nelson Dale 2013 2007 Literary Influences Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries In Drout Michael D C ed The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 366 377 ISBN 978 0 415 86511 1 Hooker Mark T 2011 Fisher Jason ed Reading John Buchan in Search of Tolkien Tolkien and the study of his sources critical essays McFarland pp 162 192 ISBN 978 0 7864 6482 1 OCLC 731009810 Lord of the Rings inspiration in the archives Explore the Past Worcestershire Historic Environment Record 29 May 2013 Livingston Michael 2006 The Shellshocked Hobbit The First World War and Tolkien s Trauma of the Ring Mythlore Mythopoeic Society pp 77 92 Archived from the original on 23 December 2011 Retrieved 3 June 2011 Ahmed Ali Arslan 8 May 2020 How War Inspired JRR Tolkien To Write Lord Of The Rings Dankanator Campbell Lori M 2010 Portals of Power Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy McFarland p 161 ISBN 978 0 7864 5655 0 West Richard C 1975 Lobdell Jared ed Narrative Pattern in The Fellowship of the Ring A Tolkien Compass Open Court p 96 ISBN 978 0 87548 303 0 Flieger Verlyn 2002 Splintered Light Logos and Language in Tolkien s World 2nd ed Kent State University Press p 2 ISBN 978 0 87338 744 6 Hannon Patrice 2004 The Lord of the Rings as Elegy Mythlore 24 2 36 42 Spacks Patricia Meyer 2005 Power and Meaning in The Lord of the Rings In Isaacs Neil David Zimbardo Rose A eds Understanding The Lord of the Rings The Best of Tolkien Criticism Houghton Mifflin pp 58 64 ISBN 978 0 618 42253 1 Perkins Agnes Hill Helen 1975 Lobdell Jared ed The Corruption of Power A Tolkien Compass Open Court pp 57 68 ISBN 978 0 87548 303 0 Kreeft Peter J November 2005 The Presence of Christ in The Lord of the Rings Ignatius Insight Kerry Paul E 2010 Kerry Paul E ed The Ring and the Cross Christianity and the Lord of the Rings Fairleigh Dickinson pp 32 34 ISBN 978 1 61147 065 9 Schultz Forrest W 1 December 2002 Christian Typologies in The Lord of the Rings Chalcedon Retrieved 26 March 2020 Williams Stan 20 Ways The Lord of the Rings Is Both Christian and Catholic Catholic Education Resource Center Archived from the original on 20 December 2013 Retrieved 20 December 2013 Shippey Tom 2005 1982 The Road to Middle earth Third ed HarperCollins pp 129 133 245 247 ISBN 978 0 261 10275 0 Wood Ralph C 2003 The Gospel According to Tolkien Westminster John Knox Press pp 2 4 ISBN 978 0 664 23466 9 Rearick Anderson 2004 Why is the Only Good Orc a Dead Orc The Dark Face of Racism Examined in Tolkien s World Modern Fiction Studies 50 4 866 867 doi 10 1353 mfs 2005 0008 S2CID 162647975 Straubhaar Sandra Ballif 2004 Chance Jane ed Myth Late Roman History and Multiculturalism in Tolkien s Middle earth Tolkien and the invention of myth a reader University Press of Kentucky pp 112 115 ISBN 978 0 8131 2301 1 Carpenter 1977 pp 211 ff Unwin Rayner 1999 George Allen amp Unwin A Remembrancer Merlin Unwin Books pp 97 99 ISBN 1 873674 37 6 Carpenter 1977 pp 220 221 The Fellowship of the Ring Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings publication history Tolkien J R R 15 February 2012 The Fellowship of the Ring Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings ISBN 978 0547952017 Archived from the original on 15 November 2017 Retrieved 16 September 2017 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link From Book to Script The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Appendices DVD New Line Cinema 2002 The second part is called The Two Towers since the events recounted in it are dominated by Orthanc and the fortress of Minas Morgul Tolkien s own cover design for The Two Towers Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 22 January 2020 Carpenter 1981 letter 137 140 143 all to Rayner Unwin his publisher in 1953 4 Tolkien Christopher 2000 The War of the Ring The History of The Lord of the Rings Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0 618 08359 6 Auden W H 26 January 1956 At the End of the Quest Victory Book Review The Return of the King The New York Times Archived from the original on 30 January 2016 Retrieved 21 February 2020 Sturgis Amy H 2013 2007 Publication History In Drout Michael D C ed The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 385 390 ISBN 978 0 415 86511 1 Pate Nancy 20 August 2003 Lord of the Rings Films Work Magic on Tolkien Book Sales SunSentinel Archived from the original on 20 November 2018 Retrieved 20 November 2018 Smith Anthony 27 November 2000 Rayner Unwin The Guardian Archived from the original on 8 May 2014 Retrieved 12 June 2010 Unwin Rayner 1999 George Allen amp Unwin A Remembrancer Merlin Unwin Books p 288 ISBN 1 873674 37 6 Betsy Wollheim The Family Trade Locus Online June 2006 Archived from the original on 31 January 2011 Retrieved 22 January 2011 Silverberg Robert 1997 Reflections amp Refractions Thoughts on Science Fiction Science and Other Matters Underwood pp 253 256 ISBN 1 887424 22 9 Ripp Joseph Middle America Meets Middle earth American Publication and Discussion of J R R Tolkien s Lord of the Rings PDF p 38 Archived PDF from the original on 5 November 2015 a b Reynolds Pat The Lord of the Rings The Tale of a Text The Tolkien Society Archived from the original on 8 September 2006 The World Wide Walrus Bored of the Rings Retrieved 10 August 2011 Bibliography Cover Bored of the Rings The Internet Speculative Fiction Database Retrieved 10 August 2011 Medievalist Comics and the American Century Archived 15 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine Notes on the text pp xi xiii Douglas A Anderson in the 1994 HarperCollins edition of The Fellowship of the Ring Hammond amp Scull 2005 pp xl xliv Lord of the Rings Comparison 21 December 2014 Archived from the original on 7 October 2017 Tolkien Christopher 2002 1988 1992 The History of the Lord of the Rings Box Set The History of Middle earth HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 261 10370 2 OCLC 43216229 Elrond s Library Translations of Tolkien all over the world www elrondslibrary fr Archived from the original on 1 December 2017 Retrieved 28 September 2020 I have gathered in my library editions of these books in 70 languages Lobdell Jared 1975 Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings A Tolkien Compass Open Court pp 153 201 ISBN 978 0 87548 303 0 Hammond amp Scull 2005 pp 750 782 a b The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set Lord of the Rings Trilogy Series section Editorial reviews Archived from the original on 10 December 2010 Retrieved 4 December 2010 From the Critics Archived from the original on 29 September 2007 Retrieved 30 May 2006 Auden W H 22 January 1956 At the End of the Quest Victory The New York Times Archived from the original on 20 February 2011 Retrieved 4 December 2010 Ken Slater Archived from the original on 30 October 2019 Retrieved 19 November 2019 Something to Read NSF 12 Retrieved 19 November 2019 Lobdell Jared 2013 2007 Criticism of Tolkien Twentieth Century In Drout Michael D C ed J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 109 110 ISBN 978 0 415 96942 0 Wilson Edmund 14 April 1956 Oo Those Awful Orcs A review of The Fellowship of the Ring The Nation Retrieved 1 September 2012 Derek Bailey Director and Judi Dench Narrator 1992 A Film Portrait of J R R Tolkien Television documentary Visual Corporation Dyson s actual comment bowdlerized in the TV version was Not another fucking Elf Grovier Kelly 29 April 2007 In the Name of the Father The Observer Archived from the original on 2 October 2013 Retrieved 4 December 2010 C S Lewis quoted in Christina Scull amp Wayne Hammond 2006 The J R R Tolkien Companion and Guide HarperCollins article The Lord of the Rings Reviews p 549 ISBN 978 0 618 39113 4 Shulevitz Judith 22 April 2001 Hobbits in Hollywood The New York Times Archived from the original on 9 April 2009 Retrieved 13 May 2006 Jenkyns Richard 28 January 2002 Bored of the Rings The New Republic Retrieved 13 February 2011 Brin David December 2002 We Hobbits are a Merry Folk an incautious and heretical re appraisal of J R R Tolkien Salon Magazine Archived from the original on 23 March 2006 Retrieved 9 January 2006 Moorcock Michael Epic Pooh Archived from the original on 24 March 2008 Retrieved 27 January 2006 Rosebury Brian 2003 1992 Tolkien A Cultural Phenomenon Palgrave pp 71 88 ISBN 978 1403 91263 3 Seiler Andy 16 December 2003 Rings comes full circle USA Today Archived from the original on 12 February 2006 Retrieved 12 March 2006 Diver Krysia 5 October 2004 A lord for Germany The Sydney Morning Herald Archived from the original on 28 March 2006 Retrieved 12 March 2006 Cooper Callista 5 December 2005 Epic trilogy tops favourite film poll ABC News Online Archived from the original on 16 January 2006 Retrieved 12 March 2006 O Hehir Andrew 4 June 2001 The book of the century Salon Archived from the original on 13 February 2006 Retrieved 12 March 2006 100 most inspiring novels revealed by BBC Arts BBC News 5 November 2019 Archived from the original on 8 November 2019 Retrieved 10 November 2019 The reveal kickstarts the BBC s year long celebration of literature Riel Radio Theatre The Lord of the Rings Episode 2 Radioriel 15 January 2009 Archived from the original on 15 January 2020 Retrieved 18 May 2020 Genome BETA Radio Times 1923 2009 BBC 1981 Retrieved 24 August 2020 12 00 The Lord of the Rings 1 The Long Awaited Party by J R R Tolkien prepared for radio in 26 episodes by Brian Sibley Starring Ian Holm as Frodo and Michael Hordern as Gandalf Drout 2006 p 15 See also interview in Show magazine vol 1 Number 1 1970 Bramwell Tony 2014 Magical Mystery Tours My Life with the Beatles Pavilion Books p 70 ISBN 978 1 910232 16 3 Jones Brian Jay 2013 Jim Henson The Biography Virgin Digital ebook location 5430 Chapter 11 Beatles plan for Rings film CNN 28 March 2002 Archived from the original on 9 April 2002 Taylor Patrick 19 January 2014 Best Films Never Made 8 John Boorman s The Lord of the Rings Archived 16 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine OneRoomWithaView com Retrieved 16 December 2018 K Special I trollkarlens hatt Archived 2015 10 27 at the Wayback Machine at 24m30s Sveriges television 23 October 2015 Retrieved 26 October 2015 Gaslin Glenn 21 November 2001 Ralph Bakshi s unfairly maligned Lord of the Rings Slate Cassady Charles 9 July 2010 The Return of the King 1980 commonsensemedia org Retrieved 2 August 2020 Greydanus Stephen The Return of the King 1980 decentfilms com Retrieved 2 August 2020 Yle teettaa oman sovituksen Taru sormusten herrasta sadusta Yle to produce its own version of the tale of The Lord of the Rings Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish 18 June 1991 Kajava Jukka 29 March 1993 Tolkienin taruista on tehty tv sarja Hobitien ilme syntyi jo Ryhmateatterin Suomenlinnan tulkinnassa Tolkien s tales have been turned into a TV series The Hobbits have been brought to live in the Ryhmateatteri theatre Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish subscription required Rosenberg Adam 14 January 2016 Star Wars ties Lord of the Rings with 30 Oscar nominations the most for any series Mashable Archived from the original on 12 May 2019 Retrieved 1 July 2019 The Return of the King peak positions U S and Canada All Time Domestic Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on 4 June 2004 Worldwide All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on 5 June 2004 Bogstad Janice M Kaveny Philip E 2011 Introduction Picturing Tolkien Essays on Peter Jackson s The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy McFarland pp 5 23 ISBN 978 0 7864 8473 7 Masters Tim 30 April 2009 Making Middle earth on a shoestring BBC News BBC Archived from the original on 3 May 2009 Retrieved 1 May 2009 Sydell Laura 30 April 2009 High Def Hunt For Gollum New Lord of the Fanvids All Things Considered NPR Archived from the original on 3 May 2009 Retrieved 1 May 2009 Lamont Tom 7 March 2010 Born of Hope and a lot of charity The Guardian Archived from the original on 5 January 2015 Retrieved 5 January 2015 Axon Samuel 13 November 2017 Amazon will run a multi season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series Ars Technica Archived from the original on 14 November 2017 LOTRonPrime 7 March 2019 Welcome to the Second Age amazon com lotronprime Tweet Archived from the original on 10 February 2020 Retrieved 24 March 2020 via Twitter White Peter 19 January 2022 Amazon Prime Video Reveals The Lord Of The Rings Series Title amp Teases Second Age Tales Deadline Hollywood Retrieved 19 January 2022 Inglis Rob narrator 1990 The Lord of the Rings Recorded Books ISBN 1 4025 1627 4 The fastest West End flops in pictures The Guardian Retrieved 29 April 2017 Phil Dragash Phil Dragash Retrieved 11 March 2022 Root amp Twig SoundCloud Retrieved 11 March 2022 Lord of The Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Soundscape by Phil Dragash archive org 2013 Retrieved 11 March 2022 Coronavirus Andy Serkis reads entire Hobbit live online for charity BBC News 9 May 2020 Audible com Try Audible Free Today The Hobbit via www audible com Andy Serkis records Lord of the Rings audiobooks for HarperCollins The Bookseller www thebookseller com Retrieved 7 September 2021 Fimi Dimitra 2020 2014 Later Fantasy Fiction Tolkien s Legacy In Lee Stuart D ed A Companion to J R R Tolkien Wiley Blackwell pp 335 349 ISBN 978 1119656029 Carter Lin 1978 The Year s Best Fantasy Stories 4 DAW Books pp 207 208 Classic Zelda und Link Classic Zelda and Link Club Nintendo in German Vol 1996 no 2 Nintendo of Europe April 1996 p 72 The two program designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka were responsible for the game who set themselves the goal of developing a fairytale adventure game with action elements Takashi Tezuka a great lover of fantasy novels such as Tolkien s Lord of the Rings wrote the script for the first two games in the Zelda series Shigeru Miyamoto Interview Super PLAY in Swedish Medstroms Dataforlag AB 4 03 March 2003 Archived from the original on 7 September 2006 Retrieved 24 September 2006 All ideas for The legend of Zelda were mine and Takashi Tezukas Books movies and our own lives Gygax Gary Gary Gygax Creator of Dungeons amp Dragons The One Ring net Archived from the original on 27 June 2006 Retrieved 28 May 2006 The Gamasutra Quantum Leap Awards Role Playing Games Honorable Mention Dragon Warrior Gamasutra 6 October 2006 Archived from the original on 13 March 2011 Retrieved 28 March 2011 Kalata Kurt The History of Dragon Quest Gamasutra Archived from the original on 22 July 2015 Retrieved 29 September 2009 Douglass Perry 17 May 2006 The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames IGN News Corp Archived from the original on 18 January 2016 Retrieved 4 January 2012 Tolkien had recorded a version of his theme on a friend s tape recorder in 1952 This was later issued by Caedmon Records in 1975 as part of J R R Tolkien reads and sings The Lord of the Rings LP recording TC1478 Tolkien J R R Swann Donald 1967 The Road Goes Ever On A Song Cycle Ballantine Books Tolkien J R R Swann Donald 1967 Poems and Songs of Middle Earth LP recording Caedmon Records TC1231 TC91231 a b Snider Charles 2008 The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock Strawberry Bricks pp 120 121 ISBN 978 0 615 17566 9 Greene Andy 16 August 2017 Ramble On Rockers Who Love The Lord of the Rings Rolling Stone Archived from the original on 16 August 2017 The Lord of the Rings Der Herr der Ringe Symphony No 1 Sinfonie Nr 1 Rundel Retrieved 2 August 2020 Ryan Roma 2002 Only Time The Collection Booklet notes pages 15 16 19 21 Enya Warner Music 0927 49211 2 Feist Raymond 2001 Meditations on Middle earth St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 30290 8 Carpenter Humphrey 2000 J R R Tolkien A Biography Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 0 618 05702 1 Gilliver Peter 2006 The Ring of Words Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press pp 174 201 206 ISBN 0 19 861069 6 Bratman David 2013 2007 Parodies In Drout Michael D C ed The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge pp 503 504 ISBN 978 0 415 86511 1 Tolkien sold film rights for 10 000 London Evening Standard 12 July 2001 Archived from the original on 14 September 2012 Retrieved 20 November 2011 Pulley Brett 15 July 2009 Hobbit Heirs Seek 220 Million for Rings Rights Update1 Bloomberg Archived from the original on 2 August 2012 Retrieved 20 November 2011 Harlow John 28 May 2008 Hobbit movies meet dire foe in son of Tolkien The Times Archived from the original on 15 June 2011 Retrieved 19 January 2022 Mathijs Ernest 2006 The Lord of the Rings Popular Culture in Global Context Wallflower Press p 25 ISBN 978 1 904764 82 3 Carmel Julia 15 February 2020 Barbara Remington Illustrator of Tolkien Book Covers Dies at 90 The New York Times Retrieved 18 July 2020 Ezard John 15 December 2003 Tolkien runs rings round Big Read rivals The Guardian Retrieved 3 August 2020 Ciabattari Jane 7 December 2015 The 100 greatest British novels BBC Archived from the original on 8 December 2015 Retrieved 8 December 2015 Savigneau Josyane 15 October 1999 Ecrivains et choix sentimentaux Authors and sentimental choices Le Monde in French Archived from the original on 27 May 2012 Sources EditCarpenter Humphrey 1977 J R R Tolkien A Biography New York Ballantine Books ISBN 978 0 04 928037 3 Carpenter Humphrey ed 1981 The Letters of J R R Tolkien Boston Houghton Mifflin ISBN 978 0 395 31555 2 Drout Michael D C 2006 The J R R Tolkien Encyclopedia Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 96942 0 Hammond Wayne G Scull Christina 2005 The Lord of the Rings A Reader s Companion Houghton Mifflin Co ISBN 978 0 00 720907 1 Tolkien Christopher ed 1988 1992 The History of The Lord of the Rings 4 vols Tolkien J R R 1997 The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 261 10263 7 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Lord of the Rings Wikiquote has quotations related to The Lord of the Rings Wikivoyage has a travel guide for The Lord of the Rings tourism Tolkien website of Harper Collins the British publisher Tolkien website of Houghton Mifflin Archived 24 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine the American publisher Lord of the Rings The Archived 2 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine at the Encyclopedia of Fantasy Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Lord of the Rings amp oldid 1139185709, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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