Synopses & Reviews
The novel of the century, now with new movie tie-in art, color endpaper maps, flaps, and more.
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages, it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
From his fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, Sauron's power spread far and wide. He gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
On Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday, he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin, Frodo, the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
Review
"The first thing that one asks of an adventure story is that the adventure should be various and exciting; in this respect Mr. Tolkien's invention is unflagging, and, on the primitive level of wanting to know what happens next, The Fellowship of the Ring is a least as good as The Thirty-Nine Steps....Mr. Tolkien is fortunate in possessing an amazing gift for naming and a wonderfully exact eye for description....Lastly, if one is to take a tale of this kind seriously, one must feel that, however superficially unlike the world we live in its characters and events may be, it nevertheless holds up the mirror to the only nature we know, our own; in this, too, Mr Tolkien has succeeded superbly....No fiction I have read in the last five years has given me more joy than The Fellowship of the Ring." New York Times Book Review, 10/31/54* W. H. Auden
About the Author
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS NOTE ON THE TEXT 0 FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION 0 PROLOGUE CONCERNING HOBBITS, AND OTHER MATTERS 00 1. Concerning Hobbits 00 2. Concerning Pipe-weed 00 3. Of the Ordering of the Shire 00 4. Of the Finding of the Ring 00 NOTE ON THE SHIRE RECORDS 00 BOOK ONE 00 I A Long-expected Party 00 II The Shadow of the Past 00 III Three is Company 000 IV A Short Cut to Mushrooms 000 V A Conspiracy Unmasked 000 VI The Old Forest 000 VII In the House of Tom Bombadil 000 VIII Fog on the Barrow-Downs 000 IX At the Sign of The Prancing Pony 000 X Strider 000 XI A Knife in the Dark 000 XII Flight to the Ford 000 BOOK TWO 000 I Many Meetings 000 II The Council of Elrond 000 III The Ring Goes South 000 IV A Journey in the Dark 000 V The Bridge of Khazad-dum 000 VI Lothlórien 000 VII The Mirror of Galadriel 000 VIII Farewell to Lórien 000 IX The Great River 000 X The Breaking of the Fellowship 000 SYNOPSIS 000 BOOK THREE 000 I The Departure of Boromir 000 II The Riders of Rohan 000 III The Uruk-Hai 000 IV Treebeard 000 V The White Rider 000 VI The King of the Golden Hall 000 VII Helms Deep 000 VIII The Road to Isengard 000 IX Flotsam and Jetsam 000 X The Voice of Saruman 1111 XI The Palantír BOOK FOUR I The Taming of Sméagol II The Passage of the Marshes III The Black Gate is Closed IV Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit V The Window on the West VI The Forbidden Pool VII Journey to the Cross-roads VIII The Stairs of Cirith Ungol IX Shelobs Lair X The Choices of Master Samwise BOOK FIVE I Minas Tirith II The Passing of the Grey Company III The Muster of Rohan IV The Siege of Gondor V The Ride of the Rohirrim VI The Battle of the Pelennor Fields VII The Pyre of Denethor VIII The Houses of Healing IX The Last Debate X The Black Gate Opens BOOK SIX I The Tower of Cirith Ungol II The Land of Shadow III Mount Doom IV The Field of Cormallen V The Steward and the King VI Many Partings VII Homeward Bound VIII The Scouring of the Shire IX The Grey Havens APPENDICES A ANNALS OF THE KINGS AND RULERS I The Númenorean Kings II The House of Eorl III Durins Folk B THE TALE OF YEARS (CHRONOLOGY OF THE WESTLANDS) C FAMILY TREES (HOBBITS) D CALENDARS E WRITING AND SPELLING I Pronunciation of Words and Names II Writing F I The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age II On Translation INDEXES I Songs and Verses II Persons, Beasts and Monsters III Places IV Things