Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I borrowed Kate's Lord of the Rings book set this summer since I've wanted to read the novel for a long time. I've read Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis before and I loved them. All three are fantasy books and since Lewis and Tolkien were friends in their day, I thought that I would also enjoy reading Lord of the Rings. I obviously did.

I didn't start reading the books right away though. I was brushing up on Anatomy then and followed that by reading Edith Hamilton's mythology. I tried reading the first book and there was a boring prologue which dissuaded me from continuing. I finally started when Jill started to read the books and said they were good and the boring parts were only in the beginning and some parts of the journey.

 The tale follows the Ring of Power created by the dark lord, Sauron. The ring comes into the hands of a hobbit and he must destroy it to save Middle Earth. He is helped by friends from different kinds of peoples (hobbits, men, elves, dwarves, wizard).

A common misconception about the Lord of the Rings is that it's a trilogy when it's really a novel usually published in three volumes and divided into seven books. The three volumes have two books each and the seventh comprises the appendices. The first volume is about the Fellowship of the Ring which are the nine characters from different peoples in Middle Earth. The second is the Two Towers and these towers are probably Orthanc, Saruman's fortress and Minas Morgul, Sauron's lair. This volume is divided in such a way that one book follows Frodo to his quest to Mount Doom while the other concentrate on other members of the fellowship. The last volume involves the Return of the King wherein the climax of the whole novel is reached. The king it speaks of is the rightful king of Gondor, Isildur's Heir.

Why is that one ring so damn important? It can be used by its owner, Sauron, to rule all of Middle Earth because it has power over the other rings of power. Below is an excerpt from Lord of the Rings.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
  Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
  Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
  One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
  In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
  One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
  One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
  In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy novel. Tolkien created a world entirely his own. He drew maps, created new languages and letters. There were even different languages and names for places and people according to each kind. It confused me a bit. If you like fantasy, you should try reading this classic. It's a bit long and there are parts that seem to be draggy. It would be a more difficult read than both Harry Potter and Narnia since these two can stand alone while Lord of the Rings is a continuous story.

Jill and I also finished watching the movies. It so long! It's not even the extended edition. Length aside, all three movies are great. I was just disappointed that Faramir and Eowyn's part was cut from the last movie. I also wasn't a big fan of the additional scenes and changing up the who-did-whats from books to movies. I never am a big fan of that. One example is the sparing of Grima, who in the books was spared by Theoden while in the movies it was Aragorn who stopped the king from hurting him. I really don't fancy changing the personality of the characters. In the books, I liked that Theoden was a kindly king and also of Faramir's wisdom and judgement. if you're in a movie-watching mood, watch the movies (again, if you've seen it before) if you have lots of time to spare. ;)