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The Lord of the Rings

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: The Lord of the Rings

   Cover design for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings
     Author    J. R. R. Tolkien
     Country   United Kingdom
    Language   English
    Genre(s)   Fantasy novel
    Publisher  Allen & Unwin
    Released   1954 and 1955
   Media Type  Print ( Hardback & Paperback)
      Pages    1216 pp
      ISBN     NA
   Preceded by The Hobbit

   The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by English
   academic J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's
   earlier fantasy book The Hobbit and soon developed into a much larger
   story. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it
   being created during World War II. It was originally published in three
   volumes in 1954 and 1955 (much to Tolkien's annoyance, since he had
   intended it to be a single volume), and has since been reprinted
   numerous times and translated into at least 38 languages, becoming one
   of the most popular works in 20th-century literature.

   The action in The Lord of the Rings is set in what the author conceived
   to be the lands of the real Earth, inhabited by humanity but placed in
   a fictional past, before our science but after the fall of his version
   of Atlantis, which he calls Númenor. Tolkien gave this setting a modern
   English name, Middle-earth, derived from the Old English Middangeard,
   the realm where humans live in Norse and related Germanic mythologies.

   The story concerns peoples such as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves,
   Wizards, and Orcs and centres on the Ring of Power made by the Dark
   Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in The Shire, the story
   ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of the War of the
   Ring. The main story is followed by six appendices that provide a
   wealth of historical and linguistic background material, as well as an
   index of characters, place names, and terms of note.

   Along with Tolkien's other writings, The Lord of the Rings has been
   subjected to extensive analysis of its literary themes and origins.
   Although a major work in itself, the story is merely the last movement
   of a larger cycle, or legendarium, that Tolkien had worked on for many
   years since 1917. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of
   The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology and religion, as
   well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I.
   The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great
   impact on modern fantasy, and the impact of Tolkien's works is such
   that the use of the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" have been
   recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

   The immense and enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to
   numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies
   by fans of Tolkien's works, and a large number of books about Tolkien
   and his works being published. The Lord of the Rings has inspired (and
   continues to inspire) short stories, video games, artworks and musical
   works. Numerous adaptations of Tolkien's works have been made for a
   wide range of media. Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings in particular
   have been made for the radio, for the theatre, and for film. The
   2001–2003 release of the widely acclaimed Lord of the Rings film
   trilogy prompted a new surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and
   Tolkien's other works.
   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Backstory

   The backstory begins thousands of years before the action in the book,
   with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron,
   a malevolent incarnated immortal spiritual being possessed of great
   supernatural powers, later the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor. At
   the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survived the
   catastrophic defeat and exile of his master, the original evil figure,
   Morgoth (who was formerly counted as one of the Valar, the angelic
   Powers of the world). During the Second Age, Sauron schemed to gain
   dominion over Middle-earth. In the guise of "Annatar" or Lord of Gifts,
   he aided the Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of magical rings
   which conferred various powers and effects on their wearers. The most
   important of these were nineteen, called the Rings of Power or Great
   Rings.

   However, he then secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring,
   by which he planned to enslave the wearers of the other Rings of Power.
   This plan failed when the Elves became aware of him and took off their
   Rings. Sauron then launched a war during which he captured sixteen and
   distributed them to lords and kings of Dwarves and Men; these Rings
   were known as the Seven and the Nine respectively. The Dwarf-lords
   proved too tough to enslave although their natural desire for wealth,
   especially gold, increased; this brought more conflict between them and
   other races. The Men who possessed the Nine were slowly corrupted over
   time and eventually became the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, Sauron's most
   feared servants. Sauron failed to capture Three, and these remained in
   the possession of the Elves ( Celebrimbor, leader of the Elven-smiths,
   had forged them independently of Sauron). The war ended as the Men of
   the great island-nation of Númenor helped the besieged Elves, and
   Sauron's forces retreated.
   A map of Númenor (called Andor by the Elves).
   Enlarge
   A map of Númenor (called Andor by the Elves).

   Over 1500 years later, the Númenóreans sent a great force to overthrow
   Sauron. Deserted by his minions, Sauron surrendered and was taken to
   Númenor as a "prisoner". Though taken a prisoner, such was his cunning
   and the strength of his will that in no time he was their King
   Ar-Pharazôn's closest counsellor. Sauron started to poison the minds of
   the Númenóreans against the Valar. He deceived Ar-Pharazôn into
   invading their lands, the Undying Lands, to gain the immortality of the
   Elves (many of the Elves had previously lived there, and many still
   did). However, upon reaching their destination, the King and his army
   were buried by a landslide. The Valar called upon Ilúvatar (God), who
   opened a great chasm in the sea, destroying Númenor, and removed the
   Undying Lands from the mortal world. The destruction of Númenor
   destroyed Sauron's fair and handsome physical body, but his spirit
   returned to Mordor and assumed a new form — black, burning hot (though
   he was not on fire), and terrible. Some Númenóreans (called the
   Faithful, for they did not join Ar-Pharazôn's expedition) also managed
   to escape to Middle-earth. They were led by Elendil and his sons
   Isildur and Anárion.

   Over 100 years later, Sauron launched an attack against the Númenórean
   exiles. Elendil formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the
   Elven-king Gil-galad. They marched against Mordor, defeated Sauron on
   the plain of Dagorlad, and besieged his stronghold Barad-dûr, at which
   time Anárion was slain. After seven years of siege, Sauron himself was
   ultimately forced to engage in single combat with the leaders.
   Gil-galad and Elendil were killed as they fought with Sauron, and
   Elendil's sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. However, Sauron's body was
   also overcome and slain, and Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's
   hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil; when this happened, Sauron's spirit
   fled and did not reappear in his terrible form for many centuries.
   Isildur was advised to destroy the One Ring by the only effective means
   — casting it into the volcanic Mount Doom where it was forged — but,
   attracted to its beauty, he refused and kept it as weregild
   (compensation) for the deaths of his father and brother.

   So began the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later, Isildur and
   his soldiers were ambushed by a band of Orcs at what was eventually
   called the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. While the latter were almost
   all killed, Isildur escaped by putting on the Ring — which made mortal
   wearers invisible. However, the Ring slipped from his finger while he
   was swimming in the great River Anduin; he was seen and killed by
   Orc-arrows, and the Ring was lost for two millennia. It was then found
   by chance by a hobbit named Déagol. His relative and friend Sméagol
   strangled him for the Ring and was banished from his home by his
   maternal grandmother. He fled to the Misty Mountains where he slowly
   withered and became a disgusting, slimy creature called Gollum.

   In The Hobbit, set 60 years before the events in The Lord of the Rings,
   Tolkien related the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the
   Ring by another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who took it to his home, Bag
   End. The tale related in The Hobbit was written before The Lord of the
   Rings, and it was only later that the author developed Bilbo's magic
   ring into the "One Ring". Neither Bilbo nor the wizard, Gandalf, were
   aware at this point that Bilbo's magic ring was the One Ring, forged by
   the Dark Lord Sauron.

Synopsis

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
   The west of Middle-earth during the Third Age.
   Enlarge
   The west of Middle-earth during the Third Age.

   The Lord of the Rings takes up the story about 60 years after the end
   of The Hobbit. It was first published in three volumes - The Fellowship
   of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The main story
   is divided into six books (two for each volume), successively numbered
   by Roman numerals. There is also a Foreword and a Prologue in The
   Fellowship of the Ring and six Appendices at the end of The Return of
   the King.

   The Foreword of the Second Edition includes a dedication to American
   fans and a statement that the book is not an allegory, as some of its
   readers had already supposed. The Prologue includes a few sections
   providing backstory on the identity and customs of Hobbits, and a brief
   synopsis of The Hobbit.

   Book I in The Fellowship of the Ring begins with Bilbo's
   hundred-and-eleventh birthday party, and his subsequent disappearance
   using his magic ring. In realising Bilbo's clever act of vanishing
   before the eyes of all spectators during and basically ending his
   eleventy-first birthday speech (which in itself suggested directly, in
   what he was saying, that he was leaving permanently), Gandalf the Gray,
   who attended the party, came to the hobbit's residence where Bilbo
   would naturally stop preceding his leaving of the Shire. There was a
   conflict in the little hobbit abode between Gandalf and Bilbo, who was
   obviously controlled by the magical ring, over the custody of the ring.
   Gandalf insisted that Bilbo should leave the ring, and persuaded him to
   do so over the ring's persuasion, and in doing so, relieved him of all
   of its influences, including the long life that it was sustaining him.
   Leaving to journey once more, he left much of his belongings, including
   the ring, to his cousin and adoptive heir Frodo Baggins.

   After seventeen years of investigating, their old friend Gandalf the
   Grey revealed to Frodo, now the owner of Bag End, that the ring was in
   fact the One Ring, the instrument of Sauron's power, which the Dark
   Lord had been searching for most of the Third Age, and which corrupted
   others with desire for it and the power it held.

   Sauron sent the sinister Ringwraiths, in the guise of riders in black,
   to the Shire, Frodo's native land, in search of the Ring. Frodo
   escaped, with the help of his loyal gardener Samwise "Sam" Gamgee and
   three close friends, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, Peregrin "Pippin"
   Took, and Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger. While Fatty acted as a decoy for the
   Ringwraiths, Frodo, along with Sam and Pippin and Gandalf, set off to
   take the Ring to the Elven haven of Rivendell. Merry would later meet
   them along the way.

   Gandalf left to visit Saruman the White succeding his command of the
   hobbits to make for a town called Bree outside of the Shire, and to
   wait for him there to continue their journey with him. He visited with
   Saruman at his presiding tower Orthanc, and spoke with him of the
   growing threat of the Dark Lord. Saruman then revealed that he had been
   using one of the Palantirs, magical object that act as communication
   between each other over large distances. With this he became ensnared
   by Sauron and therefore became corrupted in believing that it is futile
   to engage in the next war with Him and that their option is to either
   join Him or be conquered by Him. Saruman's persuasion of Gandalf to
   join was of to no avail; Gandalf remained loyal to the cause of
   resisting Sauron's rule over Middle Earth. Saruman fought Gandalf in
   his tower and prevailed; he took Gandalf to the top of the tower and
   held him hostage there. He then subsequently spoke to Sauron, through
   the Palantir, asking to begin building his own army to assist the Dark
   Lord, and so Sauron sent an army orcs and Saruman began to breed orcs
   with men to produce Uruk Hai. Gandalf meanwhile was carried to safety
   by the Great eagle Gwahir to make for Bree, his rendezvous with the
   four hobbits.

   The hobbits, meanwhile, embarked on quite an adventure. First, they met
   a group of elves, heading for the undying lands. They then hid away
   from one of the black riders and then quickly went on their way. The
   three hobbits continued on their way and met with Farmer Maggot of the
   Shire, a hobbit in which Frodo had a bad experience with when he was a
   child, involving the Farmer's huge dogs. Farmer Maggot then provided
   transportation for the three hobbits, and they ran into Merry who
   joined their group heading for Bree. They decided to move through the
   Old Forest en route west to Bree, where they were aided by the
   enigmatic Tom Bombadil, who saved Merry, Sam, and Frodo from Old Man
   Willow and took them in for a few days of feasting, rest, and counsel.
   They then left, regretfully, and continued towards Bree. At a valley,
   the Barrow-Downs, Frodo was split from the other three. He was
   subsequently seized and fainted. Upon coming to, he found that his
   three companions were also imprisoned, and a long sword stretched from
   above one of their necks to the others' necks. He took a small sword
   and stopped a hand moving to cut the necks. He sang the song of Tom
   Bombadil, and Tom came to his aid, assisting Frodo in saving his
   friends. They finished their journey to Bree after Sam, Pippin, and
   Merry's recovery.

   At the town of Bree, Frodo's party stayed at the local inn- the
   Prancing Pony. In shock of Pippin, close to drunk at the bar, beginning
   to reveal Frodo's true name, Baggins, Frodo was going to stop him, but
   there was a great incident in which Frodo slipped, and the ring flew
   out of his hand; he reached out and it fell into his finger. The
   wearing of the ring attracts the attention of the Ringwraiths, but they
   were not the only ones. Everyone at the bar was amazed at what
   happened; the disappearance of Frodo was in plain veiw. A man called
   "Strider", who was very interested in Frodo from the start, found him
   under a table (after he took off the ring), and aprehended him, taking
   him to a different room. Sam came to the room, brave as is his nature,
   in protection of Frodo, but there was nothing to fear. It was revealed,
   in a letter left by Gandalf at the local inn for Frodo, to be Aragorn,
   the heir to the kingships of Gondor and Arnor, two great realms founded
   by the Númenórean exiles. He divulged into who the Ringwraiths, the
   Nazgul were - the nine comsumed by the power of the one ring ruling
   over these king's, given rings by the Dark Lord to connect to the one
   ring.

   Aragorn led the hobbits to Rivendell on Gandalf's request. However,
   Frodo was gravely wounded by the leader of the Ringwraiths at the hill
   of Weathertop, their resting point. The wound was fatal, and with the
   help of his companions he made it far enough to meet the Elf-lord
   Glorfindel who carry him by horseback to the safety of Rivendell.
   Glorfindel brought Frodo to Rivendell's borders, with the hot pursuit
   of the Ringwraiths, by crossing the Ford of the river Bruinen. Here
   they engaged in a stand-off with the Ringwraiths, but they were swept
   away by an enchantment of the river when they entered its waters.
   Elrond supposedly caused the river to swallow the Nazgul, and the
   horses, galloping, forming the front of the flowing water, depicted in
   the movie, were a cute little touch that Gandalf added in, as he had
   come to Rivendell to make up for the missed rendezvous at Bree The book
   ends with Frodo losing consciousness.

   Book II in The Fellowship of the Ring reveals that Frodo managed to
   recover under the care of the Half-elven lord Elrond, master of
   Rivendell. The hobbits also learned that Sauron's forces can only be
   resisted if Aragorn took up his inheritance and fulfilled an ancient
   prophecy by wielding the sword Andúril, which had been forged anew from
   the shards of Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron's finger
   in the Second Age. Frodo also meets Bilbo, now living in retirement,
   and sees Elrond's daughter Arwen, Aragorn's betrothed.

   Later, much of the story's exposition is given during a high council,
   attended by representatives of the major races of Middle-earth; Elves,
   Dwarves, and Men, and presided over by Elrond. Gandalf told them of the
   emerging threat of Saruman, the leader of the Order of Wizards, who
   wanted the Ring for himself and had imprisoned him for a time. After
   pondering several choices, the Council decided that the only course of
   action that could save Middle-earth was to destroy the Ring by taking
   it to Mordor and casting it into Mount Doom, where it was forged.

   Frodo volunteered for the task, and a " Fellowship of the Ring" was
   formed to aid him — which consisted of Frodo, his three Hobbit
   companions, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, and
   Legolas the Elf. Their journey took them through plains and over
   mountains, and ultimately the Mines of Moria, where they were followed
   by the wretched creature Gollum, whom Bilbo had met in the Goblin-caves
   of the Misty Mountains years before. (The full tale of their meeting is
   told in The Hobbit.) Gollum long possessed the Ring before it passed to
   Bilbo. Earlier in Book I, Gandalf explained that Gollum belonged to a
   people "of hobbit-kind" before he came upon the Ring, which corrupted
   him. A slave to the Ring's evil power, Gollum desperately sought to
   regain his "Precious". As they proceeded through the Mines, Pippin
   unintentionally betrayed their presence and the party was attacked by
   Orcs. Gandalf battled a demon of fire and darkness, the Balrog, and
   fell into a deep chasm, apparently to his death. Escaping from Moria,
   the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, went to the Elven realm of
   Lothlórien. Here, the Lady Galadriel showed Frodo and Sam visions of
   the past, present, and future. Frodo also perceived the Eye of Sauron,
   a metaphysical expression of Sauron himself, and Galadriel was tempted
   by the Ring. By the end of the first volume, after the Fellowship had
   travelled along the great River Anduin, Frodo decided to continue the
   trek to Mordor on his own, largely due to the Ring's growing influence
   on Boromir; however, the faithful Sam insisted on going with him.

   The second volume, The Two Towers, deals with two parallel storylines
   in each of its books. Book III details the exploits of the remaining
   members of the Fellowship who aid the country of Rohan in its war
   against Saruman. At the start of the book, the Fellowship was further
   scattered; Merry and Pippin were captured by Sauron and Saruman's orcs,
   Boromir was mortally wounded defending them, and Aragorn and the others
   went off in pursuit of their captors. The three met Gandalf, who had
   returned as "Gandalf the White"; he had defeated the Balrog at the cost
   of his life, but had been sent back to Middle-earth, with enhanced
   powers, to aid the forces of good. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli
   helped defeat Saruman's armies at the Battle of the Hornburg while
   Saruman himself was cornered by the tree-like Ents and Huorns,
   accompanied by Merry and Pippin, who have escaped from captivity. The
   two groups were reunited in the aftermath of the battle. After Saruman
   refused to repent of his folly, Gandalf cast him from the Order of
   Wizards.

   Book IV tells of Frodo and Sam's exploits on the way to Mount Doom.
   They managed to capture and "tame" Gollum, who showed them a way to
   enter Mordor secretly (as opposed to the Black Gate), albeit through
   the dreaded valley of Minas Morgul. At the end of the volume, Gollum
   betrayed Frodo to the great spider, Shelob, and though he survived, he
   was captured by orcs. Meanwhile, Sauron launched an all-out military
   assault upon Middle-earth, with the Witch-king (leader of the
   Ringwraiths) leading a fell host from Minas Morgul into battle against
   Gondor, in the War of the Ring.

   In the third volume, The Return of the King, the further adventures of
   Gandalf, Aragorn and company are related in the first book of the
   volume, while Frodo and Sam's are related in the second, as with The
   Two Towers. As told in Book V, the Fellowship assisted in the final
   battles against the armies of Sauron, including the siege of the
   tower-city of Minas Tirith in Gondor and the climactic life-or-death
   battle before the Black Gate of Mordor, where the alliance of Gondor
   and Rohan fought desperately against Sauron's armies in order to
   distract him from the Ring, and hoped to gain time for Frodo to destroy
   it.

   In Book VI, Sam rescued Frodo from captivity. After much struggle, they
   finally reached Mount Doom itself, tailed by Gollum. However, the
   temptation of the Ring proved too great for Frodo and he claimed it for
   himself. Subsequently, Gollum struggled with him and managed to bite
   the Ring off. Crazed with triumph, Gollum slipped into the fires of the
   mountain, and the Ring was destroyed.

   Thus, Sauron was banished from the world and his realm ended. Aragorn
   was crowned king and married Arwen, the daughter of Elrond. However,
   all was not over, for Saruman had managed to escape his captivity and
   enslave the Shire. Though he was overthrown by the Hobbits and although
   the four heroes helped to restore order and beautify the land again, it
   was not the same Shire that they left. At the end, Frodo remained
   wounded in body and spirit and sailed west accompanied by Bilbo over
   the Sea to the Undying Lands, where he could find peace.

   The Appendices contain much material concerning the timeline of the
   story, and information on the peoples and the languages of
   Middle-earth. Notably, Arwen, physically absent for much of the book,
   is dealt with in full here; her backstory and future with Aragorn are
   related.

   According to Tolkien's timeline, the events depicted in the story
   occurred between Bilbo's announcement of his T.A.  September 22, 3001
   birthday party, and Sam's re-arrival to Bag End on T.A.  October 6,
   3021. Most of the events portrayed in the story occur in 3018 and 3019,
   with Frodo heading out from Bag End on T.A.  September 23 3018, and the
   destruction of the Ring six months later on T.A.  March 25 3019.
   Spoilers end here.

Books

Writing

         The Lord of the Rings
   Volume I - Volume II - Volume III

   The Lord of the Rings was started as a sequel to The Hobbit, a fantasy
   story that Tolkien had written for, and read to, his children, which
   was published in 1937. The popularity of The Hobbit led to demands from
   his publishers for more stories about Hobbits and goblins, and so that
   same year, at the age of 45, Tolkien began writing the story that would
   become The Lord of the Rings. The story would not be finished until 12
   years later, in 1949, and it would not be fully published until 1955,
   by which time Tolkien was 63 years old.

   Tolkien did not originally intend to write a sequel to The Hobbit, and
   instead wrote several other children's tales, including Roverandom. As
   his main work, Tolkien began to outline the history of Arda, telling
   tales of the Silmarils, and many other stories of how the races and
   situations that we read about in the Lord of the Rings came to be.
   Tolkien died before he could complete and put together this work, today
   known as The Silmarillion, but his son Christopher Tolkien edited his
   father's work, filled in gaps, and published it in 1977. Some Tolkien
   biographers regard The Silmarillion as the true "work of his heart", as
   it provides the historical and linguistic context for the more popular
   work and for his constructed languages, and occupied the greater part
   of Tolkien's time. As a result The Lord of the Rings ended up as the
   last movement of Tolkien's legendarium and in his own opinion "much
   larger, and I hope also in proportion the best, of the entire cycle."

   Persuaded by his publishers, he started 'a new Hobbit' in December
   1937. After several false starts, the story of the One Ring soon
   emerged, and the book mutated from being a sequel to The Hobbit, to
   being, in theme, more a sequel to the unpublished Silmarillion. The
   idea of the first chapter ("A Long-Expected Party") arrived
   fully-formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance, the
   significance of the Ring, and the title The Lord of the Rings did not
   arrive until the spring of 1938. Originally, he planned to write
   another story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was
   looking for another adventure to gain more; however, he remembered the
   ring and its powers and decided to write about it instead. He began
   with Bilbo as the main character but decided that the story was too
   serious to use the fun-loving hobbit and so Tolkien looked to use a
   member of Bilbo's family. He thought about using Bilbo's son, but this
   generated some difficult questions, such as the whereabouts of his wife
   and whether he would let his son go into danger. Thus he looked for an
   alternate character to carry the ring. In Greek legend, it was a hero's
   nephew that gained the item of power, and so the hobbit Frodo came into
   existence. (Though technically Tolkien made Frodo Bilbo's cousin, the
   two were to consider each other nephew and uncle).

   Writing was slow due to Tolkien's perfectionism, and was frequently
   interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, and other academic
   duties. The first sentence of The Hobbit was in fact written on a blank
   page which a student had left on an exam paper which Tolkien was
   marking — "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He seems to
   have abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only
   re-started it in April 1944. This effort was written as a serial for
   Christopher Tolkien and C.S. Lewis — the former would be sent copies of
   chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa in
   the Royal Air Force. He made another push in 1946, and showed a copy of
   the manuscript to his publishers in 1947. The story was effectively
   finished the next year, but Tolkien did not finish revising earlier
   parts of the work until 1949.

   A dispute with his publishers, Allen & Unwin, led to the book being
   offered to Collins in 1950. He intended The Silmarillion (itself
   largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with The Lord of
   the Rings, but A&U were unwilling to do this. After his contact at
   Collins, Milton Waldman, expressed the belief that The Lord of the
   Rings itself "urgently needed cutting", he eventually demanded that
   they publish the book in 1952. They did not do so, and so Tolkien wrote
   to Allen and Unwin, saying "I would gladly consider the publication of
   any part of the stuff."

Publication

   For publication, due largely to post-war paper shortages, but also to
   keep the price of the first volume down, the book was divided into
   three volumes: 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. Delays in producing appendices, maps and
   especially indices led to these being published later than originally
   hoped — on 21 July 1954, on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955
   respectively in the United Kingdom, slightly later in the United
   States. The Return of the King was especially delayed. Tolkien,
   moreover, did not especially like the title The Return of the King,
   believing it gave away too much of the storyline. He had originally
   suggested The War of the Ring, which was dismissed by his publishers.

   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. An
   index to the entire three-volume set at the end of third volume was
   promised in the first volume. However, this proved impractical to
   compile in a reasonable timescale. Later, in 1966, four indices, not
   compiled by Tolkien, were added to The Return of the King. 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 W. H.
   Auden, Tolkien himself made use of the term "trilogy" for the work
   though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written
   and conceived as a single book. It is also often called a novel;
   however, Tolkien also objected to this term as he viewed it as a
   romance ("romance" in this sense refers to a heroic tale).

   A 1999 (Millennium Edition) British ( ISBN 0-261-10387-3) seven-volume
   box set followed the six-book division authored by Tolkien, with the
   Appendices from the end of The Return of the King bound as a separate
   volume. The letters of Tolkien appeared on the spines of the boxed set
   which included a CD. To coincide with the film release, a new version
   of this popular edition was released featuring images from the films,
   such as:
     * I - Frodo climbing the steps to Bag End
     * II - Aragorn and Arwen in Rivendell
     * III - Gandalf in Moria
     * IV - A swan boat from Lothlórien
     * V - A Black Rider from the 'Flight to the Ford' sequence
     * VI - The tower of Cirith Ungol (although this image featured in
       many of the promotional books (e.g. the 'FotR Photo Guide') from
       the first film, it did not feature in the films until Return of the
       King)
     * Appendix - Frodo's hand holding the One Ring

   This new imprint ( ISBN 0-00-763555-9) also omitted the CD.

   The individual names for books in this series were decided
   posthumously, based on a combination of suggestions Tolkien had made
   during his lifetime and the titles of the existing volumes:
     * T Book I: The Return of the Shadow
     * O Book II: The Fellowship of the Ring
     * L Book III: The Treason of Isengard
     * K Book IV: The Journey to Mordor
     * I Book V: The War of the Ring
     * E Book VI: The Return of the King
     * N Appendices

   The name of the complete work is often abbreviated to 'LotR', 'LOTR',
   or simply 'LR' (Tolkien himself used L.R.), and the three volumes as
   FR, FOTR, or FotR (The Fellowship of the Ring), TT or TTT (The Two
   Towers), and RK, ROTK, or RotK (The Return of the King).

   Note that the titles The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard
   and The War of the Ring were used by Christopher Tolkien in The History
   of The Lord of the Rings.

Publication history

   The three parts were first published, several months apart, in 1954 and
   1955 by Allen & Unwin. They have since been reissued many times by
   multiple publishers, as one-, three-, six- or seven-volume sets. The
   two most common current printings are ISBN 0-618-34399-7 (one-volume)
   and ISBN 0-618-34624-4 (three volume set). In the early 1960s, Donald
   A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace
   Books, realised that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the
   United States under American copyright law because the U.S. hardcover
   edition had been bound from pages printed in the United Kingdom, with
   the original intention being for them to be printed in the British
   edition. Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorised by
   Tolkien and without royalties to him. Tolkien took issue with this and
   quickly notified his fans of this objection. Grass-roots pressure from
   these fans became so great that Ace books withdrew their edition and
   made a nominal payment to Tolkien, well below what he might have been
   due in an appropriate publication. However, this poor beginning was
   overshadowed when an authorised edition followed from Ballantine Books
   to tremendous commercial success. By the mid-1960s the books, due to
   their wide exposure on the American public stage, had become a true
   cultural phenomenon. Also at this time Tolkien undertook various
   textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would have a
   valid US copyright. This would later become the Second Edition of The
   Lord of the Rings.

   The books have been translated, with various degrees of success, into
   dozens of other languages. Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined
   many of these translations, and had comments on each that reflect both
   the translation process and his work. To aid translators, Tolkien wrote
   his " Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings". Because The Lord of
   the Rings purports to be a translation of the Red Book of Westmarch,
   translators have an unusual degree of freedom when translating The Lord
   of the Rings. This allows for such translations as elf becoming Elb in
   German — Elb does not carry the connotations of mischief that its
   English counterpart does and therefore is more true to the work that
   Tolkien created. In contrast to the usual modern practice, names
   intended to have a particular meaning in the English version are
   translated to provide a similar meaning in the target language: in
   German, for example, the name "Baggins" becomes "Beutlin," containing
   the word Beutel meaning "bag".

Influences

   The Lord of the Rings began as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his
   interests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism),
   fairy tales, as well as Norse and Celtic mythology, but it was also
   crucially influenced by the effects of his military service during
   World War I. Tolkien detailed his creation to an astounding extent; he
   created a complete fictional universe for his realm of Middle-earth,
   including genealogies of characters, languages, writing systems,
   calendars and histories. Some of this supplementary material is
   detailed in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, and the legendary
   history woven into a large, Biblically-styled volume entitled The
   Silmarillion. However many parts of the world he crafted, as he freely
   admitted, are influenced by other sources. Tolkien once described The
   Lord of the Rings to his friend, the English Jesuit Father Robert
   Murray, as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously
   so at first, but consciously in the revision." There are many
   theological themes underlying the narrative including the battle of
   good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity
   of grace. In addition the saga includes themes which incorporate death
   and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance,
   self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing.
   In addition the Lord's Prayer "And lead us not into temptation, but
   deliver us from evil" was reportedly present in Tolkien's mind as he
   described Frodo's struggles against the power of the One Ring. Another
   Christian text that influenced Tolkien is John Milton's epic poem,
   Paradise Lost. Milton's depiction of the fallen angel Lucifer was a
   direct influence on Tolkien's creation of Sauron.

   Non-Christian religious motifs also had strong influences in Tolkien's
   Middle-earth. His Ainur, a race of angelic beings who are responsible
   for conceptualising the world, includes the Valar, the pantheon of
   "gods" who are responsible for the maintenance of everything from skies
   and seas to dreams and doom, and their servants, the Maiar. The concept
   of the Valar echoes Greek and Norse mythologies, although the Ainur and
   the world itself are all creations of a monotheistic deity — Ilúvatar
   or Eru, "The One". As the external practice of Middle-earth religion is
   downplayed in The Lord of the Rings, explicit information about them is
   only given in the different versions of Silmarillion material. However,
   there remain allusions to this aspect of Tolkien's writings, including
   "the Great Enemy" who was Sauron's master and "Elbereth, Queen of
   Stars" ( Morgoth and Varda respectively, two of the Valar) in the main
   text, the "Authorities" (referring to the Valar, literally Powers) in
   the Prologue, and "the One" in Appendix A. Other non-Christian
   mythological or folkloric elements can be seen, including other
   sentient non-humans (Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Ents), a "Green Man" (
   Tom Bombadil), and spirits or ghosts ( Barrow-wights, Oathbreakers).

   The Northern European mythologies are perhaps the best known
   non-Christian influences on Tolkien. His Elves and Dwarves are by and
   large based on Norse and related Germanic mythologies. Names such as
   "Gandalf", "Gimli" and "Middle-earth" are directly derived from Norse
   mythology. The figure of Gandalf is particularly influenced by the
   Germanic deity Odin in his incarnation as "the Wanderer", an old man
   with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff;
   Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer" in a
   letter of 1946. Tolkien may have also borrowed elements from the
   Völsungasaga, the Old Norse basis of the later German Nibelungenlied
   and Richard Wagner's opera series, Der Ring des Nibelungen —
   specifically a magical golden ring and a broken sword which is
   reforged. In the Völsungasaga, these items are respectively Andvarinaut
   and Gram, and very broadly correspond to the One Ring and
   Narsil/Andúril. However, Tolkien once wrote in response to a Swedish
   translator's claim that the One Ring was "in a certain way" Wagner's
   Ring, "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases."
   Finnish mythology and more specifically the Finnish national epic
   Kalevala were also acknowledged by Tolkien as an influence on
   Middle-earth. In a similar manner to The Lord of the Rings, the
   Kalevala centres around a magical item of great power, the Sampo, which
   bestows great fortune on its owner but never makes its exact nature
   clear. Like the One Ring, the Sampo is fought over by forces of good
   and evil, and is ultimately lost to the world as it is destroyed
   towards the end of the story. In another parallel, the latter work's
   wizard character Väinämöinen also has many similarities to Gandalf in
   his immortal origins and wise nature, and both works end with their
   respective wizard departing on a ship to lands beyond the mortal world.
   Tolkien also based his Elvish language Quenya on Finnish.

   In addition The Lord of the Rings was crucially influenced by Tolkien's
   experiences during World War I and his son's during World War II. The
   central action of the books — a climactic, age-ending war between good
   and evil — is the central event of many mythologies, notably Norse, but
   it is also a clear reference to the well-known description of World War
   I, which was commonly referred to as "the war to end all wars".

   After the publication of The Lord of the Rings these influences led to
   speculation that the One Ring was an allegory for the nuclear bomb.
   Tolkien, however, repeatedly insisted that his works were not an
   allegory of any kind. Nevertheless there is a strong theme of despair
   in the face of new mechanised warfare that Tolkien himself had
   experienced in the trenches of World War I. The development of a
   specially bred Orc army, and the destruction of the environment to aid
   this, also have modern resonances; and the effects of the Ring on its
   users evoke the modern literature of drug addiction as much as any
   historic quest literature.

   Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he
   disliked allegories and that the story was not one, and it would be
   irresponsible to dismiss such direct statements on these matters
   lightly. Tolkien had already completed most of the book, including the
   ending in its entirety, before the first nuclear bombs were made known
   to the world at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

   While connections between the Ring and 'nuclear' weapons are sometimes
   drawn, Tolkien had developed the nature of the Ring prior to public
   knowledge of such. However, it is clear that the Ring has broad
   applicability to the concept of Absolute Power and its effects, and
   that the plot hinges on the view that anyone who seeks to gain absolute
   worldly power will inevitably be corrupted by it. Some also say that
   there is clear evidence that one of the main subtexts of the story —
   the passing of a mythical "Golden Age" — was influenced not only by
   Arthurian legend but also by Tolkien's contemporary anxieties about the
   growing encroachment of urbanisation and industrialisation into the
   "traditional" English lifestyle and countryside. The concept of the
   "ring of power" itself is also present in Plato's Republic, Wagner's
   Ring Cycle, and in the story of Gyges' ring (a story often compared to
   the Book of Job). Some locations and characters were inspired by
   Tolkien's childhood in Sarehole (then a Worcestershire village, now
   part of Birmingham) and Birmingham. It has also been suggested that The
   Shire and its surroundings were based on the countryside around
   Stonyhurst College in Lancashire where Tolkien frequently stayed during
   the 1940s.

Critical response

   Tolkien's work has received mixed reviews since its inception, ranging
   from terrible to excellent. Recent reviews in various media have been,
   in a majority, highly positive. On its initial review the Sunday
   Telegraph felt it was "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction
   of the twentieth century." The Sunday Times seemed to echo these
   sentiments when in their review it was stated 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." The New
   York Herald Tribune also seemed to have an idea of how popular the
   books would become, writing in its review that they were "destined to
   outlast our time."

   Not all original reviews, however, were so kind. New York Times
   reviewer Judith Shulevitz criticised 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." Critic Richard Jenkyns, writing
   in The New Republic, criticised a perceived lack of psychological
   depth. Both the characters and the work itself are, according to
   Jenkyns, "anemic, and lacking in fibre." Even within Tolkien's social
   group, The Inklings, reviews were mixed. Hugo Dyson was famously
   recorded as saying, during one of Tolkien's readings to the group, "Oh
   no! Not another fucking elf!" However, another Inkling, 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."

   Several other authors in the genre, however, seemed to agree more with
   Dyson than Lewis. Science-fiction author David Brin criticised the
   books for what he perceived to be their unquestioning devotion to a
   traditional elitist social structure, their positive depiction of the
   slaughter of the opposing forces, and their romantic backward-looking
   worldview. Michael Moorcock, another famous science fiction and fantasy
   author, is also a fervent detractor of The Lord of the Rings. In his
   essay, " Epic Pooh," he equates Tolkien's work to Winnie-the-Pooh and
   criticises it and similar works for their perceived Merry England point
   of view. Incidentally, Moorcock met both Tolkien and Lewis in his teens
   and claims to have liked them personally, even though he does not
   admire them on artistic grounds. Fantasy author David Eddings took
   issue with Tolkien's characters, saying that they only existed "from
   the neck up".^[ citation needed]

   More recently, critical analysis has focused on Tolkien's experiences
   in the First World War; writers such as John Garth in Tolkien and the
   Great War, Janet Brennan Croft and Tom Shippey all look in detail at
   this aspect and compare the imagery, mental landscape and traumas in
   The Lord of the Rings with those experienced by soldiers in the
   trenches and the history of the Great War. John Carey, formerly Merton
   Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, speaking in April
   2003 on the BBC " Big Read" programme which voted Lord of the Rings
   "Britain's best-loved book", said that "Tolkien's writing is
   essentially a species of war literature; not as direct perhaps as
   Wilfred Owen, or as solid as some, but very, very interesting as that —
   the most solid reflection on war experiences written up as fantasy."

   The Lord of the Rings, despite not being published in paperback until
   the 1960s, sold well in hardback. In 1957 it 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 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. In the 2003 " Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord
   of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book".
   Australians voted The Lord of the Rings " My Favourite Book" in a 2004
   survey conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In a 1999
   poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be
   their favourite "book of the millennium." In 2002 Tolkien was voted the
   ninety-second " greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in
   2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in the SABC3's Great South Africans, the
   only person to appear on both lists. His popularity is not limited just
   to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s "Big
   Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings to be
   their favourite work of literature.

Adaptations

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

   The book has been adapted for radio three times. In 1955 and 1956, the
   British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast The Lord of the Rings,
   a 12-part radio adaptation of the story, of which no recording has
   survived. A 1979 dramatisation 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 dramatisation in 26
   half-hour installments.

   Three film adaptations have been made. The first was J. R. R. Tolkien's
   The Lord of the Rings (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part
   of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the
   story (hence its original title, The Lord of the Rings Part 1). It
   covers The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers. The
   second, The Return of the King (1980), was an animated television
   special by Rankin-Bass, who had produced a similar version of The
   Hobbit (1977). The third was director Peter Jackson's live action The
   Lord of the Rings film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and
   released in three installments 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). The live-action
   film trilogy has done much in particular to bring the book into the
   public consciousness.

   In 1990 Recorded Books published an unabridged audio version of the
   books. They hired British actor Rob Inglis — who had previously starred
   in one-man stage productions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings —
   to read. Inglis performs the books verbatim, using distinct voices for
   each character, and sings all of the songs. Tolkien had written music
   for some of the songs in the book; for the rest, Inglis, along with
   director Claudia Howard, wrote additional music. The current ISBN is
   1402516274.

   There have been several stage productions based on the book. Three
   original full-length stage adaptations of The Fellowship of the Ring
   (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) were
   staged in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. A stage musical adaptation
   of The Lord of the Rings (2006) was staged in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

   There have also been a number of game adaptations, such as The Lord of
   the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Influences on the fantasy genre

   Following the massive success of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
   considered a sequel entitled The New Shadow, in which the Gondorians
   turn to dark cults and consider an uprising against Aragorn's son,
   Eldarion. Tolkien decided not to finish writing this sequel, and the
   incomplete story can be found in The Peoples of Middle-earth. Instead,
   Tolkien returned to writing and revising his Silmarillion story, though
   he died before he could finish this. The Silmarillion was published
   posthumously by Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher
   Tolkien, in 1977. Christopher Tolkien published further parts of his
   father's legendarium in Unfinished Tales ( 1980) and The History of
   Middle-earth, a 12-volume series published from 1983 to 1996, of which
   The Peoples of Middle-earth is part.

   The enormous popularity of Tolkien's epic saga greatly expanded the
   demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to The Lord of the Rings,
   the genre flowered throughout the 1960s. Many other books in a broadly
   similar vein were published (including the Earthsea books of Ursula K.
   Le Guin, the Thomas Covenant novels of Stephen R. Donaldson), and in
   the case of the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake, and The Worm
   Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered.

   It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry which
   achieved popularity in the 1970s with Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons &
   Dragons features many races found in The Lord of the Rings, most
   notably halflings (another term for hobbits), elves, dwarves,
   half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of
   the game, maintains 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. The Lord of the Rings also has influenced Magic:
   The Gathering.^[ citation needed] The Lord of the Rings is also
   suspected to have influenced the creation of various video games,
   including Final Fantasy IV, Ultima, Betrayal at Krondor, Baldur's Gate,
   EverQuest, The Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, and the Warcraft
   series, as well as, quite naturally, video games set in Middle-earth
   itself.

   As in all artistic fields, a great many lesser derivatives of the more
   prominent works appeared. The term "Tolkienesque" is used in the genre
   to refer to the oft-used and abused storyline of The Lord of the Rings:
   a group of adventurers embarking on a quest to save a magical fantasy
   world from the armies of an evil " dark lord," and is a testament to
   how much the popularity of these books has increased, since many
   critics initially decried it as being "Wagner for children" (a
   reference to the Ring Cycle) — an especially interesting commentary in
   light of a possible interpretation of the books as a Christian response
   to Wagner.

   The work has also had an influence upon such science fiction authors as
   Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. In fact, Clarke (who found only
   Frank Herbert's Dune comparable) makes a reference to Mount Doom in his
   work 2010: Odyssey Two. Tolkien also influenced George Lucas' Star Wars
   films.
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