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Attention: Since many people have read The Lord of the Rings or at
least seen the film, this review contains spoilers... If you wish to
read it soon and are completely unfamiliar with it, don't spoil the
fun by reading this review...
Bilbo Baggins, who came back many years ago from
a quest related in The Hobbit, is
about to celebrate is eleventy-first (one-hundred and eleventh)
birthday. Every Hobbit in Hobbiton and even in the whole Shire is
looking forward to this event, which promises to be magnificent. Not
only is the number 111 important, but Bilbo, who is presumed to have
brought back many riches from his quest, is known to be very
generous on such occasions. With him lives Frodo, a distant relative
whom he has adopted and loves like
a son.
Frodo, born on the same day
of the year as Bilbo, is about to come of age
at thirty-three and to
leave the careless tweens behind. Yet Frodo is
looking upon the big event with sadness, because he knows that Bilbo
plans to retire and leave Bag End...
But even the other Hobbits won't be cheerful
for long, despite the presents, foods, drinks,
and Gandalf's breathtaking fireworks, since they don't
appreciate the last trick pulled by Bilbo before his ultimate
disappearance. As for Frodo, who has to deal with their complaints,
Bilbo leaves him a legacy that will prove the heaviest of burdens:
the ring that he brought back from his previous quest...
Gandalf warns Frodo
about the power of the ring. For many
years, nothing happens: the wizard, on his numerous but short visits,
remains vague and mysterious. Seventeen years later however, he warns Frodo thus:
if Frodo wants to keep danger out of the Shire, he will have to
leave Bag End and Hobbiton, and ultimately the Shire, with the
powerful ring. As Frodo is desperately waiting for further news from
Gandalf, he decides, on his fiftieth birthday, to hit the road with
his friends Peregrin and Meriadoc (Pippin and Merry), and the devoted Samwise Gangee
(Sam). The
ringwraiths, evil
riders with
black cloaks mounted on black horses, seem
to ask too many questions about him...
The dangers of the road ahead test the
hobbits' courage and inner strength; a
road that will take them to Buckland, the last hobbit town in the
Shire, then through the old forest, where willows seem to be alive,
to Bree, a town where men and hobbits live in harmony. From there they will have to face many
perils and the dark presence of the Sauron, through his nine riders
who have resolved to steal the ring back no matter what... Fortunately,
they will be helped along the way by brave and strong characters
such as Tom Bombadil, Strider, or the elf Glorfindel.
During the council of Elrond, Frodo will learn more about the dark
journey that remains his choice to
complete. In his pocket lays the fate of
Middle-earth: the ring can only be destroyed in Mount Doom, in
the land of Mordor, kingdom of Sauron, where it was forged...
After Rivendell, leaving the path walked before him by Bilbo,
Frodo and his eight companions (Sam,
Pippin, Merry, the dwarf Gimli, Strider/Aragorn, the elf Legolas, Boromir,
heir of Gondor and Gandalf) will travel on the
high pass of Caradhras, through the mines of Moria,
the forest of Lothlorien and along the Great river, until
Frodo
finally faces a difficult choice... They will encounter many friends
and foes along the way.
The perilous and exciting adventures
of Frodo and his friends continue in The Two Towers and
The Return of the King.
After the prologue of The Hobbit, that
I found at times a bit tedious to read, The Fellowship of the
Ring was a pleasant surprise. Middle-earth, which seemed only a
draft in The Hobbit, has taken shape and colors. Mountains,
hills, forests and plains, where dangers
loom
and strange
creature lurk, have multiplied like mushrooms. Tolkien's mythology has
deepened, creatures have become more
defined, with specific characteristics (though why
the goblins became the orcs I have no
idea...), characters have grown
more complex, and the somewhat fixed scenes and people
from the Hobbit have suddenly come to life
and even seem to take up
a life of their own. As is written in the foreword
by Peter S. Beagle, featured in my
copy: "For in the end it is Middle-earth and its dwellers
that we love, not Tolkien's considerable gifts in showing it to us.
I said once that the world he charts was there long before him, and
I still believe it". Such is the magic of
the book that the reader has the feeling that Tolkien is only the medium
showing us a
civilization long extinct. Tolkien's world
seems real, and after a short while
the reader feels his weary feet as if he had been on the road with
Frodo. I wouldn't however, like Peter S. Beagle quoted above, want
to live there. Oft have I dreamt during my reading of sharing their
banquets, or even lay down lazily, listening to the enchanting song of
the elves in Rivendell while drinking their
fine cordial...
We may live in an industrialized world where magic and elves are
absent but I wouldn't want to have to fear the
tyranny of Sauron, or the
threat of a dragon for that matter.
And I really would like to see how anybody
who wishes for Middle-earth would adapt in it
if their wishes were indeed granted...
My only negative comment on the novel is that Tolkien, when he gets carried
away, gives too many details about genealogic connections and past
middle-earth historical or geographical information, which shows the extent of his imagination and
contributes to the truth effect, but also sometimes makes the main
thread difficult to follow. Since
there is no possible reference to
our field of experience (history, geography, etc.), he
has to create everything almost from scratch.
That is the problem with fantasy: (for some other people, it
is a reason to love it...) it has to build
its own references, and sometimes it goes with endless descriptions
and explanations, which
is probably why I am usually drawn to other genres...
The Lord of the Rings remains the reference book for fantasy lovers and a required reading for
the neophyte: if you have to read only one fantasy novel, make it
The Lord of the Rings...
Rating: 
The screen
adaptation of the Fellowship of the Rings met
a huge success.
Great special effects and a very good cast: Elijah Wood as Frodo,
Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Christopher Lee
as Saruman, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Cate Blanchett as
Galadriel... As faithful as its length allowed it to be
(it lasts about 3
hours), the film
however has left out some scenes: the passage in the Old Forest between Buckland and Bree, where
Frodo and his hobbit friends meet Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-downs (I
can understand this omission, since the whole scene is not very
visual. While reading it, I had trouble picturing what was happening...).
The character
of Arwen (Liv Tyler) has been given some depth
and a more active role (in the book, Frodo escapes the ringwraiths
alone before arriving to Rivendell. So Arwen raising the sword and
shouting "If you want him, come and claim him",
scene that was part of the
movie trailer, is an invention made for the film!). Still this scene
and the words are very much in the spirit of the book.
The ending of the film overlaps the beginning
of the second book; The Two Towers... Let's also note that in the DVD edition of the film they've cut off
the scene where Bilbo gives coat of mail and a sword to Frodo and
explains their powers to him, so that people who haven't seen the film
in the theaters or read the book will wonder why Frodo is suddenly
wearing a mithril armor and why his sword
is luminous when Orcs
approach... © Discussing Books,11/11/2002 |
Critiques
