"Masterpiece? Oh yes, I've no doubt about that."

'Masterpiece? Oh yes, I've no doubt about that'

The first part of J R R Tolkien's epic adventure The Lord of the Rings. Sauron, the Dark Lord has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring - the ring that rules them all - which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the shire young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

An edition of the first part of the epic fantasy series THE LORD OF THE RINGS, in which a young hobbit is entrusted with making a dangerous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power. From the author of THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING.

This is the first part of a three book edition in A Format paperback which reproduces the complete unabridged text of the three books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, that together make up The Lord of the Rings. The appendices and Index are included in The Return of the King. This reset edition contains newly drawn maps by Stephen Raw, based on Christopher Tolkien's original maps.

J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other
stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 30 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

2008-06-17 An Inspiration to Us All

The first part of the famous epic of The Lord Of The Rings , The Fellowship Of The Ring begins in the tranquil , rural setting of the Shire .It is from here that we get our first view of Middle Earth with the preparations for the 111 th birthday party of Bilbo Baggins (the hero of the children's classic The Hobbit ) . We are introduced to the many relatives of Bilbo and of course the hero of LOTR , Frodo Baggins (Bilbo's favourite nephew ) and his faithful gardener Sam Gamgee as well as his two favourite cousins Peregrine (Pippin ) Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck.
It is after Bilbo's carefully planned disappearance and during visit from the Wizard Gandalf that we are introduced to the horrible threat to Middle Earth involving the Dark Lord , the enemy , Sauron and the Ring of Power which was introduced as a minor theme in The Hobbit and has been inherited by Frodo .
Frodo sets out on the grand adventure with Sam,Pippin and Merry and it is in the Shire itself where the Hobbits encounter the absolute evil of the Black Riders (Ringwraiths) and the magic and beauty of the Elves . Throughout the novel they go from one diabolical danger to another , but are relieved by their stay in certain havens where the dangers and darkness of Middle Earth are kept at bay - The House of Tom Bomabadil and the Elven Kingdoms of Rivendell and Lothlorien. Together with their companions Gandalf , Aragorn the mysterious ranger (and heir to the ancient Kingdom of Numenor ) , the young warrior from Gondor , Boramir , the Elf Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli we are introduced to the scope of Middle Earth from the beautiful to the diabolical , from the homely to the mysterious , from the noble to the villainous . We also see the brilliance of Tolkien as a poet as we are introduced to a variety of Poems and Songs recited by different characters.
Tolkien stressed that LOTR was in no way meant to be an allegory and was not meant to parallel any events taking place during the time , in this case the Second World War.
Instead he says he approves of applicability which he distinguished from allegory by writing that the one refers to the ' freedom of the reader and the other in the proposed domination of the author ' . Thus while we must always bear in mind that LOTR is in now way an allegory we are free to draw our own analogies and parallels with events in our world .
The Lord Of the Rings was published in 1954/55 .
At the time there where many similarities between our world and Middle Earth . The world was divided into the Free World (as was Middle Earth ) which was engaged in a titanic battle with the Communist World and its surrogate Revolutionary Movements which aimed to destroy the way of life of Middle America and Middle England (which was mirrored in The Shire of Middle Earth ) . It aimed to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage and all that we knew as right and good (as Mordor aimed to destroy everything noble and beautiful on Middle Earth ) through the use of terror and their disdain for what they saw as 'bourgeois ' mirrors the scorn expressed by Saruman ( in his meeting at Isengard with Gandlaf described in Chapter 11: The Council of Elrond ) for the values of old , and replace it with a system of total power and enslavement . Therefore it is hardly difficult to draw a parallel between Mordor and the old Soviet Union ( or during World War II Hitler's Third Reich ) , between the Orcs , Trolls and even fouler things infesting Middle Earth during Frodo's journey and the Revolutionary regimes and movements around the world at the time of The Cold War held in thrall by Moscow or Peking such as Nasser's Egypt , Castro's Cuba , the Viet Cong and Gadaffi's Libya .
As Robert Foster , who has made detailed studies of Tolkines works and written various volumes on the topic once said : ' I remember at a Tolkien conference watching a Polish woman reach out to shake [daughter] Priscilla Tolkien's hand , This was in the dark days before Communism fell, and she said, 'You have no idea what your father's books have meant to us. They kept us believing that the Orcs would not always win.'
"The Lord of the Rings is the story of a long and difficult battle against great evil, taken on by the humblest," he continued".
Indeed LOTR encapsulates all that great values of Western Civilisation - Freedom ,faith , the importance of the individual and the heroism of the common man .

We can take faith again from LOTR as in the words of writer JP Zmirak '' A SHADOWY, evil overlord hides himself amid an unmapped mountain range. There he wields absolute power over fanatics and slaves, scheming for domination over the free peoples of the world. He sends forth assassins into peaceful lands and cities, spreading terror among civilians" : which refers to the network of terror supported by Radical Islam and Revolutionary Movements today which once more aims to , through an evil theology , spread terror to the innocent (whether in New York , Antwerp , Geneva or Jerusalem ) in order to destroy Western Democracy and our Judeo-Christian civilisation . Once more we need the faith of Tolkiens World to know that the forces of evil , no matter what the odds , will not win.