The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien

While reading Fellowship of the Ring, I am totally lost in Middle Earth. I have been in the caves, on the mountains, in the trees, on the waters. My heart is filled with anxiety for characters I now love and for the success of the ring quest, the salvation of Middle Earth. As with The Hobbit, I am surprised at how engaging this book is. I have such hope and despair for the fellowship. The landscapes are rich, even the sere and lifeless. The time on the great river Anduin is so vivid I still feel as if water is under me. And the gorgeous/fearsome Galadriel is so beautifully drawn. Peter Jackson and Cate Blanchett did a wonderful job portraying her. This is the only well-developed female character so far. This is another of those guy-bonding stories…right in there with Deliverance and Animal House.

The balance between hope and despair is where my tension lies. None of the characters (even Gandalf) wants to go on this quest. None of them think it will succeed. Yet at every choice-point, there is resolution—the ring must go to Mordor and they are the ones that will take it. At each choice-point both the danger and the courage increase. And my heart seems to grow a bit wider open.

Frodo and the other Hobbits are less childlike in the book than in the Jackson movie. Merry and Pippin have solid adult skills. Sam is intelligent and skilled—it is part of his self-discovery to find that out. Frodo is self-reflective and therefore tragic. I am pulling for him and wish I could go to his side and bear the ring for him.

The ring itself is a major character in this book (and in the series, including The Hobbit). Sauron’s desire to get the ring back is only matched by the ring’s desire to be found by him. It has its own motivations. The one ring. Even this most basic description of the ring sounds ominous. The ring is treacherous and malevolent and pulls toward evil. The moment when Frodo steps forward in Elrond’s council to voluntarily take the ring is powerful. Is there ever a time when I would have that kind of courage?

Here’s a favorite quote of mine from Fellowship. Haldir says it in Chapter 6, “Lothlorien”: “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

Anyway, great story-telling, compelling settings, engaging characters, resonating themes—what more could a book want. (Oh yeah, a woman or two!) Somehow, the non-human characters are the most fully human. I can’t wait to start into The Two Towers—in about two minutes.