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Title: The Fellowship of the Ring Author: J.R.R. Tolkien Copyright Date: 1955, 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien Recording Date: 1990 Recorded Books, Inc. Narrated by: Rob Inglis Recording Time: 19 hours, 7 minutes
The prologue explains that the work is “largely concerned with hobbits”, telling of their origins in a migration from the east, their habits such as smoking “pipe-weed“, and how their homeland the Shire is organised. It explains how the narrative follows on from The Hobbit, in which the HobbitBilbo Baggins finds the One Ring, which had been in the possession of Gollum.
Bilbo celebrates his eleventy-first (111th) birthday and leaves the Shire suddenly, passing the Ring to Frodo Baggins, his cousin and heir. Neither Hobbit is aware of the Ring’s origin, but Gandalf (a wizard) suspects it is a Ring of Power. Seventeen years later, in “The Shadow of the Past“, Gandalf confirms to Frodo that the Ring is the powerfully seductive Ruling Ring lost by the Dark Lord Sauron long ago and counsels Frodo to take it away from the Shire. Gandalf leaves, promising to return by Frodo’s birthday and accompany Frodo on his journey, but fails to do so.
Frodo sets out on foot, offering a cover story of moving to a little house in the village of Crickhollow, accompanied by his gardener Sam Gamgee and Frodo’s cousin Pippin Took. They are pursued by mysterious Black Riders, but meet a passing group of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion, whose singing to Elbereth wards off the Riders. The Hobbits spend the night with them, then take an evasive shortcut the next day, and arrive at the farm of Farmer Maggot, who takes them to Bucklebury Ferry, where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck. When they reach the house at Crickhollow, Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the Ring and insist on travelling with Frodo and Sam.
They decide to try to shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. Merry and Pippin are trapped by Old Man Willow, an ancient tree-spirit who controls much of the forest, but are rescued by Tom Bombadil. Leaving the refuge of Tom’s house, they get lost in a fog and are caught by a barrow-wight in a barrow on the downs, but Frodo, awakening from the barrow-wight’s spell, calls Tom Bombadil, who frees them and equips them with ancient swords from the barrow-wight’s hoard.
The Hobbits reach the village of Bree, where they encounter a Ranger named Strider. The innkeeper gives Frodo a letter from Gandalf written three months before which identifies Strider as a friend. Knowing the riders will attempt to seize the party, Strider guides the Hobbits through the wilderness toward the Elven sanctuary of Rivendell. On the way, the group stops at Weathertop, a hill. While there, they are again attacked, though by only five of the nine Black Riders. Their leader wounds Frodo with a cursed blade. After fighting them off, Strider treats Frodo with the herb athelas, and is joined by the Elf Glorfindel, who has been searching for the party. Glorfindel rides with Frodo, now deathly ill, toward Rivendell. The Black Riders pursue Frodo, but when they enter the Ford of Bruinen, they are swept away by flood waters summoned by Elrond.
Book II: The Ring Goes South
Frodo recovers in Rivendell under Elrond’s care. Gandalf informs Frodo that the Black Riders are the Nazgûl, Men from ancient times enslaved by Rings of Power to serve Sauron. The Council of Elrond discusses the history of Sauron and the Ring. Strider is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir of Isildur. Isildur had cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand in the battle ending the Second Age, but refused to destroy it, claiming it for himself. The Ring had been lost when Isildur was killed, finally ending up in Bilbo’s possession after his meeting with Gollum, described in The Hobbit. Gandalf reports that the chief wizard, Saruman, has betrayed them and is now working to become a power in his own right. Gandalf was captured by him, but escaped, explaining why he had failed to return to meet Frodo as he had promised.
The Council decides that the Ring must be destroyed, but that can be done only by sending it to the fire of Mount Doom in Mordor where it was forged. Frodo takes this task upon himself. Elrond, with the advice of Gandalf, chooses companions for him. The Fellowship of the Ring consists of nine walkers who set out on the quest to destroy the One Ring, in opposition to the nine Black Riders: Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took; Gandalf; the Men Aragorn and Boromir, son of the Steward of Gondor; the Elf Legolas; and the DwarfGimli. The Fellowship thus represents the Free Peoples of the West – Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits, assisted by a Wizard.
After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass, the Fellowship take the perilous path through the Mines of Moria. They learn that Balin, one of the Dwarves who accompanied Bilbo in The Hobbit, and his colony of Dwarves were killed by Orcs. After surviving an attack, they are pursued by Orcs and a Balrog, an ancient fire demon from a prior Age. Gandalf confronts the Balrog, and both of them fall into the abyss of Moria. The others escape and find refuge in the timeless Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by the Lady Galadriel. Before they leave, Galadriel tests their loyalty, and gives them individual, magical gifts to help them on their quest. She allows Frodo and Sam to look into her fountain, the Mirror of Galadriel, to see unexplained visions of the past and the present, and possibly unreal glimpses of the future. She refuses to take the Ring Frodo offers her, knowing that it would master her.
Galadriel’s husband Celeborn gives the Fellowship boats, elven cloaks, and waybread (Lembas), and they travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen. There, Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but immediately regrets it after Frodo puts on the Ring and disappears. Frodo chooses to go alone to Mordor, but Sam, guessing what he intends, intercepts him as he tries to take a boat across the river, and goes with him.
My Review:
There are a lot of options for the discriminating Tolkien audiobook listener to choose from. I opted to go with Rob Inglis for this listen and I have no regrets. His voice and tone are a perfect match for this story. I listened, imagining that I had a recording of my non-existent British grandfather (I had a grandfather, but not a British one) reading this tale to me. The recording quality is still very good, too, even more than three decades later.
I used to read The Lord of the Rings trilogy on a regular basis, so much so that I noticed deviations from the source material while watching the films with some amount of regret. Alas, alas, those days are long in the rearview mirror. I cannot honestly say when the last time I read the series actually was, but it has been at least a decade. The film adaptations are so well done that when I have wanted to spend some time in Tolkien’s world, I have picked the films instead of the books. I now regret that. There is a time and place magical quality from the books that just does not make its way into the films, and it is perhaps particularly obvious while listening to a British narrator. Listening to The Fellowship feels like being told a story, at the side of a fire, by a scholarly chap from the early 20th century. Even as the story becomes immersive, you never quite lose the feel of where you and who you are with are at the fireside.
That is by design. Tolkien was linguist, he crafted a language, and then he built a northern Europe flavored history and mythology to explain the language. The Fellowship of the Rings draws inspiration from Norse mythology and the region’s Christian heritage, becoming ultimately something unique that reads like a regional mythology. Tolkien was founded a group called The Viking Club, where members came to talk about extinct Germanic languages, and stories like Beowulf. The story is a product of a people, a place, and their history. The movies are fantastic, but something in all of this does not quite translated in that medium.
The Fellowship is a sequel to The Hobbit, and while I believe children can somewhat safely read the story, it is not an overtly children’s book as The Hobbit is. Everything feels just a bit more important, a bit more dangerous, and the story is more layered.
What I Liked:
The world-building is immense, detailed, and immersive. He created thousands of years of history, that he casually refers to throughout the story, and he also might spend several interesting paragraphs on an individual tree.
The frequent singing and poetry, by the characters, felt foreign and unrelatable, but in a good way. All of those things felt real, but they felt far from my own time and place. That helped me with creating the sense of immersion while also giving me something beautiful to ponder In the many decades of Tolkien imitators since the publication of this book, none in my opinion have ever really managed to match the master in this.
Tom Bombadil. I enjoyed the side trail the hobbits took to meet him and I think this was an important element to the resolution (eventually) of the main arc of the story. Just as the characters set off on this perilous journey, they meet someone who cannot be defeated by the power of Sauron or the One Ring. This excursion is like the visit one might have with an angel, sent by God, before doing a dangerous task to follow. Knowing Tom is out there has to provide all of them with some strength and courage for everything that follows.
I really loved the subtle but distinctive character building for some characters, Sam in particular, while also allowing that others enter the story fully formed (which makes sense if you’re meeting a thousands-years-old wizard, or a deceptively old Ranger.
I enjoyed rediscovering how much of the film dialogue – my favorite lines usually – is lifted directly from the source material. Let that be a lesson to anyone undertaking the task of adaptation going forward. Those little nuggets matter, in that they show the book readers you love the source material, and they also matter inasmuch as they demonstrate you are smart enough to realize that the book author is probably a more gifted writer than you are.
What I Did Not Like:
The one change from the books to the films, that I strongly prefer in the films, is giving us an Aragorn who is not fully formed when we meet him. Tolkien’s take on Aragorn makes sense given his background – more sense than his film counter-part. However, the book Aragorn just is not particularly interesting. He arrives a seemingly perfect man. He continues to be that throughout. Perhaps Book #2 will start creating some character tension for him.
The book ends as something of a cliffhanger, with the Fellowship broken, and the various characters now on different paths. I look forward to picking up The Two Towers as soon as possible. The three books – as with the movies – should probably be consumed all at once.
If you have fond memories of The Fellowship of the Ring, I recommend a re-read. If you have a child who might be ready to dip his or her toe into the water of fantasy fiction, I would probably recommend that you start with The Hobbit first, as it is a relatively safe place to begin. But if dragons and the occasional orc stabbing goes well, jump right into this one next. In particular, I recommend that you do so via the audiobook.
