Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

The first volume of the epic Lord of the Rings novel, The Fellowship of the Ring, basically focuses on the formation of the Fellowship - the group that will become responsible for the fate of the One Ring. After having been lost for centuries, the One Ring is passed from Bilbo Baggins to the young hobbit Frodo and as Ringbearer, the future of civilisation in Middle Earth rests upon his shoulders as he must travel to Mount Doom in order to destroy the ring in the fires in which it was forged.

"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."

Reading The Lord of the Rings is like coming home. I came late to the Harry Potter series, I wasn't one of those children who grew up with Harry and co., so often people will ask me, "What were you doing when everyone else was dreaming of going to Hogwarts?" and I will say, "I was dreaming of going on an adventure in Middle Earth".

I grew up with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, probably reading the latter at an age where I really didn't understand a lot of what was going on and yet I still fell in love with these books. Going to see the movies in the cinema with my brother and uncle became a tradition, even if my uncle was one of those annoying movie-goers, whispering in my ear at every opportunity, "In the book, they actually..." WELL, now I'm proud to say I'm one of those annoying people! So I have quite strong feelings for these books and have reread them numerous times. As is evident quite often in my stories on instagram, I watch these movies all the time as well - they are timeless classics to me.  It's been a while since my last reread, therefore I decided 2017 would be the year of my great Hobbit/LOTR reread, and it's been an absolute joy so far.

It's hard to write a review for one of the greatest series ever written. How dare I insult a genius like Tolkien by giving my meandering thoughts... In all honesty, I don't have many negative things to say about these books. My only criticism is the songs that are sometimes included that go on for too long. I quite enjoy these songs in the movies, but reading through them is an entirely different experience.

Reuniting with the Fellowship again is always a treat - Aragorn has always been and will always be my favourite member of the Fellowship. He is heroic, strong, determined, a leader, a King. Gandalf is also one of my main men. I remember when I read these books and watched these movies years ago, Samwise Gamgee was always just "Frodo's friend" to me, but over the years and as I grow older, it's only now that I can really see just how amazing Sam is. He is irreplaceable in terms of the support and friendship he provides for Frodo, he is so selfless and courageous. We all need to be a little more like Samwise Gamgee. His loyal traits only start to bear fruition in this first volume.

My favourite aspect of this book is the togetherness of the Fellowship, they move as one group, before splintering off in subsequent volumes. It's nice to see them all interact with each other, with one shared aim. I always considered this book to be my least favourite out of the three, and yet I still loved every minute of it. That says a lot for the books to follow. This is an epic fantasy tale, one that will continue to live on through the ages, and I'm really excited to delve into The Two Towers again (once I finish the monster that is IT). This one gets 5 stars out of 5 from me - Tolkien is a genius.

Johann

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