Learn About The Lord Of The Rings

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Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J.

R.

R.

Tolkien.

Set in Middle-earth,

The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book,

The Hobbit,

But eventually developed into a much larger work.

Written in stages between 1937 and 1949,

The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written,

With over 150 million copies sold.

The title refers to the story's main antagonist,

Sauron,

The Dark Lord who,

In an earlier age,

Created the One Ring to rule the other rings of power given to men,

Dwarves,

And elves in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth.

From homely beginnings in the Shire,

A hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside,

The story ranges across Middle-earth,

Following the quest to destroy the One Ring,

Seen mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo,

Sam,

Merry,

And Pippin.

Aedi and Frodo are the wizard Gandalf,

The men Aragorn and Boromir,

The elf Legolas,

And the dwarf Gimli,

Who unite in order to rally the free peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron's armies and give Frodo a chance to destroy the One Ring in the fire of Mount Doom.

Although often mistakenly called a trilogy,

The work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume in a two-volume set,

Along with the Silmarillion.

For economic reasons,

The Lord of the Rings was first published over the course of a year,

From 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955 in three volumes rather than one.

Under the titles The Fellowship of the Ring,

The Fellowship of the Ring,

The Two Towers,

And The Return of the King,

The Silmarillion appeared only after the author's death.

The work is divided internally into six books,

Two per volume,

With several appendices of background material.

These three volumes were later published as a boxed set and even finally as a single volume,

Following the author's original intent.

Tolkien's work,

After an initially mixed reception by the literary establishment,

Has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes,

Literary devices,

And origins.

Influences on this earlier work and on the story of The Lord of the Rings include philology,

Mythology,

Christianity,

Earlier fantasy works,

And his own experiences in the First World War.

The Lord of the Rings is considered one of the greatest fantasy books ever written,

And it has helped to create and shape the modern fantasy genre.

Since release,

It has been reprinted many times and translated into at least 38 languages.

Its enduring popularity has led to numerous references in popular culture,

The founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works,

And the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works.

It has inspired many derivative works,

Including paintings,

Music,

Films,

Television,

Video games,

And board games.

Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings has been made for radio,

Theater,

And film.

It was named Britain's best-loved novel of all time in a 2003 poll by the BBC called The Big Read.

Plot The Fellowship of the Ring Bilbo Baggins celebrates his birthday and leaves the ring to Frodo his heir.

Gandalf,

A wizard,

Suspects it is a ring of power.

Seventeen years later,

He confirms it was lost by the Dark Lord Sauron and counsels Frodo to take it away from the Shire.

Gandalf leaves,

Promising to return,

But fails to do so.

Frodo sets out on foot with his cousin Pippin Took and gardener Sam Gamgee.

They are pursued by black riders,

But meet some elves,

Who,

Singing to Elrond,

Wards off the riders.

The hobbits take an evasive shortcut to Buckleberry Ferry,

Where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck.

Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the ring and insist on joining Frodo on his journey.

They try to shake off the black riders by cutting through the old forest.

Merry and Pippin are trapped by the malign Old Man Willow,

But are rescued by Tom Bombadil.

Leaving Tom's house,

They are caught by a Barrow-Wight.

Frodo,

Awakening from the Barrow-Wight's spell,

Calls Tom Bombadil,

Who frees them and gives them ancient swords from the Wights' horde.

The hobbits reach the village of Bree,

Where they meet Strider,

A ranger.

The innkeeper gives Frodo an old letter from Gandalf,

Which identifies Strider as a friend.

Knowing the black riders will attempt to seize the ring,

Strider guides the group toward the elvish sanctuary of Rivendell.

At Weathertop,

They are attacked by five black riders.

Their leader wounds Frodo with a cursed blade.

Strider fights them off and treats Frodo with a sword.

They are joined by the elf Glorfindel,

Who rides with Frodo,

Now deathly ill,

Towards Rivendell.

The black rider pursues Frodo into the Fort of Brunnen,

Where they are swept away by floodwaters summoned by Elrond.

Frodo recovers in Rivendell,

Under Elrond's care.

Gandalf informs Frodo that the black riders are the Nazgul,

Men enslaved by rings of power to serve Sauron.

The Council of Elrond discusses what to do with the ring.

Strider is revealed to be Aragorn,

The heir of Isildur,

Who had cut the ring from Sauron's hand in the Second Age but claimed it for himself.

The ring was lost when Isildur was killed.

It passed to Gollum and then to Bilbo.

Gandalf reports that the chief wizard,

Sauron,

Is a traitor.

The Council decides that the ring should be returned to Elrond.

The Council decides that the ring must be destroyed in the fire of Mount Doom and Mordor,

Where it was forged.

Frodo takes this task upon himself.

Elrond chooses companions for him,

Sam,

Merry,

And Pippin.

Gandalf,

The men Aragorn and Boromir,

Son of the steward of Gondor,

The elf Legolas,

And the dwarf Gimli,

Representing the free peoples of the West.

After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains,

The Fellowship risk the path through the Mines of Moria.

They learn that Balin and his dwarves were killed by orcs.

They are attacked by orcs and Balrog,

A fire demon.

Gandalf confronts the Balrog.

Both fall into an abyss.

The others escape to the elvish forest of Lothlórien,

Where the Lady Galadriel tests their loyalty and gives them magical gifts.

She allows Frodo and Sam to look into her vision-giving fountain,

The Mirror of Galadriel.

Frodo offers her the ring.

She refuses,

Knowing that it would master her.

Galadriel's husband Celeborn gives the Fellowship boats,

Cloaks,

And waybread.

They travel down the river Anduin.

At Amon Hen,

Boromir tries to take the ring.

But Frodo puts on the ring and disappears.

Frodo chooses to cross the river and go alone to Mordor.

But Sam,

Guessing what he intends,

Intercepts him.

The Two Towers A party of orcs sent by Sauron and Sauron attack the Fellowship.

Boromir tries to protect Merry and Pippin from the orcs.

But they kill him and capture the two hobbits.

Aragorn,

Gimli,

And Legolas decide to pursue the orcs.

The orcs are killed by riders of Rohan,

Led by Éomer.

The hobbits escape into Fangorn Forest,

Where they are befriended by the Ent Treebeard.

Aragorn,

Gimli,

And Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn,

Where they meet Gandalf.

He explains that he killed the Balrog.

He too was killed in the fight,

But was sent back to Middle-earth.

He is now Gandalf the White,

Replacing Sauron as chief of the wizards.

They ride to Edoras,

Capital of Rohan.

Gandalf frees King Théoden from the influence of Sauron's spy,

Grimm Wormtongue.

Théoden musters his army and rides to the fortress of Helm's Deep.

Gandalf departs to seek help from Treebeard.

The Ents destroy Isengard,

Saruman's stronghold,

And flood it,

Trapping the wizard in the Tower of Vorsack.

Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Hurons to Théoden's aid.

He brings an army of riders of Rohan to Helm's Deep to defeat the orcs,

Who flee into the forest of Hurons and are destroyed.

Gandalf,

Théoden,

Aragorn,

Legolas,

And Gimli ride to Isengard,

Where they find Merry and Pippin relaxing amongst the ruins.

Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to turn away from evil.

When Saruman refuses,

Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers.

Wormtongue throws down a hard,

Round object to try to kill Gandalf.

Pippin picks it up.

Gandalf swiftly takes it,

But Pippin steals it in the night.

It is a palantír,

A seeing stone that Saruman used to speak with Sauron,

Becoming ensnared.

Sauron sees Pippin,

But misunderstands the circumstances.

Gandalf rides for Minas Tirith,

Chief city of Gondor,

Taking Pippin with him.

Frodo and Sam struggle through the barren hills of the Emon Mule.

They realize they are being tracked.

On a moonlit night,

They capture Gollum,

Who has followed them from Moria.

Frodo makes Gollum swear to serve him as ringbearer and asks him to guide them to Mordor.

Gollum leads them across the dead marshes.

Sam overhears Gollum debating with his alter-ego,

Smeagol,

Whether to steal the ring.

The Black Gate of Mordor is too well guarded,

So they travel south through Ithilien to a secret pass that Gollum knows.

They are captured by rangers led by Faramir,

Boromir's brother,

And brought to the secret fastness of Henneth Anun.

Faramir resists the temptation to seize the ring and,

Disobeying orders to arrest strangers,

Releases them.

Gollum guides the hobbits to the pass,

But leads them into the lair of the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol.

Frodo holds up his gift,

The File of Galadriel,

Which holds the light of Eärendil's star.

It drives Shelob back.

Frodo cuts through a giant web using his sword,

Sting.

Shelob attacks again and Frodo falls to her venom.

Sam picks up Sting and the File.

He wounds the monster.

Believing Frodo to be dead,

Sam takes the ring to continue the quest alone.

Orcs take Frodo.

Sam overhears them saying that Frodo is still alive.

THE RETURN OF THE KING Sauron sends a great army against Gondor.

Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor of the attack,

While Théoden musters the riders of Rohan to go to Gondor's aid.

Minas Tirith is besieged.

The lord of the Nazgûl uses a spell-wound battering ram to destroy the city's gates.

Denethor,

Deceived by Sauron,

Falls into despair.

He burns himself alive on a pyre.

Pippin and Gandalf rescue his son Faramir from the same fate.

Aragorn,

Accompanied by Legolas,

Gimli,

And the Rangers of North,

Takes the paths of the dead to recruit the dead men of Dunharrow,

Oathbreakers who will have no rest until they fight for the king of Gondor.

Aragorn unleashes the army of the dead on the corsairs of Umbar,

Invading southern Gondor.

He and men of southern Gondor sail in the corsairs' ships up the Anduin,

Reaching Minas Tirith just in time to turn the tide of the battle.

Théoden's niece Éowyn,

Who joined the army in disguise,

Kills the lord of the Nazgûl with help from Merry.

Both are wounded.

Gondor and Rohan defeat Sauron's army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields,

But Théoden is killed.

Aragorn enters Minas Tirith and heals the sick.

He leads an army through Ithilien to the Black Gate to distract Sauron from his true danger.

At the Battle of Morannon,

His army is vastly outnumbered.

Sam rescues Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

They set out across Mordor.

When they reach the edge of the Cracks of Doom,

Frodo cannot resist the ring any longer.

He claims it for himself and puts it on.

Gollum reappears.

He bites off Frodo's ring finger.

Celebrating wildly,

Gollum loses his footing and falls into the fire,

Taking the ring with him.

When the ring is destroyed,

Sauron loses his power.

All he created collapses,

The Nazgûl perish,

And Aragorn wins the Battle of Morannon.

Aragorn is crowned king and weds Arwen,

Elrond's daughter.

Théoden is buried.

Éomer is crowned king of Rohan.

His sister Éowyn is engaged to Faramir,

Now steward of Gondor and prince of Ithilien.

Galadriel,

Celeborn,

And Gandalf say farewell to Treebeard and to Aragorn.

The four hobbits travel home,

Only to find it has been taken over by Sauron's men.

Merry raises a rebellion and scours the Shire.

Wormtongue turns on Sauron and kills him in front of Bag End,

Frodo's home.

He is killed by hobbit archers.

Merry and Pippin are celebrated as heroes.

Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts to heal the Shire.

Frodo,

Broken by the quest,

Leaves a few years later,

Sailing for the Grey Havens over the sea to find peace.

Extensive appendices outline more details of the history,

Cultures,

Genealogies,

And languages that Tolkien imagined for the peoples of Middle-earth.

In Antiquarian style,

They provide background details for the narrative,

With much detail for Tolkien fans who want to know more about the stories.

Tolkien presents the Lord of the Rings with a fictional frame story,

Where he is not the original author,

But merely the translator of part of an ancient document,

The Red Book of Westmarch.

That book is modeled on the real Red Book of Hergest,

Which similarly presents an older mythology.

Various details of the frame story appear in the prologue,

Its note on Shire records,

And in the appendices,

Notably Appendix F.

In this frame story,

The Red Book is the purported source of Tolkien's other works relating to Middle-earth,

The Hobbit,

The Silmarillion,

And the adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Although a major work in itself,

The Lord of the Rings was only the last movement of a much older set of narratives Tolkien had worked on since 1917,

Encompassing the Silmarillion in a process he described as mythopoeia.

The Lord of the Rings started as a sequel to Tolkien's work The Hobbit,

Published in 1937.

The popularity of The Hobbit had led George Allen and Unwin,

The publishers,

To request a sequel.

Tolkien warned them that he wrote quite slowly,

And responded with several stories he had already developed.

Having rejected his contemporary drafts for The Silmarillion,

Putting Rovrendam on hold and accepting Farmer Giles of Ham,

Allen and Unwin continued to ask for more stories about Hobbits.

Persuaded by his publishers,

He started A New Hobbit in December 1937.

After several false starts,

The story of the One Ring emerged.

The idea for the first chapter,

A Long Expected Party,

Arrived fully formed,

Although the reasons behind Bilbo's disappearance,

The significance of the ring,

And the title The Lord of the Rings did not come until the spring of 1938.

Originally,

He planned to write a story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more.

However,

He remembered the ring and its powers and thought that would be a better focus for the new work.

As the story progressed,

He brought in elements from the Silmarillion mythology.

Writing was slow because Tolkien had a full-time academic position,

Marked exams to bring in a little extra income,

And wrote many drafts.

Tolkien abandoned The Lord of the Rings during most of 1943 and only restarted it in April 1944 as a serial for his son Christopher Tolkien,

Who was sent chapters as they were written while he was serving in South Africa with the Royal Air Force.

Tolkien made another major effort in 1946 and showed the manuscript to his publishers in 1947.

The story was effectively finished the next year,

But Tolkien did not complete the revision of earlier parts of the work until 1949.

The original manuscripts,

Which total 9,

250 pages,

Now reside in the J.

R.

R.

Tolkien Collection at Marquette University.

Usually for twentieth-century novels,

The prose narrative is supplemented throughout by over sixty pieces of poetry.

These include verses and songs of many genres,

For wandering,

Marching to war,

Drinking,

And having a bath,

Narrating ancient myths,

Riddles,

Prophecies,

And magical incantations,

And of praise and lament,

Elegy.

Some,

Such as riddles,

Charms,

Elegies,

And narrating heroic actions,

Are found in Old English poetry.

Scholars have stated that the poetry is essential for the fiction to work aesthetically and thematically,

As it adds information not given in the prose,

And it brings out characters and their backgrounds.

The poetry has been judged to be of high technical skill,

Reflected in Tolkien's prose.

For instance,

He wrote much of Tom Bombadil's speech in Metre.

Tolkien worked on the text using his maps of Middle-earth as a guide to ensure the elements of the story fitted together in time and space.

He prepared a variety of types of illustration—maps,

Calligraphy,

Drawings,

Cover designs,

Even a facsimile painting of the Book of Mazarbul—but only the maps,

The inscription on the ring,

The drawings on the doors of Durin,

Were included in the first edition.

The hardback editions sometimes had cover illustrations by Tolkien,

Sometimes by other artists.

According to the New York Times,

Barbara Remington's cover designs for Ballantyne's paperback editions achieved mass cult status in the 1960s,

Particularly on college campuses across America.

Tolkien drew on a wide array of influences,

Including language,

Christianity,

Mythology,

And Germanic heroic legend,

Including the Norse Volsunga saga,

Archaeology,

Especially at the Temple of Nodin's,

Ancient and modern literature,

Like Finnish 19th-century epic poetry,

The Kalevala by Elias Lunrat,

And personal experience.

He was inspired primarily by his profession,

Philology.

His work centered on the study of Old English literature,

Especially Beowulf,

And he acknowledged its importance to his writings.

He was a gifted linguist,

Influenced by Celtic,

Finnish,

Slavic,

And Greek language and mythology.

Commentators have attempted to identify literary and topological antecedents for characters,

Places,

And events in Tolkien's writings.

He acknowledged that he had enjoyed adventure stories by authors such as John Buchan and Ryder Haggard.

The arts and crafts polymath William Morris was a major influence,

And Tolkien undoubtedly made use of some real place names,

Such as Bag End,

The name of his aunt's home.

Tolkien stated,

Too,

That he had been influenced by his childhood experiences of the English countryside of Worcestershire near Sarehole Mill and its urbanization by the growth of Birmingham,

And his personal experience of fighting in the trenches of the First World War.

Moreover,

The militarization and industrialization inspired the character of Sauron and his forces.

The orcs represented the worst of it as workers that have been tortured and brutalized by the war and industry.

Scholars and critics have identified many themes in the book with its complex interlaced narrative,

Including a reversed quest,

The struggle of good and evil,

Death and immortality,

Fate and free will,

The addictive danger of power,

And various aspects of Christianity,

Such as the presence of three Christ figures—for prophet,

Priest,

And king—as well as elements like hope and redemptive suffering.

There is a common theme throughout the work of language,

Its sound,

And its relationship to peoples and places,

Along with hints of providence and descriptions of weather and landscape.

Out of these,

Tolkien stated that the central theme is death and immortality.

To those who supposed that the book was an allegory of events in the twentieth century,

Tolkien replied in the forward to the second edition that it was not,

Saying he preferred history,

True or feigned,

With its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.

Some commentators have criticized the book for being a story about men for boys,

With no significant women,

Or about a purely rural world with no bearing on modern life and cities,

Of containing no sign of religion or of racism.

Other commentators responded by noting that there are three powerful women in the book,

Galadriel,

Eowyn,

And Arwen,

That life,

Even in rural Hobbiton,

Is not idealized,

That Christianity is a pervasive theme,

And that Tolkien was sharply anti-racist,

Both in peacetime and during the Second World War,

While Middle-earth is evidently polycultural.

A dispute with his publisher,

George Allen and Unwin,

Led Tolkien to offer the work to William Collins in 1950.

Tolkien intended The Silmarillion,

Itself largely unrevised at this point,

To be published along with The Lord of the Rings,

But Allen and Unwin were unwilling to do this.

After Milton Waldman,

His contact at Collins,

Expressed the belief that The Lord of the Rings itself urgently wanted cutting,

Tolkien eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952.

Collins did not,

And so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin,

Saying,

I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff,

Fearing his work would never see the light of day.

For publication,

The work was divided into three volumes to minimize any potential financial loss due to the high cost of typesetting and modest anticipated sales.

The Fellowship of the Ring,

Books 1 and 2,

The Two Towers,

Books 3 and 4,

And The Return of the King,

Books 5 and 6,

Plus six appendices.

Delays in producing appendices,

Maps,

And especially an index,

Led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped,

On the 29th of July 1954,

On 11th of November 1954,

And on the 20th of October 1955,

Respectively,

In the United Kingdom.

In the United States,

Hufton Milton published The Fellowship of the Ring on the 21st of October 1954,

The Two Towers on the 21st of April 1955,

And The Return of the King on the 5th of January 1956.

The Return of the King was especially delayed as Tolkien revised the ending and prepared appendices,

Some of which had to be left out because of space constraints.

Tolkien did not like the title The Return of the King,

Believing it gave away too much of the storyline,

But deferred to his publisher's preference.

Tolkien wrote that the title The Two Towers can be left ambiguous,

But considered naming the two as Orthanc and Barad-dûr,

Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr,

Or Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

However,

A month later he wrote a note published at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring,

And later drew a cover illustration,

Both of which identified the pair as Minas Morgul and Orthanc.

Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two-book volume,

Preferring instead the use of book titles,

E.

G.

The Lord of the Rings,

Volume 1,

The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South,

Volume 2,

The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East,

Volume 3,

The War of the Ring and The End of the Third Age.

However,

These individual book titles were dropped,

And after pressure from his publishers,

Tolkien suggested the volume titles Volume 1,

The Shadow Grows,

Volume 2,

The Ring in the Shadow,

Volume 3,

The War of the Ring,

Or The Return of the King.

Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed,

The work is often referred to as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In a letter to the poet W.

H.

Auden,

Famously reviewing the final volume in 1956,

Tolkien himself made use of the term trilogy for the work,

Though he did at other times consider this incorrect,

As it was written and conceived as a single book.

It is often called a novel,

However Tolkien objected to this term as he viewed it as a heroic romance.

The books were published under a profit-sharing arrangement whereby Tolkien would not receive in advance or royalties until the books had broken even,

After which he would take a large share of the profits.

It has ultimately become one of the best-selling novels ever written,

With at least 50 million copies sold by 2003 and over 150 million copies sold by 2007.

The work was published in the UK by Allen and Unwin until 1990,

When the publisher and its assets were acquired by HarperCollins.

In the early 1960s,

Donald A.

Walheim,

Science fiction editor of the paperback publisher Ace Books,

Claimed that The Lord of the Rings was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because Huffton Mifflin,

The U.

S.

Hardcover publisher,

Had neglected to copyright the work in the United States.

Then,

In 1965,

Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition,

Unauthorized by Tolkien and without paying royalties to him.

Tolkien took issue with this and quickly notified his fans of this objection.

Grassroots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace Books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien.

Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Huffton Mifflin to tremendous commercial success.

Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would be published with his consent and establish an unquestioned U.

S.

Copyright.

This text became the second edition of The Lord of the Rings,

Published in 1965.

The first Ballantine paperback edition was printed in October that year,

Selling a quarter of a million copies within ten months.

On the 4th of September 1966,

The novel debuted on the New York Times' paperback bestsellers list as number three,

And was number one by the 4th of December,

A position it held for eight weeks.

Huffton Mifflin editions after 1994 consolidate variant revisions by Tolkien and corrections supervised by Christopher Tolkien,

Which resulted after some initial glitches in a computer-based unified text.

In 2004,

For the 50th anniversary edition,

Wayne G.

Hammond and Christina Skull,

Under supervision from Christopher Tolkien,

Studied and revised the text to eliminate as many errors and inconsistencies as possible,

Some of which had been introduced by well-meaning compositors of the first printing in 1954 and never been corrected.

The 2005 edition of the book contained further corrections noticed by the editors and submitted by readers,

Yet more corrections were made in the 60th anniversary edition in 2014.

Several editions,

Including the 50th anniversary edition,

Print the whole work in one volume,

With the result that pagination varies widely over the various editions.

From 1988 to 1992,

Christopher Tolkien published The Surviving Drafts of the Lord of the Rings,

Chronicling and illuminating with commentary the stages of the text's development.

In volumes 6 to 9 of his History of Middle-Earth series,

The four volumes carry the titles The Return of the Shadow,

The Treason of Isengard,

The War of the Ring,

And Sauron Defeated.

The work has been translated with varying degrees of success into at least 38 and reportedly at least 70 languages.

Tolkien,

An expert in philology,

Examined many of these translations and made comments on each that reflect both the translation process and his work.

As he was unhappy with some choices made by early translators,

Such as the Swedish translation by Oka Olmars,

Tolkien wrote A Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings,

1967.

Because The Lord of the Rings purports to be a translation of the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch,

Using the English language to represent the Western of the original,

Tolkien suggested that translators attempt to capture the interplay between English and the invented nomenclature of the English work,

And gave several examples along with general guidance.

Early reviews of the work were mixed.

The initial review of the Sunday Telegraph described it as among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the 20th century.

The Sunday Times echoed this sentiment,

Stating that the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them.

The New York Herald Tribune appeared to predict the book's popularity,

Writing in its review that they were destined to outlast our time.

W.

H.

Auden,

A former pupil of Tolkien's and admirer of his writings,

Regarded The Lord of the Rings as a masterpiece,

Further stating that in some cases,

It outdid the achievement of John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Kenneth F.

Slater wrote in Nebula Science Fiction,

April 1955,

If you don't read it,

You have missed one of the finest books of its type ever to appear.

On the other hand,

In 1955,

The Scottish poet Edwin Muir attacked The Return of the King,

Writing that all the characters are boys masquerading as adult heroes and will never come to puberty.

Hardly one of them knows anything about women,

Causing Tolkien to complain angrily to his publisher.

In 1956,

The literary critic Edmund Wilson wrote a review entitled Oh,

Those Awful Orcs,

Calling Tolkien's work juvenile trash and saying Dr.

Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form.

Within Tolkien's literary group,

The Inklings,

The work had a mixed reception.

Hugo Dyson complained loudly at its readings,

Whereas C.

S.

Lewis had very different feelings,

Writing,

Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron.

Here is a book which will break your heart.

Lewis observed that the writing is rich and that some of the good characters have darker sides,

And likewise some of the villains have good impulses.

Despite the mixed reviews and the lack of a paperback until the 1960s,

The Lord of the Rings initially sold well in hardback.

In 1957,

The Lord of the Rings was awarded the International Fantasy Award.

Despite its numerous detractors,

The publication of the Ace books and Ballantyne paperbacks helped The Lord of the Rings become immensely popular in the United States in the 1960s.

The book has remained so ever since,

Ranking as the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century,

Judged by all of three different measures,

Sales,

Library borrowings,

And reader surveys.

In the 2003 Big Read survey,

Conducted in Britain by the BBC,

The Lord of the Rings was found to be the nation's best-loved book.

In similar 2004 polls,

Both Germany and Australia chose The Lord of the Rings as their favorite book.

In a 1999 poll of Amazon.

Com customers,

The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favorite book of the millennium.

In 2019,

The BBC News listed The Lord of the Rings on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

The Lord of the Rings has been adapted into various media including radio,

Stage,

Motion pictures,

And video games.

Radio The book has been adapted for radio four times.

In 1955 and 1956,

The BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings,

A 13-part radio adaptation of the story.

In the 1960s,

Radio station WBAI produced a short radio adaptation.

In 1979,

Dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States and subsequently issued on tape and CD.

In 1981,

The BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings,

A new dramatization and 26 half-hour installments.

Motion Pictures A variety of filmmakers considered adapting Tolkien's book,

Among them Stanley Kubrick,

Who sought it unfilmable,

Michelangelo Antonioni,

Jim Henson,

Heinz Edelman,

And John Boorman.

A Swedish live-action television film,

Sagan om Ringen,

Was broadcast in 1971.

In 1978,

Ralph Bakshi made an animated film version,

Covering the Fellowship of the Ring and part of the Two Towers,

To mixed reviews.

In 1980,

Rankin-Bass released an animated TV special based on the closing chapters of The Return of the King,

Gaining mixed reviews.

In Finland,

A live-action television miniseries,

Hobbited,

Was broadcast in 1993 based on The Lord of the Rings,

Was a flashback to Bilbo's encounter with Gollum in The Hobbit.

A far more successful adaptation was Peter Jackson's live-action The Lord of the Rings film trilogy,

Produced by New Line Cinema and released in three installments as The Lord of the Rings,

The Fellowship of the Ring,

2001,

The Lord of the Rings,

The Two Towers,

2002,

And The Lord of the Rings,

The Return of the King,

2003.

All three parts won multiple Academy Awards,

Including consecutive Best Picture nominations.

The final installment of this trilogy was the second film to break the $1 billion barrier and won a total of 11 Oscars,

Something only two other films in history,

Ben-Hur and Titanic,

Have accomplished,

Including Best Picture,

Best Director,

And Best Adapted Screenplay.

Commentators including Tolkien scholars,

Literary critics,

And film critics are divided on how faithfully Jackson adapted Tolkien's work or whether a film version is inevitably different,

And if so,

The reasons for any changes and the effectiveness of the result.

The Hunt for Gollum,

A 2009 film by Chris Bouchard,

And the 2009 Born of Hope,

Written by Paula DeSante and directed by Kate Madison,

Are fan films based on details in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings.

From September 2022,

Amazon has been presenting a multi-season television series of stories,

The Lord of the Rings,

The Rings of Power.

It is set at the beginning of the Second Age,

Long before the time of The Lord of the Rings,

Based on materials in the novel's appendices.

In early 2023,

Warner Bros.

Discovery announced that multiple new movies set in Middle-earth are in development and will be produced along with New Line Cinema and Fremode.

Audiobooks In 1990,

Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings,

Read by the British actor Rob Inglis.

A large-scale musical theatre adaptation,

The Lord of the Rings,

Was first staged in Toronto,

Ontario,

Canada in 2006 and opened in London in June 2007.

It was a commercial failure.

In 2013,

The artist Phil Dragish recorded the whole of the book,

Using the score from Peter Jackson's movies.

During the COVID-19 lockdown,

Andy Serkis read the entire book of The Hobbit online to raise money for charity.

He then recorded the work as an audiobook.

The cover art was done by Alan Lee.

In 2021,

Serkis recorded The Lord of the Rings.