[WIR] The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Note: I began this series much earlier on other forums, but am reposting it here. Doing 1 post a day so as to avoid intimidating walls of texts for readers.

While tabletop gaming is still very near and dear to my heart, I've been getting more into reading more traditional literature. And I figured, why not start with the genre-definer of modern fantasy as we know it?

I don't mind spoiler discussion, as I already absorbed huge portions of the trilogy via cultural osmosis as well as related media. To show off my prior experience, I did read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring a long time ago. The Hobbit was read twice, the Fellowship once, but I recall more details about the former than the latter. Thus, I'm starting off with the Fellowship rather than rerereading the Hobbit.

My thoughts will be shared in a listed format rather than heavily paraphrasing the books' contents. For those who wish to get a fuller experience, feel welcome to read along with me!


1. My version of the book (by Houghton Mifflin) came with both a Foreword and Prologue, the latter being labeled "Concerning Hobbits," giving some world-building about the history and culture of Middle-Earth's unlikeliest heroic people. It was very good, and did a lot to show how even among the hobbits there's quite a bit of diversity and that their society was subject to change. For instance, they used to have a ruling Thain but over time became self-governing, that there's a museum in Michel Delving dedicated to historical artifacts of their people, how the Bree hobbits view their brethren in the Shire as "colonists," and how in modern times only the richest and poorest hobbits live in "hobbit holes" as many transitioned to more traditional above-ground lodgings.

2. One thing I will say about being a weakness of Tolkien is that while he does a great job in world-building, he does this via telling more than showing so far. I understand that the prologue is meant to set the scene, but I feel that more modern fiction would instead have such elements arise either directly in the story or in natural conversation. A similar thing is in regards to Gandalf going into detail about Smeagol's backstory of how he came upon the One Ring and how he left the mountains to take revenge on Bilbo for stealing it away, covered later in Chapter 2.

3. Another thing I like about the hobbits is that while they're currently isolated from much of Middle-Earth, they used to be on friendly relations with dwarves, elves, and men. But for elves in particular, they had an undescribed falling out and they stopped associating. And the dwarves long used roads in the Shire to visit the mines in Blue Mountain.


1. Tolkien does a good jobt at painting a wider picture of Bilbo, Frodo, and their countryside living in ways that forward the plot. For instance, scenes of rumor-mongering hobbits speculating about Bilbo's upcoming birthday party and what hidden treasure he surely has under his house. Or how 144 is referred to as a Gross for units of measurement which is never used for people, so when Bilbo does so in his speech it ends up being a faux pas. One thing that I do find funny is how Gandalf ends up wearing out his welcome in Hobbiton after Bilbo's disappearing act, where people end up blaming the wizard for supposedly driving Bilbo insane and running off into the wilderness to die.


1. I like how the sounds of Sam's gardening shears outside are used as foreshadowing of his eavesdropping. Rather than have it left undescribed to show how keen-eared Gandalf is, Tolkien previously establishes the Gamgeee's relationship with Bilbo and Frodo as gardeners, then having it stop during their convo gives the reader time to clue themselves in ahead of time.

2. When Gandalf began talking about how he and Aragorn spent a long journey full of hardship in tracking down Gollum, that made me realize how much of a missed opportunity that was the Gollum video game. Far more people would love a game where you play as those two, instead.

3. Also, I can tell better what people only watched the shows/movies of LotR based on Gandalf answering early on other ways of "getting rid of" the Ring by Frodo. Like taking it to an isolated place like Gollum did, so that nobody would find it. Gandalf explains that the Ring practically has a mind of its own and if it wants to be found, it has a way of doing so.

1. I wonder if the chapter's name and number was done this way intentionally.

2. I like how Tolkien does brief mentions of local places and landmarks to showcase that it's not just an empty stretch of wilderness Frodo's party is journeying through. Even if it's just saying a landmark's name without any further explanation, this shows that our heroes are still in familiar territory, that they're still operating on what is known and within their relative comfort zone.

3. I find it interesting that the Ring-Wraiths are capable of speaking in the Common/Westron tongue, even if it isn't "onscreen." Contrast to Peter Jackson's movies, where I only recall them shrieking. In a way, this makes sense, as they were once human and thus should still retain some of their knowledge before they became corrupted by Sauron/the Ring/whatever was originally responsible for said corruption.

4. Having the Ring-Wraiths show up twice on the road demonstrates that it's not a coincidence, that Frodo is being actively hunted.

5. While brief, I do like how the elf travelers declare Frodo to be Elf-Friend due to him having some fluency in their language as well as having been on positive terms with Bilbo. It demonstrates that at the very least, Frodo was interested enough in their people to learn about how they speak and the lore they saw fit to put to paper. In addition to the prologue talking about Hobbit groups and Hobbit culture, I do like how Frodo mentions that they're High Elves. This is a subtle way of showing that the Elves aren't a monolithic group, and along with the aforementioned familiarity with their songs demonstrates that he's more familiar with them than Sam and Pippin.

High five for thinking fox!

Gird yourself for The Old Forest. it is the most difficult, slowest chapter in the whole story, and it is where I hit a speedbump, if I am going to hit one at all on a particular reread.

Reynard said:

Gird yourself for The Old Forest. it is the most difficult, slowest chapter in the whole story, and it is where I hit a speedbump, if I am going to hit one at all on a particular reread.

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I've taken to skipping from the end of Three is Company to the start of At the Sign of the Prancing Pony. Speeds things up dramatically and I don't have to put up with nonsense characters who add nothing to the story.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

I've taken to skipping from the end of Three is Company to the start of At the Sign of the Prancing Pony. Speeds things up dramatically and I don't have to put up with nonsense characters who add nothing to the story.

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I have done that, but generally I like to read the whole thing. I like Tolkien's prose, and there is important worldbuilding in Bombadil, plus a peak into Tolkien's philosophy.

Reynard said:

I have done that, but generally I like to read the whole thing. I like Tolkien's prose, and there is important worldbuilding in Bombadil, plus a peak into Tolkien's philosophy.

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Yeah, I'm more in the: "I've read it a few times, I'll stick to the parts I enjoy" mode.

Chapter 4: A Short Cut to Mushrooms

1. While not the only time, I do like how Sam and the others express doubts about their journey to destroy the One Ring. Sam opens up that he wants to see things through with his good friend, even if he doesn't have a plan.
2. Their meeting with Farmer Maggot provides an interesting look into subjective experiences; Frodo was beaten and chased off his property long ago for poaching mushrooms, but both he and Maggot regard that as water under the bridge. Sam, on the other hand, isn't as elated, for he understandably has a poor reaction upon meeting someone who treated his friend that way, even if it was a long time ago.

Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked

1. The more I read this book, the more the events in the Peter Jackson films feel abrupt. Merry and Pippin originally joined Sam and Frodo in those movies while on the run from Farmer Maggot. The book instead has them meet up with Merry at the expansive Buck Hill, and it turns out that Frodo wasn't as secretive as he thought when safeguarding the Ring and the contents of Frodo's secret book. Thus, Merry and Pippin not only knew about the gravity of what Gandalf had told Frodo that day, they had already long made the decision to help him.
2. I like how Frodo's group and various other characters make use of singing. It's a good way of passing the time and finding entertainment while regularly traveling, and their relative brevity and simplicity makes more sense for traveling types rather than sprawling epics that some other fantasy novels would do.

Chapter 6: The Old Forest

1. Tolkien continues to do a great job in making the land itself feel full of danger and secrets, from the tunnel-gate the hobbits use to pass through a hedge, to the dark, thick forests that only grant occasional glimpses of the sun through lit glades.
2. The malevolent tree, Old Man Willow, and later Tom Bombadill's explanation of how many trees bear resentment to mobile people cutting them down and burning them, really lends itself to the idea of Middle-Earth being an ancient land. That even the era of the elves and the Dark Lord are but passing in a much older cycle.

Chapter 7: In the House of Tom Bombadil

1. I can easily see the European fairie folklore influences in regards to Tom. From Frodo's company losing track of time while staying with him, to his innate ability to understand plants and animals, to his powerful yet whimsical nature when he is later summoned via song to save the hobbits from a barrow-wight.
2. Much ado is made about Tom Bombadil putting on the ring in various fandoms, but what stood out to me was that this was the first time in the book that Frodo put it on himself. Understandably, Frodo was worried that Tom might have stolen the Ring and swapped it with a fake, so when he put it on to confirm he turned invisible. Contrast this to the Peter Jackson movie, when he accidentally slips it on during a fight at the Prancing Pony, and he ends up getting frightful visions. IMO the book's handling is better, for the Ring's tempting power should at first appear to have no downsides. In very much a "first hit is free" like for the newly-addicted.
3. Page 128 does some paraphrasing of Tom talking about the history of the wilderness is an excellent use of symbolism, from describing his tale-telling as traveling "over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet crannies…" to "Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords." The lore-dump and world-building doesn't have to be explicit in regards to names, times, and places, but instead covers history via fanciful adjectives to let the reader get the gist of it, much like the impressions left by a skilled storyteller painting a picture of another world.

Chapter 8: Fog on the Barrow-Downs

1. I like how the danger of the barrows is gradual, where it's difficult for the hobbits to know where they are while traveling until they're near or on them, even though they know that Tom warned them earlier. I can see some people asking why didn't Frodo or the other Hobbits sing for Tom earlier, but as the danger of the barrow-wights wasn't immediate or obvious (initially it could be brushed off as them having difficult navigating the foggy night), but when they're separated and Frodo catches his first glimpse of a wight there's hardly any time to react before they're captured in a barrow.
2. I can see the inklings of inspiration in the RPG genre was Tom Bombadil takes away the buried treasures from the barrows, first to dispel the foul nature of the barrows and also to give the hobbits some useful daggers to defend themselves. Most stories and folklore would have such treasures be cursed, but the whole "we must take the treasure so that the wights cannot rise again" is a very RPG-esque subversion.

Libertad said:

The more I read this book, the more the events in the Peter Jackson films feel abrupt

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That is theblokg and the short of the flaws of the films as an adaptation...but somewhat inevitable, given the transition to theatrical film. A slower paced multiseason TV show could capture the vibe a lot better.

Libertad said:

I like how Frodo's group and various other characters make use of singing

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Lord of the Rings is, secretly, a fantastic poetry anthology. Some people will their eyes and gloss over it, but...Tolkien is actually a rather gifted poet, who really experiments with a lot of varied techniques or moods within Lord of the Rings alone. A Bollywood-style musical would be another interesting take that is true important parts of the text.