Lord Of The Rings

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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The hooded ring-wraiths, cloaked in shadow, push their ghastly steeds to the limit as they ride to the Shire. They seek the all-powerful, coveted ring that the dark lord Sauron forged in the fires of Mount Doom. The book, The Fellowship of the Ring (the first in the Lord of the Rings series), written in the 1940's by J.R.R. Tolkien, is a fascinating tale of friendship, adventure, deception, and temptation. The story speaks of Middle Earth, a mythical land of fantasy. It tells that in ancient times, the dark lord Sauron forged a ring of limitless power. With it, he could rule everyone and everything. Several thousand years later, Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit (a small, human-like halfling) finds the ring and passes it onto his heir, Frodo Baggins. However, the dark lord Sauron awakens, and sends his army of demonic wraiths and orcs to seize the ring. Gandalf the Grey, a wise wizard, comes to Frodo's aid and, with the help of a few other hobbits and Aragorn, a king in exile, they reach the Elven city of Rivendell.

There they devise a plan to destroy the ring in the place in which it had been created, Mount Doom. They set off with help from some the greatest warriors in the land: Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli. Many challenges await them on this arduous and treacherous journey. For instance, during a battle with a powerful creature, Gandalf falls to his doom, and later, Boromir, like so many others, becomes tempted by the ring and tries to take it from Frodo, thus ending the book.

Frodo the hobbit, the main adventurer in the story, is a very unwilling and unlikely hero. He wishes that the ring would never have come to him, and believes that his task is too great. He becomes deeply depressed about the death of Gandalf, and wants to abandon his quest. However, Galadrial, a wise Elven queen, allows him to realize what would happen if he were to fail his quest: His friends in shackles and the lands terrorized by Sauron's forces! This changes his whole view on his quest and makes him extremely determined to succeed, thus becoming a dynamic character.

"Even the smallest persons can accomplish the greatest of tasks," Gandalf said to Frodo. In context of the book, Frodo, being a hobbit, is much smaller than a human, and a tremendous task --destroying the ring-- has been forced on him. In a broader sense, this passage is true for many people. Anyone can achieve difficult goals and overcome major obstacles. Gandalf also remarks, "All that is gold does not glitter." This means that appearances can be deceiving.

The title of the novel, The Fellowship of the Ring, expresses one of the main ideas of the book. The Fellowship is a group of adventurers (i.e., Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir) that protect the ring. And, even though from many races and very different in character, they become ever closer and their friendship increases during their quest. This shows how a group of people can overcome the greatest of hardships, if they put aside their differences and work together. Another important theme in all of the Lord Of The Rings books is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For example, in the present book, Boromir, like others, was badly tempted by the ring's power, and the dark lord Sauron is totally corrupted by the power of this little piece of gold.

In conclusion, The Fellowship of the Ring is a work of art that raised the bar for every fantasy book that followed. It is a gripping tale of love, friendship, and determination, with real emotion and suspense. It is a book for anyone who appreciates great works of fiction.