War of the Ring

''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, 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, the Dark Lord Sauron, 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 mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

Although often called a trilogy, the work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set along with ''The Silmarillion''., letter #126 to Milton Waldman (draft), 10 March 1950 For economic reasons, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was published over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955 in three volumes titled ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', ''The Two Towers'', and ''The Return of the King''. The work is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of background material. Some later editions print the entire work in 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 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'' has since 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. It has helped to create and shape the modern fantasy genre, within which it is considered one of the greatest books of all time.

Award-winning adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings'' have been made for radio, theatre, and film. It has been named Britain's best-loved novel of all time in the BBC's 2003 poll The Big Read.

Plot

''The Fellowship of the Ring''

''The Two Towers''

''The Return of the King''

Frame story

Tolkien presents ''The Lord of the Rings'' within 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 modelled 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''.

Concept and creation

Background

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 & 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 ''Roverandom'' on hold, and accepting ''Farmer Giles of Ham'', Allen & Unwin continued to ask for more stories about hobbits.

Writing

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., letter #17 to Stanley Unwin, 15 October 1937 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.

Poetry

Unusually for 20th century novels, the prose narrative is supplemented throughout by over 60 pieces of poetry. These include verse 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.

Illustrations

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, and a drawing of 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 Ballantine's paperback editions "achieved mass-cult status in the 1960s, particularly on college campuses" across America.

Influences

Tolkien drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity,, letter #142 to Robert Murray, S. J., 2 December 1953 mythology and Germanic heroic legend including the Norse ''Völsunga saga'', archaeology, especially at the Temple of Nodens, ancient and modern literature, like Finnish 19th-century epic poetry '' The Kalevala'' by Elias Lönnrot, and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology;, letter #165 to Houghton Mifflin, 30 June 1955 his work centred 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 Rider Haggard. The Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris was a major influence,, letter #19 to Stanley Unwin, 31 December 1960 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 urbanisation by the growth of Birmingham,, letter #178 to Allen & Unwin, 12 December 1955, and #303 to Nicholas Thomas, 6 May 1968 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.

Themes

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 in descriptions of weather and landscape. Out of these, Tolkien stated that the central theme is death and immortality., letter #211 to Rhona Beare, 14 October 1958 To those who supposed that the book was an allegory of events in the 20th century, Tolkien replied in the foreword 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 in 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, Éowyn, and Arwen; that life, even in rural Hobbiton, is not idealised; 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.

Publication history

A dispute with his publisher, George Allen & 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 & 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 type-setting and modest anticipated sales: ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' (Books I and II), ''The Two Towers'' (Books III and IV), and ''The Return of the King'' (Books V and VI plus six appendices). Delays in producing appendices, maps and especially an index led to the volumes being published later than originally hoped – on 29 July 1954, on 11 November 1954 and on 20 October 1955 respectively in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Houghton Mifflin published ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' on 21 October 1954, ''The Two Towers'' on 21 April 1955, and ''The Return of the King'' on 5 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",, letter #140 to Rayner Unwin, 17 August 1953 but considered naming the two as Orthanc and Barad-dûr, Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol., letter #143 to Rayner Unwin, 22 January 1954 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'': Vol. 1, ''The Ring Sets Out'' and ''The Ring Goes South''; Vol. 2, ''The Treason of Isengard'' and ''The Ring Goes East''; Vol. 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: Vol. 1, ''The Shadow Grows''; Vol. 2, ''The Ring in the Shadow''; Vol. 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, who famously reviewed the final volume in 1956, Tolkien himself made use of the term "trilogy" for the work, letter #163 to W. H. Auden, 7 June 1955 though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single book., letter #149 to Rayner Unwin, 9 September 1954 It is often called a novel; however, Tolkien objected to this term as he viewed it as a heroic romance., letter #239 to Peter Szabo Szentmihalyi, draft, October 1971

The books were published under a profit-sharing arrangement, whereby Tolkien would not receive an 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 50 million copies sold by 2003 and over 150 million copies sold by 2007. The work was published in the UK by Allen & Unwin until 1990, when the publisher and its assets were acquired by HarperCollins.

Editions and revisions

In the early 1960s Donald A. Wollheim, 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 Houghton Mifflin, the US 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. Grass-roots pressure from these fans became so great that Ace Books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien., letters #270, #273 and #277

Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Houghton 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 US 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 4 September 1966, the novel debuted on ''The New York Times''s Paperback Bestsellers list as number three, and was number one by 4 December, a position it held for eight weeks. Houghton 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 Scull, 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.

Posthumous publication of drafts

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 6–9 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''.

Translations

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 Åke Ohlmarks,, letters #228 and #229 to Allen & Unwin, 24 January 1961 and 23 February 1961 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 Westron 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.

Reception

1950s

Early reviews of the work were mixed. The initial review in the '' Sunday Telegraph'' described it as "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth 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 books' popularity, writing in its review that they were "destined to outlast our time". W. H. Auden, a former pupil of Tolkien's and an 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 "Oo, 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, in 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.

Later

Judith Shulevitz, writing in ''The New York Times'', criticized the "pedantry" of Tolkien's literary style, saying that he "formulated a high-minded belief in the importance of his mission as a literary preservationist, which turns out to be death to literature itself". The critic Richard Jenkyns, writing in ''The New Republic'', criticized the work for a lack of psychological depth. Both the characters and the work itself were, according to Jenkyns, "anemic, and lacking in fibre". The science fiction author David Brin", fantasy author Michael Moorcock critiques the world-view displayed by the book as deeply conservative, in both the " paternalism" of the narrative voice and the power structures in the narrative. Tom Shippey, like Tolkien an English philologist, notes the wide gulf between Tolkien's supporters, both popular and academic, and his literary detractors, and attempts to explain in detail both why the literary establishment disliked ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the work's subtlety, themes, and merits, including the impression of depth that it conveys. The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury analysed Tolkien's prose style in detail, showing that it was generally quite plain, varying to suit the voices of the different characters, and rising to a heroic register for special moments.

Awards

In 1957, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was awarded the International Fantasy Award. Despite its numerous detractors, the publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine 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 one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales 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 favourite book. In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, ''The Lord of the Rings'' was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium". In 2019, the ''BBC News'' listed ''The Lord of the Rings'' on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

Adaptations

''The Lord of the Rings'' has been adapted for radio, stage, film and television.

Radio

The book has been adapted for radio four times. In 1955 and 1956, the BBC
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