Lord Of The Rings -a brief commentary on the Lord of the Fantasies

‘Three rings for the elven kings

Under the sky,

Seven for the dwarf lords

In their halls of stone,

Nine for mortal men

doomed to die,

One for the dark Lord

On his throne.’

These few immortal lines only lay down the plot of the novel ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

Perhaps the greatest fantasy story ever written, The lord of the Rings,  published in parts in 1954 and 1955 , is a tale of all times, all ages. Being an epic, it has affected all the fantasy stories written since then in some way or other. Hence every fantasy novel owes something to ‘’The Lord of Fantasies’’. Pitting the stout but brave hearted hobbits against the Sauron, The Lord of terror; the story is a modern version of David and Goliath. Frodo, the main protagonist and three friends of his are assigned a task that not even the bravest would dare to achieve: to enter the land of Mordor, the kingdom of Sauron, to destroy a ring … The ring which Sauron is frantically searching for in the whole of middle earth. Along with the hobbits join a bizarre group of protagonists; two men, a wizard, an elf and a dwarf. En route they meet a host of creatures ( good and evil), fight some spectacular battles, run into some horrific Orcs and a mysterious Gollum. J.R.R Tolkien, the author of these books, broadens the dimensions and culture of the Middle-earth he had created in the prequel, ‘The Hobbit.’ He has achieved what very few authors can; he created a whole fantasy land full of elves and dwarves and men and hobbits and demons and what not!

From the breathtaking battles to the melodramatic climax to an unexpected surprise at the very end, The Lord of The Rings is the unchallenged archetype for an epic fantasy and a perennial delight for generations of readers. 

[ This brief review of the book LOTR is of Siddharth Maitra,on invitation. Siddharth is a teenage  boy  who has become a lifelong fanatic fan of LOTR, has read the novel a few times including The Hobbit, and has seen the 3-part movie at home and in the Theater not less than thirty times. He sleeps while  on a virtual chat with Frodo and Sams and wake up on a call from Gandalf, get amused with the dual conflicts of Gholam (Gholam's Sketch drawn by Siddharth - here is the link http://siddharth-dreamspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/sketch-of-ghollum-character-of-lord-of.html)  and get threatened with the voice of Shaurun and Nozguls. Location marking in the map above is his own. 

J.R.Tolkein drew his fantasy classics with some real life events like the World Wars, drew inspiration from Finish fables and rest are created within the minuscule brain factory of this Timeless Wizard of Fantasy.Our revered tribute to the Guru.]