Lord of the Rings

Vol. I - THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING:

The story starts with the twentieth birthday-party for Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit who lives with his brother Sam in a mythical land called the Shire. Frodo owns a magic Ring that makes him invisible when he wears it, a gift from his cousin Bilbo who stole it from the hoard of a Dragon years ago. One day the old wizard Gandalf comes to the Shire, and he tells Frodo of an evil being named Sauron who wants to capture the Ring for himself. In ages long past Sauron stole the Ring from the Elves, to protect him from the Powers of Good; but the Ring was stolen from him by a creature named Gollum,and then stolen from Gollum by the Dragons, and then from the Dragons by Bilbo, who finally gives it freely to Frodo. "Sauron has been searching for the Ring for years," Gandalf tells Frodo, "and now he has sent his ally, the evil Witch-king, to the Shire to look for it." Frodo and Sam consult with their loyal friends Merry and Pipsqueak, and when the evil Witch-king appears with his nine servants the clever hobbits trick them into going into a mushroom-patch, disorienting the witches just long enough to escape the Shire.

But the tone of the book rapidly becomes more serious as the Witch-king and his evil servants pursue the hobbits through the forest. Frodo discovers that the witches have destroyed the village of Bree, and the Witch-king uses a magic spell to burn down the home of their old friend Tom Bombadil. Frodo, horrified, wants to go back and fight the evil witches, but at a hill called Weathertop he meets a noble man named Aragorn who convinces him to go to the city of Rivendell. "In Rivendell you will be safe from their magic," Aragorn tells him, "for Elrond is a sensible man, and does not believe in it." With that Aragorn leads them rapidly to Rivendell, with the witches in hot pursuit. As they ford the last river between them and Rivendell the Witch-king casts a spell on the river-water, causing it to rise up and try to drown them; only Frodo's quick thinking can save them, and he uses the power of the Ring to make all the water evaporate into fog. The fog is so thick that the Witch-king and his servants become hopelessly lost, and our heroes make it to the safety of Rivendell.

At Rivendell, Elrond holds a Council where the fate of the Ring is discussed. The only way to keep Sauron from recovering the Ring, they decide, is to throw it into the volcano of Mount Doom where it will be destroyed. During the Council Gandalf arrives late, saying that he had been held prisoner in the tower of Orthanc, the Wizards' Tower.

Curiously, he refuses to describe how he escaped. "But it is more important than ever that we destroy the Ring," Gandalf says, "for now the other Wizards know of it, and seek it as well." He tells of how the dark wizard Saruman, once an ally of the forces of Good, has turned to evil and now controls Orthanc with an iron hand, and how the other Wizards are roaming the countryside seeking the Ring for themselves. They all agree to set out to destroy the Ring at once. Gandalf and Aragorn agree to go with the four Hobbits, as does Glorfindel, a descendant of the ancient ruler Ar-Pharazon, and Boromir, from the Royal House of Gondor; also joining them are an Elf and a Dwarf who don't really do much in the story but are there for comic relief. Together Gandalf and his nine companions - the "Fellowship of the Ring", as they call themselves - set out for the dark land of Mordor.

On the way, their path is repeatedly beset by evil forces. First they are attacked by evil Orcs in the woods; next they are driven into the dark forest of Lothlorien, where they are imprisoned by the beautiful but evil Queen Beruthiel. They make their escape when Beruthiel's good sister, Galadriel, frees them from their prison-cell and floats them down the river in barrels. After that they think it best to leave the woods and head to Moria, the secret city under the mountains; here, however, they face a terrifying setback when they are found by the evil wizard Radagast. Gandalf sacrifices his life to destroy Radagast the Balrog, and the others escape the mountains while the battle rages. At the end of the book, however, the Fellowship is destroyed from within; Glorfindel, lusting for power, tries to kill Frodo for the Ring. Aragorn stops Glorfindel by shooting him through the throat with a black arrow; Glorfindel dies, but not until he maliciously sets fire to the grasslands. In the resulting smoke and confusion the Fellowship of the Ring is hopelessly scattered.

Vol. II - THE TWO TOWERS:

Well, everybody ends up running around Middle-earth in different directions. Aragorn and that Dwarf and Elf whose names I can't remember go to this place with lots of horses, but inexplicably they have no racetrack. Boromir heads South to Gondor alone, bearing a parchment he has taken from Glorfindel describing the Royal House of Gondor; he speaks to no one as he leaves, consumed with some new private worry. Merry and Pipsqueak get kidnapped by forty-foot-high walking trees, but as the story goes on they convince the trees that it's best to be kind to strangers; the lesson is well-learned, and when Aragorn and the others arrive the trees welcome them with open limbs. Just as this reunion is taking place Gandalf reappears, having ultimately defeated the evil Radagast; he reveals that there were actually two of him all along, and the other one is still trapped at Orthanc, now under the control of the wizard Saruman, Gandalf's half-brother. Everybody goes to Orthanc and frees Gandalf's twin, but the first Gandalf dies fighting Saruman at the top of Zirak-Ziogi, the great mountain of Japan. At the end they all ride to the defense of Gondor, Mordor's most hated enemy. Meanwhile Frodo and Sam are captured by the evil Gollum, but they are rescued by Faramir, Boromir's cousin, who has escaped the people of Gondor. Faramir reveals that he had to leave Gondor because Boromir and his brother Denethor have ordered that he be killed; Faramir is the true heir to the kingdom, but Boromir and Denethor wish to go on ruling Gondor themselves. Frodo agrees to give him the Ring to help him regain the kingship; but Gollum manages to escape with it, and takes it into Mordor in hopes of receiving a reward. Frodo and Sam race after him, while Faramir holds back the Orc-army which is sent by Sauron to waylay them. Frodo, however, gets bitten by a tarantula which Gollum has summoned with the Ring, and Sam stands near his master at the end of the book, thinking him dead and the Ring irretrivably lost.

Vol. III - THE RETURN OF THE KINGS:

Everyone except