The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is a novel consisting of three volumes which themselves are divided in to two books each. The story is very vast and obviously very thoroughly. In order to make the book amusing to read this was probably necessary, because the story takes place in a world which is itself completely made up.

The story

The story itself is the story of a great war between good and evil, a war in which evil controls the biggest armies, but lacks the very foundation of its power; the One Ring. This ring is the master of all magic rings (which are 20 in total), and if put on the finger of the Dark Lord, Sauron, will lead to the victory of evil for ages to come. But fortunately for the good side, they are in possession of this ring. Under the administration of Gandalf the Grey (an immortal wizard) a party is set up which are going to go to Mordor (the evil kingdom) in order to destroy the ring in the fires from which it was created; the fires of Mount Doom.

The original party consists of three hobbits (a small people with furry feet and a 'popular' - or that's probably what Tolkien meant it to be - way of thinking), of which one, Frodo, is the Ring Bearer, one elf, Legolas, who comes from the forest of Mirkwood and is a splendid assassin, the dwarf Gimli, son of Glуin (a dwarf who has a part in Tolkiens "The Hobbit"), Gandalf himself, the humans Aragorn and Boromir, both originally from Gondor, the last stronghold of man on the very outskirts of Mordor.

During a fight with orcs (an engineered race, created by the evil side "in mockery of the elves") on the banks of the river Anduin the party is shattered, and Frodo together with Sam (one of the other three hobbits, Frodos greatest friend and servant) leave the others in order to go to Mordor alone. At the same time, the other two hobbits (Merry and Pippin) get kidnapped by the orcs. The remaining three, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn (they had lost Gandalf and Boromir in earlier fights) start following the orcs. From this point on the story takes the character of a parallel story. The story jumps back and forth from the two kidnapped hobbits and their followers (first, this is two different parallels, but they merge later on) to the two hobbits going to Mordor.

The frist of the two parallels is about war, beginning with the attack on Isengard (evils stronghold in the west) by the Ents (large tree-looking creatures) and the Men of Rohan (a kingdom of knights north of Gondor), before which Gandalf reappers as Gandalf the White. After the fall of Isengard Gandalf & Co hurry to Gondor to help in the defence of the city against the evil troops gathering in the east. They manage to hold the city and in order to keep Sauron busy they start a seemingly desperate campaign against him, and marched towards Mordor.

At the same time Sam and Frodo get closer and closer to Mordor, and after a while they meet Gollum (or Smйagol as he was originally called), who has followed them for a long time. Gollum has possessed the ring for a long time, before Frodos relative Bilbo stole it from him, and is completely in its power. He's forced by Sam and Frodo to help them on their quest, and he leads them into Mordor, where he betrays them to a giant spider which they barely escape. After this they don't see Gollum for a while. Not until they reach Mount Doom does he reappear to for the last time fight Frodo for the ring. Frodo himself has gone mad and claims the ring just as he is attacked by Gollum, who manage to get the ring by biting the finger off Frodo's hand. But in his state of ecstasy Gollum is ignorant and falls into the fires and the ring is destroyed.

Immediately the power of Sauron is destroyed and his ghost is seen by the armies of the west as it is swept away by the wind. Gandalf, flying on the back of a great eagle, hurries to get Frodo and Sam, who after some time of rest get to see the new king of Gondor, Aragorn. Soon however the hobbits return home to their Shire, where they have to fight and chase away the last remnants of evil. The story ends with Frodo, Gandalf and some of the other big characters in the book going on a boat to travel over the see and leave Middle-earth.

Gollum

If I have to choose one of the characters and describe him, I'll choose Gollum. This I do because he is so extreme in all his characteristics. Gollum was as I mentioned above a slave under the One Ring. In the book we are told (by Gandalf, who interrogated him for a long time) that he was once a hobbit-like creature living along a river/lake, where he and his friends often swam and fished. One day, which happened to be Gollum's (then Smйagol) birthday, he and a friend were out on the lake. After a dive to the bottom Gollum's friend returned with a golden ring he had found. Gollum got mad by the very sight of the ring (perhaps this was due to some influence from the ring itself, it is known that is sometimes acted like that) and demanded that his friend should give it to him; after all it was his birthday. Gollum's friend, however, refused to do this saying he had already given Gollum a present. Gollum then strangled his friend, took the ring and made for the underground rivers of the nearby mountains.

There Gollum lived for ages, feeding on raw fish or lost goblins (see "The Hobbit" by Tolkien), just protecting his ring. Over time Gollums physical appearance changed. He turned dark, thin and almost hairless, got big feet like the ones you find at a frog, and green eyes which had a glow in the dark. At the same time his personality changed. Gollum - being a small-minded creature - could not use the ring in any way but for the purpose of being invisible when having it one, got enslaved by it. His personality changed and psychologically he became one with the ring, referring to the ring and himself only as "precious". Of course, this merging of the ring and Gollum did not meant that Gollum gained control over the ring, it increased it's control over him, making him nothing but it's tool (this is why Gollum for some time obeyed Frodo and helped him; he dared not challenge the Ring-bearer).

But Gollum was never completely under the power of the ring. Frodo managed to get him to act according to his own will and liking for some time during their journey together (even if this was made possible partly because of the ring). When speaking to Gollum Frodo and