Lord of the Rings - Book Review

Lord of the Rings
By J R R Tolkein


I wanted to get back into the fantasy genre. While I started with the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursulla Leguin, I had an urge to read, actually re-read LOTR by Tolkein. Two weeks ago, I picked it up and finished it yesterday.

One thing that was constantly in my mind as I was reading the book is that there is no way, I can now decouple the movies from the books. I have seen the movies so many times, I remember all scenes and almost remember all lines. To me Aragorn is nothing but Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of him, likewise for Gandalf and Sean Astin's Sam.  The movie's background score (by Howard Shore) goes in the background of many scenes. I was searching of lyrics of Into the West  in the poetry of Tolkein at the end.  I was just amazed at how so many things from the book that the movie has captured. Yet, so many beautiful things it missed. I honestly believe that movies do justice to the text as much as it can be done. Sure, there are some liberties taken and some annoy me, but overall, I think I not only approve of the approach, I love it.

The reason for the above para at the beginning is to acknowledge that I am a big fan of movies.  Even more so, after visiting Hobbiton. So, in a way this book reading can be seen more about enriching my movie version imagery of LOTR. It is a colored lens.

When I had read the first time, I had read Hobbit first and then followed it by LOTR.  The hobbit movies had not come out. I did not like the book of hobbit as much. It is childish. But my first reading of LOTR had a good memory. There was no blog post of that time, but I remember reading at my parents' home in Dakra and then watching the director's cut LOTR movies after that, on some break from US, and it remains a very good memory till date.  It is from this reading that something was imprinted that wanted me to revisit it. I remembered Tom Bombardill and hands of the king with its healing power.  I wanted to live that world again.

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I loved the book. Very very much. Probably better than the movies this time. Probably more than my first reading. So much texture is there. The characters are fairly well etched out. I love the small banter between Gimli and Legolas. I love when Gandalf carries Pippin on Shadowfax to Gondor and they tell stories. I love that the favorite pass-time of this world is to tell tales, historic tales of distant lands. Even more so, when they acknowledge that they themselves are in a tale which if they survive will be told to generations after them.

LOTR has three aspects to analyze - the plot/narrative, the language which is primarily the characters with their banter and lastly, the grandiose scale of the world building.  The narrative and world building go hand in hand. With Frodo's journey from one land to another, we are also explorers of this world. From Ents in Fangorn forest to Lothorien elves, the history of Moria, Mordor, Gondor with its stewards, Minas Tirith, Minas Mogul, this is an epic scale. To do so all in 1000 odd pages is phenomenal.  Tolkein even developed an entire language to aid his scale.

From plot point of view, once you remove the middle earth aspects, it is a simple good vs evil story where normal folks become heroes because of circumstance. It is a classic fairy tale. There is courage in all of us. When Merry uses his sword to attack the Nazgul, even knowing that he can not kill it, it is a sheer courage and loyalty. Some commentators attack this novel for black and white characters, while I agree, but at the same time, for this format, for this length, for this scale, it is not possible to have that too.  It is after all a simplistic right vs wrong tale underneath.

One thing to note, in particular is the penultimate chapter titled "Scouring of the Shire". I do remember that when I first read it, I was not sure what to make of it. I remember thinking that it is good that it was cut out from the movies. It adds nothing to the main plot line. But this time around, I liked it very much. For one, it reduce the scale from world to local to home. Throughout the journey, each hobbit longs for the Shire that they had left, wondering what would be happening there, how peaceful their past life is and how much they look forward to it. But once they reach Shire, after the ring id destroyed, the world has a new king, the home that they longed for, their home, it is no longer there. It is extremely tragic. This is the textured nuance that Tolkein brings that makes this chapter special. "This is worse than Mordor" claims Sam. Shire is juxtaposed with Mordor.   What follows this horror is again back to the good vs evil story - people of Shire come together to drive ruffians out. It is also a fitting end to Saruman, killed by his own disciple.

When the Gondor's gate is broken, Aragorn claims that he will ask Gimli to send skilled dwarfs from his home when he goes back to rebuild it. When the battle of Gondor is won, Aragorn tents outside the fort to wait for someone to welcome him as a king otherwise his claim may be challenged later where he decides to enter as a king himself.  And how do people believe that he is the true king? Because the hand of the king is the hand of the healer. When Bilbo meets Frodo after the ring is destroyed, he still longs to see the ring one more time. Through this vignettes, Tolkein immerses us in his world where things are connected. For we may forget these connections, as there is so much going on. But is in between these lines that makes LOTR shine on as a masterpiece. The fantasy, the myth comes in forefront and it is does not look contrived, it is a continuum.