The Fellowship of the Ring
Book One in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
The Two Towers
Book Two in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
The Return of the King
Book Three in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
I started this series back in November, but it took awhile to finish. In January I took up the cause in ernest. How could I approach something that has had a great cultural influcnce on many people around me? Easing into this series and then taking up the torch ended up being my plan of action.
Tolkien’s epic battle between good and evil feels very relatable. While reading this I was stuck with the parallels in World War I. It seemed very much like a noble Victorian country squire (now a commissioned lieutenant) and his batman (the Victorian rendition of batman). These two men: one a noble, the other a commoner, are surrounded by the industrial machines of war. A killing machine like no other that threatens to take over the entire world. At their disposal, the single most important weapon of all, the purpose to do what is right. They willingly volunteer to pass through no-man-land on a one way mission to enter enemy territory with no support and lay down their lives that others might live.
Whether intended or not, Tolkien’s world seemed uncanny in how it paralleled the concepts of Victorian nobility contrasted by the portrayal of industrial warfare. It transports our human imagination to the experiences of a horrible reality in an otherworldly setting. The disembodied etherial nemesis so fits the idea of industrial warfare: it has dehumanizing efficiency on a scale that seems to dwarf humans into oblivion. It is a real thing, yet it is embodied through proxies, the soaring screeching of dragons, the cruelty of orcs and the oppression of doom. All these try to destroy what humans were meant to be: great nobles that lay down their lives for others.
Ultimately the thing to fear, is not the power of darkness. It is the darkness that should fear, just a single man doing the right thing.
Concluding thoughts: I know many people enjoy this series for its ability to transport you out of your own reality. I preferred to see it as a mechanism to comment on our own reality, to make those things that are hard to understand, more real. I am grateful that I finished the series, but I was not left with the scale of awe or a sense of transcendence, that it feels other people see when reading this series. For me, a good book, not a great one.