Book note: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)

An ode to adventure, and the outdoors

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."

I have been uninterested in reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring for most of my life, mostly because I’ve watched the movies over ten times and have heard many say that the movies are an exceptional adaptation of the books.

I finally bought a newer print of Fellowship from McNally Jackson Books Williamsburg while on a “book crawl.” Reading the book left me with three burning thoughts:

First, I wish I had read the book before the movies, long ago, as a kid. How would my mind first envision chunky hobbits, starry Elves, and old Wizards, using only Tolkien’s descriptions unfiltered by the movie’s visuals? How much more of the book would I notice if I wasn’t distracted by constantly comparing and contrasting scenes from the book with those of the movie?

Yet, Peter Jackson’s film served as a reference to help me visualize the narrative and landscapes better. The dwarf kingdom of Moria? Dark winding caverns and stairways, stale air. The elvish forest of Lothlorien? Massive trees with winding stairs up to treehouses lit by the stars of the night. The One Ring of Power? A simple golden circle, elegant and enthralling.

Second, I saw myself in Frodo. No, not the courageous and foolhardy Frodo who promises a council of big and important people to take the ring to Mordor; I’m not that courageous. And no, not the charismatic Frodo that friends Samwise, Merry, Pippin, and Fatty follow, with few questions asked and even fewer answered.

I saw myself in Frodo as we initially meet him - a man who learns about adventure from others (his uncle Bilbo), yearns for it (in contrast to most other hobbits), when finally presented with an opportunity for adventure, resists it until he is literally forced to depart (by the Ringwraiths), and when finally on his adventure, constantly reminisces about home (the Shire).

I suspect for Frodo, and certainly for me, home represents control. While we yearn for adventure, we do not wish to depart unless we know the outcome in advance. It is not until that control is wrested from us, or we give up the desire for control, that we embark upon our adventures.

Third, experiencing the world “out there” is the only true measure of reality, at least as it currently stands. The world is changing, but The Shire and many other regions of Middle Earth are wrapped by layers of myths, geographical boundaries, and prejudices that calcify and shroud knowledge of the outside world. Hobbits are chunky, unrefined, and simple-minded. Dwarves and Elves distrust each other, Men are considered weak, and nobody besides Wizards seems to really care about Middle Earth. Lothlorien, Fangorn, and Mirkwood are all dangerous forests. And the Enemy is who we think it is.

The journey illuminates the truth (or even creates a new truth): hobbits can be brave (Samwise) and sophisticated (Frodo), dwarves can hold the natural beauty of the Elves higher than their own crafts (Gimli’s view of Galadriel and her hair), Elves can befriend Dwarves (Legolas and Gimli), Men can be honorable (Aragorn), and the Fellowship pushes on to Mordor for the sake of Middle Earth even after the fall of its leader, the Wizard Gandalf.

What did you think of the book?