I’m going to
talk about a book series that’s very close to my heart and it’s called The Lord
of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I first read these books when I was 10, in a black
one-volume edition and I fell in love with the tale and the setting and all the
myriad characters.
I’ve often
heard it said that the sheer scale of Middle Earth and Lord of the Rings is
staggering and that makes people lose interest in the novels and throw them
down unfinished. A few of my friends have told me this, as have a few people I
met on the street. Now, why is Middle Earth so huge? Why is the scale of three
books so immense? I’m going to try and put forward my logic behind the scale of
this novel.
For those of
you not familiar with LOTR, here is a brief summary of the plot. Sauron is a
dark lord who crafts three rings- One ring to rule them all, one ring to find
them and one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. A Hobbit,
called Bilbo Baggins manages to find the One Ring to Rule Them All and his nephew
Frodo is tasked with destroying the Ring by a wizard named Gandalf the Grey.
The Ruling Ring is basically the source of all of Sauron’s power and by
destroying it, Sauron can never come back. In addition to this, the entire poem
reads thus
“Three Rings for the Elven Kings under the
sky,
Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their
halls of stone
Nine for mortal men doomed to die
One for the Dark Lord on his dark
throne
In the land of Mordor, where the
shadows lie”
However,
that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Lord of the Rings is a universe brimming
with content. The history of the various
locations in Middle Earth, which is the fictional continent where all this is
happening is in itself something majestic. We meet creatures such as Orcs in
mines, we meet giant Eagles led by Gwaiihir the Wind Lord. We also come across
a man who can turn into a bear at will called Beorn and a man called Tom
Bombadil who is a sort of sage with magical powers. Tom likes to sing, as does
his wife Goldberry.
We are taken
on a journey across mountains to the Elvish city of Rivendell, where a council
meets to decide how best to dispose of the Ring. We meet a man called Strider
whose destiny lies elsewhere. We meet the creature Gollum, corrupted by the
Ring’s power whose role in the books is pivotal. Telling you why is a major plot spoiler so if you want to know, please try reading this amazing saga.
Middle Earth
has trolls. It has giants. It has Dwarves and Men and Hobbits and giant spiders
like Sheoleb. It has Barrow Wights and
Ringwraiths. It has the Nazgul, the nine mortal men doomed to die as stated in
the poem, who are also called The Black Riders and their king, The Witch King
of Angmar. LOTR also has a fortress called Isengard, where Saruman the White
reigned and it has the forest of Fangorn home to Ents. Ents are Tree People.
Now answer
me one question. Isn’t this a lot to take in? If your answer is yes, also
consider the question of scale that I posed earlier. LOTR had to have a very
large scale because it’s narrative demanded a huge scale.
To further
cement this point, let us consider Harry Potter. Harry Potter is set in a
fictional world, just as LOTR is. Harry Potter is however confined to Hogwarts
for a long period of its narrative. Yes, we do see the Ministry of Magic and
Gringotts. But they’re just a bank and a Parliament. Further, the idea of the
Horcruxes reminds me of the Ring of Power. Storing a piece of oneself in an
object. That’s exactly what Sauron did.
If you
explore the nuances of some fantasy works, you’ll find a lot of them have drawn
from concepts shown in LOTR. This fact, once again proves that the scale of
LOTR had to be immense. I have not mentioned the extended universe and the two
books Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. Those two books, should you read
them give you a look into the history of Middle Earth.
Then again,
perhaps it is possible that in an era of increasing miniaturization and books
that reflect the progress mankind has made, something set in medieval times
like LOTR may be unpopular amongst the youth. However, the youth will have
heard of something called the Shire, a species called Hobbits and Sauron.
Thus,
I think I’ll vouchsafe this statement- the beauty of a book like Lord of the
Rings has managed to expand beyond the confines of text and has made its way
into the hearts of young and old people, across generations. I believe we can
attribute this to the scale of the book.
Yes, we have
had great fantasy writing. We have read Harry Potter, we have read Cornelia
Funke and Paolini. We have enjoyed cinematic adaptations of their work.
However, before platform nine-and-three-quarters, before Saphira and Eragon and
Durza and before Inkheart, there was the One Ring to Rule Them All.
To sum up,
yes The Lord of the Rings is a massive text and yes it does seem to go on. I
accept it can be a little tedious to read at times, but consider the galaxy of
content that is stored in just three books. Lord of the Rings invites you on a
journey. It breaks your heart, it makes you gasp with awe and in my case, it
made me fall in love with books at the tender age of 10. Lord of the Rings is
massive, because it’s meant to be
massive. LOTR is basically a behemoth in the fantasy genre. A friend of mine
even went so far as to say that if 20 is an epic, LOTR is a 16.
I rest my
case.
The Bilge Master
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