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Length:
492 pages
The author:
John Ronald Reuet Tolkien was born on the 3rd January 1892. He studied literature and English language at the Oxford University. 1972 he was promoted by the queen of England with the title of a Commander of the British Empire. He died on the 2nd September 1973.
He devoted nearly his whole life to create and build up an own world in his books, which is so real that it could be ours.
The main characters:
Frodo Beutlin:
He is the nephew of Bilbo Beutlin. In the story it is his mission to throw the master ring into a volcano in Mordor, which is called the "Mountain of Fate". He is the main character in the story and has the strongest resistance to the evil powers of the ring. He lives in Hobbingen and is faithful, always happy - like every Hobbit-, trustable and mindful of his big duty.
Bilbo Beutlin:
A hobbit who lives in Hobbingen in the Auenland. He adopded Frodo, when Frodo was a child and got first in contact with the evil ring. His character is sometimes strongly influenced by the dark powers of the ring, and so he sometimes reacts curios.
Gandalf the grey wizard:
Gandalf is a good friend of Bilbo and Frodo Beutlin. He gives Frodo the order to destroy the ring. He gave himself the mission to fight against the evil powers of Sauron, the Lord of Hell. His name and he as a person is known by everyone on the world, but only some persons know his character, because he is very mysterios and locks his feelings and thoughts well.
Aragorn (Wanderer):
Aragorn is the last of the race of the Dunedains. His ancestors once defeated Sauron, but they were forgotten, and not very many persons know, who Aragorn really is. In the story he shows many faces: From the neglected wanderer up to the noble, generous and honest knight.
Samweise Gamdschie:
He is the best friend of Frodo Beutlin and is involved by chance in this story, because he eavsdropped on the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo. He often saves Frodo´s life meanwhile the story. He is always helpfully, friendly and sometimes a little oaf.
Peregrin Tuk (Pippin) & Merriadoc Brandybock (Merry):
Good friends of Frodo and Sam, who join their group at the beginning of the story.
Legolas an Elve, Gimli a Dwarf and Boromir a Fighter: They are later members of the ring group.
There are over 100 other characters in the book, who the group meets or who are sometimes mentioned.
The story:
A long time ago in the past the elves made rings of power for the races on earth: Nine for the humans, seven for the dwarfs and three for themself, but some time later the Dark Lord Sauron stole the art oft ringmaking from the elves and made the master ring, the ring which had power over the others. With the time he brought the nine and the seven rings under his control. He turned their owners into ring ghost, which had to serve him. Many years later an alliance between elves, dwarfs and humans turned against him and his dark land Mordor and a great hero named Isildur out of the race of the Dunedains cut the ring off his finger, but Isildur didn´t want to destroy this beautiful ring and so he took it himself, but after the battle he was slain by evil orcs and the ring fell into the great river Anduin and was lost for a long time. Meanwhile Sauron built up his powers again and his ghost came back to Mordor into his dark fortress. He sent out his ring ghosts to search for the ring, because while he grew stronger and stronger the alliance between the three races broke up into pieces. The ring was the last thing that he needed to get absolute power over the world.
Hundrets of years after the death of Isildur, Gollum a small gnome found the ring, but the evil powers of the ring turned his soul and his mind bad, but he also didn´t want to throw away the ring, because it could make him invicible.
Many years later Bilbo Beutlin found Gollum´s lair, which was deep inside a mountain, he also found the ring and used it, so he could escape form the angry Gollum unseen. When he came back to Hobbingen in the Auenland Gandalf the grey wizard visited him and found out that the ring he found was the master ring. He ordered him not to make any use of it, because it poisens the soul and the mind and because the dark lord could feel it when the ring was used.
The years passed and Bilbo grew older and it made him great fun to tell his nephew Frodo Beutlin, which he adopted after the death of his parents, the stories of his great adventures in the past. One day Gandalf came in great haste to Frodo´s and Bilbo´s house and told them, that the ring ghosts were approaching to the Auenland and that they searched for the ring. He said, that it was now the right time to destroy the ring. Bilbo thougt that he had to go, but Gandalf explained him, that he had already played his role in this game, so he begged Frodo to go. Frodo, was not sure, but finally said "yes". This conversation was listened up by Sam Gamdschie, who wanted to accompany Frodo on his dangerous mission. Gandalf himself said, that he wanted to talk about the situation with the greatwizard Saruman, so he could accompany them. But he swore, that he would meet them in Bruchtal, where they should first travel to, or sooner.
On the next day the broke up to their first station: the small town Bree. In Bree the met the Wanderer, who really was Aragorn the last Dunedain. He told them, that he knows ways which aren´t known by the ring ghost. So the four decided to give the leadership to him. Precautionary they slept in the cellar this night. Theyr were lucky, because in this night the ring ghosts completely devestated their sleeping room at the inn of Bree.
They traveled for the next week, without any interruptions, but in the night of the eight day they were attacked by the ring ghosts and Frodo was so afraid that they could get him that he used the ring and entered into the dark world of them and saw their faces for the first time. Before Aragorn could take off the ring from his finger he was badly wounded by one of the ring ghosts. Finally they could scare away them, by using burning pieces of wood.
Frodo felt worser every day. After the third week they reached the ford of the river near the fortress of Bruchtal. There they met the highelve Legolas, who had been sent out from Elrond, the Lord of Bruchtal, who was an elvewizard. When Frodo wanted to cross the ford, they all heard loud noises made by horses. They were encountered by the ring ghost, which wanted the ring. With his last energy Frodo crossed the river and broke down on his knees. Before he fell into comma he could see how the river´s water ran back and crushed down on the ring ghosts, as they tried to cross the river.
When he woke up, he was lying in a bed in Bruchtal and near him was sitting Gandalf, who told him about the happenings at the ford: The bodies of the ghosts were killed, but their souls have gone back to Mordor, where Sauron would give them new bodies and horses. They would come back. He also told him, that he has been betrayed by Saruman, who also wanted to use the great powers of the ring, to rule the world. He imprisoned him, but Gandalf could escape and came to Bruchtal as fast as he could.
On the next day there was a big conference under the head of Elrond. There Frodo got to know Gimli the dwarf, Boromir and many other persons. The council decided, that only a small group should be sent out into the land of Sauron, where Frodo should destroy the ring. So the small group, which consisted of Aragorn, who how Frodo knowed now, was a king, Gandalf, Legolas the elve, Gimli the likeabel dwarf, Boromir, Merry & Pippin, Sam and at last himself was formed.
It was already late fall, when they broke up. They traveled without any interupptions, until they cam to the mines of Moria, through which they had to go, because it the mountains were already unpassable in this time of the year.
At the door to the mines, they were attacked by a gigantic octupus, which came out of the lake and took their horses with him into the deep. Gandalf and Aragorn were the only ones in the group, who had ever passed the cursed mines of Moria, and they didn´t had good memory to this adventure, but it was the only way to get to Loth Lorien, the forest of the elves which was the second station on their long journey. With Gandalf as their leader they passed the mines in four days, but at the last bridge, they were attacked by a Balrog - an immense creature with two wings and which could also spit fire. While the others ran over the bridge and waited at the other end, Gandalf challanged the beast. After a short battle, the bridge broke down and the two fell down into the deep hole and the group thougth that Gandalf was dead. So they went out of the mines and continued their journey desperated, because their leader was dead.
In the end of the first book they enter the magical land Loth Lorien.
The Statement:
In my view this book is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read (I read over 40 fantasy-books). Tolkien biulds up a whole world with it´s own history, biologie, geographie, races, animals etc.. This world was created perfectly. Everything is absolutely realisticly described as if it happened on our world. The author has a very good stile. He doesn´t want to simplify actions and situations, so some passenges are not easy to understand, but that doesn´t mean that they are not good written! There are also over 200 songs and poems in the book, that were invented by Tolkien and which are very interesting and sometimes funny to read. It´s not to brutal, always fascinating and the tention level never falls. Tolkien has the talent to describe persons and things perfect till into the detail.
This book is one of my favorite books. I have over 7 books of Tolkien and I think that he is one of the best and popular fantasystory-writers.
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