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[edting]

3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is my fourth traversal through this classic trilogy. Sad to say, my opinion of these works has gone down with every reading. I was in fantasy heaven when I first encountered these books in the 6th grade, but as an adult, their shortcomings have become too difficult to ignore. I don’t think I’ll be reading them again.

First, Tolkien was not a good writer. He would have been the first one to tell you this. Tolkien’s field was linguistics, not literature. He gets confused when the scenes contain too many characters (the battle scenes suffer the most – try slogging through the descriptions of the battle at Helm’s Deep or the Siege of Gondor, for example.) Also, his polite British sensibilities were ill-suited with the brutal and violent nature of his subject matter. As such, most of The Return of the King is a murky mess. I got so frustrated with this book that anger slowly set in. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

As a linguist, he was too concerned (should I say, obsessed?) with the poems and songs that dot the works. I’m curious, does anyone actually read these? They don’t add to the story one bit and I just ignore them.

“The Scouring of the Shire” is a big mistake. Boy, do I dislike “The Scouring of the Shire.” The action’s all wrapped up and everyone’s going home, and then there’s this unnecessary (and unpleasant) conflict at the end of the book. Peter Jackson said he hated this section so much he never even considered filming it.

The last few pages of “The Return of the King” are about as incompetently executed a section as I have ever encountered in literature. I refer specifically to the passage which begins “It was evening and the stars were glimmering…”

Go and get you copy; I’ll wait.

I’ve talked to many readers about these last pages and few can agree on what actually happens. The quality of the writing is poor, and you can’t really tell what’s going on. Is all of this really taking place, or is it a dream, or is it figurative/symbolic of their journey? Forget all of that, is Bilbo there, or isn’t he? The passage states that Bilbo woke up and followed them, and then the book never mentions him again. Then there are two annoying songs/poems to wade through. Finally, after over a thousand pages of prose, the series ends with…Sam, Rose and Elanor????

Looking this over, “The Fellowship of the Ring” is probably the best of the three – it’s the slowest paced book, and there are few complicated battle scenes. “The Return of the King” fares the worst, for the opposite reasons, although it’s still better than ”The Hobbit” (don’t even get me started on “The Hobbit.”)

As seminal works that put epic fantasy on the map, The Lord of the Rings is an important piece of history. However, I think if these works appeared today, no one would give them a second thought.

[jeffp]

My first response (to this review's subject) was:

• Ed, Ed, Ed... I need to list these three books separately in the indexes, and you're only giving yourself credit for one book here. (And I will wind up listing these three books separately, but you have to choose if it's a credit for just one - as you have it now - or three.)

My second response (to this review's content) was:

• Sputter!

Then, when I had wiped off my monitor, I decided that I needed to be slightyly more coherent, so...

My third response to this review is:

• Hmmm. I have promised myself that I would reread these books soon to get them back into my head (instead of the movie version). When I get around to doing that, I will have to assess whether or not I agree with Ed's perspectives.

And that's enough responses for one review, don't you think?

Tell me if you want credit for 1 book or 3, Ed.

--jeffp

[edting]

>>Tell me if you want credit for 1 book or 3, Ed.

Jeff:

Since it's a multiple reread, I'd like to do the sportsmanlike thing and take credit for one book. I've seen the three volumes collected under one cover in bookstores, so it does exist in that form.

When you reread the books, do what you can to erase the warm memories you had when you first discovered them and try to evaluate them objectively.

-Ed

[galactic_dev]

I'm in no position to defend LOTR against your criticisms, because my fondness for it is based on several unique cool things that it has rather than a lack of flaws.

I really enjoyed the scouring of the Shire.

[jeffp]

[Eisworth]

One thing about Tolkien is that many of the battle scenes are meant to be read aloud --- he wrote them with an eye toward reproducing Anglo-Saxon poetry in prosodic English. That's why you get lots of repetition in some places.
_________________
Todd Eisworth
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Ohio University

[shaw]

"And I am the Iconoclast, an unconventional eccentric who marches to a different drummer... [hit on head] but you may call me Noodle Noggin."

Ed - thank you for this review.

I've read the trilogy thrice. We agree on a lot. What I find interesting is "The Scouring of the Shire"

First time through - Junior High - hated it. Anticlimactic.
Second time through - Grad school - hated it. Anticlimactic.
Third time through - A few years ago - loved it. As far as I'm concerned, the whole book leads up to it, and without it, the story is pointless.

The idea of the trilogy, to me, is "There and back again" How does a Big Adventure change the adventurer? What is the cost of saving the world? Can you just go back to your hobbit hole and plant crops?

The point, to me, of Scouring the Shire was not "Merry and Pippin save the Shire." It was "Merry and Pippin save the Shire AND, to them, it isn't even all that difficult." They've come back, and everyone in the Shire is helpless under tyrannical rule, and they are like, "Oh, you call THIS a problem? This ain't crap!" and the proceed to casually and jauntily plan and execute a revolution.

Frodo, of course, is a different cup of meat. And then there is incorruptible Sam. I thought it was great that we end on Sam. Sam is the Bilbo of the LOTR. We want to see if, of all people, Sam is able to go back to his ordinary life.

What I think is unforgivable is that the epilogue (what happens in The Future to the characters, including the very poignant thing that happens to Sam in his old age) is buried in Appendix C1-gamma. The first appendix should have been a nice, future timeline, where we see what happens to the characters. Either that, or leave it off entirely.

I'm sounding very PRO LOTR here - moreso than I probably am. I'm very pro Scouring of the Shire. In general, though, I enjoyed the books, but not as much as the fans did.

The Hobbit, however, was a great book, and the fact that you didn't like it means you are a crusty old Grinch whose brain is full of spiders and has garlic in his soul.