The Return of the King, Book V by J R R Tolkien

Ohhh, I had forgotten how much I love this book. I mean really, really love this book.

I raced through Book V (The War of the Ring) so quickly because I could not literally put the book down. I knew what was going to happen next, but I wanted to be there and experience it all again! I love how being fully immersed in this world makes me feel.

In some ways I was reading this for the first time though.

My previous reads had been racy, breathless reads to find out what happened next to our four beloved Hobbits. I didn't linger over the descriptions of the buildings or meander through the more scenic sections, like I did this time. Having Alan Lee's full page illustrations to pour over at regular intervals helped my stunted imagination a lot. I could trace their journey or pick out details that Tolkien referred to thanks to Lee's meticulous drawings.

I even read all of the battle scenes for the first time with care and due diligence.

I discovered so many small comments and gentle observations with this reread,

For the Tower of Ecthelion, standing high within the topmost wall, shone out against the sky, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, tall and fair and shapely, and its pinnacle glittered as if it were wrought of crystals; and white banners broke and fluttered from the battlements in the morning breeze, and high and far he heard a clear ringing as of silver trumpets.

Alan Lee, Minas Tirith

I love this section for the growth and maturity that we see in Merry and Pippin in particular. At the beginning we see them as being a tad silly and foolish. But now they have faced danger and battle together and for the first time they are separated as Pippin is raced off to Minas Tirith by Gandalf.

We realise how much Pippin has matured when we see him through the eyes of strangers - Denethor 'I see that strange tales are woven about you.'
- Beregond 'you have endured perils and seen marvels that few of our greybeards could boast of.'

We also get a Tolkien clue about where things are up to for Frodo (and Sam) when Pippin,

wondered where Frodo was, and if he was already in Mordor, or if he was dead; and he did not know that Frodo from far away looked on that same moon as it set beyond Gondor ere the coming of the day.

Via Pippin and his brush with a Nazgul, we're also reminded of Tolkien's religious beliefs -

'No, my heart will not yet despair. Gandalf fell and has returned and is with us. We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least to be left still upon our knees.'

Gandalf finishes this chapter with ominous words, 'The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.'
before passing the story telling baton back to Merry and his journey with the Riders of Rohan.

Merry's kindly, generous, father/son like relationship with Theoden brings into stark contrast Pippin's experience with Denethor. Pippin offers his service to Denethor 'for pride stirred strangely within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in the cold voice' as a 'payment' of his debt to Boromir for saving his life at the expense of his own. While Merry is moved to service by 'love for this old man'.

Either way, these two Hobbits and their sense of duty and fealty to a cause bigger than they could have ever imagined, is inspiring and a little misty-eyed at the same time.

Aragorn and the Shadow Host scenes were pretty creepy and unfamiliar to me. I have a vague recollection of this scene in the movie, but for their entire journey through the mountains, I felt like I was in a new-to-me story. Like Gimli, my sense of time got seriously waylaid here. It was only at the end of the chapter that Tolkien reminded us of the time frame, 'but the next day there came no dawn, and the Grey Company passed on into the darkness of the Storm of Mordor'.

In previous reads, the next two chapters were usually given short shift by younger me. I wanted to get to the action - I wanted Merry and Pippin to meet up again. All that riding and fortifying and waiting drove me crazy!

However, this time around I enjoyed the anticipation and the slow build. So much so, that at the end of the siege of Gondor, I trumpeted out loud (much to the bemusement of a sleepy Mr Books) 'Rohan had come at last!' and hugged the book to my chest.

The battle scenes were heroic and desperate, as one would expect of any fictional battle scene, but what I noticed this time around was that Tolkien then gives plenty of time to the after effects of such a big battle. He shows us the field strewn with the dead and dying. We feel the pain of the injured - and not just the physical pain but the psychological pain as well. Denethor's failure of character at this time, as he gives into despair, reminds us that even those on the side of good can fall into dark ways.

We finish Book V with a battle plan. Our friends (isn't it lovely to have them all back together again?) realise they are out-numbered and out-gunned by those on the side of Mordor, so they plan a sleight of hand, in the hope that Frodo will be able to follow through with his plan, which has the potential to save them all, while Sauron is distracted by them at the Black Gate.

However, things look pretty hopeless at this point. The fellowship fear for Frodo and Sam's safety after hearing about the path they have chosen, and we already know what danger has actually befallen the pair. We, the reader, know that things are even bleaker than the fellowship fear.

I always thought that The Two Towers was my favourite of the trilogy but after this, I can safely say that Book V is now my favourite part of the story.

Will Book VI be able to keep this momentum going?

I leave you, tonight, with a quote from one of Tolkien's letters.

#213 to Deborah Webster 25 Oct 1958

I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much. I love Wales (what is left of it, when mines, and the even more ghastly sea-side resorts, have done their worst), and especially the Welsh language.

#HLOTRreadalong2017 

- Masterpost

- The Hobbit readalong

The Fellowship of the Ring 

-Welcome to Book

- The Prologue

- Halfway post - Book one 

- TFOTR - Book two

The Two Towers

- Welcome to Book

- Review

The Return of the King

Book V

Book VI

The Fellowship of the Ring by J R RTolkien

The books that comprise The Lord of the Rings are usually presented as a trilogy, but it was in fact designed by Tolkien to be one single book with six parts. Obviously the publishers baulked at publishing such a large tome of a book!

On 29th July 1954 George Allen & Unwin published the first volume consisting of the first two books with the title The Fellowship of the Ring.

The second volume, with the next two books was eventually titled The Two Towers and published on 11th November 1954. The final two books were published in The Return of the King on 20th October 1955.

**Spoiler alert**
I'm now assuming that you have read the book so that we can discuss the details of what has happened.

Book Two of The Fellowship of the Ring, is, well, all about the fellowship.

We begin this section of Lord of the Rings in Rivendell where we meet all the participants of the fellowship for the first time together. We hear their back stories and find out how they ended up in Rivendell at this time.

The Gates of Moria by Alan Lee

Tolkien used all kinds of storytelling devices to keep our interest and to build up the tension.

There's the info-dump chapter where we find out all about the ring's long and dubious history. Tolkien again used the action-packed chapters full of danger and tension followed by the safe-haven chapters of comfort and ease to keep the pace up without exhausting all of us.

The humour of Merry and Pippin and the gravitas of Gandalf provided light and shade. While foreshadowing continued to be one of Tolkien's favourite ways of promoting a sense of anticipation and foreboding.

Tolkien employed metafiction when Bilbo talked about his 'story' that he was writing about his journey and the parts still to be written or completed. Although I'm reluctant to call it metafiction as I don't think that Tolkien used this technique in a deliberately self-conscious or ironic way or in an attempt to question what was real or not.

Tolkien's ability to reference the depth and breadth of his created world was particularly impressive in the two books of The Fellowship - the song that Bilbo sang, the backstory of the ring, Moria and it's long history, the extensive descriptions of the scenery, the longevity of the Elves - although this immensely rich historical detail can at times be overwhelming to the unsuspecting reader.

This particular book also had deep sadness and loss. Gandalf's stand on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum is one of the pivotal moments in the whole story.

The very strong faith based themes evident within Gandalf's stand, fall & ultimate resurrection never felt like Tolkien was preaching. He always said that he never wrote the book with analogies in mind, but obviously the religious stories that he grew up with were a central part of his life and influenced the type of story he wrote as well as infiltrating the various details.

In The Letters of J R R Tolkien* No. 142 To Robert Murray, SJ on 2 December 1953, Tolkien said,

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel.

Unlike C S Lewis' Narnia series that is heavily and overtly Christian, it is possible to read The Lord of the Rings without thinking about the religious symbolism at all. It certainly escaped my earlier, younger reading of the books.

Researching Tolkien's intentions for this reread has added layers of meaning to my understanding of the story and of Tolkien himself, but with or without these layers, LOTR remains a rip-roaring, satisfying read.

Perhaps, like Tolkien, my first, early reading was quite unconscious, with this reread being much more conscious and deliberate on the look-out for symbolism and themes.

The mysterious lurking presence of Gollum haunts our journey throughout The Fellowship. We all know he's there, we're all on our guard, but no one wants to talk about it. Yet.

The landscape was all important as well. It affected the decisions that the fellowship had to make along the way and Tolkien also used it to explain certain characteristics of the various races  - thank goodness for the map inside the cover of the book to make sense of all that 'east of this/west of that' stuff.

My Alan Lee illustrated edition also helped to bring many of the places to life which made up for my woeful lack of imagination.

The Fellowship of the Ring was also all about the ring.

The ring personifies evil and is quickly established as a character in its own right. Some of the ring stuff is confusing. For instance, the how and why of the three rings are how exactly they are linked to the one, but not necessarily evil?

I'm not really sure if Tolkien's letter* to Milton Waldman (No. 131, circa 1951) helped clarify anything at all!

The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. 'change' viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance – this is more or less an Elvish motive. But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor – thus approaching 'magic', a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination. And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron ('the Necromancer': so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible....

The Elves of Eregion made Three supremely beautiful and powerful rings, almost solely of their own imagination, and directed to the preservation of beauty: they did not confer invisibility. But secretly in the subterranean Fire, in his own Black Land, Sauron made One Ring, the Ruling Ring that contained the powers of all the others, and controlled them, so that its wearer could see the thoughts of all those that used the lesser rings, could govern all that they did, and in the end could utterly enslave them. He reckoned, however, without the wisdom and subtle perceptions of the Elves. The moment he assumed the One, they were aware of it, and of his secret purpose, and were afraid. They hid the Three Rings, so that not even Sauron ever discovered where they were and they remained unsullied. The others they tried to destroy....

(LOTR) was begun in 1936,5 and every part has been written many times. Hardly a word in its 600,000 or more has been unconsidered. And the placing, size, style, and contribution to the whole of all the features, incidents, and chapters has been laboriously pondered.

There was no where near as much fighting, violence and hand to hand combat in this book as I remember from the movie. Thank goodness!

I found the extensive and over the top battles in all of the movies tiresome and tedious. It often felt like the movie moved from one battle scene to the next. This reread has reminded me that the fighting scenes in The Fellowship at least, were sporadic and low-key, although I still found myself skimming parts of them at times.

The mirror of Galadriel by Alan Lee

The Fellowship of the Ring contained themes of isolationism vs connection, appearances vs reality and the passing of time. Courage, friendship, the corruption of power, fate vs free will and temptation also got a look in.

Some reviews have complained about the overly long descriptions and unsophisticated language. Occasionally I understand the complaint about the descriptions, but the uncomplicated language is one of the things that makes this story so accessible to young and old as well as to those readers who tend to avoid fantasy. I actually find the childlike elements in the story endearing not simplistic.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien* No. 35, 2nd February 1939:

I think The Lord of the Rings is in itself a good deal better than The Hobbit, but it may not prove a very fit sequel. It is more grown up – but the audience for which The Hobbit was written has done that also. The readers young and old who clamoured for 'more about the Necromancer' are to blame, for the N. is not child's play. 

The lack of emotional depth can be more problematic to a modern reader used to complex, nuanced character development, however nostalgia is the predominate feeling in these books, and that is something we can all tap into.

The Letters of J R R Tolkien* No. 76 - In a letter to Christopher, 28th July 1944:

As to Sam Gamgee. I quite agree with what you say, and I wouldn't dream of altering his name without your approval; but the object of the alteration was precisely to bring out the comicness, peasantry, and if you will the Englishry of this jewel among the hobbits. Had I thought it out at the beginning, I should have given all the hobbits very English names to match the shire.

I feel like I've thrown a lot of bits and pieces together from my notes with only a passing nod at coherence. I hope I haven't overloaded you!

Enough of the chatter! It's time to hit the road again and check in on our stoic ring-bearer and friends.

*The Letters of J R R Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter and assisted by Christopher Tolkien 1981.

#HLOTRreadalong2017 

- Masterpost

- The Hobbit readalong

The Fellowship of the Ring 

-Welcome to Book
- The Prologue

- Halfway post - Book one 

  - TFOTR - Book two

              

The Fellowship of the Ring - The Prologue

I confess that I am one of those readers who often skips, skims or ignores prologues and introductions in my excitement to get to the story proper. I'm also concerned that the author might inadvertently reveal an important feature of the story to come.

But this time, with my aim to reread the HLOTR leisurely and thoughtfully, I took my time with the Prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring and I noticed several interesting things.

***Spoilers will abound from here on in - so only proceed if you are also rereading LOTR or come back when you have finished***

First I have come to realise that when the author themselves have included the prologue, they have done so deliberately and for a reason. (This is where a prologue differs from an introduction written by another. Introductions written by someone other than the author, I do usually save for the end of the story as they always seem to include spoilers.)

The main thing that struck me this time, was that Tolkien clearly tells us in his Prologue that Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin all survive the war that he is about to tell us about.

He reveals that Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck) writes a book called the Herblore of the Shire and later becomes the Master of Buckland. Frodo brings Bilbo's journals back to The Shire and adds his own account of the war. Tolkien refers to the descendants of the children of Master Samwise and the great grandson of Peregrin.

The first time I read LOTR I skimmed the Prologue. I found it dry and irrelevant. I had just finished The Hobbit and felt that I knew enough about hobbits and what I didn't know I would learn as I went along.

The second time I read LOTR I did tackle the Prologue but I still didn't pick up that our four main hobbits were clearly referenced with post war happenings.

With this reread, I not only tackled the Prologue, I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it. Yes, it reads like a dry history text, but it's meant to.

I was impressed with the depth and breadth of Tolkien's knowledge about his created world. He has created distinct languages, legends, customs, history and geography for his three breeds of hobbit. The inhabitants of this world have racial characteristics as well as individual regional differences and personal temperaments. They live in a variety of socio-economic states and enjoy diverse lifestyle choices. He explains their forms of government as well as local rules and laws.

Although the prologue is all about hobbits, Tolkien divulges how The Shire fits within the bigger world picture. He references the Red Book of Westmarch, of which The Hobbit, or as Bilbo preferred to call it, There And Back Again, was just a small part in the earlier chapters. He mentions several other ancient texts as well as future ones to be written by our main characters - you would have to agree that the prologue shows Tolkien as a master of intertextuality!

We find out that we are in the Third Age of Middle Earth (what about the other two?) and we are given several hints of the troubles to come.

Bilbo's 'alternate facts' around the finding of the ring are given a whole section in the prologue. Much of Gandalf's curiosity about the origins of the ring and it's power stem from this uncharacteristic fudging of the truth by Bilbo (a fudging that we were not aware of during our reading of The Hobbit). We are then reminded of this disturbing train of events early in chapter one. Tolkien really wants us to know that the ring somehow influenced Bilbo to act deceptively and out of character.
And perhaps, it's also Tolkien's way of having fun with the fact that he did indeed change large sections of the finding of the ring scenes from the first edition of The Hobbit, to later versions that he wrote to bring it into line with events in the LOTR.

And, in case you were wondering, like I was, why there was a whole section on pipe smoking, it's to surely show us that Merry lives to write his smoking book, which our omniscient narrator then quotes from at length!

Assuming, as I have that an author includes a prologue for a reason, why does Tolkien want us to know that Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin all survive the war?

Part of the pleasure of my first read, nearly 30 years ago, was the suspense and tension of not knowing if all my favourite hobbits would live. The modern reader is used to authors killing off main characters for dramatic purposes; I was therefore expecting to lose at least one of the four hobbits for good.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Tolkien's own war time experiences?

In his foreword, Tolkien sadly explains that by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. Perhaps he doesn't want his readers (who were initially his own children) to live through the same tragic circumstances. The fear of not knowing which hobbits will survive the coming ordeal is spared us, the alert reader.

How did you find the Prologue?

#HLOTRreadlaong2017

2017 Here We Come! Ready or Not.

I usually avoid planning my reading schedule in any way shape or form. I like to let my mood and circumstances decide which book I will read next.

Occasionally I will be influenced to read a certain book at a certain time thanks to a timely readalong or Classics Club Spin, but the rest is left to whimsy and chance.

Unfortunately, it means that a lot of classic books in particular, get left behind in the titanic wake of my current bookish work life.

Working in an Indy bookshop means keeping up with the new releases. Not necessarily a bad problem to have I grant you, but it can be hard to justify the time spent reading a classic book, as I unpack yet another box of new releases that everyone is talking about already!

Adam @Roofbeam Reader has also been grappling with his unwieldy list of classic favourites that he wants to reread....one day.

His solution is to read 12 books in 2017 - 6 of which will be re-reads and 6 of which will be 'new'.

Adam's List

January: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

February: The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles

March: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

April: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

May: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

June: The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville

July: Paradise Lost by John Milton

August: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

September: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

October: Angels in America by Tony Kushner

November: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

December: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I plan to join him for a reread of The House of Mirth, Northanger Abbey and Wuthering Heights.

New-to-me reads will be Tender is the Night and Death Comes for the Archbishop.

However, there are also four books that I have been wanting to reread now for over ten years.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien.

Since working in the bookshop I have collected four beautifully illustrated (by Alan Lee) hardback editions of these books. I really want to dive into them to revisit the story and pore over the pictures.

However I've been waiting for enough time to lapse between movie LOTR and a reread so that some of Jackson's strong imagery could dissipate. When I read and reread the books in my teens and twenties, I fell in love with the Ents. The movie version of the Ents disappointed me sooooo much, and it has been hard to get that out of my minds eye. But I think I'm ready to let that go now and see Middle Earth and all it's characters anew.

Thanks to my work, I have to be realistic about the time frame in which I can read these books.

I really do have to read the new releases to keep up with customer recommendations. This is not a chore, of course, I'm not complaining, really, but it does get in the way of my classics reading and the love I get from rereading my favourites.

Many of you kindly responded to my original post flouting this idea back in September, so I hope you have allowed some time in your 2017 reading schedules for a #HLOTRreadalong2017.

Would anyone else be interested in reading (or rereading as the case may be) The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King with me next year in a very easy and generous time frame?

The Hobbit in February 

The Fellowship of the Ring in March - April

The Two Towers in May - June

The Return of the King in July - August

If you'd like to join in, please feel free to write a post heralding your intentions and share in the linky below.

Which edition will be you reading? Is it your first time? Or your hundredth? Have you watched the movies? Can you speak Elvish? 

#HLOTRreadalong2017

Are You Readalong Ready?

I am!

Since returning from my holidays and finishing my #20booksofsummer (winter) challenge and my Home and the World readalong with Cirtnecce, I've been thinking about what I want to read next and with who.

I love the classics and would like to read more. It would also help my TBR pile tremendously.

Working in a small Independent bookshop means I'm never in short of supply of the basic materials. But it also means that I have to read more new releases than I would normally do (pre-bookshop days normal that is).

How will I ever get around to reading all those classics waiting patiently on my TBR shelf and how will I find the time to reread some of my all time favourites?

At the moment, though, classics only seem to make it onto my reading pile when the latest Classics Club does it's spin or via a random readalong that I suddenly spy in blogland.

I've decided it's time to get more proactive about putting the classics back into my regular reading routine.

AusReading Month is coming up in November.

My plan this year is to read Ruth Park's 1977 Miles Franklin Award winning book, Swords and Crowns and Rings.

She was the banker's daughter, a highborn, golden beauty. He was a grocer's son, strong and proud, but fate had masked his strength and pride with a form that set him forever apart from other men. Compelling need drew them together, A bewitching fantasy encircled and sustained them. 

Then the Great Depression swept across Australia to impoverish the rich, humble the proud, and turn the poor into a stunned army of desperate vagrants and homeless vagabonds. Expelled from their enchanted realm, brutally separated, they each clutched a secret, a promise a dream of finding each other in a harsh world where only a perfect love like theirs could survive, overcome and triumph.

That's a start!

Roof Beam Reader has been talking on twitter about doing some kind of classics challenge next year, which sounds promising as I do enjoy a good readalong. I'm hoping that a couple of his choices will match my TBR and TBRR piles.

However, there are four books I've been wanting to reread now for over ten years.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien.

Since working in the bookshop I have collected four beautifully illustrated (by Alan Lee) hardback editions of these books. I really want to dive into them to revisit the story and pore over the pictures.

But I've been waiting for enough time to lapse between movie LOTR and a reread so that some of Jackson's strong imagery could dissipate.

(Can you believe it has been nearly 15 years since we sat outside the movie theatre on Boxing Day to attend the special midnight viewing of The Fellowship of the Ring in Australia?

2001 was still in the era of different release dates for movies and books around the world. Aussies had to wait a whole week longer to see each of the LOTR movies than UK and US audiences. The only good point about this was that the Australian release date was midnight on Boxing Day for each of the three movies. Three years in a row, my sisters and friends came together to watch these huge movies on the big screen. We were young twenty and thirty-somethings (pre-kids) living and working away from our birth families, but who still came home for Christmas every year. Watching these three movies became a real celebration and ceremony for us. They also marked a turning point in many of our lives as marriages, babies, new jobs and moves took us into our full-on adult lives - and away from midnight movie sessions.)

Thanks to my current job, I have to be realistic about the time frame in which I can read these books.

I really do have to read the new releases to keep up with customer recommendations. This is not a chore, of course, I'm not complaining, really, but it does get in the way of my classics reading and the love I get from rereading my favourites.

Would anyone else be interested in reading (or rereading as the case may be) The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King with me next year?

I was thinking we could read

The Hobbit in February 

The Fellowship of the Ring in March - April

The Two Towers in May - June

The Return of the King in July - August

What do you think?