Lord of the Rings

Tolkien had been writing “The Lord of the Rings” for more than 10 years. He wrote the first chapters in 1939 after the success of “The Hobbit”. The trilogy was published first in 1954-1955. In his letter to Carole Batten-Phelps the writer affirms that he wrote “The Lord of the Rings” for his own pleasure as an attempt to create a major work. Tolkien never thought that his fantasy adventure would become so famous worldwide. The writer’s friend, C.S. Lewis, who wrote a review for the first part of “The Lord of the Rings”, didn’t believe the book would be a success either. However, his fears proved groundless.

The epic “The Lord of the Rings” became a real treasure of English Literature of the XX century. All the time critics find new ideas and draw analogies with reality. “The Lord of the Rings” formed the basis of such a literary genre as fantasy - a branch of fiction, which is based on mythological and historical traditions with a grain of magic. It became a so-called Bible for other writers working in this genre.

It was very difficult to link up a fairy-tale “The Hobbit” with a large-scale literary work addressed to a more serious audience. Many characters appear as if by themselves in the trilogy. In a letter to Auden Tolkien stated that he himself together with the Fellowship of the Ring had gone all the way up to Orodruin. We cannot help admiring Tolkien’s careful elaboration of the history of Middle-earth. There are no unnecessary or unimportant characters or geographical areas. Every character plays his/her role in a complicated plot.