Lord of the Rings Books
Last updated: September 02, 2024
The books that, loosely speaking, make up the story of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings are well worth reading, better—or at least very different—from the films. These are stories of adventure that have the epic feel that the movies capture, but against a backdrop of conviviality and the pleasures of eating, drinking and telling stories by the fireside as you gather with your companions. Notably, the books are filled with poems that are composed and told by the main characters and pay homage to an oral storytelling tradition that has largely disappeared from our culture but Tolkien clearly admired.
Below, we've listed the Lord of the Rings books in the best order to read them, starting with The Hobbit (published in 1937), which sets up the basic story and characters from which the rest of the tale flows.
“This one book, which was published in 1937, defined so many variables for the fantasy tradition that are still in place today. Tolkien’s extraordinary achievement was to recover the epic landscapes of Anglo-Saxon myth, bring them back to life, and then to take us through them on foot, so we could see the details up close, at human scale. The Hobbit is both mythic and relatable at the same time – The New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik called it ‘an arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and The Wind in the Willows’, and I think that’s entirely fair. Though I would give more credit to the bass register of Tolkien’s imagination, its abyssal depths. Mole never delved as deep as the Mines of Moria.” Read more...
Lev Grossman, Novelist
The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings Part One)
by J R R Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring, published in 1954, comprises books 1 and 2 of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s thousand-page plus fantasy novel. As book 1 opens, we learn that Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, has remained a bachelor, but adopted a distant cousin, Frodo Baggins, as his heir. More surprisingly, Bilbo is about to turn 111 without, apparently, having aged at all. The power of the ring Bilbo picked up in The Hobbit is gradually revealed and it becomes clear that Frodo too must leave home to keep both himself and the world safe. He takes flight just in time, in the company of three hobbit friends. In book 2, the company escorting the ring expands to nine, who call themselves the ‘Fellowship of the Ring.’ The fellowship represents ‘the Free Peoples of the World’ and includes not only hobbits but also elves, dwarves and men, as well as the magician, Gandalf.
The book’s appeal lies in its brilliant evocation of being on the run from danger and the meaning of fear, as well as the power of camaraderie and the challenge of distinguishing friend from foe, and those you can trust from those you can’t. Tolkien is able to make the agents of evil in The Fellowship of the Ring truly terrifying.
The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings Part Two)
by J R R Tolkien
The Two Towers includes books 3 and 4 of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings epic, opening just after the fellowship of the ring splits up. At this point in the story, it may be useful to have a map to hand, as the geography, while beautifully described, can be hard to follow. Maps (drawn by Christopher Tolkien, JRR Tolkien’s son and literary executor) are included in the book but don’t trace the characters’ routes. For that, it’s worth exploring online, where you can find resources like this one. Book 3 follows the fate of most of the members of the fellowship, and is largely about the coming together of forces to do battle against Saruman, a wizard gone bad. Men, trees and orcs (goblins) feature in a fight, which even if you’re not generally big on battle scenes is gripping.
Book 4, by contrast, follows only Frodo, ‘the ringbearer’, and his friend Sam on their lonely journey to Mordor, the home of the enemy but also the only place where the ring of power can be destroyed. It’s about doing what you least want to do because you must. JRR Tolkien was very emphatic that his books were in no way an allegory for anything, but he did live through both World War I (in which many of his friends died) and II and the idea of duty and sacrifice for a cause is strong.
The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings Part Three)
by J R R Tolkien
The Return of the King is the 5th and 6th book of The Lord of the Rings epic and its final instalment. In book 5, the members of the fellowship become increasingly embedded in the world of men, as they fight against evil alongside two kingdoms: Gondor and Rohan. It’s almost a medieval military story, with sieges and battles, and a king returning to claim his throne. A few magical elements here and there keep the fantasy aspect alive.
Book 6 follows Frodo and Sam on the last part of their journey to Mount Doom to destroy the ring. Quite a substantial part of the book is about the journey home, which works well as by this stage of the book, you’re thoroughly invested in quite a few of the characters.
One additional thing to note: the appendices at the back of The Return of the King are quite an eye-opener in terms of the scope of Tolkien’s world-building. There are substantial family trees and chronologies, additional historical details and a large section devoted to the languages of Middle-earth, including an alphabet and a pronunciation guide.
“Tolkien didn’t set out to write novels, he set out to create a world. He wrote The Hobbit almost by accident–because he was telling the stories to his children, you see. After that his publishers wanted a follow up to The Hobbit, so he said ‘Well, I’ve got this thing I’ve been working on,’ which was the manuscript of The Silmarillion. They balked at that and asked if he had anything else with more Hobbits in it. So, he set himself to the task of writing a sequel which grew and grew and grew.” Read more...
Books Drawn From Myth and Fairy Tale
Alan Lee, Cartoonists & Illustrator
