An Inspiration to Us All - Rated 
The first part of the famous epic of The Lord Of The Rings , The Fellowship Of The Ring begins in the tranquil , rural setting of the Shire .It is from here that we get our first view of Middle Earth with the preparations for the 111 th birthday party of Bilbo Baggins (the hero of the children's classic The Hobbit ) . We are introduced to the many relatives of Bilbo and of course the hero of LOTR , Frodo Baggins (Bilbo's favourite nephew ) and his faithful gardener Sam Gamgee as well as his two favourite cousins Peregrine (Pippin ) Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck.
It is after Bilbo's carefully planned disappearance and during visit from the Wizard Gandalf that we are introduced to the horrible threat to Middle Earth involving the Dark Lord , the enemy , Sauron and the Ring of Power which was introduced as a minor theme in The Hobbit and has been inherited by Frodo .
Frodo sets out on the grand adventure with Sam,Pippin and Merry and it is in the Shire itself where the Hobbits encounter the absolute evil of the Black Riders (Ringwraiths) and the magic and beauty of the Elves . Throughout the novel they go from one diabolical danger to another , but are relieved by their stay in certain havens where the dangers and darkness of Middle Earth are kept at bay - The House of Tom Bomabadil and the Elven Kingdoms of Rivendell and Lothlorien. Together with their companions Gandalf , Aragorn the mysterious ranger (and heir to the ancient Kingdom of Numenor ) , the young warrior from Gondor , Boramir , the Elf Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli we are introduced to the scope of Middle Earth from the beautiful to the diabolical , from the homely to the mysterious , from the noble to the villainous . We also see the brilliance of Tolkien as a poet as we are introduced to a variety of Poems and Songs recited by different characters.
Tolkien stressed that LOTR was in no way meant to be an allegory and was not meant to parallel any events taking place during the time , in this case the Second World War.
Instead he says he approves of applicability which he distinguished from allegory by writing that the one refers to the ' freedom of the reader and the other in the proposed domination of the author ' . Thus while we must always bear in mind that LOTR is in now way an allegory we are free to draw our own analogies and parallels with events in our world .
The Lord Of the Rings was published in 1954/55 .
At the time there where many similarities between our world and Middle Earth . The world was divided into the Free World (as was Middle Earth ) which was engaged in a titanic battle with the Communist World and its surrogate Revolutionary Movements which aimed to destroy the way of life of Middle America and Middle England (which was mirrored in The Shire of Middle Earth ) . It aimed to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage and all that we knew as right and good (as Mordor aimed to destroy everything noble and beautiful on Middle Earth ) through the use of terror and their disdain for what they saw as 'bourgeois ' mirrors the scorn expressed by Saruman ( in his meeting at Isengard with Gandlaf described in Chapter 11: The Council of Elrond ) for the values of old , and replace it with a system of total power and enslavement . Therefore it is hardly difficult to draw a parallel between Mordor and the old Soviet Union ( or during World War II Hitler's Third Reich ) , between the Orcs , Trolls and even fouler things infesting Middle Earth during Frodo's journey and the Revolutionary regimes and movements around the world at the time of The Cold War held in thrall by Moscow or Peking such as Nasser's Egypt , Castro's Cuba , the Viet Cong and Gadaffi's Libya .
As Robert Foster , who has made detailed studies of Tolkines works and written various volumes on the topic once said : ' I remember at a Tolkien conference watching a Polish woman reach out to shake [daughter] Priscilla Tolkien's hand , This was in the dark days before Communism fell, and she said, 'You have no idea what your father's books have meant to us. They kept us believing that the Orcs would not always win.'
"The Lord of the Rings is the story of a long and difficult battle against great evil, taken on by the humblest," he continued".
Indeed LOTR encapsulates all that great values of Western Civilisation - Freedom ,faith , the importance of the individual and the heroism of the common man .
We can take faith again from LOTR as in the words of writer JP Zmirak '' A SHADOWY, evil overlord hides himself amid an unmapped mountain range. There he wields absolute power over fanatics and slaves, scheming for domination over the free peoples of the world. He sends forth assassins into peaceful lands and cities, spreading terror among civilians" : which refers to the network of terror supported by Radical Islam and Revolutionary Movements today which once more aims to , through an evil theology , spread terror to the innocent (whether in New York , Antwerp , Geneva or Jerusalem ) in order to destroy Western Democracy and our Judeo-Christian civilisation . Once more we need the faith of Tolkiens World to know that the forces of evil , no matter what the odds , will not win.
Chew a hundred times before swallowing - Rated 
Nobody should underestimate Tolkien's contribution to the canon of English literature in general, or his influence on the genre of fantasy in particular. His body of work is epic in scope and impressive in detail. I know an awful of lot people for whom Tolkien is the begining and the end - no other writer comes close. His work has been translated into numerous languages and three fine feature films have brought his work to life on the screen.
However, for every Tolkien fanatic I know, I can also point to a barely touched copy of the Fellowship gathering dust in an attic. Many readers fall by the wayside without really denting the tome. The Lord of the Rings(LOTR) Trilogy is hard work - there's just too much noise getting in the way of the story and the characters. You really need to perservere with the LOTR. Sometimes it seems that Tolkien has deliberately thrown obstacles in the reader's path to test their resolve or worthiness - archaic language, agonising digressions, turgid poetry and songs that make you want to leap out the window.
Tolkien will still be read in a hundred years I'm sure, and rightly so. Just don't go buy the books because you liked the films. If your typical novel experience is an easy holiday read - a Dan Brown or a Michael Crichton, or your attention span isn't better than the average Joe's, then steer well away. Otherwise, it just might change you life. ( Kind of! )
You'll either love it or hate. ( Apart for me! )
Surprisingly i enjoyed it! - Rated
I read this book simply because my friend is in the musical. I have never been interested in 'make believe' worlds full of strange creatures....so i didnt think reading about hobbits and orcs would interest me. But surprisingly i loved it. Middle Earth became very real for me and the story held my interest. Its worth giving it a try! Besides its worth reading about the little hobbit Sam. He is by far my favourite character in literature now!
Possably the greatest of the Three. - Rated
I recently finnished this book for the second time, and its just doesn't get boaring at all. I swear, this time I read it there are things that i didn't know were in it the first time I read it. Tolkien's fantastic descriptive work is a marvel to behold, as is this book which fits in wonderfully with his mythology of Middle Earth. If you havn't already, buy this book now, without more delay.
A let down - Rated 
I was quite looking forward to reading this book as it had been recommended to me by a number of friends and I had quite enjoyed The Hobbit, but when I actually started reading I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. There were pages and pages of awful poetry and songs which in the end I just skipped through. Lots of what happened seemed irrelevant and overly written and what could have been said in a few pages instead took up a few chapters. Loads of people that have reviewed this book say that part of the reason it's hard to read is because it is written 50 years ago. That is part of it but I have read other books that were written in the 50's and they defiantly aren't like this, it is just Tolkien's style of writing. I hate not finishing a book and it was only this that made me continue reading, not because I wanted to know what happened. Not the worst book I have ever read but I was just really disappointed.
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