The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel <a href="/facts/The_Lord_of_the_Rings/aS5RH7YT">The Lord of the Rings</a> by the English author <a href="/facts/J._R._R._Tolkien/41HPhk5C">J. R. R. Tolkien</a>; it is followed by <a href="/facts/The_Two_Towers/EsmGe6lb">The Two Towers</a> and <a href="/facts/The_Return_of_the_King/XR7IHHJe">The Return of the King</a>. The action takes place in the <a href="/facts/Fictional_universe/ESj2DCy2">fictional universe</a> of <a href="/facts/Middle-earth/HCQrvKQe">Middle-earth</a>. The first edition was published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom, and consists of a foreword in which the author discusses the writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning <a href="/facts/Hobbit/I8c6m2IE">Hobbits</a>, and other matters", and the main narrative divided into two "books".
Scholars and critics have remarked upon the <a href="/facts/Narrative_structure_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings/FU4hTmQt">narrative structure</a> of the first part of the volume, which involves comfortable stays at five "Homely Houses", alternating with episodes of danger. Different reasons for the structure have been proposed, including deliberate construction of a cosy world, laboriously groping for a story, or Tolkien's work habits, which involved continual rewriting. The second chapter of each book, "<a href="/facts/The_Shadow_of_the_Past/aS5RH7YT">The Shadow of the Past</a>" and "<a href="/facts/The_Council_of_Elrond/aS5RH7YT">The Council of Elrond</a>", stand out from the rest and have attracted scholarly discussion. They consist not of a narrative of action centred on the Hobbits, but of exceptionally long <a href="/facts/Flashback_(narrative)/yhReVjMu">flashback</a> narrated by the wise old wizard <a href="/facts/Gandalf/MzblM2hQ">Gandalf</a>. Tolkien called "The Shadow of the Past" the "crucial chapter" as it changes the tone of the book, and lets both the protagonist <a href="/facts/Frodo_Baggins/fQ3CvWH0">Frodo</a> and the reader know that there will be <a href="/facts/Quests_in_Middle-earth/DzC9cE4v">a quest</a> to destroy the <a href="/facts/One_Ring/DGgzmUK6">One Ring</a>. "The Council of Elrond" has been called a tour de force, presenting a <a href="/facts/Cultural_conflict/qY1Dkyvz">culture-clash</a> of the modern with the ancient.
The volume was in the main praised by reviewers and authors including contemporaries of Tolkien <a href="/facts/W._H._Auden/4AwR9p7y">W. H. Auden</a> and <a href="/facts/Naomi_Mitchison/0VKR5Y6n">Naomi Mitchison</a> on its publication, though the critic <a href="/facts/Edmund_Wilson/khywH0vT">Edmund Wilson</a> attacked it in a 1956 review entitled "Oo, Those Awful <a href="/facts/Orc/PMVplCFa">Orcs</a>!".

The Fellowship of the Ring open-in-new

The Fellowship of the Ring