The Fellowship of the Ring

The action in "The Fellowship of the Ring" is set in a prehistoric era in a fictional world that is called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth. The land is inhabited by dwarves, trolls, ores (or goblins), elves

and Hobbits, "a little people, smaller than Dwarves... They possessed the art of disappearing swiftly and silently... They dressed in bright colours, being nota­bly fond of yellow and green; but they seldom wore shoes... Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouth apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking... All Hobbits were, in any case, clannish and reckoned up their relationships with great care... At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had never fought among themselves... They were hospita­ble and delighted in parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted. The be­ginning of the Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days, [they] lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them... It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered". In those days, like in ours, Good was always surrounded by Evil and the idea of hospitality is very important because the characters of the story are often getting themselves into trouble. The leading theme of the book concerns the struggle of Good and Evil. Thus the narration is rich in contrasts: day and night, light and dark are opposed to each other. On top of everything, the author emphasizes the power of the past that determines and foreshadows the fu­ture. Firstly, it seems that forces of evil are as powerful as the hobbits are powerless. Then step-by-step, nega­tive things vanish because the idea of friendship,

truthfulness and patient kind-heartedness among hobbits permeates the plot. Therefore, positive things overpower negative ones. The inevitable victory Good is obvious. The writer has to possess a vi\ imagination in order to point out the ways in whic Good will win. He reveals the events against tl background of a fair share of battle, bloodshe changing of hands in the world of mystery and ok forgotten secrets. "The Fellowship of the Ring" is a work within the fantasy genre. The description of the char­acters is much in line with the traditional stories of I knights and ladies who encourage the warriors. Gal-adriel the Lady of Lorien plays a great role in the tal«her kindness and might permeate the minds and hearts of the warriors. She is a symbol of sacrifice, j Tolkien's knowledge of ancient literature helps him to create the fairy images of the Middle-earth. The literary tradition of the elusive oracles dates back to ancient Greek mythology. Hobbits could disappear swiftly and silently, and " this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clum­sier races."

Throughout the novel the magic ring, the symbol for the power of evil, is in the centre of the narration, The ring holds a special power over the bearer. It enables its owner to disappear. That Great Ring of elfish creation belongs, in fact, to the Dark Lord who is going to enslave Free People, Hobbits and Elves. But the powerful Ring is stolen by Bilbo, a wealthy hobbit and then inherited by Frodo, his cousin. Gan-

dalf, the wise wizard, says that his "time is coming. The Morgul-lord and his Black Riders have come forth. War is preparing!" The Dark Lord desires to claim the Ring. Meanwhile, Gandalf informs Frodo that the Ring is very powerful and dangerous. Thus it has to be destroyed. The only place where it can be destroyed is Orodrium, a mountain in the evil land of Mordor. It is Frodo who has to put an end to the evil power of the magic ring. He can't avoid his fate and get rid of the Ring. But the guidance of Gandalf helps Frodo in his journey. Besides, Frodo's faithful friends, Sam, Merry and Pippin, accompany him in making their way to Crickhollow, which is in Buck-land. On the road, Frodo and the Company hear hoof steps coming behind them. The dark figures of the Black Riders follow the travellers. They are the Ring-wraiths, the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings, "amorphous in shape and incredibly threatening... They don't see the world of light, but our [hobbits] shapes cast shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys; and in the dark they perceive many signs and forms that are hidden from us: then they are most to be feared. And at all times they smell the blood of living things, desiring and hating it. Senses, too, there are other than sight or smell. We can feel their presence... they feel ours more keenly... Also... the Ring draws them". Frodo is the only one that has seen the Black Riders for the power of in­visibility if he wears the Ring on his finger. Thus the Ring creates a great contrast between the bearer, Frodo, and the rest of the Company. The Black Riders, a personification of Evil are opposed to the hobbits, a symbol of Freedom who are fond of peaceful lile, leisure and enjoyment, eating, drinking and singiii)-.

"And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, of six meals a day...". Again and again the cont between the dangerous road and the idyllic life home permeates the narration. "There were rumour of strange things happening in the world outside; the ancient East-West Road ran through the Shire to its^; end at the Grey Havens, and dwarves had always used it on their way to their mines in the Blue Mountains... They were troubled, and some spoke in whispers of | the Enemy and of the Land of Mordor. That name the hobbits only knew in legends of the dark past, like a shadow in the background of their memories; but it was ominous and disquieting. It seemed that the evil power in Mirkwood had been driven out by the White Council only to reappear in greater strength in the old strongholds of Mordor. The Dark Tower had been rebuilt, it was said. From there the power was spreading far and wide, and away far east and south there were wars and growing fear. Ores were multiplying again in the mountains. Trolls were abroad, no longer dull-witted, but cunning and armed with dreadful weapons. And there were murmured hints of creatures more terrible than all these, but they had no name".

There are several characters in the story that the hobbits can trust on their way. One of them is Tom Bombadil, "a merry fellow; bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow... He is the Master of wood, water, and hill... Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first rain-drop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When

the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless — before the Dark Lord came from Outside". Tom is associated with the im­ages of nature. Both Tom and the Old Forest have seen many stories: "He then told them [Frodo and his friends] many remarkable stories, sometimes half as if speaking to himself, sometimes looking at them sud­denly with a bright blue eye under his deep brows. Often his voice would turn to song, and he would get out of his chair and dance about. He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest, about the evil things and good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles". The personification of the Old Forest is very important; it creates the atmosphere of mystery and tale: "But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the tees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs... the hearts of trees and their thoughts, which were often dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning: destroyers and usurpers". The Old Forest produces a powerful impression: " It was not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten wood; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the

fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords". The language of the narration is rich in metaphors and similes. "Sleep" implit "death"; "Great Barrows" mean "graves". Tom Bor badil advised the company "to pass barrows by on tl west-side, if they chanced to stray near one. Then taught them a rhyme to sing, if they should by ill-luc fall into any danger or difficulty the next day:

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow, By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us! Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!

The rumours of the barrows frighten the Compa­ny. They have heard many "whispered tales" about Great Barrows that can recall nothing except a sense of dread. Nevertheless, they can't escape the trap: "The fog... rose above them, and as it mounted it bent over their heads until it became a roof... They felt as if a trap was closing about them; but they didn't quite lose heart". Suddenly Frodo is lost in the mist: "The mist was flowing past him now in shreds and tatters. His breath was smoking, and the darkness was less near and thick. He looked up and saw with surprise that faint stars were appearing overhead amid the strands of hurrying cloud and fog... Out of the east the biting wind was blowing... To his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black shape. A great barrow stood there... His knees gave, and he fell on the ground. Nothing happened, and there was no sound... The icy touch froze his bones, and he remembered no more... A Barrow-wight had taken him...". When Fro­do comes to himself he "noticed all at once that the

darkness was slowly giving way: a pale greenish light was growing round him... he turned, and there in the cold glow he saw lying beside him Sam, Pippin, and Merry. They were on their backs, and their faces looked deathly pale; and they were clad in white". At that moment Frodo remembers the rhyme that Tom Bombadil has taught them, and he begins to sing in "a small desperate voice". And Tom Bombadil has come to help the hobbits who "thanked Tom many times; but he laughed, and said that they were so good at losing themselves that he would not feel happy till he had seen them safe over the borders of his land". The travellers are lucky ones because good-natured creatures, Elves, Dwarves and Big Folk, help them during their dangerous journey, especially in the most miserable and desperate situations.

Strider is another figure that can be trusted. Only Strider can take them "by paths that are seldom trod­den". Thus under his guidance the hobbits make their way through the Misty Mountains and the caves of Moria which are much more dangerous than the Old Forest. Frodo has become very fond of Strider, though Strider is strange, and "grim at times". Moreover, he reminds Frodo often of Gandalf, the great magician who knows Strider quite well: "He [Strider] is wise enough on his own ground. He thinks less than he talks, and slower; yet he can see through a brick wall in time... Strider is one of the people of the old Kings... The race of the Kings from over the Sea is nearly at an end. It may be that this War of the Ring will be their last adventure".. It is worth mentioning that Strider appears in the story at the end of the first book of "The Fellowship of the Ring", and continues to help

Frodo in the second one. His powerful firebrand defends the Company well when they find themselves in difficult situations. Thus Strider becomes the sym­bol of protection and freedom.

The most important aspect of the plot is how the fellowship begins to take form. Again the antithesis of Good and Evil becomes the main literary device of the author. Now the Nine Walkers, selected by tr Council of Elrond to form the "Fellowship of the Ring", are opposed to the Black Riders, chasing them on the Road. The Nine Walkers are: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Strider, Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gim-iny the dwarf and Boromir the man. They are always getting themselves into trouble being surrounded by the Dark Forces. The most miserable event takes place in the room where Balin's tomb is located and where the evil ores attack the walkers. On top of everything, it is there, where Gandalf is killed. Frodo remembers Gandalf's words: "There are many powers in the world, for good and for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some. I have not been yet measured". These words become the leitmotiv of the whole book.

Meanwhile, Frodo has been wearing the Ring for too long. Therefore, Frodo is able to see all the forces of evil gathering in flocks. The temptation grows each time he wears the Ring. He realizes that "the evil of the Ring is already at work even in the Company, and the Ring must leave them before it does more harm. I will go alone. Some I cannot trust, and those I can trust are too dear to me: poor old Sam, and Merry and Pippin. Strider, too: his heart yearns for Minas Tirith, and he will be needed there, now Boromir has fallen into evil. I will go alone. At once". He decides to go

to Mordor alone for he doesn't want his friends to suffer: "Soon he came alone on the summit of Amon Hen... Up he went and sat upon the ancient chair... the Ring was upon him... The world seemed to have shrunk and fallen silent He was sitting upon the Seat of Seeing, on Amon Hen, the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Numenor... But everywhere he looked he saw the signs of war. The Misty Mountains were crawling like anthills: ores were issuing out of a thousand holes. Under the boughs of Mirkwood there was deadly strife of Elves and Men and fell beasts. The land of the Beornings was aflame; a cloud was over Moria; smoke rose on the borders of Lorien". The theme of choice, free will and individual responsibil­ity is revealed in allegorical struggle for good and duty, and against evil and betrayal: "The two powers strove in him [Frodo]. For a moment, perfectly bal­anced between their piercing points, he writhed, tor­mented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high seat. A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded. Then all the sky was clean and blue and birds sing in every tree". The tone of the final lines of the book is full of hope; the victory of Good is obvious, though the price is very high. Nevertheless, Frodo masters his will, reunites with Sam, and again they are ready for the challenge. In the end it is necessary to stress the importance of the Tolkien's style and the peculiarity of his lan­guage. A great number of the descriptive episodes rich in metaphors, similes, folk songs and fairy rhymes

make a great impression. The mythological language and the ancient texts create the mysterious atmos­phere; the magic spell and secret words are used to break walls. The danger of the Ring is known from the prehistoric runes of the Mordor appeared on the Ring after tossing it into the fire. Even the titles of the chapters help the author to produce the atmos­phere of the fantasy world of the Middle-earth where the hobbits and the elves become the mighty warriors in their struggle against the wraiths and the Dark Forces. Courageous hobbits are always ready to chal­lenge the evil power: "So Frodo and Sam set off on the last stage of the Quest together, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land of Shadow".

"The Fellowship of the Ring" is a mythological epic of a great moral power and philosophical concern. The allegorical battles in the book are associated with our everyday struggle for survival in the world of hardships and sufferings.

Tolkien contributed a lot into the world literature, having revived and enriched the fantasy genre with his translations of a number of Middle-earth related works: "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", "Sir Gawain", "The Pearl" and others. In 1969 Ronald Tolkien and his wife Edith moved to Bournemouth where they lived until Edith's death. After that Tolkien returned to Oxford in 1971. There he died in 1973, after short illness, having left his long-awaited mythological work, "The Silmarilliori" unpublished. His son Christopher Tolkien managed to publish it in 1977 alongside with several incomplete writings, under the title of "Unfin­ished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth".

Charles Percy

Snow (1905-1980)

Charles Percy Snow was born in 1905 in Leicester, a relatively prosper­ous city based on boot-and-shoe trades. He was the second of the four sons in the family. His father was a clerk at a shoe factory.

Snow was educated in Alderman Newton Grammar School where in the sixth form he specialized in sci­ence. Later he worked as a laboratory assistant at the same school. At Leicester University College in 1927 he took a first class honour degree in chemistry. After that he worked on molecular physics. At Cambridge the high quality of his research let him be elected to a Fellowship in 1930, and he was recognized as a talented scientist. Nevertheless, he decided to devote himself to literature. As a beginning he wrote two detective nov­els. One of them is called "Death under Sail" (1932). In 1933 he wrote "The Search", his first serious novel. It established him as a novelist.

Real fame came to Snow in 1940 when he started publishing a series of novels under the general title "Strangers and Brothers". It took him more than a quarter of a century to finish his work including eleven novels.

Snow remained in academic life until the outbreak of the Second World War when he was asked by a committee of the Royal Society to help in organizing university scientists for the war. Thus he joined the civil service.

Since 1947 the writer published seven more novels of the projected eleven which will complete the "Stran­gers and Brothers". The most important are: "The Light and the Dark" (1947), "Time of Hope" (1949), "The Conscience of the Rich" (1958). All these novels are united by one character — Lewis Eliot — a lawyer and a government official.

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