This week marks seventy-two years since J.R.R. Tolkien, widely regarded as the progenitor of modern high fantasy, released the opening volume of a planned trilogy—a work that centers predominantly on hobbits.
The Fellowship of the Ring has, in the decades since publication, sold more than 150 million copies and helped give rise to what many consider the most successful film trilogy ever, if one weighs grosses, awards, and critical acclaim together.
Well before it cemented its place as a defining work in the evolving history of fantasy, it earned a review in the New York Times from W. H. Auden, celebrated critic and poet.
Here is Auden’s assessment of Frodo and his companions.
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One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
This week marks seventy-two years since J.R.R. Tolkien, widely regarded as the progenitor of modern high fantasy, released the opening volume of a planned trilogy—a work that centers predominantly on hobbits.
Seventeen years ago there appeared, without any fanfare, a book called The Hobbit which, in my opinion, is one of the best children’s stories of this century. In The Fellowship of the Ring, which is the first volume of a trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien continues the imaginative history of the imaginary world to which he introduced us in his earlier book but in a
