J.R.R. Tolkien

Work: The Hobbit 
Year: 1937   

The Hobbit is a prequel to 'Lord of the Rings' of sorts. Written much earlier, it is intended for children. I remember being hugely entertained by it. This was my favorite book when I was a kid. You will appreciate it as an adult too I think. Just don't expect it to be as serious as 'Lord of the Rings'. Tolkien later regretted writing it, he felt he had ridiculed the Elves(and Gandalf!). I think that's a shame. I know people who prefer this book to 'Lord of the Rings'.

Work: The Lord Of The Rings 
Year: First published in 1954,1955

This is the epic fantasy masterpiece that started it all. It is not really the sequel to The Hobbit, only in a superficial sense. This epic was not intended to be read by children, and is a much darker and more serious work than The Hobbit.
In Lord Of The Rings, the magic ring found by Bilbo in The Hobbit is passed on to Frodo. Later, Gandalf pays Frodo a visit warning him that the ring should not be used by him, for any reason. When it's almost too late it is discovered that the ring is more dangerous than anybody had ever believed and must be destroyed...


Tolkien spent years working on Lord Of The Rings and before he started writing it he had already developed languages and a mythology for the peoples of Middle-earth. This mythology was meant to become England's very own and it is very sophisticated and quite profound. You can read more about it in Silmarillion.


This background gives Lord Of The Rings a special and truly unique atmosphere. When reading the trilogy you again and again are 'tickled' by Tolkien with the underlying history of his secondary world. No other fantasy author to this date has laboured to create an alternative world as complex as Tolkien's. His secondary world includes elements taken from norse mythology, Tolkien was well oriented with various mythologies, but mainly his incredible imagination lays behind it. It seems to me that Tolkien thought of his world as a 'real' one in a sense, what with the languages he developed for the peoples etc. You can tell that writing the trilogy took many years, the tone gets darker and more archaic the further you read.
Lord Of The Rings is a great story with a depth and a literary quality that most fantasy writers today cannot match.