FRODO’S FATHER

By Mohsin Qasmi

Oxford professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien), who created The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was intent on making his magical world real.
An imaginary world must be realistically equipped down to the last whisker of the last monster; Tolkien put close to 20 years into the creation of Middle Earth, the three volumes Lord of the Rings (1954-55) and its predecessor, The Hobbit (1937). He also equipped readers with 157 pages of History, Appendixes, Indexes, Tables of Consanguinity and Philogically impeccable Notes on all the Languages, including Elvish and Sindarin, spoken on Middle Earth.
Professor Tolkien died aged 81 in 1973.


THE HOBBIT

The Hobbit is a tale of high adventure. Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any further than his pantry or his cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one-day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo is most reluctant to take part in this quest, but he surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and his skill as a burglar!
Encounters with the trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves and giant spiders, conversation with the dragon, smaug the magnificent and rather unwilling presence at the battle of the five armies are some of the adventures that befall Bilbo. But there are lighter moments as well: Good fellowship, welcome meal laughter and songs.
The Hobbit became an instant success when it was first published in 1937, and more than fifty years later Tolkien's epic tale of elves, dwarves, trolls, goblins, myth, magic and adventure, with its reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins, has lost none of its appeal.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him the Rings of power-the means by which he will be able to rule the world. All he lacks in his plan for dominion is the ruling Ring, which has fallen into the hands of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as the Ring is entrusted to his care. He must leave his home and make a perilous journey across the realms of Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, deep inside the territories of the Dark Lord. There he must destroy the Ring forever and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

The Lord of the Rings cannot be describe in a few words. J.R.R Tolkien’s great work of imaginary fiction has been labeled both a heroic romance and a classic of science fiction. It is, however, impossible to convey to the new reader all of the book’s qualities, and the range of its creation.
By turns comic, homely, epic, monstrous and diabolic, the narrative moves through countless changes of scenes and character in an imaginary world, which is totally convincing in its detail. Tolkien created a new mythology in an invented world, which has proved timeless in its appeal.
An extraordinary book, it deals with a stupendous theme. It leads us through a succession of strange and astonishing episodes, some of them magnificent, in a region where everything is invented, forest, moors, river, wilderness, town, and the races which inhabit them. As the story goes on the world of the Ring grows more vast and mysterious and crowded with curious figures, horrible, delightful or comic. The story itself is superb.

Since it was first published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings has been a book people have treasured. Steeped in unrivalled magic and other worldliness, its sweeping fantasy has touched the hearts of young and old alike. Fifty million copies of its many editions have been sold around the world, and occasional collectors' editions become prized and valuable items of publishing.

ABOUT SILMARILLION

The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life, but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.
The title Silmarillion is shortened from Quenta Silamarillion, 'The History of the Silmarils', the three great jewels created by FÎanor, most gifted of the Elves, in which he imprisoned the light of the Two Trees that illuminated Valinor, the land of the gods. When Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, destroyed the Trees, that light lived on only in the Silmarils; and Morgoth seized them and set them in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of FÎanor and his people against the gods, their exile in Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroism of Elves and Men, against the great Enemy.

UNFINISHED TALES

Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring and provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century’s most acclaimed popular author. The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth and comprises such elements as Gandalf’s lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan. Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall, and all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards, the Palantiri and the legend of Amroth.