'The Fellowship Of The Ring' is the first part of J R R Tolkien's epic adventure 'The Lord Of The Rings', which was voted Book of the Century in various readers' polls conducted in 1999. Virtually single-handedly Tolkien created the fantasy genre we know today, and no other writer has surpassed him. More importantly, Tolkien's intention when writing the books was to create for England a mythology, as it was a culture, he thought, which lacked a true creation myth.
Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring, the ring that rules them all, which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. The elderly Bilbo entrusts the ring to the care of his young cousin Frodo, who must now leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
One of the soaring bestsellers of twentieth-century fiction, 'The Lord Of The Rings' was originally to be a sequel to Tolkien's famous children's book, 'The Hobbit'. But the cumulative power of its timeless quest narrative, the grandeur of its plot, and the inimitable depth of its imaginary world have endeared 'The Lord Of The Rings' to a vast adult readership.
