‘Challenging’ Lord of the Rings prequel surprised me | Books | Entertainment

Reading The Lord of the Rings is a coming-of-age experience for countless young readers. My dad read The Hobbit to my brother and I when we were young, and I knew there was a far more expansive, mature world merely hinted at through Bilbo Baggins’ cheerful adventure with Gandalf and the Dwarves, waiting for me to discover when I was a bit older.

When I eventually cracked open The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time as a teenager, shortly before Peter Jackson’s magnificent film adaptations hit cinemas, it exceeded all expectations. The magnificence of Tolkien’s trilogy lies in how it unfolds within a completely realised realm boasting extensive history, most of which we glimpse just fragments of. The deserted subterranean remains of Moria, the handful of surviving Ents hiding in Fangorn Forest, and the crumbling human civilisation at Minas Tirith – everything reveals centuries of backstory shaping all events leading to the mission to obliterate The One Ring.

Most authors would be satisfied to conclude there. JRR Tolkien was far from ordinary.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings represented merely fragments of a vastly larger universe he devoted his lifetime to crafting and expanding, complete with origin tales, cosmology, history, and languages. Tolkien died in 1973, and his son Christopher assumed responsibility for gathering and publishing his father’s surviving manuscripts, reports the Mirror.

In 1977 The Silmarillion was published, and quickly earned a reputation as being, to put it kindly, a demanding read. Even today a swift glance at online forums reveals numerous readers admitting they abandoned it before completion, with others proudly display finishing it as a mark of achievement.

I’d harboured vague intentions of tackling it for years, but it wasn’t until I discovered a stunning hardcover edition during a trip to the excellent Bath bookshop Topping and Company that I resolved now, roughly 25 years after first reading The Lord of the Rings, was the moment.

I was taken aback by how captivating I found it, and raced through it with surprising speed. It’s true that it’s very dense and certainly isn’t a conventional adventure tale like The Lord of the Rings, bearing closer resemblance to ancient world epics, or even religious texts. However, the relentless stream of fascinating details kept my interest and left me eager to return and discover more.

Personal favourites included the story of Beren and Lúthien, a mortal man and an Elven princess who undertake an epic, romantic, and tragic quest, as well as the ever-present menace of Melkor, the nearest equivalent Tolkien’s universe possesses to the Devil. It’s true that it requires the reader’s complete focus – this isn’t a book to browse casually while the TV is on in the background, and keeping track of who is related to who can prove challenging, particularly when many of the key figures happen to be eternal Elves.

Significant conflicts which could easily occupy entire chapters of a conventional novel are brushed aside in a sentence or two, and people who might anchor major tales of their own are frequently referenced only in passing.

However, absorbing the complete breadth of Tolkien’s imagination enhances The Lord of the Rings to an extraordinary extent. Shelob is frightening enough, but discovering she’s not merely a big spider, but the offspring of the demonic Ungoliant, makes her far more menacing, and the fact that the brave Samwise Gamgee fought her off is even more impressive.

Grasping the connection between Gandalf and Durin’s Bane, the Balrog he confronts in Moria, lends that encounter considerably greater weight, and recognising the turbulent chronicle of mankind makes Aragorn’s restoration to Gondor’s throne infinitely more triumphant.

Several recognisable characters do emerge – Elrond and Galadriel feature, while Sauron, Gandalf, and Saruman appear extremely late in the narrative, but don’t anticipate encountering many beloved figures. Frodo receives a solitary mention in one of the final pages, whilst Bilbo doesn’t even merit identification by name.

And should you fret that it diminishes some of the enigma surrounding Tolkien’s creation, be reassured there’s plenty that remains unexplained. Of the five wizards who roamed Middle Earth, two remain unnamed, and if you’re seeking clarification about the identity or nature of Tom Bombadil, you’ll find no answers within these pages.

The crux of the matter is this – don’t allow its daunting reputation to deter you. If you’re yearning for additional Middle Earth adventures, The Silmarillion is absolutely essential reading. There’s also an audio edition voiced by none other than Andy Serkis, who famously portrayed Gollum in the film trilogy, which has garnered glowing praise online.