THE LORD OF THE RINGS (J. R. R. TOLKIEN)

Summary

The Lord of the Rings is a book written by J. R. R. Tolkien, where anabsolutely unreal world was created by the author. This world, called Middle-earth, was inhabited by different races of human beings. The story begins when a magic ring, the One Ring, with tremendous power was forged in the past by the Dark Lord Sauron, the most evil of all the inhabitants of Middle-Earth. He forged this ring to conquer and dominate all Middle-Earth.

Map of the Middle-Earth (obtained from Wikipedia)

What Sauron actually wanted, and this ring was the only thing he needed to succeed, was to become the master of the world to fill it with terror and darkness. However, during a war, Sauron lost the ring. Since that time he will not stop searching it.

Long after, the ring was found by The Hobbit Bilbo Bolson, which will keep it for years. But one day the ring was discovered by a famous magician, Gandalf, while visiting his friend Bilbo. Gandalf realized really quickly that this ring was too dangerous. So he decided it was necessary to destroy it,  as if Sauron found the ring again, life in  Middle-Earth  would be a hell for all living beings.

This mission was almost impossible because it was necessary to destroy the ring where it was forged, exactly where the enemy lived. That is why the Council of Elrond was summoned and the Fellowship of the Ring was created.

The Elf king Elrond was the wisest being of those who inhabited the Middle-Earth and he knew better the history of the ring. In fact, he had fought against Sauron during the same war in which he had lost the ring. In addition, Elrond was the father of the princess Arwen, a girl who was the beauty and gentleness personified. A key detail of the Elves is that Elrond and Arwen, and Elves in general, were immortal.

The Fellowship of the Ring was composed of nine persons of all races because the destruction of the ring was a task concerning all peoples of the world. The  Fellowship should be lead by Aragorn, a mortal man of royal blood who had promised to Arwen that the ring would be destroyed so that the times of war  ended and, this way, they can enjoy their love in a world in peace. However, while Aragorn had to risk life to destroy the Ring, Arwen had to give up his immortality in order to the love between them can take place.

After the Council, the  Fellowship of the Ring began the journey to destroy the ring. To fulfill the mission, it was necessary that the ring was carried, after crossing the whole  Middle-Earth, to the heart of Mordor, the enemy territory were Sauron lived. This made the mission even more difficult. While the ring was taken to the place where it had to be destroyed, really dangerous situations were experienced by the  Fellowship. These situations were overwhelmed by the friendship and loyalty between all members of the group and thanks to the courage and humility that everyone in the  Fellowship had, especially Frodo Bolson, the bearer of the ring, and Sam, his inseparable friend. At the end, and after facing a lot of penalties, the ring was destroyed and the enemy was defeated.

The Best of the Story

What I would like to highlight of this story is that if Arwen had not felt a love so intense she would not have renounced immortality in order to enjoy her love. At the time, if Aragorn had not love so much Arwen, he would not have had the courage to defeat the armies led by the incredibly powerful enemy and to overcome the fear of death that war involve. That is to say, it is the strength of their love that destroys the ring and change a world war in a peaceful world. Definitely, what I liked the most about this book is that it reflects the struggle and the challenge for a love that seems impossible and it shows that what is most wonderful of love, is that it is the only reason we sacrifice everything, even the own life, because we live to love.

Finally, other interesting books I've read are:

• The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
• The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
• Playing the Enemy (John Carlin)
• The Alchemist (Pablo Coelho)
• The Physician (Noah Gordon)
• The Cathedral of the Sea (Ildefonso Falcones)
• The Art of Loving (Erich Fromm)
• Annoyomics (Risto Mejide)
• Ninja Crisis (Leopoldo Abadía)
• The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
• The Afghan (Frederick Forsyth)
• The Eight (Katherine Neville)
• The Fire (Katherine Neville)
• The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
• Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
• Dante's Equation (Jane Jensen)
• Wecome to the Real World (Sandro Rosell)
• The Physician (Noah Gordon)
• The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
• Le Petit Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) 
• El Quijote (Miguel de Cervantes)
• Victus (Albert Sánchez Piñol)