Gabe K.’s Reviews > The Fellowship of the Ring > Status Update

This final chapter of the book was one of the most boring, yet most exciting. Tolkien's writing was as gripping as ever and brought the reader along for the fight between Frodo and Boromir, and the final leg of their boat journey. My favorite section was when Frodo was looking out over the world because you can tell something is wrong but you don't know what, and the creeping fear feels very real and scary.

In this section of the book, the group leaves Lothlorien. This section was very poetic and philosophical. One of the songs, sung by Galadriel, is now one of my favorites in the book. It talks about something very Tolkien-ey and odd but it was so good that I didn't even care. The way that Lambas Bread is described in the book almost makes me want to try it, and it certainly makes it more appetizing than the movie.

This section of the book was very calm. It was also very philosophical which made it a bit hard to understand at times, but I still liked it a lot. Sam was a really good character during this chapter. He rarely talks, but in this chapter, he was very outspoken which I enjoyed. A quote I liked was "It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish."

In this part, they traversed Moria and got to Lothlorien. I really enjoyed this section, even though it was a little sad. Comparing it with my experience watching the movies, it was very different. For example, Gandalf's iconic "You shall not pass" is actually "you cannot pass", which is really interesting. This was a very dramatic couple of chapters.

In this section, the party got caught in a snowstorm and then entered the mines of Moria. For a book that has taken so long to get going, now that it is going, there are a lot of high-stakes things happening. I am enjoying it though. Especially since they have entered the mines. Tolkien does a great job of building suspense and showing just how dark the mines are. I also laughed at how mad Gandalf gets at Pippin.

This entire section has been in the council of Elrond. It is really interesting, but this section is very hard to read. Almost every other word is made up, and characters recount conversations while speaking which gets confusing very quickly. I am enjoying it though. Some scenes of the movies have finally started making sense reading the book. And, there are a couple of characters who are callbacks to the Hobbit.

This section was entirely based around the goings on in the House of Elrond. Bilbo's back!! And basically, every other word I read in the last 20 pages is a made-up word for a person or a place. It was a little hard to get used to when I started, but now I can breeze past the confusion and focus on what I know. Every time I read this though, I'm amazed Tolkien was able to write something so complex!

The party finally arrived at the House of Elrond. Tolkien's imagery was magnificent as always, and there was one section where the party came across a location and event that occurred in The Hobbit which I thought was really fun. In this chapter I really got the sense that Sam was in love with Frodo "[Sam] ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then blushed." LIKE, WHATTT??

In this section, the Hobbits and Strider set off for Rivendell. It's really interesting to see how Tolkien wrote the characters. For example, Merry and Pippin never say anything but they are always doing things, while Strider is always talking in paragraphs or singing, and Frodo is the person that the story mainly follows so we see his thoughts a lot.