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Frodo's
vision from The Fellowship of the Ring:
Then
turning south again he beheld Minas Tirith. Far away it
seemed, and beutiful: white-walled, many-towered, proud
and fair upon its mountain-seat; its battlements
glittered with steel, and its turrets were brigh with
many banners. Hope leaped in his heart. But against Minas
Tirith was set another fortress, greater and more strong.
Thither, eastward, unwilling his eye was drawn. It passed
the ruined bridges of Osgiliath, the grinning gates of
Minas Morgul, and the haunted Mountains, and it looked
upon Gorgoroth, the valley of terror in the Land of
Mordor. Darkness lay there under the sun. Fire glowed
amid the smoke. Mount Doom was burning, and a great reek
rising. Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall,
battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong,
mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw
it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. And all hope left him.And Suddenly he
felt the eye. There was an eye in the Dark Tower that did
not sleep.
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The Critics: Lord of the Rings:
The Book
of the Century
"The story moves on
with a tremendous narrative rush to its climax...
extraordinarily imaginative work, part saga, part
allegory and wholly exciting."
The
Times
"His astonishing inventiveness remains to the end..."
The
Guardian
"Tolkien's invention
of strange peoples, curious incidents, miraculous doings,
is poured out in this second volume of his trilogy as
exuberantly and convincingly, in a dreamlike way as ever.
As the story goes on the world of Ring grows more vast
and myster ious and crowded with curious figures,
horrible, delightful or comic. The story itself is superb."
The Observer
"To have created so
enthralling an epic-romance, with its own mythology, with
such diversity of scene and character, such imaginative
invention and description, and such supernatural meaning
underlying the wealth of incident, is a most remarkable
feat."
Guardian
"Masterpiece? Oh yes?"
Evening Standard
"An astonishing
imaginative tour de force"
Daily Telegraph
"A story
magnificently told, with every kind of colour and
movement and greatness"
New Stateman
"Tolkien was a
storyteller told"
Literary Review
"Amongst the greatest
works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century"
Sunday Telegraph
'The English-speaking
world is divided into those who have read The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings and those who are
going to read them'
Sunday Times
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The
Silmarillion:"How,
given little over half a century, did one man become the
c reative equivalent of a people?"
Guardian
"At times rises to
the greatness of true myth"
Financial
Times
"A creation myth of
singular beauty ... magnificent in its best moments"
Washington
Post
"A grim, tragic,
brooding and beautiful book,shot through with heroism and
hope ...
its power is almost that of mysticism"
Toronto
Globe and Mail
The Hobbit:
"...an exciting epic
of travel and magical adventure, all working up to a
devastating climax"
Observer
"A flawless
masterpiece"
The
Times
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