Basically, the story starts off in "The Hobbit"
- where Bilbo Baggins finds a golden ring in Gollum's cave under
the mountain. During that book, the ring is merely used to make
people invisible. However, the truth is - the ring is a very
powerful magic ring made by Sauron. I'll just quote from the FOTR:
"It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to
the Elves: immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to
the dwarf-lords: great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls.
And nine rings were gifted to the race of men, who above all else
desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and
will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived. For
another ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of
Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret a master ring to
control all others. And into this ring he poured his cruelty, his
malice, and his will to dominate all life. One Ring to rule them
all. One by one, free lands of Middle Earth fell to the power of
the ring. But there were some who resisted. A last alliance of Men
and Elves marched against the armies of Mordor. And on the slopes
of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-earth." Of
course, Sauron was defeated and the ring was taken by Isildur
(king of the men). He refused to destroy the ring by throwing it
into the fires of Mount Doom. The ring betrayed him to his death.
The ring was lost and forgotten - until people
didn't remember it anymore. To keep it simple, it was found by
Smeagol a.k.a. Gollum. (Actually that isn't true, his friend found
it but he killed his friend and took the ring. ^^ Saying it was a
b'day present. Read LOTR for more info..) Anyway, Gollum took it
with him inside the mountain - the ring brought to Gollum
unnatural long life. For 500 years it poisoned his mind. And in
the gloom of Gollum's cave it waited. Darkness crept back in the
forest of the world. Rumour grew of a shadow in the East, whispers
of a nameless fear. And the ring of power perceived it's time had
now come. It abandoned Gollum. But something happened then, the
ring did not intend. It was picked up by Bilbo Baggins of The
Shire (blah blah blah.. you know the rest).
At the beginning of the book, Bilbo holds his
111th b'day party before leaving for Rivendell (Elrond's place
where elves live). Gandalf the Grey(Bilbo's wizard friend) finds
out the evil ring and basically, Frodo (Bilbo's nephew) has to go
on a quest to Mount Doom to destroy the ring. He goes first to
Rivendell with his hobbit pals - Sam, Pippin and Merry. On his way
there, he meets Strider a.k.a Aragorn. The Nine Ringwraiths are
out and about looking for the ring to bring back to their master,
Sauron. (The Ringwraiths are the nine men that were given the
rings in the first place - they got corrupted by evil and power.)
Frodo getz stabbed by the leader of the Ringwraiths and is dying.
Glorfindel (great elven warrior) comes and takes him to Rivendell,
to get healed by Elrond. (Note: In the movie, Arwen comes instead
of Glorfindel.. stupid cheapos, couldn't they just get another
person to play Glorfy?!) Elrond has a daughter called Arwen/
Undomiel (Evenstar of her people) who is Aragorn's lover. Anyway,
in Rivendell - the Fellowship of the Ring is formed. There is a
representative from each race - Legolas Greenleaf (elven prince of
Mirkwood ^^), Gimli (dwarf), Aragorn and Boromir (Men). Frodo
volunteers to be the Ringbearer and his hobbit pals come along
with him. Gandalf is their leader and advisor. So, the nine set
off for Mount Doom to destroy the Ring.
During the first book, they go through the
Mines of Moria and Lothlorien - home of Galadriel and Celeborn (oh
yeah, and also Haldir ^^). An important fact: Gandalf dies in the
Mines of Moria because of a Balrog. Before they leave, Galadriel
gives them some lembas (elvish wafer thing), some rope, grey elven
cloaks with brooches and some boats too. To each of them, she gave
a present. Aragorn: a sheath for his sword and the Elfstone of the
house of Elendil. Boromir: a belt of gold. Merry and Pippin: belts
of silver. Legolas: a bow. Sam: Blessed earth from Galadriel's
orchard. Gimli: a lock of Galadriel's hair. Frodo: a phial with
the light of Earendil's star.
At the end of the first book, the fellowship is
separated - Frodo and Sam go on alone to Mordor (the evil place
where Sauron dwells). Pippin and Merry have been captured by
Saruman's orcs and Boromir dies trying to save them. (Saruman is a
wizard that has been corrupted by evil and started breeding his
own orcs..) Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli go to save them. However,
Sauron's orcs and Saruman's orcs have this big fight with the
riders of Rohan where all of them are killed. During this battle,
our two little hobbit friends (Pippin and Merry) escape into
Fangorn forest, where they meet Treebeard the Ent. They drink his
special drink and grow taller ^_^. Legolas and co. follow the
hobbits' tracks to Fangorn forest where they find Gandalf the
White - he didn't die!! They then go on to the Golden Hall of
Rohan where they meet Theoden. His advisor is the evil Grima (Wormtongue)
who works for Saruman. Gandalf helps their king, Theoden become
himself so he is longer under Saruman's control. The Riders of
Rohan + Aragorn and co. go to Helm's Deep to fight Saruman's orcs.
Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin along with the Ents form and alliance
and defeat Saruman - they wash out the dirty evil crap from
Orthanc (Saruman's tower). The remaining members of the fellowship
is re-united again. They discover that Saruman has been using a
palantir to contact Sauron all the time.
Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are still trying to
find their way to Mordor. They meet Gollum on the way who was
trying to get the ring from Frodo. He leads the way to Mordor,
through the Dead Marshes etc. Sam doesn't trust poor Gollum/Smeagol
who has sworn by the ring to serve Frodo as his master. (Gollum is
soooo cute in the movie!! Poor thing.. being tormented by Sam!! I
think Sam might've been jealous that Frodo was paying attention to
someone else! 0_o but letz not mention slash here..) Gollum leads
them to the Black Gate, but itz guarded by all these orcs, so they
have to find another way in. As Gollum leads them to the other
entrance, they meet Faramir (brother of Boromir). Afterwards, they
continue on to Cirith Ungol and Smeagol leads them to Shelob's
Lair. She is this big gigantic spider thing - Gollum has this plan
to let Shelob eat Frodo and Sam so he can just take the ring for
himself. However, this plan fails and Frodo is captured by the
orcs!! Sam being the hero, manages to kill Shelob to save him (and
the orcs think he's a great Elven warrior.. lol!!). Here in the
darkness, they use the phial that Galadriel gave them.
Back with our other friends - Aragorn, Legolas,
Gimli and our other hobbit pals - they have gone to Minas Tirith (Gondor)
to see Denethor (Steward of Gondor, Boromir and Faramir's father).
Let's just cut the crap and move on. Everybody joins forces
(Riders of Rohan, Gondor and these elves) to fight the orcs from
Mordor and our old enemies - the Ringwraiths. Aragorn comes at the
last minute with his Dunedain and saves the day. Eowyn and Merry,
together manage to kill the Witch King (leader of Ringwraiths) but
they are injured badly. This battle was meant to distract Sauron
while Frodo and Sam sneaked in to destroy the Ring. Of course,
they succeed and they are barely alive when some eagles are sent
to retrieve them. Aragorn becomes King of Gondor and Eomer becomes
the Lord of the Mark (i.e. he takes Theoden's place). Aragorn
marries Arwen, who gives up her immortal elf life to be with him.
Everyone is happy but the hobbits soon have to leave for home -
the Shire.
When the hobbits go back home, they find out
that the Shire has been taken over by these evil people. Of
course, after having been through so much - our four hobbit
friends aren't afraid. They find out that Saruman is actually
behind all this and they succeed in driving him away. Sam uses the
earth that Galadriel gave him and makes the place nice again.
Meanwhile, the elves are leaving Middle Earth for the Grey Havens
- they are sailing to Valinor, the Undying Lands. (For more info:
Read the Silmarillion)
Now I know that summary was far from brief...
But the books are long okay? To put it in a sentence: Frodo goes
on a quest to destroy the One Ring. I hope that my summary was
actually coherent and you understood my blabberings... Click on
the links for more info!!
