It's been years since I read the extraordinarily famous books in Dutch. Since a couple of years I rather read English books, for English is a far better language to express oneself, according to my opinion. I was not advised to read it because of the level of English, but I, stout as I am, began nevertheless and I am sure I'll read the rest of the story in English as well.
The level of English of The Lord of the Rings wasn't as high as I had expected at the beginning. It was old, frankly, but that only has a positive effect on the text. I like the sentence constructions. Summarizing the book is difficult. The story commences at the beginning of the journey of Frodo's, the Ringbarer. In his quiet little place, the Shire, he gets to know that he inherits the Ring of his uncle Bilbo. Later he learns the true value of the Ring.
He takes up the journey and on his way he is harassed by Ringwraiths, the Nine servants of the Enemy, Sauron. His friends help on tough times and on their way they pick up another friend, Strider. The wizard Gandalf would be a useful companion due to the dangers of the road, but he does not turn up and eventually Frodo reaches the lovely Rivendell, a place of the Elves. There Gandalf is also.
From Rivendell a fellowship of nine people depart. As for the dangers on their road, they are not to be taken lightly, and the mightiest of the fellowship dies in the mountain Moria, overwhelmed by a Balrog. The members of the fellowship are broken down, but they keep up and go on.
After a matter of time they reach another Elven place, Lothlórien, and there they are heartily greeted. With a new amount of strength they continue their journey, now travelling over the Anduin river. At the end of this river this first book of The Lord of the Rings ends, as Frodo and Sam cross the river to move on to Mount Doom in Mordor, the only place the Ring can be destroyed. The title consists of two parts: the series title and the book title. The series title is easily explained: The Lord of the Rings is the one Ring Frodo has to destroy. Of old there were 19 Rings of power in Middle-earth. Sauron made a Ring that would rule them all:
This One Ring is the Lord of the Rings.
The Fellowship of the Ring refers to the nine people that are heading for Mordor as to destroy the Ring. These matters have no particular concern for the book. Years don't pass by (but for the beginning), rather is talked about days and nights. Once in a while the reader of the book skips a week or a month.
Space is of more importance. Frodo travels through the country, of course, through Middle-earth, and in the back of the book there's several maps included that makes it easy for the reader to follow Frodo as he goes. The vicinity is not always described, only when it matters like in Rivendell and Lothlórien. In those cases there is taken time to describe in detail, with a sense of keeping interesting.
Perspective... Easy one: him-perspective. As a reader one looks through the eyes of Frodo, sometimes even through Sam's, his best friend. The storyteller knows a lot, but plainly not everything. Frodo and Sam fortunately possess sharp minds and thanks to their perceptions one knows enough about the vicinity and the other characters of the book. This book is all fantasy, with a sense for adventure. It is not easy to talk about this for a long time, it's plainly an adventurous fantasy book. Hard one... Conquering fear, good conquering evil. Friendship is one very important theme, death due to it. Despite the fact that it was rather not advised to read The Lord of the Rings in English, I certainly do not regret it. The book is so much more beautiful in English than Dutch, the writer has written this book with so an amount of passion and him having written it so compelling I am sure I will read the whole rest of the series in English too.
The book's grammar is without a doubt fascinating. "'But I am equally curious,' he added, 'to learn what brings so important a dwarf so far from the Lonely Mountain.'" is but a lousy example due to the fact that keeping your mind on school business is extremely difficult reading this book. All the while I encountered tricky sentences that turned out to be delicious as I finally understood what they meant. The Lord of the Rings is simply terrific. At the end of the book Frodo decides to go on to Mordor on his own, as he is to choose between Minas Tirith and Mordor. In Minas Tirith he is unable to destroy the ring, but heading for Mordor equals suicide.
He eventually chooses to go to Mordor secretly, leaving the others. Sam only knows him well enough to return from the search for him to the place where the boats were kept and indeed Frodo appears there being crossing the river to the dangerous eastside. At the very last moment Sam manages to catch up with him and they cross the river with each other's company.

In this matter I do not agree with Frodo. If I were him and I had such a friend as Sam, I would indeed not want to endanger him, but I'd less want to leave him behind. I would have chosen to move on with the entire fellowship. It was plain ere long that all of them would follow him to the darkest place in Mordor and help him with all their strength, so rises the chance of success.
Of course it would give a painful situation to endanger the whole rest of the fellowship, but if that could be concerned the price of saving the world it would be more bearable, especially when not forgetting their anxiousness.
The perils that lie in front of Frodo are far greater than are the perils they encountered so far, so his mission practically fails if he's off on his own. Moreover he's entering the domain of the Enemy and this gives the latter the opportunity to chase him down and take back the Ring.
Last, there is the possibility he dies, even in a group, but if so one else could take the Ring, however dangerous, as the Ring takes control of the owner more than does the owner take control of the Ring, unless the owner is more powerful, like Sauron, than is the Ring. Ah, well, everyone can be compared to one other to some account. I like Frodo have a friend that knows me inside out: Vincent.
Moreover I possess a great perseverance (rather when in my own benefit), but I can be caught by seduction. Frodo one night is attacked by Ringwraiths and he is stung in the shoulder with a Morgul-knife. Aragorn (Strider), succeeds to take care of the wound for the best part, but one tiny splinter remains and seems to go inward in the shoulder of Frodo's. At that particular moment Frodo perseveres, as would have I (true, a good health is a fine friend in that case).
On the other hand I would not leave my friends behind as it becomes so dangerous a situation that the slightest mistake would lead into death. Without help I would have never made it into Mordor and I would unlikely doubt telling the fellowship that I'd like to go to Mordor. Everyone decides for their own if they come along or not.
Last thing that occurred to me more than once, was Frodo not telling all he perceived, which in some cases can be a disadvantage for the companions. His senses become stronger as he longer possesses the Ring and he doesn't use it in his own benefit. I would. When sailing the river Anduin, the fellowship are struck by the fact that they have gone faster than they thought and they are troubled by rocks and rapids, and at that moment they are shot at by archers of the Enemy. Frodo is hit, but his protective vest prevents the arrow penetrating his body. Sam is only just missed by an arrow, the latter gained access to the boat by piercing the side of the boat. But that no harm is made.
As it is night, sight is troubled and Orcs do not volunteer as aiming targets, so they are hidden well. It figures Legolas the Elf, the sole archer of the fellowship, can take no single shot.
Nonetheless the night vision of Orcs is far better than human's or Elf's and upon the river no shelter can be found. Moreover there is a far bigger amount of Orcs, so with a simultaneous strike they'd overwhelm the fellowship and kill them all, yet somehow the fellowship escape unscathed the one-way fight.
Right after the Orcs some mysterious dark creature turns up and approaches the fellowship, and Legolas parries it with a single shot with his bow. I think in this matter the writer is becoming rather unrealistic, but I don't mind him. Hollywood practises the same.

Fortunately the greatest part of the book is far more realistic, not speaking the fact that of course the entire story is fictive and Dwarves, Hobbits and Elves do most likely not exist. We have never heard of proper magic as well, so concerning these matters I hereby state Dwarves, Hobbits, Elves as well as magic do not exist. This is of no concern, as Dwarves, Hobbits and Elves represent mere persons that are capable of existing and magic is only a medium for reaching one's target.
It so could well be possible that, after a night of hardships of disturbing wolves, the fellowship, still in company of a living wizard, walk through the forests, heading for a mountain, as for to cross the mountain through it's inside. A route rather more dangerous than is the route that they had taken before, which had almost taken their lives.
Right before the entrance of the mountain is found a lake, rather possible, for instance filled by melted ice and snow, or a little brook. This lake is the place of living for an unknown creature, fictive, yet possible, that is to be taken serious a peril as disturbed.
The fellowship walk round the lake and reach the entrance safely. However, they had thought so, as the door is not easily been found. It's protected with a password, which can very easily be accomplished these days. The wizard eventually finds the entrance, yet at the same moment one of the Hobbits throws a stone into the lake and therewith disturbs the creature inside. Latter grows monstrous and rushes after them, they barely make it inside the mountain safely. The creature could well be a yet unknown type of amphibian having an amount of intelligence which is possible as it's proven chimpanzees and dolphins do so. The door the fellowship rushed through is so far the only known exit and it's being blocked from the outside by the intelligent creature.
Next thing the fellowship pick a route through the mountain walking over and through the paths and stairs and halls made by the Dwarves. It may be a tough job to accomplish so (such paths and stairs and halls), but not unrealistic. The mountain, however, gives shelter to more than mere the fellowship, it so does also to Orcs, them I just forgot to mention as mythical creatures: malicious creatures from the dark, servants of the Enemy, representing persons themselves as well and therefore plausible. They have entered the mountain at the other side of it, the destination of the fellowship, that is.
These Orcs are to recapture the Ring for their master. The Ring itself could not possibly exist, but it could be compared to nuclear weapons. The story still can well be 'translated' to a proper modern version.
I had not expected myself to become long-winded, but this passage I chose lasts until the end of the mountain, and the fellowship have not yet reached it. The wizard, Gandalf, is presently leading the fellowship, but he is not entirely sure of the road to choose. Plausible. In the meantime it comes to Frodo he hears the sound of feet far behind them, as of a pursuer. Gandalf directs the fellowship into a small room, and as soon as they get there they hear the screaming of Orcs in the great hall the room is connected to and Gandalf tries and frightens them.
Then the fellowship is started by the presence of a creature that matches Gandalf in power (the 'translation' for this creature versus Gandalf could be expressed in terms of war machinery, fortunately this was not assigned) and the fellowship run for it, direction unknown. Luck is on their side, the chosen paths lead them to the exit they were heading for in the first place.
The creature however does not give up easily and follows the fellows, however not closely behind them, and a second encounter takes place right in front of the exit of the mountain, on the small bridge over a deep ravine that was made to reduce the perils of sudden assault.
Thanks to Gandalf's might the bridge is smashed to smithereens right below the feet of the perilous creature (a bomb would have done the job in a modern situation), but the creature drags Gandalf along during it's falling into the deep. What was left of the fellowship run out of the mountain and they grieve. I can imagine.
All of the passage in the mountain Moria and the short happenings before it can no doubt be translated to a modern happening, not forgetting my introduction. "Beautiful language, for sure"
"It is precisely as are those little 'memoreeks' books. That was a compliment, aye"
"Yes, a fine book report, detailed examples from the story, clearly effort has been taking for it"
"Well, that will be rated A-marks!"
"I find it very hard to write English in a manner that actually persuades, although I know how to say things, but not so for you"
"Wide vocabulary. And a gifted way to use it"
"It must have been wonderful to translate the original. Some people don't understand, but I think you do"
"You have written a decent, nearly academic review" This document is published for free use. Copying is not prohibited, however it would be fair if my name (Laurens van Herpen) would be connected to it.
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