Lord of the Rings Published
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring was published
July 29, 1954
A World Built Over Decades
J.R.R. Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes — The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King — between July 1954 and October 1955. But Tolkien had been building the world of Middle-earth since the 1910s, when he first began inventing the languages, histories, and mythologies that would eventually underpin his epic story. He was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, and his deep knowledge of Old English, Norse, and Finnish mythology shaped every aspect of his imagined world. The Lord of the Rings grew out of an earlier book, The Hobbit, published in 1937, which had been a children's story aimed at his own sons.
The Story and Its Impact
The Lord of the Rings follows hobbit Frodo Baggins and his companions on a quest to destroy a powerful ring that an evil lord named Sauron needs to conquer the world. The story combines adventure, friendship, war, loss, and a deeply felt love of nature and ordinary life against the encroachment of industrial power. The book was a massive commercial and critical success, though some literary critics dismissed it. In polls of readers in the United Kingdom in the late 20th century, it was repeatedly voted the greatest book of the century. It sold more than 150 million copies, making it one of the best-selling novels in history.
The Foundation of Modern Fantasy
The Lord of the Rings essentially created the template for modern fantasy literature and gaming. Tolkien's elves, dwarves, orcs, and wizards became the standard vocabulary of the genre, borrowed and reworked by countless authors after him. Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, and virtually every major fantasy franchise owes a debt to Tolkien. Peter Jackson's film adaptations, released between 2001 and 2003, became some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films ever made, winning a combined 17 Academy Awards. The story that Tolkien spent his life building has become one of the most culturally significant works in the history of English literature.