the Lord of the Rings: book one

This book (yes I know that link is for the whole trilogy condensed into one book whereas this post is only going to talk about the first half of the Fellowship of the Ring, but deal with it mate) is the first instalment of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic (virtually myth-status) fantastical trilogy. I have a lot to say about this trilogy, but I'm reading it all in one go, so I'm saving my reflections and my recommendations until the final post, and here will simply outline in brief the specific plot of this instalment. Spoilers, obviously.

   So there's a hobbit called Frodo, whose uncle Bilbo found a magic ring fifty years previously. After the party for Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday (don't @ me it's literally what hobbits call 111 as a number) the wizard Gandalf persuades Bilbo to leave the ring to Frodo along with everything else before he [i.e. Bilbo] wanders off into a retirement (not that he ever had a job I don't think) of meandering around the world talking to elves and whatnot. Gandalf then goes off and does a lot of research about magic rings, as the Dark Lord Sauron crafted a ring of great and nefarious power many ages ago, and this ring has been lost to time; seventeen years after Bilbo's party, Gandalf returns to the Shire (where the hobbits live) and confirms that Frodo's ring is indeed this lost evil artefact. Gandalf tells Frodo to head to the elven town Rivendell for further consideration of what to do with the ring. So soon after Frodo sets off with his gardener Sam; they run into their friends Merry and Pippin, and the four of them proceed on their journey. After they all nearly get eaten or drowned by a mean tree, they are rescued by a mysterious man called Tom Bombadil, who is utterly brilliant and totally pointless and 100% just an author-insert so Tolkien could rove around Middle-Earth as a borderline-omnipotent forest-dweller. Bombadil rescues them again (this time from ghosts) and sends them on their way, until they eventually reach the village of Bree - where they realise they are being pursued by wraiths, agents of Sauron himself. They meet a ranger called Strider who leads them on, and while camping on a hill called Weathertop the wraiths attack and their leader stabs Frodo with a magical dagger. Aragorn (as in Strider - you didn't think Strider was his real name did you? idiots) fights off the wraiths and a friendly elf shows up to ride Frodo to Rivendell before he succumbs to his wound.

   And that's where the first instalment ends...