[Frodo said,] ‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could—though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.’

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s foundational high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, and it describes a group of various people—hobbits, humans, dwarves, and elves—gathering together and travelling throughout the varied landscapes of Middle-earth as they attempt a dangerous and seemingly impossible task. Chris and Suzanne ask how these varied lands and peoples interact with and reflect each other, and unpack a few exceptional moments along the way—including, as promised, the curious Tom Bombadil.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring. [Bookshop.]

Other books by Tolkien: The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion. Beowulf [translation].

By-The-Bywater, a monthly podcast about Tolkien here at Megaphonic. Check them out!

A vast (and old-school) resource for Tolkien’s invented languages.

On J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Whitelock.

On J.R.R. Tolkien and Stuart Hall.

If our Tom Bombadil discussion isn’t enough for you, By-The-Bywater devoted a whole episode to him.

Tolkien's map of Middle-earth, and the Google map version.

John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.

Next: Attar: The Conference of the Birds. [Bookshop.] [Alternate translation.]

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