The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II. Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, Tolkien initially intended it as one volume of a two volume set along with The Silmarillion; however, the publisher decided to omit the second volume and instead released The Lord of the Rings in 1954-55 as three books rather than one, for economic reasons. It has since been reprinted countless times and translated into many languages, becoming one of the most popular and influential works in 20th-century literature.
Early in the 21st century, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy consisting of three live action fantasy epic films: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) were released.
The Lord of the Rings in 1632[]
Tasked with establishing an alliance between Cossack Taras Fedorovych and the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, Morris Roth compared his situation to the moment in The Lord of the Rings "when Tolkien conjured up an alliance with dwarves and elves." Roth concluded that he must be Gandalf. However, another present, Jakub Zaborowsky, a friend of Krzysztof Opalinski's, had read the entire book. To everyone's surprise, he comically describes Roth as being Elrond or Galadriel, as Roth wasn't trying to unite two nations against a common threat. For his part, Zaborowsky found the premise of The Lord of the Rings absurd, noting that every good character in the story loved the king except the forces of evil - and that there were no rapacious great noblemen to be found anywhere.
In 1635 Frank Stone used his memory of the "Lord of the Rings" series as the basis for an original story meant to be a metaphor for Italy shrugging off Spanish domination.