The Lord of the Rings the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, not only the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise "Sam" Gamgee, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took, but also the hobbits' chief allies and travelling companions: the Men, Aragorn, a Ranger of the North, and Boromir, a Captain of Gondor; Gimli, a Dwarf warrior; Legolas Greenleaf, an Elven
The Lord of the Rings May 2007. The enormous popularity of Tolkien's work expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to "The Lord of the Rings," the genre flowered throughout the 1960s, and enjoys popularity to the present day. The opus has spawned many imitators, such as "The Sword of Shannara", which Lin Carter called "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read". "Dungeons & Dragons", which popularized the role-playing game (RPG) genre in the 1970s, features many races found in "The Lord of the Rings," most notably halflings (another term for hobbits), elves (who are distinct from