The History of The Lord of the Rings "The Lord of the Rings". J. R. R. Tolkien conceived the latter as a single volume comprising six "books" plus extensive appendices, but the original publisher split the work into three, publishing two books per volume with the appendices included in the third. The titles proposed by Tolkien for the six books were: Book I, "The First Journey" or "The Ring Sets Out"; Book II, "The Journey of the Nine Companions" or "The Ring Goes South"; Book III, "The Treason of Isengard"; Book IV, "The Journey of the Ring-Bearers" or "The Ring Goes East"; Book V, "The War of the
Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings "The Lord of the Rings", an epic high fantasy novel by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien, set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, has been adapted several times. Three film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" have been made. The first was "The Lord of the Rings" (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story. The second, "The Return of the King" (1980), was a television special by Rankin-Bass. The third was director Peter Jackson's "The Lord