[Lalwendë]

Thinking again about the essential aspects of LotR and what makes it so successful, there is a real paradox within the book. It is at once utterly simple and outrageously complex.

It is simple because at the heart of the narrative, it is a tale of good against evil, and the plot is nothing more than the tale of one person taking a journey at the end of which he hopes to destroy evil. Everything else ultimately centres upon and supports this one aim. It is the core of the tale, the focus of the narrative, despite everything else, and it is an ancient tale, seen in many other works. In some ways it reminds me of The Canterbury Tales, which is also centred upon the journey of several pilgrims, using this as the basis on which to build a whole series of other stories. It also reminds me of Huckleberry Finn, another seemingly simple tale of an adventure, a journey, onto which is layered meaning.

But LotR is also incredibly complex. We are taken not just along this journey, but into the myriad aspects of the world it takes place in. This one journey is supported by many other journeys and tales. It is enriched by the place it happens in, a place of history, cultural differences, and natural wonders. It has languages and maps. There is philosophy and poetry and art. And death, disaster, darkness. There are people who are noble, those who are mad, those we struggle to comprehend. There is a character for everyone to identify with in this world, a mirror for all of us. It is also the output of a lifetime's work, and into it are poured all the imaginings, and all the intellect, of one life.

Through all of this complexity we move inexorably onward towards the end of that one simple story. What holds this whole immense body of words together, even at the points where it all threatens to shatter into many incomprehensible pieces, is that Tolkien never at any point loses sight of that one central tale. Everything is intricately linked to it and ultimately contributes to it, and we cannot forget that.

The journey down the River Anduin symbolises this paradox. Here we have the remains of the Fellowship doing nothing more, on the surface, than travelling towards their ultimate destination. Yet on this journey we have shadows of the past in the shape of Gollum, we have portents of the future with the Orc attack, we see the myriad of other stories going on, all in microcosm, as we read of Boromir's ideals, Aragorn's worries, regret and hope, so many things.

Tolkien took an utterly basic and fundamental theme and then layered many other tales, histories and characters upon it to create something vast and expansive yet at its heart really quite simple. I think that we respond on a deep level to the fundamental tale, and then we take on the rest as we travel through the book, our sense of wonder growing as we go. The combination of a classic narrative theme with real depth is ultimately what holds LotR together.