Favorite Banned Books – Lord of the Rings

This is “Banned Book Week”, an annual campaign by the American Library Association and Amnesty International to increase awareness around banned and challenged books, celebrate the freedom to read and highlight persecuted individuals.  This year I am doing a little highlighting of my own, with a favorite banned book each day.  The list of books that have been banned in our own country both fascinates and appalls me.  I encourage you to read widely and outside your usual comfort zone at least occasionally.  Each of the books this week are well worn favorites that I have read over and over.

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien(1954-55) – A sweeping epic of the battle between good and evil.  Rising from a tiny backwater at the far edge of the world of great events, Frodo Baggins and a small group of companions will attempt a quest that will take them to the heart of the enemies domain.

Not a single book, of course, but a trilogy. Volume one is “The Fellowship of the Ring”, followed by “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King”.  Tolkien creates more than a story here, but delves deeply into world creation.  Geography, history, language, mythology all for multiple races that people Middle Earth.  While George R.R. Martin will easily out distance Tolkien on the total number of words in their epic stories, the depth that the Oxford don brings to his creation is virtually unparalleled.

That detail occasionally gets in the way of the storytelling, and has inspired other authors to try for the same kind of detail while lacking the master’s touch.

As for why the books have banned, it’s the usual suspects for any fantasy book.  First, some people just hate/fear fantasy.  The books have been charged as being satanic (interesting since in the end it is love and faithfulness that brings down the demon), irreligious (Tolkien was a devout Catholic), one group said children shouldn’t watch the movie (and I assume would have the same objection to the books) because characters are shown smoking, and that it promotes witchcraft.

For me, the books have been an ongoing inspiration both as a writer and reader.  The central image of common everyday people (Hobbits) rising to the great challenge of their age is the soul of this story.  It is about all the things our culture claims to cherish and offers readers of almost all ages the chance to stand with ancient peoples of great power, the common people beset by times of trouble, people who try to profit from those times, and those who stand for what is just.

Certainly can’t have that sort of thing clogging up our minds.