The Fellowship of the Ring Themes

(Click the infographic to download.) Good and evil are pretty well-defined in The Fellowship of the Ring. Here's the gist: Ring = evil; no Ring = good. The crazy thing about evil in this novel is t...

The friendships between the major characters of The Fellowship of the Ring are adorably bromantic. And although the more emotion-allergic among us may blush a little at the soulful sentiment betwee...

Compassion abounds in The Fellowship of the Ring. Of course, we are reminded of Bilbo's compassion toward Gollum when Bilbo first came into possession of the Ring in The Hobbit. But Frodo's crew fo...

The word "home" is supposed to inspire warm and fuzzy feelings in us. But when we're torn from our home, it takes on a whole new meaning. While at Bag End, Frodo is "in love with the Shire, with wo...

Fear is one of Sauron's primary weapons in The Fellowship of the Ring (though he also likes to exploit people's pride, arrogance, and anger when he can). As soon as the Black Riders start appearing...

Perseverance basically means continuing on with a task or duty even if the going gets tough. And if there is one virtue Tolkien seems particularly to admire, it's perseverance. He loves characters...

There are many varieties of skill in The Fellowship of the Ring. The most obvious skills come from the different characters' races: Legolas is an Elf, so he can run on top of snow. Gimli is a Dwarf...

In our section on "Characterization," we mention that Tolkien frequently uses "type of being" to indicate essential aspects of a character's personality. So, the Elves are generally good, while Orc...