Bored of the Rings, by The Harvard Lampoon

It probably goes without saying that writing good parody is very difficult.  How closely do you follow the source material?  Should the humor reference the original, or should the parody be humorous and entertaining on its own merits?  And what's the point anyway?

Bored of the Rings, first published in the late 1960s, takes on one of the most popular and beloved works of fiction in the English language, J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The Harvard Lampoon authors stick close to the original story, compressing it while squeezing in lots of silliness.  I was reminded of the old Mad magazine parodies I used to read (although those were done in comic book format).  The final product is sometimes funny, but comes across as a bit stale and dated.  I think Bored will best be enjoyed by fans of the Tolkein's books and the movies, probably not so much by those readers not familiar with the original story.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

A Hobbit Devotional, by Ed Strauss

The Hobbit is one of those rare books that can be read again again, from one generation to the next, without losing its sense of charm and richness.  Ed Strauss takes the beloved story one scene at a time, unpacking moral and biblical lessons along the way.  His A Hobbit Devotional may not break any great theological ground, but it provides a thoughtful look at some additional layers of Bilbo Baggins's adventures that most readers will not have seen.

"I never though of that before. . . "

If you've never read The Hobbit, I would recommend that you do so before picking up A Hobbit Devotional.  Each chapter tells a little bit of the tale, so that by the end you've read a sort of Cliff's Notes version of The Hobbit, but it does not match the experience of reading the original.  Each of Strauss's sixty short chapters has a similar structure: a quote from The Hobbit, a brief scene from the story, a biblical story, and a lesson to be drawn from the stories.  Strauss does a nice job of putting it all together.  I never thought, "Wow, that's a stretch."

I think Strauss has taken the devotional application much further than what Tolkien probably had in mind, but  the real strength of Strauss's project is his spotlighting Tolkien's deep moral vision.  Even though The Hobbit can be read as a fun adventure story, Christian, moral themes abound.  I especially like Strauss's point that unlike many fantasy stories, The Hobbit portrays magic not as a pagan power or spells and incantations, but as natural powers given by God.

Fans of The Hobbit will enjoy thinking about the lessons Strauss brings out from the adventures of Bilbo, Gandalf, and others in Middle Earth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy.

The Fellowship of the Ring

I don't know that there's much I can say about The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings is one of the great novels of the 20th century, no question about it. It has so much richness that it warrants revisiting from time to time. Even though you know the end, and have seen the wonderful movies, a rereading will not disappoint.

This time around, I listened to the audio version read by Rob Inglis. This is an unabridged reading of the original text, not a dramatization, so there's no music or sound effects. But Inglis does a brilliant job of bringing the story and characters to life.

One thing that struck me, which I guess is a pretty obvious point, was the picture of addiction painted by the draw of the One Ring for its bearers. Kelly and I were house parents and spiritual directors of Manna House, a ministry of Mission Waco, for a while, and saw first-hand how drug and alcohol addictions can control a person. The Ring, possessed by Gollum for many years, reduced him to an unrecognizable, withered creature. Does that sound familiar to anyone who has been around drug addicts?

Bilbo found the Ring, and held it for many years without becoming the addict that Gollum was. Still, when it came time to give it up, he was reluctant to do so. To his friend Gandalf, who insists that Bilbo not keep the Ring, Bilbo hotly replies, "I don't like parting with it at all, I may say. And I don't really see why I should. Why do you want me to? . . . You are always badgering me about my ring." Imagine confronting an alcoholic about giving up drink. You might hear, "You are always badgering me about my drinking," if he were someone who might use a word like badgering. Bilbo finally does leave it with his nephew, Frodo, but not without some internal struggle.

Like Bilbo, Frodo keeps the ring without letting it control him. Gandalf warns him, "It is far more powerful than I ever dared to think at first, so powerful that in the end it would utterly overcome anyone of mortal race who possessed it. It would possess him." Of those who possess any of the Great Rings, "sooner or later--later, if he is strong and well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last--sooner or later the dark power will devour him." Some years after Bilbo leaves the Ring to Frodo, they meet again. Bilbo asks to see the Ring, but when Frodo hesitates, he sees Bilbo as the latent addict: "a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands."

We get some insight into why Bilbo has avoided the withering addiction that Gollum gave into. Gollum originally took the Ring by force from his companion, killing him in the process. Upon hearing the story of the Ring, and how it came to Gollum's hands and then BIlbo's, Frodo exclaims, "What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!" Gandalf sagely replies, "Pity? It was pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity."

His charge to steward, and eventually destroy, the Ring weighs heavily on Frodo. But the Fellowship that forms around him, first with his faithful companions from the Shire, then with wise and powerful allies he meets at Rivendell, proves to support and protect him faithfully on his journeying. Even though Fellowship ends with Frodo leaving the Fellowship, through the next two books the Fellowship does not falter in their support of Frodo's quest.

Tolkien masterfully combines creativity, believably constructing a new world, with its own history, geography, anthropology, and languages, with a story that is at once suspenseful, humorous, entertaining, and thematically profound. Few have matched him. I'm eager to continue Rob Inglis's reading of the next two books of The Lord of the Rings.