Is Lord of the Rings a Children's Novel?
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien is a fantasy novel that follows the adventures of a group characters on their journey to destroy the One Ring. The Lord of the Rings is a novel meant for adults, rather than being aimed at children. The novel contains a large amount of detail that is crucial to the understanding of the plot or storyline. This amount of detail is necessary in the story, in order to convey the tone of the novel. The story itself is not particularly gruesome or frightening, but the amount of detail in the overall plot is too advanced for children. The language Tolkien chooses to use is too difficult for children because of the excessive description that is used. Tolkien makes effort to describe everything in Middle Earth to the fullest, often taking multiple paragraphs to describe settings; the language also tends to be archaic, making it more difficult for children to grasp. The description of Cerin Amroth is overwhelming in its use of descriptive vocabulary, also using words such as “fosse” that children are not familiar with (340-344). The world that The Lord of the Rings takes place in has a deep history behind it, this adds difficulty to the novel because in addition to the overarching plot, there is history to understand as well. Tolkien’s invention of the history of the world of Middle Earth is needed to understand the relationship between the races of Middle Earth and their surroundings. Much of the history in The Lord of the Rings is expressed through songs. Gimli’s song provides history on the Numenor kings (308-309). In The Lord of the Rings, characters are afflicted with mental struggles, as this behavior often sheds light on their motives. A mature reader understands these mental instabilities as character flaws, where as a child while not see the deeper meaning to these, passing off a character as being ‘crazy’. Gollum/Smeagol is a representation of multiple personalities, as he struggles for control over himself