Pete's Log: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Andy Serkis

Entry #2476, (Books, Writing, n such)
(posted when I was 45 years old.)

I've read the Lord of the Rings trilogy several times, but the last time was just before the films came out. Since then, I've only consumed Lord of the Rings in Peter Jackson film format. A good number of times. So many times, in fact, that the narrative of the films had mostly replaced the narrative of the books in my mind.

Having completed the audio book of The Fellowship of the Ring, it feels way past due to have returned to the original. As it happens, my last viewing of the film trilogy was only a few months ago, so I had it fresh in my mind to compare to the book.

And let me tell you, I feel aggrieved. I mean, I'll never not love the films (here is where I should mention that I pretend the Hobbit film trilogy never happened), but I had forgotten just how fleshed out the characters of Merry and Pippin are in the book. And then the film goes ahead and makes them idiots who came along by accident. And makes it them who lit a fire on Weathertop when in reality it was Aragorn. Aggrieved, I tell you!

The friendship between Gimli and Legolas also has so much more depth to it in the book. I'd also forgotten that 17 years pass between Bilbo leaving the shire and Frodo leaving the shire. Tom Bombadil is perhaps the biggest difference that I had not forgotten. It was nice to encounter him again.

Also: the book is so cozy! Obviously not when our protagonists are in danger, but the times when our hobbit friends are safe just feel so nice. The world is so well built and we get such a nice time experiencing it. Ah no wonder it's a classic.

I'm not much of an audio book listener, so it's harder to comment on the narration. There is a "classic" audio book narrated by Robert Inglis which some fans prefer to Andy Serkis's interpretation. I'm tempted to give it a try some time to compare, but for now I will stick with Serkis. I mostly enjoyed his narration. I have two main complaints:

  • In the beginning a bunch of minor hobbit characters had strangely deep voices that were not at all appropriate to hobbits. Luckily our four primary hobbits did not suffer this problem.
  • Aragorn sounded too much like Gandalf, just quieter. I'd have liked more distinction here.

Andy Serkis, if you're unaware, is the voice and motion capture actor who portrayed Gollum/Sméagol in the Peter Jackson films. So it was interesting when other characters fell sway to the ring at times, you could hear a bit of Gollum sneaking into their voice.

I'm excited to listen to The Two Towers next. I remember always struggling with this book when I read it way back when, but I never had any issue with the film version. So it'll be interesting to see how it goes in audio format.

Oh yeah, one last thing: Gandalf sure is annoying, isn't he? Just answer a question directly for once in your life, you goofy wizard!