LotR CH1 Fellowship
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone.
Nine for mortal men doomed to die.
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all.
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Chapter 1
THE RING
A long time ago, before men ruled all the lands, the world was full of elves, dwarves, men and magical creatures. In a place called Middle-earth, there were great kingdoms and powerful kings. But in the South, in the land of Mordor, a dark power was growing.
His name was Sauron. He was not a man. He was a dark spirit, full of evil. Sauron wanted to control all of Middle-earth. To do this, he made a very special ring… The One Ring. It was a small gold ring, but it had great power. With this ring, Sauron could control the minds of others.
Long before our story begins, and before he showed his true evil, Sauron taught the elves how to make great rings of power. And he gave other rings of power he created to the dwarves, and to the kings of men, as gifts. But it was only a trick!
While they wore their rings, Sauron’s One Ring controlled them all. But the powerful Elf lords discovered the trick. They protected their minds from Sauron, and they hid their rings of power from him.
Many people tried to stop Sauron. There was a great war. Elves and men joined together to fight Sauron’s evil. In the final battle, a brave man named Isildur, son of Elindil, defeated Sauron. Isildur used his father’s broken sword to cut the Ring from Sauron’s hand!
Sauron’s body was destroyed, and he lost much of his power, but his spirit escaped. And the Ring was not destroyed. Isildur took the Ring. It made him feel powerful and strong, but it also made him selfish and greedy.
Because the power of Sauron did not die completely, the Ring wanted to return to its master. One day, Isildur was attacked by evil orcs. Isildur put on the Ring and he became invisible! He tried to escape in the River Anduin. But the Ring betrayed Isildur.
It fell off his finger as he swam in the River. The orcs could see him! They shot many arrows at him, and he was killed. The Ring sank to the bottom of the river. It was lost for thousands of years. It waited, hidden in the dark water.
The wise men and powerful rulers thought the Ring was gone forever. Then one day, a strange creature found it. His name was Gollum. The Ring made him live for hundreds of years. He called the ring “my precious.”
Gollum took the ring deep under the roots of the Misty Mountains, far away from the bright sun and the bright moon. But the Ring was not happy. It did not want to stay in dark caves under the mountains forever. It wanted to return to its master, Sauron. So, it left Gollum.
And a small, peaceful hobbit named Bilbo Baggins found the Ring. While lost and separated from his friends, Bilbo discovered the secret power of the Ring - invisibility! He used the Ring and he escaped from Gollum. He found his friends, the Dwarves, and he took the Ring home to a quiet land called the Shire.
But now, after many years, Sauron’s power grows. He is rising again, and he wants the Ring back. If he finds it, he will become strong once more. His evil will cover all of Middle-earth in shadow and death. There is only one hope for the people of Middle-earth - the Ring must be destroyed.
