First I watch the scenes with hobbits but not Frodo. Then I watch the scenes with Frodo but no other hobbits. Then I watch the scenes with Frodo and Bilbo but not Gandalf. Then I watch the scenes with dwarves and without Boromir. Then I seek psychiatric help.
To be fair, that’s a little like how the books are structured once the Fellowship breaks up. Book 3 is entirely following the Three Hunters, Merry, & Pippin. Then book 4 gives us Frodo & Sam. Book 5 returns to what Aragorn, Gandalf et al. are doing in Rohan & Gondor. The book 6 starts with Frodo & Sam in Mordor and their rescue from it. Then returns for the hobbits’ return trip to the Shire and the Scouring, and the denouement.
Are you getting fanfic mixed in there? There are only 3 LOTR books. An argument could even be made that they’re all one book since that’s how it was written, and it was the publisher that split it into 3.
No, there are 6. To quote the “note on the text” at the beginning of my 1-volume edition:
The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy, when it is in fact a single novel, consisting of six books plus appendices, sometimes published in three volumes.
Each of the common three volumes consists of two books, which should be clearly delineated as such in any copy.
LotR is generally published in three named volumes, but each volume is broken up into two “books” (in this context, meaning a major division of a literary work, not a set of bound pages). FotR, Book II starts with the chapter “Many Meetings” (when Frodo wakes up in Rivendell).
First I watch the scenes with hobbits but not Frodo. Then I watch the scenes with Frodo but no other hobbits. Then I watch the scenes with Frodo and Bilbo but not Gandalf. Then I watch the scenes with dwarves and without Boromir. Then I seek psychiatric help.
To be fair, that’s a little like how the books are structured once the Fellowship breaks up. Book 3 is entirely following the Three Hunters, Merry, & Pippin. Then book 4 gives us Frodo & Sam. Book 5 returns to what Aragorn, Gandalf et al. are doing in Rohan & Gondor. The book 6 starts with Frodo & Sam in Mordor and their rescue from it. Then returns for the hobbits’ return trip to the Shire and the Scouring, and the denouement.
Are you getting fanfic mixed in there? There are only 3 LOTR books. An argument could even be made that they’re all one book since that’s how it was written, and it was the publisher that split it into 3.
No, there are 6. To quote the “note on the text” at the beginning of my 1-volume edition:
Each of the common three volumes consists of two books, which should be clearly delineated as such in any copy.
LotR is generally published in three named volumes, but each volume is broken up into two “books” (in this context, meaning a major division of a literary work, not a set of bound pages). FotR, Book II starts with the chapter “Many Meetings” (when Frodo wakes up in Rivendell).