Not very far into the manuscript of fellow academic JRR Tolkien’s magnum opus, CS Lewis was heard to exclaim ‘Not another fucking elf!!’ Undoubtedly, those among the population who are perplexed by The Lord Of The Ring’s place in popular literature, not to mention its consistent placing as the Book of the 20th century whenever and wherever such polls are commissioned, will be feeling something similar now that the whole world seems to have gone hobbit since the movie version opened before Christmas.

The Fellowship Of The Ring – as most of humanity knows – follows the young hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) after his inheritance of a magic ring from his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm). The ring, as it happens, is no ordinary piece of jewellery, but the One Ring, an object of absolute power that could allow Sauron, the Dark Lord, to enslave all the peoples of Middle-earth. Frodo is joined by a loyal fellowship of men and hobbits, as well as Gandalf the wizard (Ian McKellen), Legolas the elf (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys Davies). Together, they journey towards the Crack of Doom where the Ring was first forged and where it must be destroyed. However, they face external evils in the form of Sauron’s army of Orcs and internal dissension brought on by the immense corrupting power of the Ring.

As one might expect, entire story strands and chracters have been given the chop, and more attention is paid to Frodo’s central journey. Equally, other parts have been added: Liv Tyler’s character, the elfin princess Arwen, has been expanded from a brief appearance in the book to form a romantic subplot involving Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). Also, a new composite character Lurtz has been created to marshall the Uruk-hai Orc troops. Purists may not be happy about such changes, but given the length of the work in question, they were fairly essential. Besides, when one considers the director Peter Jackson’s devotion to Tolkien, coupled with his CV to date (the surreal and fantastical Heavenly Creatures, as well as the inventive no-budget splatterfest Braindead), the object of Tolkien fans’ affection is in safe hands.