King of Angmar long ago, Sorcerer, Ringwraith, Lord of the Nazgûl, a spear of terror in the hand of Sauron, shadow of despair.

The tale "grew in the telling". Lord of the Rings began life as a sequel to The Hobbit. The link between the two was Bilbo's magic ring, which turned out to be the Ruling Ring. As Tolkien wrote, the story took on a life of its own, and developed in unexpected directions. It became darker and its central ideas more serious.

The story also became much more complicated. The Fellowship splits up, and the story breaks into several strands. Each strand is followed in turn for different overlapping periods of time. This leads to the great cliff-hanger at the end of Book 4, when Frodo is captured by the Orcs, and we don't find out what happens next for another 200 pages. It needed careful planning by the author to bring all these threads together again in the end.

At the centre of the story are the addiction of power, and the desire to escape death and become immortal. Although the rings give mortals extended life, you begin to "feel all thin, sort of stretched . . . like butter that has been scraped over too much bread". But the rings of power are addictive. Continued use increases the hold on the wearer, until they cannot bear to be without them. The desire to use the power of the ring to do good is no protection against the evil effects.

But the good people are not always completely good. Some, like Saruman the wizard, become bad; others lose hope, like Denethor; or give in to temptation, like Boromir. Are those on the bad side always utterly wicked? When Sam saw the dead soldier of Sauron's army, he wondered "if he was really evil of heart, or what lies and threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace." Gollum sways between good and bad, before finally falling - and saving the quest in the process.

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