Way to get yourself killed.

Current book: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Pages read: 432 - 527 (end of the first book)

After they get out of the mines of Moria, they head to Lothlorien (No, I'm not doing accents for anything in here. It was bad enough for the German guy's name in Sophie's Choice, and Tolkien will just have to forgive me.), an elvish territory that consists of tree-constructions. (Cities in the trees are pretty much just always cool. In case you were taking notes on what I think is cool.) So, anyway, they get there, and the queen of the elves, Galadriel, greets them and gives them leave to stay for a while and rest (which is fairly unprecedented, especially for Gimli, since the elves and dwarves have been on unfriendly terms for a couple of hundred years), as well as to inform Lothlorien of the events surrounding the Ring and the Fellowship. In the evening, Galadriel talks with Frodo and Sam and allows them to look into the elves' magical scrying pool. They see disturbing scenes of trouble and destruction in both the Shire and the rest of Middle-Earth. Frodo offers Galadriel the Ring, but she refuses, saying that its power is too great even for her. Eventually, the whole party leaves the elves, determined to continue on their journey, and Galadriel gives them all magical gifts.

After leaving Lothlorien, they travel by boat further toward Mordor, where Sauron waits, and Minas Tirith, one of the strongholds of men. Boromir and Aragorn had originally intended to split off and go to Minas Tirith together, but now that Gandalf is gone, Aragorn says he must stay with the rest of them. Before they can really make headway, however, Boromir, overcome by the enormous power of the Ring, gets Frodo alone and tries to take it from him. He doesn't succeed, but Frodo realizes that he can't stay with the others and sets out on his own. Sam chases after him and manages to convince Frodo to take him along. The two set off together, leaving the rest of the party behind.

And that's the end of the Fellowship, both book and group of people. This part is not terribly exciting, since there is a lot of discussion of various elf things, but not a whole lot of action. Lothlorien is clearly very cool, though, and I like Galadriel. She has considerably more character than a lot of the others (which is funny, really, since she's fairly minor), most notably because she's tempted by the Ring and realizes the devastation it could wreak upon both her soul and her people if she were to take it up, even in the name of good.

On a more whiny note, I was annoyed by a moment that occurs right after they leave the mines of Moria, when Aragorn looks back toward the mines as if in mourning for Gandalf. They've just come out from where Gandalf has been dragged into the black abyss, and Aragorn turns around and goes, "Farewell Gandalf! Did I not say to you: if you pass the doors of Moria, beware? Alas that I spoke true." I mean, I know what we're going for there, which is that Aragorn is regretful about the outcome of the situation, but it pretty much sounds like saying "I told you so" to a dead guy. Not particularly inspiring.