Media type, Print (hardback and paperback). Preceded by, The Hobbit. Followed by, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author and scholarJ. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, but ... The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on ...