Doing a Lord of the rings intro type thing

I just wanted your opinion(s) on doing a LOTR intro.

By that I mean making a scene set 2000 years before the plot, then directly jumping into someone's life (frodo) in the next chapter.

 

How important is it to your story that this is done? Does it make sense and reoccur in the story? What I mean is in LOTR the beginning scene comes back into play several times. When Frodo talks to the elves, and when he talks to Gandolph.

 

It's quite important, it is mentioned several times.

 

Then I say go for it. I don't see what it can hurt as long as it's vital to the story.

 

Have you read Lord of the Rings? It doesn't begin with a scene from the past.

The story begins with the preparations for a huge double birthday party. Granted, there is a huge expository chapter that soon follows, but the story doesn't begin with it.

As far as infodumps go, Gandalf's revelations to Frodo are reasonably well presented. It isn't the whole history, but it's enough to connect Bilbo's adventures to a darker past, and gives Frodo the needed motivation to choose a secret exile from the Shire.\

By the time we read The Shadow of the Past, we already have had time to get to know the characters somewhat, and have already seen hints of the sinister power of the ring over its owner.

 

I was going to post this myself put I thought I'd give the OP the benefit of the doubt that they were referring to the film only.

As to the OP, yes you can do such an opening. The Wheel of Time is the first example that comes to my mind.

 

Yeah, it's called a prologue... regardless of how long it's set before the main action of the novel, if it works as a prologue use it. If not.... ditch it.

 

I think he was talking about the movies? The scene with the battle where man first attains the ring. At least thats how I replied to the question.

 

I would advise against it. It will not hook your readers. They want to read a novel, not a history book, even if it's a history book of a fantasy land. You can do it of course and it may be good but it will probably be better if you don't.

A Song of Ice and Fire, a fantasy series by George R.R. Martin, has a pretty detailed history going back thousands of years without any infodumps.

 

Movies follow different rules than novels. In this case, a movie has to run in a very limited time frame, so exposition delivered in this way leaves more time to develop other elements.