The Fellowship of the Ring

Frodo Baggins, Bilbo’s distant cousin, inherits the ring on Bilbo’s “eleventy-first” or 111th birthday, which is also the day Frodo turns 33, the Hobbit age of adulthood. Bilbo has kept his possession of the ring a secret from everyone but Gandalf and Frodo; unaware of the ring’s full powers, he has only understood its property to grant invisibility and halt aging. As a finale to the birthday party’s festivities, Bilbo announces to the gathered crowd that he plans to leave the Shire for good—and he uses the ring one last time to disappear before his surprised guests. He returns to his home amused and packs a few belongings for a one-way journey to revisit the mountains and finish writing his memoirs. Gandalf turns up to Bilbo’s house and bids him farewell, and Bilbo admits to him that he feels aged, “all thin, sort of stretched” (32), and has no plans to return. As agreed, Bilbo leaves the ring behind for Frodo, but he repeatedly finds it difficult to part with his “precious” (33), a name previously given to the ring by Gollum. Bilbo begins to argue with Gandalf and insists on keeping the ring, but he eventually relents as he recounts the years the object has felt “like an eye” (34) watching him. With the ring sealed in an envelope, he attempts to hand it to Gandalf, but the wizard refuses to touch it. Only after Bilbo hesitates and drops the envelope on the floor does Gandalf swiftly pick it up and place it on the mantlepiece. Parting with the ring briefly causes Bilbo to flush with uncharacteristic anger, but the tension subsides as he begins to feel relief from finally relinquishing the ring. He departs with his dwarf companions, and Gandalf informs Frodo that he has inherited the ring along with the rest of the estate. Alarmed by Bilbo’s agitated behavior, Gandalf cautions Frodo not to take the ring’s abilities lightly and to keep it secret as the wizard departs on a journey to investigate ring-lore.

In Bilbo’s absence, Frodo continues to observe Bilbo’s birthday in the subsequent years. The people of the Shire remark how Frodo has maintained his youthful appearance despite approaching the age of 50, the same age Bilbo was when he set out on his adventures in The Hobbit. Word reaches the Shire of an evil emerging from Mirkwood Forest and the rebuilding of the Dark Tower in Mordor, the ancient Enemy’s realm. Gandalf visits Frodo after many years, turning up at Bilbo’s house (where Frodo now lives) with dire news of the ring’s origins:

This is an evil Ring that can change its size and control the one who wears it, weakening their will until they fade permanently and remain enslaved under the power of evil. Long ago, Sauron the Great deceived the Elves into forging these Rings; the Elves were already crafting magic rings that would endow the wearer with greater understanding of the world, but Sauron appeared under the guise of a helper and manipulated their craftsmanship, creating Rings of Power. Without the Elves’ knowledge, Sauron then forged the One Ring in Mordor for himself and infused it with his dark strength to command all other Rings of Power and control the wearers. Three Rings were given to the Elven-kings, seven to the Dwarf-lords, and nine to Mortal Men. During the Black Years, the years of Sauron’s power, he almost achieved complete dominion, acquiring control over the nine Rings from the men who became his phantom servants, known as Ringwraiths. The three Elven Rings remained untouched, and Sauron was vanquished in battle when Isildur, the son of King Elendil of the race of Men, used his father’s broken sword to sever the One Ring from Sauron’s hand. Though Sauron’s body was then destroyed, his spirit remained—and, believing the One Ring destroyed, he went into hiding. Isildur kept the Ring for himself, but he lost both it and his life in the River Anduin in an ambush by Sauron’s goblinlike army of Orcs.

Over two millennia later, Sméagol, a hobbitlike ancestor, seized the Ring after murdering his friend, Déagol, who discovered it in the river. After learning of the Ring’s power of invisibility, Sméagol used it for thievery and was soon an outcast from his community. He exiled himself in the caves beneath the Misty Mountains. The Ring prolonged his lifespan but ate away at his being; after centuries spent isolated in the dark beneath the mountains, he’s become the creature known as Gollum, now barely recognizable as anything hobbitlike. Gollum kept the Ring, his “precious,” for over 400 years—until Bilbo stumbled across his lair and, after a riddling contest with Gollum, absconded with the cherished object. That was decades ago.

As Gandalf relays this chronology to Frodo, he explains that Gollum is tormented by the Ring and is a victim of its power over his will; yet because Gollum has not completely “faded” under the Ring’s grip, this is a hopeful sign for the poor creature. Gandalf reminds Frodo that Gollum’s ability to survive is hobbitlike, which suggests Gollum retains at least a trace of his former self. Moreover, the riddle game he played with Bilbo—with riddles involving the natural world—served as a pleasant reminder of the wind and trees long repressed in his memory. The One Ring has a will of its own, and Gandalf surmises that rather than being lost by Gollum, “the Ring left him” (54) to return to Sauron upon Bilbo’s chance encounter.

When Gandalf first discovered Bilbo had found a ring, he didn’t know it was the One Ring. He did have suspicions, particularly regarding the hobbit’s lie of how he came to possess it (again, Bilbo had made it sound like he’d won it in the riddle contest, when he actually stole it), but he was doubtful since Bilbo remained relatively unaffected despite years of owning it. Not until Bilbo’s 111th birthday, when the hobbit struggled to relinquish the object, did Gandalf’s fears rekindle. Now after years of research and inquiry, Gandalf confirms that the ring in Frodo’s possession is indeed the One Ring: He throws it into Frodo’s burning fireplace, and when they see a fiery inscription illuminate on the gold, this authenticates it. The glowing inscription, written in Elvish letters but in the language of Mordor, identifies it as “the One Ring to rule them all” (49). Soon after Gandalf retrieves the Ring from the flames, the metal cools, and the inscription fades once more. Frodo puts it in his pocket.

Gandalf says that with the help of his friend Aragorn, a skilled traveler and huntsman, he tracked down and questioned Gollum—and after what Gollum told them, Gandalf now fears for the Shire’s safety. He learned that Sauron’s spirit, having regained strength in Mirkwood Forest, is now an evil presence in the Dark Tower of Mordor. Sauron, who must have clairvoyantly sensed Gollum had once held the Ring, had Gollum captured and brought to Mordor, where he was tortured and interrogated about the Ring’s whereabouts; Gollum told Sauron the name Baggins (which is how Bilbo had introduced himself to Gollum before stealing the Ring from him). Gollum managed to flee Mordor, but now that Sauron has Bilbo’s name, he knows his Ring is in the Shire—and he intends to reclaim it.

Frodo wishes that Bilbo had killed Gollum, but Gandalf retorts that Bilbo’s pity saved him from the Ring’s corruption and that Gollum still has a part to play in the Ring’s fate. Wanting to destroy the Ring immediately, Frodo removes it from his pocket and prepares to fling it back into the fireplace, but he suddenly finds himself unable to do so. He feels entranced by the Ring’s beauty. It seems “precious” to him, and he can only fondle it and place it safely back in his pocket.

Gandalf points out this is part of the Ring’s power: People struggle to part with it. He informs Frodo that the only way to destroy the Ring is to cast it in the fiery magma of the Cracks of Doom, the volcano in Mordor where the Ring was forged. Gandalf refuses to guard the Ring himself as he does not want the temptation of possessing such power; he knows the Ring could corrupt him, and because Gandalf is such a powerful wizard, his corruption could be catastrophic. Bilbo is the only one in history who has ever willingly relinquished the Ring, and Gandalf believes that Frodo has a chance of successfully destroying it. Frodo decides he must take the Ring and leave for the safety of the Shire.

The two of them catch someone eavesdropping—Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s gardener. Gandalf instructs him to accompany Frodo beyond the Shire, and though Sam is initially scared, he is soon overcome with delight at the possibility of encountering Elves at some point in the journey. And because he considers himself Frodo’s servant, Sam is also eager to help Frodo in any way he can.