He left the ring behind for his young cousin, Frodo, along with a warning from the wizard Gandalf the Grey: Keep it safe.
Their journey led them to the village of Bree, to a crumbling inn called the Prancing Pony. There, they met a grim, weathered Ranger named Strider, who sat in the shadows with a broken sword at his belt. “You draw far too much attention, young hobbits,” he muttered. And when the Ringwraiths attacked their inn room, stabbing empty beds with wicked knives, Strider led them into the wild—through marsh and moor, under the gaze of ancient watchtowers, until they reached the hill of Weathertop.
The Fellowship was born. Nine companions against the nine Ringwraiths: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn (for Strider was the heir of Isildur), Boromir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf, and Legolas the Elf. Their mission: to carry the Ring into the black land of Mordor and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom.
Frodo looked at Sam, then at the dark mountains of Mordor rising in the east. He nodded. The two hobbits turned their backs on the Fellowship and walked alone into the unknown—into a land of ash and shadow, where no hope had gone before. lord of the rings film 1
“You shall not pass!” he cried, and his staff shattered against the Balrog’s sword. The bridge collapsed. The Balrog fell into the abyss—but its whip lashed out and caught Gandalf by the ankle. He fell, crying, “Fly, you fools!” and vanished into the darkness.
And behind them, Aragorn stood at the edge of the forest, watching them go. He bowed his head, then turned to save the others. The first part of the quest was over. The true journey had only just begun.
The Shire was no longer safe.
Finally, Frodo stood before them all, small and wounded, and spoke the words that decided the fate of the world: “I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor. Though I do not know the way.”
Had Arwen, the Elf-queen of Rivendell, not come riding like a storm wind on a white horse, Frodo would have faded into a wraith himself. She carried him across the rushing Ford of Bruinen, where she raised her hand and called down a flood of water shaped like charging horses, sweeping the Nine away.
On that lonely height, the Ringwraiths found them. Frodo, defying the terror, put on the ring to escape—and was immediately plunged into the wraith-world, a pale, shadowed realm where the Dark Lord’s servants were terrible and clear. The Witch-king of Angmar drove a Morgul-blade into Frodo’s shoulder. A shard of ice-cold evil lodged near his heart. He left the ring behind for his young
Frodo, who had never ventured farther than the edge of his own field, was given a burden heavier than any hobbit had ever carried. “You must leave,” Gandalf said. “And you cannot take the road you know.”
Frodo awoke in Rivendell—the Last Homely House east of the sea. There, Elrond the Half-elven healed him. And there, a great council was called. Representatives of Elves, Dwarves, and Men gathered to decide what to do with the One Ring. But as they argued—Boromir, son of the Steward of Gondor, urging them to use the ring as a weapon; Gimli the Dwarf shattering his axe in rage at an ancient insult—the ring revealed its true power: it turned friends against one another with whispers of glory and fear.
In the peaceful green hills of the Shire, where hobbits thought of nothing more than second breakfasts and the blooming of the mallorn tree, a quiet darkness was stirring. For sixty years, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins had kept a secret in his pocket—a golden ring that made its wearer invisible. On the eve of his eleventy-first birthday, he vanished during his own grand speech, using the ring to slip away from his startled guests. “You draw far too much attention, young hobbits,”
