Frodo Baggins

A Baggins of Bag End

Frodo was the son of Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck, and so half a Baggins and half a Brandybuck, and the gossip of Hobbiton thought the Brandybucks a queer breed who fooled about with boats. When he was a child his parents were drowned boating on the Brandywine, and he was brought up at Brandy Hall among his mother's large family.^1,2

Bilbo, his elderly cousin, took to him, adopted him as his heir and brought him to live at Bag End. The two shared a birthday, 22 September, and on the day Bilbo turned 111 and Frodo 33, the age at which a hobbit comes of age, Bilbo gave his famous farewell party and vanished from the Shire.¹

He left Frodo Bag End and, after an argument with Gandalf, the magic ring. Gandalf warned Frodo to keep it secret and not to use it.¹

The shadow of the past

For seventeen years Frodo lived at Bag End in the comfortable way of a well-to-do hobbit, with a taste for walking alone and a fondness for the Elves that the neighbours thought odd. He did not age; he looked at fifty much as he had at thirty-three.¹¹

In April 3018 Gandalf came back, threw the ring into Frodo's fire, and showed him the letters that came up on it. He told him what it was, and how it had come from Sauron to Isildur, from the river to Gollum, and from Gollum to Bilbo; and that Sauron was seeking it, and had learned the names Shire and Baggins from Gollum.¹¹

Frodo did not want it. He offered it to Gandalf, who refused it in fear. He said that he wished none of this had happened in his time, and Gandalf answered that so do all who live to see such times, and that all they have to decide is what to do with the time that is given them. Frodo resolved to take the Ring out of the Shire, where it was a danger to everyone he knew.¹¹

Out of the Shire

He sold Bag End to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, gave out that he was moving to Crickhollow in Buckland, and on 23 September 3018, the day after his fiftieth birthday, set out on foot with Sam Gamgee and Pippin Took. Black Riders were already in the Shire.^12,4

At Crickhollow he found that Merry, Pippin and Sam had long known his secret and meant to come with him. They went by the Old Forest, where Old Man Willow caught them and Tom Bombadil set them free, and over the Barrow-downs, where a Barrow-wight laid them in a tomb. Frodo, waking alone with the others in its spell, did not flee: he hewed at the creeping arm with a sword that lay there, and called on Tom with the song he had been taught.^13,14,15,16

At the Prancing Pony in Bree, under the name of Mr Underhill, he slipped from a table while singing and the Ring found its way onto his finger in front of the whole common room. It was there that Strider took charge of the hobbits.^17,18

The Morgul-knife

On the night of 6 October, in a dell below Weathertop, five of the Nine came for them. Frodo put on the Ring, and saw the Riders as they were: pale shrouded figures beneath their black wrappings, the leader crowned. As their leader struck, Frodo threw himself at his feet crying O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!, and the Morgul-knife pierced his shoulder. A splinter of it stayed in the wound, working inward towards his heart.^5,4

Strider kept him alive with athelas, and Glorfindel of Rivendell found them on the road and set Frodo on his own horse, Asfaloth. At the Ford of Bruinen, with the Nine behind him on the bank, Frodo turned and defied them.¹⁹

By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair, you shall have neither the Ring nor me!

The river rose against the Riders and swept them away. Frodo woke in Rivendell, where Elrond had drawn out the splinter, on 24 October.^19,20

I will take the Ring

At the Council of Elrond, when the counsel of the Wise had come to its end and the question was who should take the Ring to the fire, there was a long silence. Frodo broke it.²¹

I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.

Elrond said that he thought the task was appointed for him, and that if he did not find a way, no one would. Bilbo gave him Sting and the mithril coat that Thorin had given him in the Mountain, and on 25 December the Nine Walkers set out.^21,9,4

Moria and Lórien

In the Chamber of Mazarbul an Orc-chieftain drove a spear into Frodo and pinned him against the wall. The others thought him dead; the mithril coat, which he had told no one he was wearing, had turned the blow. Days later, after Gandalf's fall, they came into Lothlórien.^22,23

In the Mirror of Galadriel Frodo saw, at the last, a single Eye rimmed with fire, searching for him. Then he offered the Ring to Galadriel. She did not deny that she had desired it, and she described the queen she would become if she took it. Then she let her hand fall and said that she had passed the test, and would go into the West and remain Galadriel.²⁴

At the parting she gave him a phial of crystal holding the light of Eärendil's star, caught in the water of her fountain, to be a light in dark places when all other lights go out.²⁵

Alone

At Parth Galen, above the Falls of Rauros, the Company had to choose its road. Boromir found Frodo alone in the woods, tried to persuade him to bring the Ring to Minas Tirith, and at last tried to take it. Frodo put the Ring on and fled.²⁶

Invisible, he climbed to the Seat of Seeing on Amon Hen and saw war rising on every side, and felt the Eye seeking him. Two powers strove in him, one urging him to put the Ring on, one to take it off, until for a moment he was free to choose, and he took it off. He decided to go to Mordor alone, so that the Ring could hurt none of his friends. Only Sam guessed what he would do, and came after him into the river.²⁶

Gollum

In the hills of the Emyn Muil Gollum, who had followed them since Moria, was caught by Sam and Frodo. Frodo remembered Gandalf's words about pity, and spared him; Gollum swore by the Precious to serve the master of the Precious, and guided them through the Dead Marshes to the Black Gate.^27,28,29

The Gate was closed, so they turned south by Gollum's other way, into Ithilien. There Faramir's Rangers took them to their hidden refuge of Henneth Annûn. When Faramir's men found Gollum fishing in the Forbidden Pool and would have shot him, Frodo coaxed him into their hands to save his life. Gollum took it as a betrayal.^30,31,32

At the Cross-roads they found the statue of an old king of Gondor beheaded by Orcs, its head lying by the road, crowned with flowering creepers in the evening sun. Frodo cried out that they cannot conquer for ever.³³

Cirith Ungol

Gollum led them up the long stairs to the pass of Cirith Ungol, and into the tunnel of Torech Ungol, where Shelob lived. When she came on them in the dark, Frodo held up Galadriel's phial and cried out in a tongue he did not know.^34,6

Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!

Shelob gave back before the light, and Frodo cut through her web with Sting. But beyond it she came on him from behind and stung him. Sam fought her off and wounded her, and, believing his master dead, took the Ring to finish the quest himself. Then Orcs came and carried Frodo off, and Sam learned from their talk that he was only stung senseless.^6,7

Frodo woke naked in the tower of Cirith Ungol, among Orcs quarrelling over his mithril coat. On 14 March Sam found him, and Frodo, in a moment of the Ring's madness, called him a thief before he knew him. Sam gave it back.^35,4

Mordor

Dressed in Orc-gear, they crossed Mordor by its emptied roads while its armies marched to the Black Gate. The Ring grew heavier as they went, and the Eye seemed always to be turning towards them. Frodo lost even the memory of the Shire: he told Sam that he was naked in the dark, with no veil between him and the wheel of fire.^36,8

On the slopes of Mount Doom he could not go on, and Sam, who could not carry the Ring for him, carried him.⁸

The Crack of Doom

On 25 March 3019 Frodo stood at the edge of the Crack of Doom inside the Sammath Naur, in the heart of Sauron's realm, where the Ring's power was greatest. Then he spoke in a voice Sam had never heard from him.^8,4

I have come. But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!

He put it on and vanished. Gollum, who had followed them to the end, sprang on the invisible hobbit, bit off his finger with the Ring on it, and in his dance of triumph stepped over the edge and fell into the fire. The Ring was unmade, and Sauron's power with it.⁸

Eagles found Frodo and Sam on a hill of ash with the mountain bursting around them. At the Field of Cormallen the hosts of the West stood to honour them, and a minstrel of Gondor sang of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.³⁸

Homecoming

The four hobbits came home at the end of October 1419 to find the Shire ruled by Saruman's ruffians. Frodo drew no sword in the Scouring. He forbade the killing of any hobbit, even those who had gone over to the ruffians, and when Saruman, cornered at Bag End, stabbed at him and the knife turned on his mail, Frodo would not let him be killed.³⁹

He served for a time as Deputy Mayor, and wrote most of the story of the war in the Red Book that Bilbo had begun. But he was ill each year on the anniversaries of Weathertop and of Shelob's sting, and in the autumn of 1421 he told Sam he was going away.¹⁰

I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.

Arwen had given him her place in the ship to the West, and a white gem to wear against the memory of his wounds. On 29 September 1421, Shire Reckoning, he sailed from the Grey Havens with Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel, and gave the Red Book to Sam.^40,10

How Tolkien made him

Frodo arrived late. In the first drafts of the sequel to The Hobbit, collected in The Return of the Shadow, the hero was Bingo, who became Frodo only after several rewritings.⁴¹

Tolkien was clear that Frodo failed at the end. In a letter of 1963 he wrote that no one could have resisted the Ring at the Cracks of Doom, in the place of its making and at the height of its power, and that the quest was achieved not by Frodo's strength but by the pity he and Bilbo had shown Gollum.⁴²

Interpretation That is why the book does not make him a hero of battle. His victories are refusals: of the Ring to Gandalf and Galadriel, of revenge on Gollum and Saruman. What he could not refuse, the mercy he had shown refused for him.^11,8,39

Timeline

1. T.A. 2968, 22 Sept.Frodo is born.³
2. T.A. 3001, 22 Sept.Bilbo's farewell party. Frodo inherits Bag End and the Ring.³
3. T.A. 3018, AprilGandalf tells Frodo what the Ring is.⁴
4. T.A. 3018, 23 Sept.Frodo leaves Bag End.⁴
5. T.A. 3018, 6 Oct.Stabbed with a Morgul-knife below Weathertop.⁴
6. T.A. 3018, 20 Oct.Crosses the Ford of Bruinen.⁴
7. T.A. 3018, 25 Oct.The Council of Elrond.⁴
8. T.A. 3018, 25 Dec.The Fellowship leaves Rivendell.⁴
9. T.A. 3019, 26 Feb.The breaking of the Fellowship. Frodo and Sam go on alone.⁴
10. T.A. 3019, 13 Mar.Stung by Shelob and taken to the tower of Cirith Ungol.⁴
11. T.A. 3019, 14 Mar.Rescued by Sam.⁴
12. T.A. 3019, 25 Mar.The Ring is destroyed.⁴
13. T.A. 3019, 3 Nov.The Battle of Bywater ends the Scouring of the Shire.⁴
14. T.A. 3021, 29 Sept.Frodo sails from the Grey Havens.⁴

Names

Questions readers ask

Did Frodo fail?

At the last moment, yes, and Tolkien said so. In his letter of 1963 he wrote that Frodo could not have done otherwise: the Ring's power at the Cracks of Doom was beyond any mortal will to resist. What saved the quest was the mercy he had shown Gollum.⁴²

Why was Frodo allowed to go into the West?

Arwen gave him her place. A mortal could not dwell in the Undying Lands for ever; Tolkien explained that Frodo was granted a time of healing and peace there, not immortality, before he died.^40,42

How old was Frodo on the quest?

He set out the day after his fiftieth birthday. The Ring kept him looking as he had at thirty-three, the hobbit age of coming of age, which is why, when he left the Shire at fifty, he looked no older than a hobbit just out of his tweens.^11,4

On screen

Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.

Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring runs Bilbo's party and Gandalf's return together, as if Frodo left Bag End weeks after inheriting the Ring. In the book seventeen years pass between them.^44,11

In The Two Towers film Faramir takes Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath. In the book he lets them go from Henneth Annûn and they never come near the city.^45,32

In The Return of the King film Frodo, deceived by Gollum, sends Sam away on the stairs of Cirith Ungol. In the book Sam never leaves him until Shelob's attack.^46,34

Sources

Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.

• Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
• Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
• Tolkien's letters Tolkien explaining his own work. Authoritative on intent, but private and sometimes provisional.
• Drafts Earlier versions Tolkien changed or abandoned. Evidence of how the story grew, not of what is true in it.
• Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.

1. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 1, “A Long-expected Party”
2. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, “Family Trees”
3. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
4. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Great Years”
5. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 11, “A Knife in the Dark”
6. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 9, “Shelob's Lair”
7. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 10, “The Choices of Master Samwise”
8. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 3, “Mount Doom”
9. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 3, “The Ring Goes South”
10. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 9, “The Grey Havens”
11. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 2, “The Shadow of the Past”
12. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 3, “Three is Company”
13. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 5, “A Conspiracy Unmasked”
14. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 6, “The Old Forest”
15. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 7, “In the House of Tom Bombadil”
16. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 8, “Fog on the Barrow-downs”
17. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 9, “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony”
18. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 10, “Strider”
19. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 12, “Flight to the Ford”
20. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 1, “Many Meetings”
21. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 2, “The Council of Elrond”
22. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 5, “The Bridge of Khazad-dûm”
23. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 6, “Lothlórien”
24. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 7, “The Mirror of Galadriel”
25. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 8, “Farewell to Lórien”
26. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 10, “The Breaking of the Fellowship”
27. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 1, “The Taming of Sméagol”
28. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 2, “The Passage of the Marshes”
29. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 3, “The Black Gate is Closed”
30. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 4, “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”
31. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 5, “The Window on the West”
32. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 6, “The Forbidden Pool”
33. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 7, “Journey to the Cross-roads”
34. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 8, “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol”
35. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 1, “The Tower of Cirith Ungol”
36. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 2, “The Land of Shadow”
37. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 9, “The Great River”
38. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 4, “The Field of Cormallen”
39. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 8, “The Scouring of the Shire”
40. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 6, “Many Partings”
41. Drafts The Return of the Shadow (The History of Middle-earth, vol. 6), the first phase of the drafts
42. Tolkien's letters Letter 246, to Eileen Elgar (1963)
43. Drafts Sauron Defeated (The History of Middle-earth, vol. 9), the epilogue to The Lord of the Rings
44. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
45. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Two Towers (2002)
46. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Return of the King (2003)