They decide to try to shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. When they reach the house at Crickhollow, Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the Ring and insist on travelling with Frodo and Sam. The hobbits spend the night with them, then take an evasive short cut the next day, and arrive at the farm of Farmer Maggot, who takes them to Bucklebury Ferry, where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck. They are pursued by mysterious Black Riders, but meet a passing group of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion, whose chants to Elbereth ward off the Riders. Gandalf leaves, promising to return by Frodo's birthday and accompany him on his journey, but fails to do so.įrodo sets out on foot, offering a cover story of moving to Crickhollow, accompanied by his gardener Sam Gamgee, and his cousin Pippin Took. Seventeen years later, Gandalf tells Frodo that he has confirmed that the Ring is the one lost by the Dark Lord Sauron long ago and counsels him to take it away from the Shire.
Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring's origin, but the wizard Gandalf suspects it is a Ring of Power. Gandalf proves that Frodo's Ring is the One Ring by throwing it into Frodo's fireplace, revealing the hidden text of the Rhyme of the Rings.īilbo celebrates his 111th birthday and leaves the Shire suddenly, leaving the Ring to Frodo Baggins, his cousin and heir. It explains how the narrative follows on from The Hobbit, in which the hobbit Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring, which had been in the possession of Gollum. The prologue explains that the work is "largely concerned with hobbits", telling of their origins in a migration from the east, their habits such as smoking " pipe-weed", and of how their homeland the Shire is organised.
20 October 1955 ( The Return of the King).29 July 1954 ( The Fellowship of the Ring).