Spoiler-free book guide
The Fellowship of the Ring
Book 1 of 3 in The Lord of the Rings · by J.R.R. Tolkien
How it opens
Bilbo Baggins of Bag End throws a grand party in Hobbiton for his eleventy-first birthday, which is also the coming of age of his young cousin and heir, Frodo. At the end of his speech Bilbo slips on a magic ring, vanishes, and sets off that night with three dwarves, leaving the ring and Bag End to Frodo after a tense quarrel with the wizard Gandalf. When Gandalf returns years later, he throws the ring into the fire, then shows Frodo fiery letters on it and tells him that it is the One Ring, made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Frodo decides that he must leave the Shire, and Gandalf, catching the gardener Sam Gamgee listening under the window, sends Sam along with him.
Who you meet early
- Frodo BagginsFrodo Baggins was a Hobbit of the Shire in the late Third Age, the favourite cousin and adopted heir of Bilbo Baggins, into whose keeping came a ring of great consequence.
- Bilbo BagginsA hobbit of the Shire, proud of his respectable Baggins blood and quietly stirred by the wandering streak he gets from the Tooks.
- Samwise GamgeeSamwise Gamgee, called Sam, is the youngest son of the Gaffer, a hobbit who carries on his father's work in the gardens of Bag End and loves stories of the old days.
- Hamfast GamgeeHamfast "The Gaffer" Gamgee was a Hobbit of the Shire, a gardener by trade and father of Samwise Gamgee.
- Meriadoc BrandybuckMeriadoc Brandybuck, known to his friends as Merry, was a Hobbit of the Shire, a cousin and close companion of Frodo Baggins with a keen eye for maps and a fondness for boats and ponies.
- Lobelia Sackville-BagginsLobelia (Bracegirdle) Sackville-Baggins was a Hobbit of the Shire.
- Ted SandymanTed Sandyman was the son of Sandyman the Miller of Hobbiton, a Shire-folk Hobbit with little patience for strange tales and even less curiosity about the wider world.
Where it sits
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of 3 books in The Lord of the Rings. Start here.
Next · Book 2
Reading The Fellowship of the Ring now?
Set your chapter and the Lord of the Rings wiki shows only what you have reached. Characters you have not met yet do not appear.
The opening on this page is written only from chapters 1 and 2 of Book One of The Fellowship of the Ring. Character notes are the wiki’s public introductions, the same ones it shows before you set any progress.