Frodo Baggins

Lineage

Frodo was born on 22 September T.A. 2968 (S.R. 1368), the only child of Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. Through his father he was a Baggins of Hobbiton, a second cousin of Bilbo; through his mother, a daughter of Gorbadoc Brandybuck and Mirabella Took, he was Bilbo's first cousin as well, a grandson of the Master of Buckland and a great-grandson of the Old Took. This double inheritance of Stoorish Brandybuck and Fallohide Took blood was later held to account for a good deal. When he was twelve his parents drowned in a boating accident on the Brandywine, and he grew up among the swarming cousins of Brandy Hall under the care of his uncle Rorimac. There he learned the woods and fields of the Eastfarthing, raided Farmer Maggot's mushrooms, and acquired a reputation as one of the worst young rascals of Buckland.

Bilbo's heir

In T.A. 2989, when Frodo was twenty-one, Bilbo adopted him and brought him to Bag End, partly from affection and partly to thwart the Sackville-Bagginses. The two shared a birthday and a temperament. Bilbo taught him his letters and some Elvish, and Frodo grew up quiet, bookish and fond of walking, with the well-preserved look that made the neighbours mutter. At Bilbo's Farewell Party on 22 September 3001 Frodo came of age and became master of Bag End; Bilbo vanished from the table that night, and on the mantelpiece Frodo found an envelope containing a golden ring.

For seventeen years he kept it unused and unconsidered, while Gandalf went to and fro in the world. In April 3018 the wizard returned, threw the ring into the fire, read the fiery letters that appeared on it, and told Frodo what it was: the One Ring of Sauron, which the Enemy now sought. Frodo's first response was to wish it had never come to him and to regret that Bilbo had not killed Gollum; Gandalf's answer about pity was one he would remember at the end. He resolved to leave the Shire and take the Ring away from it, and Samwise Gamgee, caught eavesdropping under the window, was assigned to go with him.

The flight to Rivendell

Frodo sold Bag End to Lobelia, let it be thought he was moving to Buckland, and left Hobbiton on foot with Sam and Pippin on 23 September 3018, the day after his fiftieth birthday. The Black Riders were already in the Shire, asking for Baggins. The three hobbits hid from one on the road, met Gildor's company of Elves in the Woody End, were sheltered and ferried across the river by Farmer Maggot, and reached Crickhollow, where Merry and Fredegar Bolger revealed the conspiracy by which Frodo's friends had long since arranged to come with him.

The road east led through the Old Forest, where the hobbits were saved from Old Man Willow by Tom Bombadil, and over the Barrow-downs, where Frodo alone stayed conscious in the wight's tomb and called Tom to their rescue. At Bree Frodo, travelling as Mr Underhill, put on the Ring by mischance in the Prancing Pony and drew every eye in the room; there he met Aragorn, then only Strider, and reluctantly took him as guide. On Weathertop on the night of 6 October the Nine came upon them, and Frodo, yielding to the Ring, put it on and saw the Riders as they truly were. He struck at the Witch-king and was stabbed in the shoulder with a Morgul-knife. For thirteen days he rode with the splinter working towards his heart, and at the Ford of Bruinen on 20 October, on Glorfindel's horse, he turned to defy the Riders as the flood took them.

The Fellowship

Elrond healed him at Rivendell, though the wound never wholly closed. At the Council on 25 October, when no one else would speak, Frodo said that he would take the Ring, though he did not know the way. He left Rivendell on 25 December with eight companions. In Moria an Orc-spear struck him full in the chest and was turned by Bilbo's mithril coat. In Lothlórien he looked into Galadriel's mirror, saw the Eye, and offered her the Ring; she refused it and gave him instead the Phial holding the light of Eärendil's star. He was already changing, seeing further and feeling the Ring's weight more heavily. On 26 February 3019, at Amon Hen, Boromir tried to take the Ring by force. Frodo escaped by putting it on, sat in the Seat of Seeing under the direct gaze of Sauron, tore the Ring from his finger with the last of his will, and decided to go on to Mordor alone. Sam guessed his purpose and would not be left behind.

The road to Mordor

In the Emyn Muil they caught Gollum, who had been trailing the Fellowship since Moria, and Frodo bound him not with the rope but with an oath sworn on the Ring. Gollum guided them through the Dead Marshes to the Black Gate and, when that proved impassable, south into Ithilien. There Faramir of Gondor took them, learned who they were, and against the law of his land let them go, giving Frodo food, staves and a warning against the pass Gollum was leading him to. Frodo spared Gollum's life at the Forbidden Pool, but Gollum saw only betrayal in it. Up the stair to Cirith Ungol they went, and into the tunnel of Shelob. Frodo drove her back with the Phial and Sting and was stung as he ran for the pass; Sam, thinking him dead, took the Ring and Sting and went on. Orcs carried Frodo's body into the Tower.

Sam came for him, and the two hobbits, dressed as Orcs, crossed the plain of Gorgoroth in a march that nearly killed them both. Frodo cast off everything but the Ring, forgot the taste of food and the memory of the Shire, and at the last had to be carried. On 25 March they came to the Cracks of Doom inside Mount Doom. There Frodo's will failed at last: he claimed the Ring for his own and put it on. Gollum, who had followed them up the mountain, fell on the invisible hobbit, bit the finger from his hand, and tumbled with the Ring into the fire. Frodo's quest was accomplished, though not by him, and he said so plainly afterwards.

Homecoming

The Eagles brought the hobbits out of the ruin of Mordor, and on the Field of Cormallen the host of the West did them honour. Frodo stood beside Aragorn at his coronation in Minas Tirith on 1 May and carried the crown; Arwen gave him her white gem and a promise that he might take her place on the ship into the West if his hurts proved past healing. The hobbits rode home by way of Rohan, Isengard and Rivendell, and found the Shire in the hands of ruffians. Frodo's part in the Scouring was to restrain: he forbade killing where it could be avoided, and at the door of Bag End he spared Saruman, who had come there for spite, and would not let the hobbits kill him. Saruman's own servant did that. Frodo served as Deputy Mayor while Will Whitfoot recovered, and retired from it as soon as he could.

Departure

He returned to Bag End with Sam, and later with Sam and Rose and their baby Elanor, but he did not heal. On the anniversaries of Weathertop and of Shelob's sting he fell ill, and he told Sam that he had been too deeply wounded to enjoy the Shire he had saved. He finished Bilbo's book and gave it to Sam. On 21 September 3021 he rode out with Sam, met Bilbo, Elrond and Galadriel in the Woody End, and at the Grey Havens on 29 September he boarded the white ship with Bilbo and Gandalf. Sam, Merry and Pippin watched it out of sight. In the Shire Frodo was little remembered; in Gondor and in the songs of the Elves he became Frodo of the Nine Fingers, and the Fourth Age was in a real sense his gift.

Unable to find peace in the Shire, he sailed from the Grey Havens into the West on 29 September T.A. 3021 with Bilbo and Gandalf, by the grace granted to the Ring-bearers.