Archmaesterjimmie: LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)

2026-06-13T15:57:24Z

LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)

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{{Infobox character
| image = https://archmaester.site/portraits/lotr/frodo-baggins.jpg
| name = Frodo Baggins
| title = The Ring-bearer; Nine-fingered; Mr. Frodo; Elf-friend
| house = The Fellowship
| race = Hobbit
| status = Departed
| region = Bag End, Hobbiton, the Shire
| born = 22 September T.A. 2968
| died = Departed over Sea (sailed 29 September T.A. 3021)
| weapon = Sting; the mithril coat (a gift of Bilbo)
| fate = Bore the One Ring to Mount Doom; wounded beyond healing, sailed into the West
| actor = Elijah Wood
| quote = I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.
}}

'''Frodo Baggins''' of [[Bag End]] was the [[Hobbit]] who carried the [[One Ring]] from the [[Shire]] to the fires of [[Mount Doom]], and so brought about the ruin of [[Sauron]] in the [[War of the Ring]]. Heir of [[Bilbo Baggins]], he was named the [[Ring-bearer]], and is reckoned among the chief of the small folk whose courage decided the fate of the [[Third Age]].

Of all the [[Fellowship of the Ring|Fellowship]] his was the heaviest burden — to bear into the Enemy's own land the thing the Enemy most desired. He did not destroy the Ring by his own will at the last, yet his endurance, and the mercy he showed to [[Gollum]], won the victory that strength of arms could not.

== Origins ==
Frodo was born in T.A. 2968, son of [[Drogo Baggins]] and [[Primula Brandybuck]], who were drowned in a boating accident on the [[Brandywine]] when Frodo was twelve. Orphaned, he was raised for a time among his mother's kin in [[Brandy Hall]] in [[Buckland]], until [[Bilbo Baggins]] — his cousin and adopted heir — took him to live at [[Bag End]]. The two shared a birthday, 22 September, and a love of books, walking, and the company of [[Elves]] that set them apart from their neighbours.

When Bilbo departed the Shire after his eleventy-first birthday party in T.A. 3001, he left Bag End and all his possessions to Frodo — including, at [[Gandalf]]'s urging, the magic ring he had found long before in the dark under the [[Misty Mountains]].

== Biography ==
=== The burden revealed ===
For seventeen years Frodo kept the ring quietly. Then [[Gandalf]] returned with grim certainty: it was the [[One Ring]] of Sauron, and the Enemy had learned the names "[[Baggins]]" and "[[Shire]]". Frodo resolved to leave, taking the name [[Mr. Underhill|Underhill]], and set out with his gardener [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]] and his cousins [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]].

Hunted by the [[Nazgûl|Black Riders]], the hobbits crossed the [[Old Forest]], were saved by [[Tom Bombadil]] from a barrow-wight, and reached [[Bree]], where they met the Ranger [[Aragorn|Strider]]. On [[Weathertop]] the [[Witch-king of Angmar|Witch-king]] stabbed Frodo with a [[Morgul-blade]]; only the skill of [[Elrond]] at [[Rivendell]] drew out the splinter and saved his life.

=== The Fellowship ===
At the [[Council of Elrond]] Frodo offered himself to bear the Ring to [[Mount Doom]], though he did not know the way. With eight companions he set out as the [[Fellowship of the Ring]]. Through the snows of [[Caradhras]] and the deeps of [[Moria]] — where Gandalf fell — they came to [[Lothlórien]]. There [[Galadriel]] tested and counselled him, and gave him the [[Phial of Galadriel]]. At [[Amon Hen]] [[Boromir]], maddened by desire for the Ring, tried to take it; Frodo, seeing the Fellowship could not safely go on together, resolved to go to [[Mordor]] alone — but Sam would not be left behind.

=== Into Mordor ===
:''Main article: [[The Ring-bearer]]''
Frodo and Sam crossed the [[Emyn Muil]] and the [[Dead Marshes]], guided by [[Gollum]], whom Frodo spared and even pitied, sensing in him a shadow of his own peril. Gollum led them to [[Cirith Ungol]] and the lair of [[Shelob]], where Frodo was stung and taken for dead. Sam bore the Ring briefly before rescuing him from the orc-tower.

Through the ashen waste of [[Gorgoroth]] the two crawled to the [[Cracks of Doom]]. There, at the very edge, the Ring mastered Frodo at last: he claimed it for his own. But [[Gollum]] bit the Ring from his hand and fell with it into the fire — and so, by the mercy Frodo had shown, the Quest was fulfilled though Frodo's own will had failed.

=== The Shire and after ===
Returning home, Frodo found the Shire ruined under [[Saruman]] and helped lead the [[Scouring of the Shire]], though he himself drew no sword and forbade the slaying of the broken wizard. But he was wounded in body and spirit — by the Morgul-knife, by [[Shelob]]'s sting, by the loss of the Ring — and could find no lasting peace. "''It must often be so,''" he told Sam, "''when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.''" In T.A. 3021 he rode to the [[Grey Havens]] and passed over Sea with [[Gandalf]], [[Bilbo]], [[Elrond]], and [[Galadriel]] into the [[Undying Lands]].

== Character ==
Frodo was thoughtful, generous, and quietly brave — more a scholar and walker than a warrior. He grew in wisdom and authority under the Ring's burden even as it consumed him, learning a deep pity that extended even to Gollum. His failure at the last is, in [[Gandalf]]'s and Tolkien's own reading, no shame but the proof that no will could have resisted the Ring at the Cracks of Doom; what mattered was the mercy that had spared the creature who finished the task.

== Relationships ==
* '''[[Samwise Gamgee]]''' — his gardener and the truest of companions, who never left him.
* '''[[Bilbo Baggins]]''' — cousin, guardian, and the source of his inheritance and his doom.
* '''[[Gandalf]]''' — his guide, who set him on the road and trusted his courage.
* '''[[Gollum]]''' — whom he pitied and spared, and who unwittingly saved the Quest.
* '''[[Aragorn]]''' — protector on the road and king of the world he helped save.
* '''[[Faramir]]''' — who released him in [[Ithilien]] against the law of [[Gondor]], trusting his errand.

== Appearances ==
* ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]''
* ''[[The Two Towers]]'' (Book IV)
* ''[[The Return of the King]]''
* ''[[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]]'' (mentioned)

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Frodo was portrayed by '''Elijah Wood'''. The films omit the [[Scouring of the Shire]] and the role of [[Tom Bombadil]], and compress Frodo's mistrust of Sam under Gollum's influence.

== Quotes ==
<blockquote>''I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo. 'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.''</blockquote>

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Lord of the Rings]]
[[Category:The Fellowship]]
[[Category:Hobbits]]

Frodo Baggins - Revision history

Archmaesterjimmie: LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)