Frodo is repeatedly wounded during the quest and becomes increasingly burdened by the Ring as it nears Mordor. He changes, too, growing in understanding and compassion. On his return to the Shire, he is unable to settle back into ordinary life; two years after the Ring's destruction, he is allowed to take ship to theearthly paradise ofValinor.
Frodo's name comes from theOld English nameFróda, meaning "wise by experience". Commentators have written that he combines courage, selflessness, and fidelity and that as a good[1] character, he seems unexciting but grows through his quest, anunheroic person who reaches heroic stature.
Frodo is introduced inThe Lord of the Rings asBilbo Baggins' cousin[a] and adoptive heir.[T 1] Frodo's parents, Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck, had been killed in a boating accident when Frodo was 12; Frodo spends the next nine years living with his maternal family, the Brandybucks, in Brandy Hall. At the age of 21, he is adopted by Bilbo, who brings him to live at his home,Bag End inthe Shire. He and Bilbo share the same birthday, the 22nd of September. Bilbo introduces Frodo to theElvish languages, and they often go on long walks together.[T 1]
Frodo comes of age as Bilbo leaves the Shire. Frodo inherits Bag End andBilbo's ring.Gandalf, uncertain about the origin of the ring, warns Frodo to avoid using it and to keep it secret.[T 1] Frodo keeps it hidden for the next 17 years, and it gives him the same longevity and youthful appearance it had given Bilbo. Gandalfreturns to tell him that it is the One Ring of the Dark LordSauron, who is seeking to recover and use it to conquerMiddle-earth.[T 2]
Realising that he is a danger to the Shire as long as he remains there, Frodo decides to take the Ring toRivendell, home ofElrond, a mightyElf-lord. He leaves with three companions: his gardenerSam Gamgee and his cousinsMerry Brandybuck andPippin Took. They are just in time, for Sauron's most powerful servants, the NineNazgûl, have entered the Shire as Black Riders, looking for the Ring. They follow Frodo's trail, nearly intercepting him.[T 3][T 4][T 5]
The hobbits escape into theOld Forest. They are waylaid by the magic ofOld Man Willow, but rescued byTom Bombadil,[T 6] who gives them shelter and guidance.[T 7] They are caught in fog on the Barrow Downs by abarrow-wight and put under a spell. Frodo breaks free, attacks the barrow-wight, and summons Bombadil, who again rescues the hobbits and sets them on their way.[T 8]
At thePrancing Pony inn, Frodo receives a delayed letter from Gandalf and meets a man calling himself Strider, aRanger; his real name isAragorn. The One Ring slips onto Frodo's finger in the inn's common room, turning him invisible. This attracts the Nazgûl, who ransack the hobbits' empty rooms in the night.[T 9] Strider leads the group through the marshes.[T 10]
While encamped onWeathertop, they are attacked by five Nazgûl. The leader, theWitch-king of Angmar, stabs Frodo with a Morgul blade, the wound threatening to turn him into a wraith under the Nazgûl's control.[T 11] Reaching Rivendell,[T 12] he is healed byElrond.[T 13]
The Fellowship travels by boat down theAnduin River and reaches the lawn ofParth Galen, just above the impassable falls ofRauros.[T 20] There, Boromir, succumbing tothe lure of the Ring, tries to take it by force. Frodo escapes by putting it on. This breaks the Fellowship; the company is scattered by invading Orcs. Frodo chooses to continue the quest alone, but Sam follows him.[T 21]
Frodo and Sam make their way through the wilds, followed by the monsterGollum, who has been tracking them, seeking to reclaim the Ring, which he had lost to Bilbo (as portrayed inThe Hobbit). Gollum attacks the hobbits, but Frodo subdues him with Sting. He takes pity on Gollum and spares his life, making him promise to guide them through thedead marshes to theBlack Gate.[T 22][T 23] They find the gate impassable; Gollum tells them of "another way" into Mordor,[T 24] and Frodo, over Sam's objections, lets him lead them south intoIthilien.[T 25] There they meetFaramir, younger brother of Boromir, who takes them toa hidden cave.[T 26] Frodo allows Gollum to be captured by Faramir, saving Gollum's life but leaving him feeling betrayed. Faramir provisions the hobbits and sends them on their way, warning Frodo to beware of Gollum's treachery.[T 27][T 28]
They passMinas Morgul, where the pull of the Ring becomes overwhelming, and climb theEndless Stair to cross into Mordor.[T 29] At the top they enter a tunnel, not knowing it is the home of the giant spiderShelob. Gollum hopes to deliver the hobbits to her and retake the Ring after she had killed them. Shelob stings Frodo, rendering him unconscious, but Sam drives her off with Sting and the Phial of Galadriel.[T 30] Believing that Frodo is dead, Sam takes the Ring and continues the quest. Soon, however, he overhears Orcs taking Frodo for questioning, saying that he is still alive.[T 31]
Sam rescues Frodo and returns the Ring.[T 32] Dressed in scavenged Orc-armour, they set off, trailed by Gollum.[T 33] At Mount Doom, Frodo enters the chasm where Sauron had forged the Ring. Here Frodo loses the will to destroy the Ring, and puts it on, claiming it for himself. Gollum attacks the invisible Frodo, biting off his finger and reclaiming the Ring. As he dances in elation, Gollum falls with the Ring into the fiery Cracks of Doom. The Ring is destroyed, and with it Sauron's power. Frodo and Sam are rescued byGreat Eagles as Mount Doom erupts, destroying Mordor.[T 34]
After Aragorn's coronation, the four hobbits return home.[T 35] They find that the fallen wizardSaruman and his agents have taken over the Shire and started to industrialize it. Frodo and his companions lead a rebellion and defeat the intruders. Even after Saruman attempts to stab Frodo, Frodo lets him go, only for Saruman to be killed by his henchmanGríma Wormtongue.[T 36] The hobbitsrestore the Shire to its prior state of peace and goodwill. While successful in his quest, Frodo never recovers from the physical and emotional wounds he suffered on the quest. After two years, Frodo and Bilbo as Ring-bearers are granted passage toValinor.[T 37]
"The Sea-Bell" was published in Tolkien's 1962 collection of verseThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil with the sub-titleFrodos Dreme. Tolkien suggests that this enigmaticnarrative poem represents the despairing dreams that visited Frodo in the Shire in the years following the destruction of the Ring. It relates the unnamed speaker's journey to a mysterious land across the sea, where he tries but fails to make contact with the people who dwell there. He descends into despair and near-madness, eventually returning to his own country, to find himself utterly alienated from those he once knew.[2]
"Frodo the halfling" is mentioned briefly at the end ofThe Silmarillion, as "alone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness" and "cast the Great Ring of Power" into the fire.[T 38]
In the poemBilbo's Last Song, Frodo is at theGrey Havens at the farthest west of Middle-earth, about to leave the mortal world on an elven-ship to Valinor.[3]
"The Hunt for the Ring" inUnfinished Tales describes how the Black Riders travelled toIsengard and the Shire in search of the One Ring, purportedly "according to the account that Gandalf gave to Frodo".[b] It is one of several mentions of Frodo in the book.[T 39]
The Tolkien scholarJason Fisher notes that Tolkien stated that hobbits were extremely "clannish" and had strong "predilections forgenealogy".[4] Accordingly, Tolkien's decision to include Frodo's family tree inLord of the Rings gives the book, in Fisher's view, a strongly "hobbitish perspective".[4] The tree also, he notes, serves to show Frodo's and Bilbo'sconnections and familial characteristics.[4] Frodo's family tree is as follows:[T 40]
Frodo did not appear until the third draft ofA Long-Expected Party (the first chapter ofThe Lord of the Rings), when he was named Bingo, son of Bilbo Baggins andPrimula Brandybuck.[T 41] In the fourth draft, he was renamed Bingo Bolger-Baggins, son of Rollo Bolger and Primula Brandybuck.[T 42] Tolkien did not change the name to Frodo until the third phase of writing, when much of the narrative, as far as the hobbits' arrival in Rivendell, had already taken shape.[T 43] Prior to this, the name "Frodo" had been used for the character who eventually became Pippin Took.[T 44] In drafts of the final chapters, published asSauron Defeated, Gandalf names FrodoBronwe athan Harthad ("Endurance Beyond Hope"), after the destruction of the Ring. Tolkien states that Frodo's name inWestron wasMaura Labingi.[T 45]
Frodo is the only prominent hobbit whose name is not explained in Tolkien's Appendices toThe Lord of the Rings. In a letter Tolkien states that it is theOld English nameFróda, connected tofród, "wise by experience".[T 46] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey suggests that the choice of name is significant: not, in Tolkien's phrase, one of the many "names that had no meaning at all in [the hobbits'] daily language". Instead, he notes, theOld Norse nameFróði is mentioned inBeowulf as the minor characterFróda.Fróði was, he writes, said bySaxo Grammaticus andSnorri Sturluson to be a peaceful ruler at the time of Christ, his time being named theFróða-frið, the peace ofFróði. This was created by his magic mill, worked by two female giants, that could churn out peace and gold. He makes the giants work all day long at this task, until they rebel and grind out an army instead, which kills him and takes over, making the giants grind salt until the sea is full of it. The nameFróði is forgotten. Clearly, Shippey observes, evil is impossible to cure; and Frodo too is a "peacemaker, indeed in the end apacifist". And, he writes, as Frodo gains experience through the quest, he also gains wisdom, matching the meaning of his name.[5]
Michael Stanton, writing in theJ.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, describes Frodo's character as combining "courage, selflessness, and fidelity",[1] attributes that make Frodo ideal as a Ring-bearer. He lacks Sam's simple sturdiness, Merry and Pippin's clowning, and thepsychopathology of Gollum, writes Stanton, bearing out the saying that good is less exciting than evil; but Frodo grows through his quest, becoming "ennobled" by it, to the extent that returning to the Shire feels in Frodo's words "like falling asleep again".[1]
The Tolkien scholarJane Chance quotesRandel Helms's view that in bothThe Hobbit andLord of the Rings, "a most unheroic hobbit [Bilbo, Frodo] achieves heroic stature" ina quest romance.[11] Chance writes that Frodo grows from seeing the threat as external, such as from the Black Riders, to internal, whether within the Fellowship, as shown by Boromir's attempt on the Ring, or within himself, as he struggles against the controlling power of the Ring.[12]
Verlyn Flieger, a scholar of literature and of Tolkien's works, summarizes Frodo's role inLord of the Rings: "The greatest hero of all, Frodo Baggins, is also the most tragic. He comes to the end of his story bereft of the Ring, denied in his home Shire the recognition he deserves, and unable to continue his life as it was before his terrible adventure."[13]
The Tolkien criticPaul H. Kocher discusses the role ofprovidence, in the form of the intentions of the angel-likeValar or of the creatorEru Ilúvatar, in Bilbo's finding of the Ring and Frodo's bearing of it; as Gandalf says, Frodo was "meant" to have it, though it remains his choice to co-operate with this purpose.[16]
Frodo is at the centre of a complex web of medievalfeudal-style allegiances and betrayals, involving Sam, Gollum, and Faramir. Sam serves him faithfully, but accidentally betrays him to Faramir with the smoke from his cooking fire, and then by mentioning the Ring. Frodo offers his service to Faramir, who reciprocally grants him protection in the manner of a feudal lord to a vassal. Gollum swears to Frodo not to run off, and for a time guides him faithfully; Frodo is obliged by Faramir to lure Gollum into captivity, which Gollum sees as a betrayal. Gollum then swears to Faramir never to revisit the forbidden pool outside Faramir's secret stronghold. Frodo thus appears both as a feudal master (to Sam and Gollum) and as a feudal vassal (to Faramir).[17][18]
InPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003), Frodo is played by the American actorElijah Wood. Dan Timmons writes inJanet Brennan Croft's 2004Tolkien on Film that the themes and internal logic of the Jackson films are undermined by the portrayal of Frodo, which he considers a weakening of Tolkien's original.[26] The film criticRoger Ebert writes that he missed the depth of characterisation he felt in the book, Frodo doing little but watching other characters decide his fate "and occasionally gazing significantly upon the Ring".[27]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone, however, wrote that Wood played the role with "soulful conviction", and that his portrayal matured as the story progressed.[28] Wood reprised the role in a brief appearance inThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.[29]
On stage, Frodo was portrayed byJames Loye in the three-hour stage production ofThe Lord of the Rings, which opened inToronto in 2006, and was brought to London in 2007.[30][31] Frodo was portrayed by Joe Sofranko in theCincinnati productions ofThe Fellowship of the Ring (2001),The Two Towers (2002), andThe Return of the King (2003) forClear Stage Cincinnati.[32][33][34]
^Although Frodo referred to Bilbo as his "uncle", they were in fact firstand second cousins, once removed either way (his paternal great-great-uncle's son's son and his maternal great-aunt's son).
^Ryken, Philip (2017).The Messiah Comes to Middle-Earth: Images of Christ's Threefold Office in 'The Lord of the Rings'. IVP Academic, an imprint ofInterVarsity Press. chapter 2 "Frodo, Sam, and the Priesthood of All Believers".ISBN978-0-8308-5372-4.OCLC1000050834.
^"Obituary: Ian Holm".BBC. 19 June 2020. Retrieved19 June 2020.he took the part of Frodo Baggins in BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation ofThe Lord of the Rings, which featured Holm alongside a host of other stars including Michael Hordern and Robert Stephens.
