The Fellowship of the Ring recap

The hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits a magic ring from his cousin Bilbo, and the wizard Gandalf reveals it to be the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, who is rising again and hunting for it. To keep it from the Enemy, Frodo leaves the Shire with his friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin, pursued by Sauron's Black Riders. After narrow escapes and a near-fatal wound at Weathertop, they reach Rivendell, where a council decides the ring must be destroyed in the fire of Mordor where it was made. Frodo volunteers, and a Fellowship of nine sets out to help him: Gandalf, the ranger Aragorn, Boromir of Gondor, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, and the four hobbits. Blocked by mountains, they pass through the mines of Moria, where Gandalf falls battling a demon of fire. Sheltered and counselled by the elf-lady Galadriel, they travel on by river. At the last, Boromir tries to seize the ring, and Frodo, fearing its power over his friends, resolves to go on alone; only Sam manages to follow him as the Fellowship breaks apart.

Years ago the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, on an adventure with dwarves and the wizard Gandalf, found a plain gold ring deep under the Misty Mountains and took it from the creature Gollum. It made its wearer invisible, and Bilbo kept it quietly for the rest of his long life, using it now and then and telling no one its worth. What neither he nor anyone in the Shire knew was that this was the One Ring, forged in secret ages past by the Dark Lord Sauron to control all the other Rings of Power and to dominate Middle-earth. The Ring was cut from Sauron's hand in an ancient war and lost for centuries, passing at last to Gollum and then, by chance, to Bilbo. Now, after long years of hiding and slow recovery, Sauron has taken shape again in the land of Mordor and is searching everywhere for his lost Ring, whose return would make him unstoppable. His hunt is beginning to reach toward the quiet corner of the world where the Ring has lain forgotten.

At his eleventy-first birthday party in the Shire, Bilbo Baggins slips the ring on before the astonished guests, vanishes, and leaves the district for good, bequeathing Bag End and the ring to his young cousin and heir, Frodo. The wizard Gandalf, uneasy about the ring, presses Bilbo to give it up before he goes, and Bilbo does so with difficulty. Years pass. Gandalf's growing fears drive him to research the ring's history, and he returns to warn Frodo of the truth: the plain little ring is the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, who is rising again and searching for it. Gandalf tells how the creature Gollum, who once owned it, has been captured and questioned, and has spoken of the Shire and of the name Baggins, so the Enemy now knows where to look. The ring cannot stay in the Shire. Gandalf sets Frodo to leave secretly, making for the elf-haven of Rivendell, and Frodo prepares to slip away with his gardener Sam, who is caught eavesdropping and enlisted as a companion.

Frodo sells Bag End as a cover and sets out on foot with Sam and his cousin Pippin, aiming for Rivendell. Almost at once a black-cloaked rider sniffs after them along the road, one of the Enemy's servants. They dodge the pursuit with help from passing elves and from Farmer Maggot, and reach the edge of the Shire, where Frodo's friend Merry reveals that he and the others already know about the ring and mean to come too. To avoid the watched roads the hobbits cut through the Old Forest, where a malevolent old tree nearly swallows them until a strange, powerful being named Tom Bombadil rescues and shelters them. Leaving his house, they are trapped by a barrow-wight among the ancient grave-mounds; Bombadil frees them again, and from the barrow-hoard they take old daggers well suited to hobbit hands. Gandalf, meanwhile, has failed to meet them as promised, and the hobbits press on toward the village of Bree, uneasy and still hunted.

At the inn in Bree the hobbits use the name Underhill, but Frodo draws attention when he accidentally slips the ring on and vanishes before a crowd. A weathered Ranger called Strider warns them they are in danger and offers to guide them; a letter left by Gandalf confirms he can be trusted and reveals that Strider is really Aragorn. That night the Black Riders attack the hobbits' abandoned room, and the party flees Bree with Aragorn into the wild. At the hill of Weathertop the Riders assail them, and their leader stabs Frodo in the shoulder with a cursed blade before Aragorn drives them off with fire. Frodo sickens as a splinter works toward his heart. Aragorn hurries them onward, and near Rivendell they are met by an elf who sets Frodo on a swift horse. At the ford of the river the Riders close in, but a sudden flood, raised by the elves' power, sweeps them away as Frodo, barely conscious, is carried across to safety.

Frodo wakes in Rivendell, healed by Elrond of the wound that would have made him a wraith, and is joyfully reunited with Sam, his cousins, the aged Bilbo, and Gandalf, who explains that he was delayed by the treachery of a fellow wizard, Saruman. Elrond calls a great council, where the ring's long history is laid out and the danger of Sauron's return is weighed. Every alternative is rejected: the ring cannot be wielded for good without corrupting its bearer, cannot be hidden forever, and cannot be given to the sea or the elves. The only course is to unmake it in the fire where it was forged, deep in Sauron's own land of Mordor. Frodo, though it terrifies him, offers to carry the ring. A Fellowship of nine is chosen to go with him: Gandalf; Aragorn and Boromir, a lord of Gondor; the elf Legolas; the dwarf Gimli; and Frodo's three hobbit companions, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

The Fellowship travels south in secret. Turned back by a savage snowstorm on the mountain pass of Caradhras, which some suspect is the work of an enemy, they take instead the long dark road beneath the mountains through the abandoned dwarf-realm of Moria. At its western gate a many-armed creature in a black pool nearly seizes Frodo before they get inside. Within the vast, silent halls they find the tomb of Balin and a record of how the dwarf-colony there was destroyed. Attacked by orcs and a cave-troll, they fight their way toward the eastern exit, but at the Bridge of Khazad-dum a Balrog, an ancient demon of fire and shadow, bars the way. Gandalf makes a stand on the narrow bridge and breaks it beneath the creature, but the Balrog's whip drags him down into the abyss as he falls, and he is lost. The grieving survivors escape into the daylight.

Leaderless and mourning Gandalf, the company comes to Lothlorien, a hidden elvish realm of great beauty and power ruled by the Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn. The elves shelter and heal them. Galadriel quietly tests the hearts of the Fellowship and, at their asking, shows Frodo and Sam visions in her mirror of things that were, are, and may yet come, including the Shire under threat. Frodo offers her the ring, but she refuses the temptation to take it and remains herself. Rested, the travellers are given boats, grey elvish cloaks that hide their wearers, waybread that sustains them on the road, and other parting gifts, among them a coil of rope for Sam and a phial holding a star's light for Frodo, to be a light in dark places. Gimli, at first wary of the elves, is won over and asks only for a strand of the Lady's hair. They set out down the great river Anduin, carried southward toward the borders of the enemy's country, the burden of the choice ahead growing heavier with every mile.

The Fellowship journeys down the Anduin, passing the towering carved kings that mark Gondor's ancient border, and lands to decide their course: onward to the fire of Mordor, or aside to the defence of Gondor's city, Minas Tirith. Boromir, who has come to believe the ring should be used as a weapon to save his people, follows Frodo apart and tries first to persuade and then to seize it. Frightened at how the ring can twist even a brave and honorable man, Frodo puts it on to escape him and resolves to go on to Mordor alone, rather than lead his friends to ruin or let the ring corrupt them. He means to slip away by boat unseen, but Sam guesses his plan, wades after him, and refuses to be left behind. The two cross the river together and set off eastward alone, while the rest of the company, searching for Frodo, is scattered, and the book ends with the Fellowship broken.

Fellowship ends with the company broken at the falls of the great river Anduin. Boromir, overmastered by the ring's lure, tries to take it from Frodo; shaken, Frodo decides he must carry it to Mordor by himself rather than risk corrupting or endangering his friends. He slips away by boat, but Sam refuses to be left and forces his way aboard, so the two go east toward the Enemy's land together and alone. The rest of the Fellowship is left scattered and searching, unaware which way Frodo has gone. Gandalf is believed dead, lost in the deeps of Moria after his fall with the demon of fire. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli remain on the western shore, while Boromir, Merry, and Pippin are elsewhere along the river, their fates unresolved as the book closes. The ring is still whole and still far from the fire; Sauron's power grows and his armies stir, but the Enemy does not yet know exactly where the ring is. The quest is now split into two strands, two hobbits creeping toward Mordor and the sundered remnant of the Fellowship left to face the coming war, both carried forward into the next book.