The novel begins with the departure of Bilbo Baggins, the hero of The Hobbit, from the Shire as he leaves his home for the last time to visit old friends. In his wake, his nephew and heir, Frodo, discovers that the ring he has inherited is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron, thought lost since the ending of the Second Age. Following the counsel of Gandalf the wizard, Frodo sets out on a quest to destroy the Ring, to throw it into the fires where it was forged. He is at first aided by Samwise, his gardener, and his kinsmen Merry and Pippen, but is soon joined by representatives of the other free races of Middle-earth: Aragorn and Boromir for Men, Legolas for the Elves, and Gimli for the dwarves. Disaster strikes as Gandalf falls to an ancient evil, and the Fellowship is shattered from within. After the death of Boromir, Merry and Pippen are taken by orcs serving the traitorous wizard Saruman, and pursued by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Frodo and Sam, meanwhile, have left on their own to continue their original quest. Here the narrative splits into two halves. In the first half, the fates of the captive hobbits and their pursuers are bound up first with the Ents, tree-like giants who have long kept to their own affairs, then with the Rohirrim, horse-lords of the grassy southern plains, and finally with the men of Minas Tirith, a seven-tiered citadel at constant war with Mordor, the land of Shadow. The second half of the story follows Frodo and Sam as they receive help from Gollum, a wreched former owner of the Ring, and Faramir, brother of Boromir. After a battle with a terrifying spider, weeks of stealing through the harsh and barren wastelands of Mordor, and ever-mounting temptation, the hobbits reach Mount Doom, where only the grace of a past act of mercy allows the Ring to be destroyed. Sauron is defeated, but much in Middle-earth has changed, and for some of the heroes, healing can only be found on the shores of a blessed island where no evil has ever walked.
