The Lord Of The Ringsfeatures one of the most harrowing journey’s in all of fiction, and that journey truly began with the formation of The Fellowship Of The Ring.The young Hobbit Frodohad already been carrying the One Ring for quite a while, but the only thing that told him it was dangerous was Gandalf’s warnings and the hunt of the Nazghul. Unfortunately for Frodo, his journey would only get tougher after the fellowship came together.
The original fellowship featured Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Merry and Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Gandalf, and Aragorn, and was formed by the Lord of Rivendell, Elrond. This powerful group likely could have gone even farther than they initially did, but as allThe Lord Of The Ringsfans will know, the fellowship would split apart only a short while after it was created.
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What Was The Fellowship’s Journey?
While the journey of the Hobbits had already been ongoing for a while, the fellowship’s journey officially set out from Rivendell, and just a few months later, the One Ring would be destroyedin the fires of Mount Doom. The fellowship was capable of taking any route possible, but the end goal of the adventure was always to destroy the One Ring, thus putting an end to Sauron’s reign of terror once and for all. Unfortunately, Mount Doom was the only place the magical ring could be destroyed.
The first portion of their adventure had them braving the weather of the Misty Mountains, but upon Frodo’s prompting, the group would then decide to head through the Mines of Moria. That decision proved to be a mistake as the group would lose Gandalf as he battled with the fearsome Balrog that lived in the depths of Moria. From there, the group would stop off in Lothlorien before the fellowship would eventually be torn apart and forced to go their own ways at Amon Hen.
With the fellowship disbanded, Frodo and Sam carried on the group’s mission to cast the ring into the depths of Mount Doom. They’d travel through the Dead Marshes, Shelob’s Lair, and eventually Mordor itself to finally reach their ultimate destination. Frodo would end up losing himself to the ring, but luckily, it would end up destroyedafter Gollum decided to attack Frodo.
How Powerful Was The One Ring?
To better understand why the fellowship’s journey was so perilous and why they ultimately had to disband, it’s important to understand justhow powerful the One Ring was. Originally created in the fires of Mount Doom by Sauron, the One Ring was a powerful magic ring that acted as an object encased with Sauron’s very essence. It could strengthen the wielder of the ring, and even grant them invisibility, but the ring was ultimately corrupting and always in service to its true master and creator.
The ring was so powerful and capable of influence that even mighty beings and warriors like Gandalf and Aragorn weren’t foolish enough to try and wield it. It’s also possible that the ring’s power of influence only grew stronger the closer it got to its master because Frodo was capable of withstanding its influence until the final moments of his journey inside of Mount Doom. The biggest issue with the ring is that regardless of how powerful someone was or what race they came from, it would turn them into an evil shade of their former self and eventually seek out whoever the strongest possible wielder could be.
It’s likely that the One Ring actually possessed a long list of powers that it would confer to its true master, but few are ever actually seen. One thing that is known is that the original purpose of the One Ring was to subjugate those who had taken on the other Rings of Power. IfSauron’s plan with the ringshad gone off without any complications, the master manipulator would have easily taken hold of all of Middle Earth with few people even capable of standing against him.
Toward the end ofThe Fellowship Of The Ring, Frodo comes to the conclusion that he must carry on the quest to destroy the One Ring, but why that is may not be overtly clear. It is spelled out a bit more in the novels, but context clues can be gathered simply by paying close attention to Frodo throughout the first film. The Hobbit doesn’t want to be a bother to others and he wants to keep those he cares about far from danger while also living up to his destiny to destroy the One Ring.
Even before the skirmish at Amon Hen, Frodo had begun to see the corrupting nature of the One Ring himself thanks to the actions of Boromir, Gollum,and even Bilbo Baggins. Boromir had a bit too long of a moment with the ring on the Misty Mountain, Gollum had sought out the ring for years at that point, and despite parting with it, Bilbo nearly became violent hoping for one more moment with the ring. The evil artifact was always bound to begin influencing those around him until some kind of violence broke out.
While it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,Boromir did end up trying to take the ring from Frodo, something that was almost certainly due to the ring’s influence. After seeing what the ring had done to his friend and family, Frodo knew that he’d have to take on the burden by himself to avoid any of his new friends becoming corrupt murderers seeking the ring for themselves. Even though Aragorn was able to deny Frodo’s prompts to take the ring, the young Hobbit knew he’d have to leave the group, and luckily, Aragorn understood as well.
With the pure-hearted Hobbits naturally having a stronger immunity to the influence of the One Ring than other races, it just made the most sense for Frodo and Sam to continue the journey on their own while the rest of the fellowship kept Sauron busy with the raging wars across Middle Earth.
