Fellowship of the Ring (characters)

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Fellowship of the Ring, or Company of the Ring, as described in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, which bears the same name, is a union of 9 representatives from each of the free peoples in Middle-earth, the number chosen to match the 9 Ringwraiths. The Fellowship is entrusted with the task of assisting and protecting Frodo Baggins as he bears the One Ring to the land of Mordor where he can destroy it by throwing it into Mount Doom. The 9 set out on their quest at the beginning of winter on December 25, 3018 T.A. after their Fellowship was formed at the Council of Elrond.

[edit] Membership

The members of the Fellowship are:

Dwarf:
- Gimli
Elf:
- Legolas
Hobbits:
- Frodo Baggins
- Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry)
- Peregrin Took (Pippin)
- Samwise Gamgee (Sam)
Men:
- Aragorn
- Boromir
Maia/Istar:
- Gandalf

The Fellowship is led at first by Gandalf, but after his fall in the mines of Moria, Aragorn leads them until Boromir's seduction by the ring coupled with the attack of the Orcs effects the breaking of the Fellowship.

Although the Fellowship disbanded after Boromir's death, having passed only half of the way to Mordor, it succeeded in assisting Frodo through the first, extremely perilous part of the journey, Following that, the remaining members of the Fellowship succeeded in aiding the Free Peoples along the banks of the Anduin against the menace of Sauron and causing him to be distracted from Frodo and Sam, which aided Frodo in completing his mission.

[edit] Name origin

As evidenced in Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Tolkien actually mostly referred to the Fellowship as '"the Company of the Ring", or "the Company" for short, with more page references to these terms than "Fellowship of the Ring" or "Fellowship" given in the Guide. However, Fellowship of the Ring was used in the title of the first volume of the book, so it became the familiar term.