Gee, why not type this out?
SUPER SPOILER WARNING
FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING IN ONE SHORT ESSAY:
Many thousands of years ago, an evil overlord, Sauron, forged a magical ring - the One Ring, the ring of power - that gave him enough power to rule all of Middle Earth. A war was fought, and in the battle the Ring was cut from Sauron’s finger. He disintegrated and the Ring was taken up by Isildur, a human king. The Ring corrupted Isildur, who could not bear to destroy it, and he was eventually slain for it, but the Ring dropped into a river and was believed swept out to sea. A creature named Gollum found it and kept it in his cave lair for five hundred years, but the Ring’s will caused himk to lose it, and it was picked up by a little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who, not really knowing what it was, brought it back to his home.
Many years later, the wizard Gandalf the Grey arrives in the Shire, home of the pastoral, peaceful Hobbits, for the 111th birthday party of his old friend Bilbo Baggins (Gandalf had brought him on the adventure he’s found the Ring on in the first place) who lives with his nephew Frodo Baggins. Bilbo is acting strangely; he is planning to leave the Shire for good, which hobbits never do, and sometimes seems edgy and strange. He also doesn’t seem to be aging.
At his birthday party Bilbo makes a strange farewell speech and literally vanishes. As it turns out he was merely using the ring, which has the property of turning its wearer invisible. Gandalf intercepts Bilbo before he managed to get out of town and, sensing something is wrong, demands Bilbo leave the ring behind. Bilbo resists - very out of character - but finally relents.
Gandalf has Frodo hide the Ring and goes to research its origins. He realizes it may be the One Ring and returns to the Shire, confirming his suspicions. He tells Frodo that the Ring must be destroyed and that Sauron’s minions are already looking for it. He has Frodo and his gardener, the trusty Samwise Gamgee, flee with the Ring to Rivendell, a great city of Elves, while Gandalf plans to visit the head of his wizards’ order, Saruman The White.
Frodo and Sam sally forth and bump into two other hobbits, Peregrine (Pippin) Took and Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck. They suddenly find themselves chased by the Nazgul, human kings who took lesser rings of pwoer from Sauron and are now hideous undead wraiths in his service. They manage to make it to their rendezvous in the human town of BLANK, but find Gandalf has not arrived.
In fact, Gandalf was betrayed by Saruman, who is now allied with the evil Sauron. Gandalf is now imprisoned at the top of Saruman’s power in Saruman’s territory of Isengard. Saruman begins to set up underground factories to arm a huge army of Orcs.
Frodo accidentally puts the ring on in a tavern and find himself turned invisible. To his horror, while invisible he sees the fiery eye of Sauron, which can see him when he wears the ring. When he takes it off he is accosted by a strange man named Strider, who hides the hobbits from the evil Nazgul when they arrive in the two. Strider then takes the hobbits off to Rivendell.
Before they reach Rivendell the hobbits are attacked by the Nazgul and Frodo is wounded by them. The wound cannot be healed and Frodo may turn into a wraith himself, but kin the nick of time arrives Arwen, an Elf princess and Strider’s lover. She whisks Frodo to Rivendell, using magic to defeat the Nazgul. Frodo is healed by Arwen’s father, Elrond, the lord of Rivendell. There we find that Gandalf has escaped Saruman’s clutches and returned to Rivendell.
Elrond tells Gandalf that the ring cannot stay in Rivendell because the Elves are leaving Middle Earth to settle in another land. (The Elves are magical beings who never die of old age or disease.) Elrond calls a council to determine what will be done with the ring. Representatives of human, elf, and dwarven kingdoms all come. Elrond tells them that the Ring can only be destroyed if it is cast into the volcano of Mount Doom, where it was made. We discover that Strider is actually named Aragorn, and he is the rightful heir to the great human kingdom of Gondor - and a direct descendant of Isildur, who started this mess in the first place. Some don’t want to destroy the ring and want to use it, but Elrond is fearful that its corrupting power cannot be controlled. Soon all three races are arguing because none truth the others to bear the ring - especially the Elves and the Dwarves, who despise each other. Suddenly, Frodo steps forward and announces he will be the one to destroy it. The rest agree, and Frodo is to be accompanied by eight companions:
Gandalf
The three other hobbits - Sam, Pippin, and Merry
Strider
Legolas Greenleaf, an Elven warrior
Boromir, a human warrior and son of the chief of Gondor
Gimli, a dwarven warrior
Together with Frodo these nine are “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
They set out to Mordor, land of Sauron and Mount Doom, but find their way blocked. They try to go over the mountains but Saruman’s evil spells make it impassable, so they try to go through the mines of Moria, ancient dwarven mines. They discover the mines have been raided by evil Orcs, who have killed all the dwarves. They also discover that Gollum - remember Gollum? - is carefully tailing them.
A terrific battle with Orcs is fought and won, and the Fellowship tries to flee the mines pursued by a gigantic Balrog, a demon made of shadow and flame. Gandalf faces the Balrog to give the rest of the Fellowship time to escape and he tricks it into plunging into a bottomless chasm, but the Balrog takes Gandalf with it and he falls into the shadows. The grief-stricken Fellowship escapes the mines and flees into the enchanted forest of Lothlorien, which is ruled by the mysterious elf sorceress Galadriel.
They are quickly intercepted by the Lothlorien elves and brought to Galadriel, who promises assistance. Later she confronts Frodo and tells him the Fellowship will soon break apart and that he alone can destroy the Ring. He offers it to her, but she resists the temptation. The next day she sends them on their way with a variety of useful gifts. Gimli, the dwarf, is especially enchanted by her, and he’s starting to rethink his opinion of Elves.
The Fellowship take canoes and go downriver. One day after landing and setting up camp, Boromir, who is frantic with worry over the fate of his home of Gondor, tries to steal the ring from Frodo, but fails. At the same time the Fellowship is attacked by hundreds of Uruk-Hai, hideous warriors engineered by the evil Saruman. The Fellowship slaughters Uruk-Hai by the hundreds but cannot hold them all back and are separated. Boromir defends the hobbits with courage and desperation but is shot up with arrows and Merry and Pippin are taken prisoner. Strider/Aragorn slays the leader of the Uruk-Hai, but Merry and Pippin are whisked away by the rest. Frodo, meanwhile, realizes he has to get away from the Fellowship or they will all be corrupted by the Ring, and he takes a boat and runs off, but it joined by trusty Sam, who refuses to leave his side. As Frodo and Sam go on their way to Mount Doom, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli set off after the Uruk-Hai to rescue Merry and Pippin.
Thus ends The Fellowship of the Ring.