The Lord of the Rings: Frodo home alone – why the hobbit spent 17 years with Sauron’s ring

We remember: In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday in the Shire, but after a long life extended by the One Ring, Bilbo longs for adventure and the mountains. So he sets off, leaving the ring behind after Gandalf strongly insists. Shortly afterwards, Frodo sets off with the ring to Mordor to destroy it.

But actually that’s not entirely true! In the novel by JRR Tolkien, Bilbo also leaves the Shire, leaves his ring with Frodo and then – nothing happens for a long time. For 17 more years, to be exact, the ring remains in the Shire, kept in an envelope. Why did so much time pass here and why was this section simply skipped in Peter Jackson’s film?

Gandalf searches for answers for a long time

In the film “The Fellowship of the Ring”, the wizard Gandalf knows that Bilbo has a magic ring, but he does not realize that it is the One Ring that Sauron once forged for himself. Shortly afterwards, however, in old records, Gandalf finds evidence that the ring is Sauron’s ring; in the fire, the ring confirms Gandalf’s suspicions.

Since Gollum has told the orcs where the ring is, everything has to happen very quickly and Gandalf sends Frodo away with Samwise. In Tolkien’s book, the effect the ring has on Bilbo also arouses Gandalf’s suspicions and he investigates – for 17 years.

In between, Gandalf keeps checking on Frodo and the ring, but after being completely absent from the Shire for 9 years, Gandalf returns, throws the ring into the fire and the story continues as we know it from the film.

No time for time jumps

Basically, it is not made clear in the film how long Gandalf is away and how long the ring is with Frodo. It’s just not pointed out that a lot of time has passed and a jump in time of 17 years is probably quite acceptable for hobbits, who usually only live to be around 100 years old.

However, it’s easy to answer why the film omits the big time jump – or at least doesn’t point it out: it’s unnecessary. If we knew that the ring could easily have been in Bag End for 17 years, that doesn’t fit with the urgency with which Gandalf sends Frodo to Bree.

Even though Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” took time for the story, especially in the extended version, there was simply no room for events that played no role in the plot. For this reason, Middle-earth fans also had to do without Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry, whom the hobbits met very early in the book.

Such cuts were clearly made carefully and the love for Tolkien’s original can be felt in every scene of the three “Lord of the Rings” films. The “The Hobbit” films, on the other hand, had a different problem – the story had to be stretched or artificially expanded in order to turn the little book into a film trilogy.