After Frodo, Sam, and Pippin enjoy the feast and songs of the Elves in the forest above Woodhall, Frodo asks Gildor for advice. ‘Go at once…and if Gandalf does not come before you set out, then I also advise this: do not go alone. Take such friends as are trusty and willing.’

The Elves greet the three hobbits. ‘I am Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod.’ Pippin asks the Elves about Black Riders. Gildor doesn’t answer—but does make an exception to the usual Elven custom and lets the hobbits join his company. They walk east together along the road.

Frodo sees the horse’s rider approaching in the dark and almost puts on the Ring, but the man flees. Frodo listens. He hears Elves singing! ’Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear! O Queen beyond the Western Seas! O Light to us that wander here Amid the world of woven trees!’

With the stars bright above them, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin sing one of Bilbo’s walking-songs. ‘Upon the hearth the fire is red Beneath the roof there is a bed But not yet weary are our feet…’ Just as they finish, they hear hoofbeats approaching from behind. They hide.

‘I can hear a pony or a horse coming along the road behind,’ Sam says. All three hobbits hide. Frodo watches a black horse walk into view. Its rider is a stooped figure in a black cloak, who stops to sniff the air before continuing his ride east along the road.

Their Hobbit breakfast has gone rather long, so only now that it is after ten o’clock are Frodo, Sam, and Pippin shouldering their packs to leave the fir-wood and continue along the narrow forest road toward Woodhall.

Shadowfax carries Gandalf across the Fords of the Isen and into southern Eriador. The Nazgûl crossed the same ford six days ago.

Frodo wakes up, sore from sleeping against tree-roots. ‘And all my beautiful feather beds are sold to the Sackville-Bagginses! These tree-roots would do them good.’ Sam and Pippin light the morning’s fire and soon all three are enjoying their first breakfast on the road.

Pippin becomes sleepy as it gets closer to midnight, so Frodo and Sam agree to stop. They move off the narrow forest road into a fir-wood that Sam is familiar with. After enjoying a small fire, they fall asleep amongst the roots of a fir-tree.

Shadowfax finally agrees to bear Gandalf. The Grey Wizard mounts the silver horse and they race north-west toward the Shire—a full five days behind the black horses of the Nazgûl.

Frodo, Sam, and Pippin finish tea and leave Bag End as the sun sets. ‘It’s going to be a fine night. That’s good for a beginning’, Frodo says. ‘I am going to start, and Gandalf must follow me.’ Behind them, Sam hears the Gaffer send away a cloaked rider who asks for ‘Baggins’.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and her son Lotho arrive at Bag End early (the sale goes into effect at midnight). ‘Ours at last!’ She insists on taking an inventory of the furniture. Frodo does not offer her tea.

Frodo finishes his packing. Merry leaves immediately for Buckland, driving the final cart east with Fredegar Bolger—‘Someone must get there and warm the house before you arrive.’ Folco plans to go home after lunch, leaving only Sam and Pippin to walk with Frodo across the Shire.

The Nazgûl now split up. Five Nazgûl pursue the Rangers who are fleeing north-east in a desperate race to warn their captain in Bree. The other four Nazgûl ride across Sarn Ford and enter the Shire to search for ‘Baggins’.

As the night reaches its deepest dark, the nine Nazgûl overcome the Rangers defending Sarn Ford. Some flee into the wild. A few try to bear tidings to Aragorn, who is watching the road west of Bree. The rest are slain.

Frodo celebrates his 50th birthday, and his last night at Bag End, with a dinner for the young hobbits who have been helping him move: Fredegar Bolger, Folco Boffin, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck. But there’s no sign of Gandalf. For the first time, the Grey Wizard is late.

The sun is still in the sky as all nine Nazgûl reach the Shire’s southern border, ready to start their search for ‘Baggins’—but they are stopped. Rangers of the North, placed on guard by Aragorn, make a last stand to prevent them from crossing Sarn Ford.

Gandalf catches up with Shadowfax on the wide plains of Rohan and begins working to tame the lordly horse.

The day dawns bright for Frodo’s 50th birthday. The only furniture remaining at Bag End are the pieces that Frodo is selling tomorrow, with the hole itself, to the Sackville-Bagginses.

As the sun sets in Hobbiton and the evening draws down on the eve of his birthday, Frodo is anxious. Gandalf had promised that ‘At the very latest I shall come back for the farewell party’—but the party is tomorrow, and the wizard has not yet returned.

Gandalf visits the horse-sheds of Rohan and chooses Shadowfax: one of the Mearas, the horses descended from the horse of Eorl, that are only supposed to be ridden by the King of the Mark himself. Shadowfax, untamed, runs away into the fields.

Gandalf is admitted to Edoras and urges King Théoden to gather his full strength, but the king fears that a muster will spur Saruman to open war. Théoden’s patience with Gandalf ends: ‘Take any horse, only be gone ere tomorrow is old!’

Two covered carts packed full of Frodo’s belongings leave Bag End. They take the East Road towards the Brandywine Bridge and, beyond it, Frodo’s new house in Crickhollow.

Gandalf tries to enter the walled Edoras disguised as a beggar, but isn’t allowed to enter the walled town.

Having learned that the land called ‘Shire’ lies near the Elvish towers at the Grey Havens, the nine Nazgûl cross the river Isen—entering Eriador again for the first time since the Witch-king’s defeat at the Battle of Fornost 1,043 years ago.

The great eagle Gwaihir reaches Orthanc in the moonlight to deliver news—of wolves, Orcs, and Gollum’s escape—but finds treachery: Gandalf stranded on the pinnacle, a prisoner. He carries the wizard away. ‘I will bear you to Edoras, where the Lord of Rohan sits in his halls.’

Saruman suggests that he and Gandalf join Sauron, hoping to control him; then proposes that they themselves rule Middle-earth with the Ring; and finally demands: ‘reveal to me where the One may be found.’ Gandalf refuses. Saruman imprisons Gandalf on the pinnacle of Orthanc.

Saruman turns quickly from welcoming to openly mocking the Grey Wizard—and reveals his grievance: he knows that Gandalf is hiding the Ring from him. ‘You have come, and that was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys.’

After an eleven-day ride south and east across Eriador, Gandalf reaches the circle of Isengard and is admitted. The gate closes behind him as he rides to the foot of Orthanc, meets Saruman, and follows him up to the tower’s high chamber. ‘So you have come, Gandalf.’

Now that Faramir’s elder brother Boromir has had the same dream, their father Denethor sends Boromir riding north to find ‘Imladris’—which, Denethor says, the lore of Gondor remembers as the Elven name of a valley ‘where Elrond and Halfelven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters.’

Just before Mordor’s assault on the last bridge in Ithilien two weeks ago, Faramir—son of the ruling Steward—dreamed that he heard a voice in the West. ‘Seek for the Sword that was broken: In Imladris it dwells; There shall be counsels taken Stronger than Morgul-spells…’

Having tried several times to find someone willing to carry Gandalf’s letter to the Shire, Butterbur starts to forget that he still needs to have it delivered. Frodo will not finally read the letter until he himself arrives in Bree—on September 29, with the Nazgûl on his heels.

Butterbur once again can’t find anyone to travel to the Shire to deliver Gandalf’s letter. His own folk are all busy and can’t be spared.

Butterbur can’t find anyone willing to travel to the Shire today to deliver Gandalf’s letter to Frodo.

Leaving his letter to Frodo in the care of the Prancing Pony’s landlord, Barliman Butterbur, Gandalf rides south from Bree at dawn. Though Isengard is more than a week’s ride to the south, Gandalf hopes he can reach the wizard Saruman before the Nazgûl learn the Shire’s location.

Gandalf stops for the night. ‘THE PRANCING PONY, BREE. Midyear’s Day, Shire Year, 1418. Dear Frodo, Bad news has reached me here. I must go off at once. You had better leave Bag End soon, and get out of the Shire before the end of July at latest. I will return as soon as I can.’

As Radagast turns to ride away, Gandalf makes a request: ‘Send out messages to all the beasts and birds that are your friends. Tell them to bring news of anything that bears on this matter to Saruman and Gandalf. Let messages be sent to Orthanc.’

Midyear’s Day, Shire Year 1418: On the Greenway south of Bree, Gandalf the Grey meets Radagast the Brown, who brings news: ‘The Nine are abroad again. They have crossed the River secretly and are moving westward… wherever they go the Riders ask for news of a land called Shire.’

Midyear’s Day, Shire Year 1419: Aragorn son of Arathorn—the crowned King of Gondor and sceptred King of Arnor—weds Lady Arwen Undómiel in Minas Tirith. It’s 39 years since they plighted troth in Lórien; 88 since he was born; and 2,778 years since her own birth in Rivendell.

The Elves reach the gate of Minas Tirith and alight. Elrond surrenders to Aragorn the Sceptre of Annúminas—the heirloom of the North Kingdom that Bilbo suspected ‘is now perhaps the most ancient work of Men’s hands preserved in Middle-earth’—and places Arwen’s hand in Aragorn’s.

Gazing out as the Elves draw close to Minas Tirith, Frodo sees Arwen riding on a grey palfrey in their midst. ‘At last I understand why we have waited! This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!’

Watchmen from Amon Dîn reach Minas Tirith: Elves are riding toward the city, and are already approaching the walls of the Pelennor. ‘At last they have come,’ replies Aragorn. ‘Let all the City be made ready!’

Arwen sets out from Edoras on the last stage of her journey to Minas Tirith with her father, brothers, and the large escort of Elves and High Elves who have ridden south with her from Rivendell and Lórien.

Elladan and Elrohir ride out from Edoras into the green fields to greet their father Elrond, their sister Arwen, and the Elves riding with them—all of whom are welcomed to Edoras for two nights of rest before continuing their journey to Minas Tirith.

The sapling planted in the Citadel courtyard a few days ago is already heavy with blossoms—assuring Aragorn that he will be fruitful and produce a line of kings. ‘The sign has been given, and the day is not far off.’ Expecting his bride, he sets watchmen on the city walls.

Having tarried in Lórien for a week, Elrond and Arwen and the Elves of their household continue their journey south towards Minas Tirith. Both the Lady Galadriel and the Lord Celeborn join their riding, along with many of the folk of Lórien.

Before dawn, Gandalf leads Aragorn up the mountain behind Minas Tirith to a high ancient hallow. The rising sun lights Gondor from Rauros to the Sea. At the edge of the snow, they find a sapling of the White Tree. Aragorn gently carries it down to plant in the Citadel courtyard.

Elrond, Arwen, and the Elves of the household of Rivendell reach Lórien after twenty days of travel.

Éomer and Éowyn ride out from Minas Tirith, leading the Rohirrim home to Rohan. Cheering crowds line the road from the city gates to the Rammas, where the Riders leave behind the fields of the Pelennor and take the road into Anórien. The sons of Elrond ride north with them.

Elrond Halfelven—who decreed 39 years ago that his daughter Arwen ‘shall not be the bride of any Man less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor’—now departs Rivendell with Arwen for the two-month journey to Minas Tirith.