A Dark Lord of the Rings Theory Reveals the Real Reason Bilbo Baggins Wanted to Leave the Shire

By the time of The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins was reaching the end of his life, and he did not want to spend his final days in the Shire. On the night of his 111th birthday, he set out for the Elven realm of Rivendell, where he had stayed during the events of The Hobbit 61 years prior. He remained there until the end of The Lord of the Rings, at which point he accompanied Frodo Baggins on a voyage to the Undying Lands. In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring film, Bilbo told Gandalf that he longed «to see mountains again» and that he needed a break from his «confounded» neighbors if he was ever to finish the book he had been writing.

Bilbo also explained that the longevity granted to him by the One Ring had made him weary: «I am old, Gandalf. I know I don’t look it, but I’m beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.» These were the same reasons — nearly word-for-word — that Bilbo provided for his departure in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel as well. However, there may have been a more insidious explanation for Bilbo’s urge to leave home; some fans believe that the One Ring had a greater influence over Bilbo’s decision than even he realized and nearly led him to his doom.

The One Ring Did Not Want To Be in the Shire

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The One Ring seemed to have a mind of its own in The Lord of the Rings, which was due to the Dark Lord Sauron having infused it with a piece of his spirit. The One Ring’s goal was to return to Mordor, where Sauron could reclaim it and regain the power that he had lost when Isildur cut the One Ring from his finger in the War of the Last Alliance. Oftentimes, the One Ring tried to delude the Ring-bearers into believing that they could defeat Sauron by force, so that they would attack Mordor and inadvertently deliver the One Ring to his doorstep.

Unfortunately for the One Ring, Bilbo proved remarkably resistant to its corruption. After the events of The Hobbit, he remained in the Shire, keeping the One Ring hidden away in his pocket or in a drawer in Bag End. Therefore, the theory goes that the One Ring made Bilbo want to leave the Shire. It could not convince him to do something as drastic as wage war against the Dark Lord, but it could reignite his dormant sense of adventure. Once Bilbo was on the road, it would have been far easier for the One Ring to slip away from him and find a more suitable Ring-bearer, just as it had betrayed Isildur and Gollum in the past. It might have even been able to do so just as Bilbo crossed paths with one of Sauron’s minions, such as the Nazgûl.

Bilbo Resisted the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings

If this theory is true, the One Ring’s plan was unsuccessful because Gandalf convinced him to leave it behind in the Shire for Frodo. Bilbo’s journey to Rivendell was thus safe and largely uneventful. However, the One Ring would soon escape the Shire anyway, because after Gandalf confirmed that Bilbo’s magic ring was indeed the One Ring, he told Frodo to take it to Rivendell. There, the Council of Elrond decided that it needed to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo nearly lost the One Ring several times on the journey to Rivendell alone, such as during his confrontation with the Nazgûl on Weathertop. He had Aragorn to protect him, but Bilbo would not have.

There is not much direct evidence in either the novel or the films to support the idea of the One Ring influencing Bilbo to leave the Shire, but it would make sense given the lore that Tolkien and Jackson established. Bilbo might have been motivated by a combination of factors; it is possible that he would have felt the desire to go to Rivendell anyway, and that the One Ring simply gave him an extra nudge in that direction. This theory would further highlight the manipulative power of the One Ring and how it subtly shaped the course of the story.

The Lord of the Rings

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