The main protagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic three-part saga The Lord of The Rings is Frodo Baggins, a loyal, courageous Hobbit who, accompanied by his gardener Sam and a skulking creature named Gollum, ventures to Mordor to destroy the Ring of Power. When the books were adapted into a cinematic, technologically groundbreaking film trilogy by Peter Jackson in the early 2000s, the role of Frodo was played by Elijah Wood, who donned a Hobbit costume and sent in a homemade audition tape after hearing about the part.
Here are 10 things about Frodo that you might not have known before now, from hidden details in Tolkien's legendarium to bizarre real-world facts concerning the character.
10 There's A Street Named After Him
Geldrop, Netherlands is a peculiar place. Why? Despite having a fairly small population of just 28,500, the city went viral after news outlets learned it has a neighborhood where every street is named after a character from the works of Tolkien.
These include well-known characters like Aragorn, Legolas, and (of course) Frodo, as well as lesser-known characters like Varda and Amroth.
9 His Parents Died In A Boating Accident
While it isn't even brought up in the movies, the suspicious deaths in a boating accident of Frodo's parents Drogo and Primula is a primary target of Shire-gossip in the book version of The Fellowship of The Ring.
While discussing Frodo's upcoming birthday, the Hobbits propose various theories as to how exactly his parents came to their untimely demise, such as one attempting to drown the other.
8 He And Bilbo Have The Same Birthday
The film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring downplays Bilbo and Frodo's bizarre birthday connection. Because both were born on September 22, the party at which Bilbo so notoriously disappeared was actually a joint celebration.
What's odder is that, on that day, Bilbo was turning 111, and Frodo was turning 33 (the age at which a Hobbit becomes an adult) - both ages are repdigits.
7 He Was Once Played By Ian Holm
Ian Holm took on the role of Bilbo in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the Lord of the Rings series, but that wasn't his first time playing a member of the Baggins family.
Holm actually appeared in a 26-episode BBC Radio adaptation of the series all the way back in 1981, playing Frodo instead.
6 He Was Originally Named Bingo
After the successful publication of his first novel, 1937's The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien began working on the first chapter to The Lord of the Rings, A Long-Expected Party. Frodo didn't even make an appearance until he was written in as Bilbo's son "Bingo" in Tolkien's third draft.
Later drafts changed the character's heritage, but he wasn't renamed Frodo until well into the book's writing stage. Oddly enough, before the idea of "Bingo" was scrapped, the character who would eventually be named Pippin was the one named "Frodo".
5 He Is Related To Merry And Pippin
Frodo, Merry, and Pippin share many relatives; for instance, Merry and Pippin have the same grandfather, and Merry's great-grandfather (Gorbadoc Brandybuck) is Frodo's grandfather.
Sam is unfortunately left out of the equation in terms of shared ancestry; however, he does have a familial connection with the three, as his daughter, Goldilocks, married Pippin's son, Faramir.
4 He Had The Ring For More Than Seventeen Years
In the interest of time, the Lord of the Rings films greatly speed up Gandalf's years of researching the ring and Frodo's time spent in the Shire after Bilbo's disappearance.
Between that infamous long-expected party and the quest's beginning, 17 years passed with no major events to speak of; Frodo is 50 years old by the time he leaves Hobbiton.
3 There's A Deleted Scene From The Movies Where He Turns Into A Creature Like Gollum
While it ultimately never made it into the film, a scene was shot for Peter Jackson's The Two Towers that shows Faramir's vision of Frodo's future with the Ring.
The scene shows Frodo consumed by the Ring, becoming a creature not unlike Gollum, as his hair begins to fall out and his eyes glow a bright blue. The resemblance between the two is uncanny, partly because Gollum started off as a Hobbit as well.
2 Peter Jackson Wanted Him To Kill Gollum
Looking like Gollum for a few seconds in a scene depicting a possible future event is one thing - but, if Frodo actually ended up killing Gollum, it would be a much more significant event, as heavy departures from the source material are not taken lightly by Tolkien purists.
Yet early into the production stage for The Return of the King, Jackson envisioned an ending in which Frodo would "straight-out murder" Gollum. He later decided that ending would go against the spirit of Tolkien's writing and belittle Gollum's importance to the climax, and instead had Gollum die by falling into Mount Doom while grasping the Ring.
1 There's A Poem That Explains Why He Left The Shire
Sometimes old wounds never heal, and that's especially true in the case of the stab wound Frodo suffered at the hands of a Ring-wraith on Weathertop; it represents the suffering Frodo endured on his long journey. Tolkien's poem The Sea-Bell, published in the collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, puts into words the darkness that plagued Frodo in the Shire for years after Sauron's end.
When he leaves to see the Undying Lands, bidding a tearful goodbye to his friends, Frodo is finally free from the pain of his wound and the memories it brings.
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April 30, 2020 at 05:30AM
