Bilbo

of Bilbo Baggins

Biblo's involvment in the tale of the Ring began when Gandalf the wizard showed up at his house one day, and after much hesitation, Bilbo accepted the invitation of Gandalf and Thorin's party of dwarves to travel with them to the Lonley Mountain and once there to either sneak out the treasure in the dragon Smaug's lair, or to kill Smaug and retrieve the treasure. While on his quest Bilbo found himself all alone in a deep, dark underground cavern. Here he stumbled upon the Ring of Power. The creature Gollum believed that the Ring was his though, and to determine who would keep the Ring the two played a quick game of riddles. Bilbo won the game, and was able to find his way out of the cavern and soon met up with his companions. After many adventures, Bilbo along with all the dwarves finally found his way to Smaug's lair. While him and the dwarves were hiding around the mountain that Smaug lived in, the dragon assumed that they were trying to steal his treasure, when in fact they were only reclaiming what rightfully was thiers. The idea of having his precious treasure taken away from him infuriated Smaug. He believed that the people of the local town must have been the ones who sent these "thieves" up to steal his treasure, so he flew down on thier town and started attacking all the villagers and burning thier homes, while he was attacking them, the leader of the town milita shot Smaug with a single arrow in a small  part of his chest, the only part of Smaug's body not covered with armor. Meanwhile Bilbo and the Dwarves were trapped inside the mountain, after Smaug was killed the townspeople came up the mountain and freed them. After giving the townspeople some treasure to help rebuild all that Smaugh had destroyed, the dwarves evenly distrubuted the treasure amongst themselves, leaving each one with a fortune. Bilbo returned home with his share of the treasure, and lived his life much as he always had. On Bilbo's 111th birthday, during a farewell speech he was giving at his party, he slipped on the Ring and, "vanished into thin air" as the hobbits said. Bilbo left all his possesions to his heir Frodo, including Bag End, the Ring, and most all his other belongings. Bilbo journeyed to Rivendell the night of his disapperance, where he spent the rest of his days in peace and comfort. Bilbo thought of himself as quite a good author, and can be credited with writing "The Hobbit" or "There and Back Again", he also authored most of "The Red Book". For more on Bilbo, see http://www.barrowdowns.com/Description.asp?Size=&Param=EntryID&Data=32

Gollum of Gollum Gollum's original name was Trahald, the Anglicized equivalent of which is Smeagol. Smeagol was born in the year 2430 to a fairly prominent family of hobbits of the Stoor strain that lived close by to the Gladden Fields. On the day of his coming of age(perhaps the most important day to a hobbit), Smeagol went fishing with a friend of his called Deagol. During this time Deagol spotted a shinny glittering ring in the water, he dove in after it, and showed his prized possesion to Smeagol. At the time Smeagol knew nothing of this Ring except that it was very beautiful, even not knowing anything of it's power, Smeagol was overcome with greed and the desire to have the Ring for himself that he murdered Deagol and claimed the Ring for his own. It was during this time that Smeagol developed many undesired character traits, such as stealing, eavesdropping, and being sneaky whenever he had the opportunity. It was for these reasons that Smeagol was kicked out of his home by his family. The Ring's hold on Smeagol grew and grew, day after miserable day for Smeagol, until he was completely controlled and possesed by the Ring, this possesed Smeagol is reffered to as "Gollum". Gollum now lived in a dark, dank, cave with a pond inside it, he lived off raw fish and any other edible creatures he could get his hands on in the cave. Gollum, after spending many years in the darkness of his lonely cave, began to absolutly despise the sun and moon and all light in general...the brighter the light, the more Gollum hated it. One "day" in Gollum's cave he misplaced his Ring on the shore of the pond, at this time Bilbo Baggins the hobbit stumbled upon the Ring and, after a quick game of riddles with Gollum escaped with the Ring. Gollum was furious over the lose of his "precious", and would stop at nothing to kill the "thief" and reclaim the Ring for himself. Gollum wondered far and wide in search of the Ring, and in the year 3017, after venturing too close to Mordor, he was captured by Sauron, it was during this time that Sauron found out about Bilbo Baggins and his lost Ring. Sauron let Gollum escape, some say because he knew Gollum would keep seeking the Ring and wreak havoc on whoever possesed the Ring...though no one knows for sure why Sauron let Gollum escaped, we know for sure it wasnt out of the goodness of his heart. Gollum was soon thereafter captured by Aragorn, who gave him to Gandalf, who in turn gave him to the Elves, to watch him and prevent his escape, and also in the hope that the influence of the Elves might have a healing and redeeming effect on Gollum. However, during an orc raid Gollum managed to escape, and began tracking the Fellowship at Moria. Frodo and Sam captured Gollum at the Emyn Muil, after which he faithfully led the pair to Cirith Ungol and seemed to be changing in his ways. There was a constant struggle going on between the Smeagol possesed by the Ring, and the Smeagol desiring a normal, happy life, free from the influence and imprisonment of the Ring.Well the Ring got the better of Smeagol, and at Cirith Ungol he betrayed Frodo and Sam and led them into a trap, which they somehow managed to escape from. Gollum still managed to secretly follow the two, all the way to the crack of Mount Doom, where the power of the Ring overcame Frodo, causing him to claim the Ring as his own and slip it on his finger. Gollum fought with his invisible foe at the inside the very cracks of Mount Doom, and bit off Frodo's Ring finger. Gollum danced around and boasted over recovering the Ring, and while doing so, slipped on a small rock and fell backwards into the fires of Mount Doom along with the Ring, thus fulfilling the Fellowship's quest. For more on Gollum/Smeagol, see http://www.barrowdowns.com/Description.asp?Size=&Param=EntryID&Data=188

King Theoden of King Theoden Theoden was the 17th King of Rohan and the last of his kingly line. Theoden was withered and poisened by the words and cousels of Grima Wormtongue, sent by Saruman. Thankfully for him and his people, Gandalf the wizard visited him in the year 3019 and revived him from the ill counsel of Grima. Soon thereafter he led his people to the fortress of Helms Deep and there defended his country from Saruman and his fighting Uru-kai. He then rode along with a vast host of horse-men to the Battle of Pelennor Fields. The arrival of the head of the Nazgul, the Witch King, startled Theoden's horse Snowmane, causing him to be thrown off and hit his head against a rock. He died very shortly after, leaving Eomer the new King of Rohan. Theoden was instantly charmed by Merry, and made him a swordthain, he also immensly enjoyed listening to his stories and songs. For more on Theoden, see  Detailed Theoden Biography

Eomer

Eowyn