The Company of the Ring, also called the Fellowship of the Ring and the Nine Walkers, is a group of nine representatives from the free peoples of Middle-earth: Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits; and a Wizard. The group is described in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, itself titled The Fellowship of the Ring. The number nine is chosen, as the book's author J. R. R. Tolkien states, to match and oppose the nine Black Riders or Ringwraiths.

Scholars have commented that Tolkien saw community as the right way to live. They note, too, that the Company is diverse both in culture and in personal qualities, and bound together by friendship, a model very different from the western image of the lone hero. Tolkien uses the term "company" far more often than "fellowship", the word coming from Latin companio, a person who shares bread, suggesting a co-traveller on the road or a group with a shared purpose. The Company of the Ring has been likened to the Arthurian order of the Knights of the Round Table, a group that has many points of similarity including a person carrying the burden of a quest, a returning King, an accompanying Wizard, and a treacherous knight.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.^[1] Set in Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.^[2]

The main plot of The Lord of the Rings is a quest to destroy the One Ring, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the dark lord Sauron.^{[T 1]} A council is held in Rivendell to decide how to achieve this. A hobbit, Frodo Baggins, is to bear the Ring to the land of Mordor to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. He is to be assisted by a Company representing the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.^{[T 1]} Elrond announces that

The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil...^{[T 1]}

The Company sets out on the quest at the beginning of winter.^{[T 2]} It is led by the Wizard Gandalf;^{[T 1]} he takes the company south through the wild lands of Eriador. They attempt to cross the Misty Mountains, but are driven back. Instead, they travel through the mines of Moria.^{[T 3]} Gandalf falls while fighting a Balrog there, allowing the others to escape.^{[T 4]} Aragorn leads the Fellowship to Lothlórien,^{[T 5]} and then in boats down the River Anduin.^{[T 6]}

After some days on the river, the Company camp at Parth Galen to decide what to do. The next day, the Company is broken. While the others argue about the route to take, Frodo slips away and Boromir follows him. Boromir demands the Ring from Frodo. To escape, Frodo puts on the Ring.^{[T 7]} Merry and Pippin are captured by a group of Orcs. Boromir is killed defending them.^{[T 8]} Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli give Boromir's body a boat burial;^{[T 9]} they then set off in pursuit of Merry and Pippin.^{[T 10]} Sam catches up with Frodo as he, still invisible, sets out to cross the river in one of the boats; the two of them set out together to Mordor.^{[T 7]} Frodo and Sam manage, after many hardships, to reach Mount Doom. The Ring is destroyed, and Sauron is utterly vanquished. The Company of the Ring is victorious.^{[T 11]}

The Inklings scholar Ariel Little writes that Tolkien saw community as the "ideal model for life". The type of community is specifically diverse, in culture and in personal qualities, a team bound together by friendship and relying completely on the strengths of each individual member to forward the common cause. This is the reverse of the character of what Tolkien states is the opposing group, the Nine Riders, who are "homogeneous, discordant, and intensely individualistic."^[3] Little comments that the model of community is radically unlike the western image of the lone hero.^[3] The Christian commentator Ralph C. Wood writes that "the greatness of the Nine Walkers lies in the modesty of both their abilities and accomplishments. Their strength lies in their weakness, in their solidarity as a company unwilling to wield controlling power over others."^[4] Rebecca Munro notes that in the Company, "no one acts alone without dependence on the deeds of others".^[5] Little adds that even when the Company is split into smaller groups, it is not destroyed; the three smaller groups—Frodo and Sam on the way to Mordor; Merry and Pippin supporting each other; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli acting as a team—continue to function as communities.^[3]

Martina Juričková writes in Mallorn that Tolkien uses the term "company" far more often than "fellowship" to describe the group: "company" appears more than 130 times, against just 9 for "fellowship".^[6] She notes that Tolkien was a philologist, fully aware of the etymologies of these terms, and the resulting slight differences in their meanings. "Company" and "companion" are from the Latin companio, in turn from con ("with") and panis ("bread"), hence "person who shares bread [with you]", such as a co-traveller or a member of a group with a shared purpose.^[6] "Fellow", on the other hand, derives from Old English feolaga, "a fee-layer", a person who joins in a financial venture. Juričková comments that this could mean an equal, "a peer with whom I have something in common"; but that in modern English it can equally well mean someone "of lower rank or considered to be of little importance or worth" (as in "that fellow over there"). That would explain, she suggests, why Tolkien could use "fellowship" with its positive connotations, while avoiding the loosely-used word "fellow".^[6]

Tolkien scholars note that while Tolkien criticised the mythology of King Arthur, and disliked its explicit mentions of Christian themes, there are multiple parallels in his writings, not least of Aragorn to King Arthur, suggesting that Tolkien certainly made use of the mythology.^[8][9][10] Laura Gálvez-Gómez specifically likens the Company of the Ring to the Arthurian order of the Knights of the Round Table. In both, there is "a chosen hero who carries the main burden" on a quest, a returning King with the gift of healing, an accompanying Wizard, a treacherous knight, and "a hero without courtly manners who finally becomes a knight".^[7]

All the members of the Company of the Ring are portrayed in Peter Jackson's 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.^[11] A consensus of film critics described the casting as "pitch-perfect".^[12] The Company was played by the following actors:^[11]

• Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
• Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey
• Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
• Sean Bean as Boromir
• Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee
• Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc Brandybuck
• John Rhys-Davies as Gimli
• Orlando Bloom as Legolas
• Billy Boyd as Peregrin Took

Tolkien scholars were divided about Jackson's film representation of Tolkien's novel, but even scholars generally hostile to the film version have respected its visual presentation, admiring the casting, costumes, props, and cinematography.^[13] The diminutive scale of the four hobbits, and of the dwarf Gimli, was achieved by the use of several methods, including scale doubles of film sets, forced perspective, and green-screening to combine reduced images of hobbits and dwarf with unscaled images of the other members of the Company. To make the dwarf appear slightly taller than the hobbits without requiring additional scale doubles, a tall actor was chosen to play the dwarf.^[14]