Frodo Lives! text 'Frodo Lives!' was displayed in large letters with a moving border. The term first became popular because of an increase in the availability and number of readers of the novel (which, up until that point, had been subject to rather mixed reviews) following release of the Ballantine Books paperback edition. While no longer as pervasive as it once was, the term continues to appear regularly in newspaper articles and popular culture related to Tolkien's stories. Frodo Lives! "Frodo Lives!" was a popular counterculture slogan in the 1960s and 1970s, referring to the character Frodo Baggins from J. R. R.
Frodo Baggins Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, who desired to use it to conquer Middle-earth. Realizing that he was a danger to the Shire as long as he remained there with the Ring, Frodo decided to leave home, at the age of 50, and take the Ring to Rivendell, home of Elrond, a mighty Elf lord. He left the Shire with three companions: his gardener Samwise Gamgee and his cousins Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. They escaped just in time, for Sauron's most powerful servants, the Nine Nazgûl, had entered the Shire as Black Riders, looking for Bilbo and the Ring.