Lord of the Rings (musical) the region of Middle-earth known as the Shire, Bilbo Baggins, an eccentric and wealthy Hobbit, celebrates his eleventyhundredth birthday by vanishing from his birthday party, leaving his greatest treasure, a mysterious magic Ring, to his young relative Frodo Baggins ("Springle Ring"). The Ring is greatly desired by the Dark Lord Sauron, who could use it to conquer the world, and must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom in Sauron's country of Mordor. Frodo and his friends Samwise Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took set out along the road that leads out of the Shire ("The Road Goes On").
Minor places in Middle-earth on its way through the forest. Treebeard and the Ents, together with Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, traversed the southern spur of Methedras, a high ridge, on their march from Fangorn to Isengard. Mindolluin (S. 'towering head blue') was the easternmost peak of the White Mountains. The city of Minas Tirith stood upon the Hill of Guard, the eastern shoulder of the mountain. In "The Return of the King", shortly after Aragorn's coronation as King Elessar, Gandalf took him by an ancient path that led up Mindolluin to a high hallow that overlooked the city far below. There he discovered,