The Lord of the Rings Nazgûl, to seize it. The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin and guardian. Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring's nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Sauron's Ring. Seventeen years later, after Gandalf confirms his guess, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring and counsels him to take it away from the Shire. Frodo sets out, accompanied by his gardener, servant and friend, Samwise "Sam" Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took.
Meriadoc Brandybuck Took (as Sam said at the Field of Cormallen, Merry was three inches taller than he ought to have been). In the Brandybuck family tree as it appeared in the First Edition, the name of Merry's wife was not recorded. In a revision made in 1966, the name of Estella Bolger, sister of Fredegar, was added in this role; the revision was initially made in some editions but not in others, as described in the "Note of the Text" by Douglas Anderson which is prefaced to recent editions. At the same time, Tolkien added Estella to the Took family tree,