What is the name of the first chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring?

The first chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring is titled “A Long-expected Party.” It introduces the Shire’s celebration of Bilbo Baggins’s eleventy-first birthday and establishes the book’s central mystery.

Bilbo uses the party to announce his departure from Hobbiton. He vanishes while giving his farewell speech by putting on the One Ring, then leaves the Ring behind for Frodo at Bag End. Gandalf later investigates the object and confirms its danger.

The chapter is sometimes confused with “The Shadow of the Past,” which follows it and contains Gandalf’s explanation of the Ring’s history. “Three Is Company” is the third chapter and begins Frodo’s journey out of the Shire. The title’s hyphenation and capitalization can vary slightly by edition, but the chapter name is conventionally given as “A Long-expected Party.”