Which 1954 volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings begins with the hobbits leaving the Shire?

The Fellowship of the Ring is the 1954 volume of The Lord of the Rings that begins with the hobbits leaving the Shire.

Allen & Unwin published The Fellowship of the Ring on 29 July 1954. It is the first of the three published volumes of Tolkien’s large narrative, although Tolkien regarded the whole work as one novel rather than three separate novels.

The story opens with Bilbo Baggins’s birthday party and then follows Frodo after he inherits the One Ring. Frodo eventually leaves Hobbiton with Samwise Gamgee, Merry, and Pippin. Their journey leads them to Bree, Rivendell, Moria, and the formation of the Fellowship.

The title is sometimes mistaken for the name of the entire trilogy. The full work is The Lord of the Rings, while The Fellowship of the Ring is only its first volume. The other two volumes are The Two Towers and The Return of the King.