Which Tolkien novel follows Bilbo Baggins’s adventure in The Hobbit?

The Tolkien novel that follows Bilbo Baggins’s adventure in The Hobbit is The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote it as a sequel, although its scale and subject matter grew far beyond the earlier children’s book.

The story centers on Frodo Baggins and the attempt to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom. Bilbo’s finding of the Ring in The Hobbit becomes a crucial part of the sequel’s history. Tolkien’s narrative expands from the Shire into a large conflict involving Sauron, Gondor, Rohan, elves, dwarves, and many other peoples.

The Lord of the Rings is one novel, but its publisher released it in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. It is therefore sometimes mistakenly described as a trilogy of separate novels.