Which Tolkien novel follows The Hobbit as the story of Bilbo’s heir and the One Ring?

The Lord of the Rings follows The Hobbit and tells the story of Bilbo Baggins’s heir, Frodo, and the One Ring.

Tolkien began writing the work as a sequel to The Hobbit, but it grew into a much longer and more serious epic. Frodo inherits the Ring from Bilbo and eventually leaves the Shire with the mission of destroying it in the fires of Mount Doom. The narrative expands from a local adventure into a war involving many peoples of Middle-earth.

The work was published in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 1955. Tolkien considered it a single novel rather than a trilogy, although its length and publishing history made the three-volume format practical.

The Silmarillion differs in form and subject. It presents mythic and historical material about the world’s creation, the First Age, and the great Elven conflicts. Unfinished Tales and The Children of Húrin are also posthumously edited works, not the direct sequel to The Hobbit.